ABSTRACT
In Volume 1 of his outstanding History of Chemistry [1], Partington traced the origins of chemicals by detailed analysis and convincing argument, back past the alchemists and the Greek philosophers to the Phoenicians of 1200 B.C. and beyond. But it was not until the early nineteenth century that the heavy chemicals industry proper really became firmly established as a viable entity in the rapidly growing industrial countries of Western Europe and America. As is still the case today, the large-scale production of chemicals required markets, raw materials, process plant, manpower, finance, and efficient transportation systems to succeed. These were all to be found in those nations which were already well advanced in general industrialization.
