Lowthian Bell

Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, 1st Baronet,

Bell's industrial life was complex: involvement in up to three different partnerships at the same time created a conflict of loyalties, causing allegiances to each to vary over the years. Inspired to become an entrepreneur he took over the Walker ironworks on his father's death in 1845. In 1850 at Washington, County Durham, Bell made a breakthrough discovering a new process for manufacturing lead oxychloride.^[7] His partners and co-founders of the Washington chemical company, named after his home, were his brother-in-law Robert Benson Bowman and his father-in-law Hugh Lee Pattinson. Pattinson was the inventor responsible for the process separating silver from lead that bears his name.^[4] Under an 1850 Indenture,^[8] Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, Pattinson and Bell declared themselves "chemical manufacturers and co-partners in trade".^[9] Bell decided the partnership might be incompatible with his continued involvement in the running of Losh, Wilson and Bell. In September 1849 he wrote to Losh and Wilson informing them that the partnership with Pattinson "would necessitate my relinquishing the office I at present hold in your firm".^[10]

Establishing a partnership with

Now, it happens, that the presence of foreign matters, in a degree so small as almost to be infinitesimal, interferes so largely with the colour, as well as with the malleability of the aluminium, that the use of any substance containing them is of a fatal character. Nor is this all, for the nature of that compound which hitherto has constituted the most important application of this metal — aluminium-bronze — is so completely changed by using aluminium containing the impurities referred to [silica, iron, or phosphorus] that it ceases to possess any of those properties which render it valuable.

— Isaac Lowthian Bell[18]

In 1863, Bell exhibited "several pounds" of the recently discovered element

The Cleveland ironstone had been considered inferior for steelmaking, as it contained a relatively high percentage of phosphorus at 1.8 to 2.0%, weakening the resulting iron. Bell directed large-scale experiments at a cost of up to £50,000,^[21] resulting in a basic steel process which produced steel rails containing no more than 0.07% phosphorus. His obituary in The Times of 1904 noted, as a sign of the progress that Bell himself had brought about, that Bell could recall "seeing wooden rails in use on the tramroads by which coal was brought down to the River Tees".^[17]

In 1867 and 1868, Bell gave papers on the state of the manufacture of iron and that of foreign competitors, in particular France, Belgium and Germany. Britain's great strength lay in its "incomparable fields of coal which constitute so important a feature in our mineral wealth". He stated that although the price and quality of coal were better in Britain, the cost of labour could be as much as 20–25% lower, particularly in Germany.^[22] In 1882, Bell successfully drilled for salt at Port Clarence, finding an exploitable salt bed at a depth of 1200 feet.^[3] He used the salt for making soda, but the borehole was sold to the Salt Union in 1888.^[4]

In 1875, Bell began to move out of working in industry by retiring from his partnership with Robert Benson Bowman and Robert Stirling Newall, leaving the two of them to continue to run the chemical works until 1878, when Newall bought out Bowman.^[9] He continued to own shares in Bell companies and the North Eastern Railway. In 1901, at age 85, after a long period of difficulty for heavy industry and with fears of worse to come as manufacturing grew in Germany, America and Japan, he made a decisive move to guard the family's wealth. He sold his railway interests to the North Eastern Railway company, and the sale of a majority holding in his manufacturing companies to rival Dorman Long was completed in 1903. From the fortune thus released, he gave £5,000 to each of his many nephews, nieces and grandchildren.^[23]

Politics

For 30 years from 1850, Bell was active on the town council of Newcastle upon Tyne. He became sheriff of the town in 1851, mayor in 1854 and alderman in 1859. Once again he was elected mayor for Newcastle in 1862.^[4][24]

Bell was elected as the Member of Parliament for North Durham from February to June 1874, and for The Hartlepools from 1875 to 1880. He lost his seat in North Durham in 1874 on the grounds that his agents were guilty of intimidation.^[4]

Honours, awards and achievements

Bell founded the

During the 1881 Census, taken on 3 April, Bell was recorded as a visitor at his daughter Maisie's house. Her husband the Hon. Edward L. Stanley, M.P. in Harley Street, London was the Head of the Household, recording Bell's occupation as "Magistrate, Deputy Lieutenant, Iron Master".^[30] In 1882 he became a director of the Forth Bridge company. At that time this was the world's largest bridge project.^[28] Bell became president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1884 and was made a baronet in 1885.^[31] With an inherited title he adopted the motto Perseverantia (perseverance) and the arms "Argent on a Fess between three Hawk's Lures Azure as many Hawk's Bells of the first".^[32]

