Layout and Location - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 145

'Where are you goin', my bonnie lassie,
'An' what you do I would like to know.'
'Kind sir,' she answered, 'I am but a bleacher
On Cochrane's bleach field near Kelvinhaugh' [ 24 ]
This practice was to be brought to an end by the invention
of bleaching powder in 1799, by Charles Tennant. Experiments
in the use of chlorine had begun in Glasgow in 1787, at the sug-
gestion of James Watt, and Tennant was the first to make it avail-
able in a convenient solid form by passing chlorine over lime, at
his new chemical works on the northerly part of St. Rollox Croft.
According to some sources the ground was bought from J. and R.
Tennant, but in fact it was sold by J. Pattison to Tennant, Knox &
Co., chemical manufacturers.
Development and diversification followed rapidly. In 1801
the company bought a 12-horsepower engine from Boulton &
Watt for grinding manganese dioxide and chalk; they pioneered
various developments in the manufacture of sulfuric acid, and
by the 1820s had six competitors in the region of Port Dundas,
where the prevailing winds blew the fumes away from the city.
One of the by-products of the bleaching powder was sodium sul-
fate, used to make sulfur by the Leblanc process. The soda in turn
was used in making soap, and a range of sulfates and sulfites was
also produced. By the 1830s to 1840s the plant was claimed to be
the largest chemical factory in the world [ 21 ].
Most of the buildings were single-story structures of brick
and rubble, with pantiled roofs for ventilation, short-lived due to
corrosion or changes in production methods. However the 'New'
Office Block on the Cut of Junction, built around 1830, survived
until closure and demolition in the 1960s. Lead chambers, Gay
Lussac and Gower towers were prominent, but the site was domi-
nated by its chimneys, and 'Tennant's Stalk,' built in 1841-1842,
was the tallest in the city at 455½ ft. It was quite an attraction,
and excursions were run to see it, with the result that the rival
Joseph Townsend's Chemical Works in Port Dundas put up a
'Townsend's Stalk' 468 ft high, to overtop it. The 1906 author
wrote, “On account of the summit not having been covered by
high buildings, like the other elevated spots of Glasgow, the very
existence of the hill is unknown to many citizens…but from its