In 1886 Bell became the 10th president of the

Bell wrote many papers on chemistry and metallurgy. In his Iron Trade, he correctly predicted the outstripping of Britain by Germany in industrial production, unsuccessfully urging government action to avoid this.[16] His major works include:^[17]

• The Manufacture of Iron in connection with the Northumberland and Durham Coalfields, The Industrial resources of the District the three northern rivers, the Tyne, Wear and Tees: including the reports on the local manufactures, read before the British Association.^[34]
• On the Manufacture of Aluminium, The Industrial resources of the District the three northern rivers, the Tyne, Wear and Tees: including the reports on the local manufactures, read before the British Association. (pp 73–119) Baron William George Armstrong, 1863.
• The Manufacture of Aluminium, The Technologist, July 1864.
• The Manufacture of Thallium, British Association, 1864.
• The present state of the manufacture of iron in Great Britain, and its position as compared with that of some other countries (from the report of the
  British Association for the Advancement of Science
  1867), M & M.W. Lambert, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1867.
• The Chemical Phenomena of Iron Smelting: An Experimental and Practical Examination of the Circumstances Which Determine the Capacity of the Blast Furnace, the Temperature of the Air, and the Proper Condition of the Materials to Be Operated Upon (collection of papers published as a book, 435pp), Routledge, London, 1872.
• The Iron Trade of the United Kingdom Compared with that of the Other Chief Ironmaking Nations, Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1875.
• Mr I Lowthian Bell and the Blair Direct Process. James M'Millin, 1875.
• Sir Lowthian Bell and his presidential address. North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (vol. 36) 1875.
• On the Hot Blast, with an explanation of its Mode of Action in Iron Furnaces of Different Capacities. Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers (vol. V pp 56–81) May 1876 to February 1877.
• The Principles of the Manufacture of Iron and Steel with some notes on the economic conditions of their production , George Routledge & Sons, London, 1884.
• On the manufacture of salt near Middlesbrough (with James Forrest). Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 1887.
• On the Probable Future of the Manufacture of Iron.^[35]
• Memorandum as to the wear of rails, Ben Johnson, 1896.
• Memorandum(No.2) as to the wear of rails & broken rails, Leeds Chorley & Pickersgill 1900.

Family life

On 20 July 1842 Bell, known as Lowthian, married Margaret Pattinson, daughter of his business partner Hugh Lee Pattinson and Phebe Walton. Margaret's younger sisters married Bell's business partners Robert Benson Bowman and Robert Stirling Newall: all three brothers-in-law were members of Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club and the Natural History Society of Northumberland.^[36]

Their children were Sir

Rounton Grange was finished in 1876, under the architect

Given his huge wealth, Margaret and he lived relatively simply,[4]^[38] preferring the relatively humble^[16] Arts and Crafts style for his three-year refurbishment of the medieval Mount Grace Priory near Osmotherley, which was in serious disrepair when he purchased it in 1898^[40] as a weekend retreat.^[41] The house was decorated by the best designers of the day in the "Aesthetic" style, with William Morris's "Double Bough" wallpaper hand-printed using 22 apple wood printing blocks. For the restoration of 2010 the original blocks were used to produce a close replica of the original wallpaper, each roll taking a week to print by hand.^[42] While decorating the great house, Morris spoke of "ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich".^[43]

Bell died on 20 December 1904 at his house in London, 10 Belgrave Terrace.^[44] He left £750,000 to his son Hugh Bell on his death in 1904.^[45]

Legacy

After his death, the Institution of Mining Engineers resolved that^[4]

It is impossible to estimate the value of the services that Sir Lowthian Bell rendered to the Institution of Mining Engineers in promoting its objects, and in devoting his time and energies to the advancement of the Institution.

— Council of the Institution of Mining Engineers^[4]

Gertrude Bell's biographer, Georgina Howell, writes of Lowthian Bell that through his writings such as The Chemical Phenomena of Iron Smelting he was seen as the "high priest of British Metallurgy". She observes that he was noted also for his wealth and for the innovations he made, such as the use of steel-making slag as phosphate fertilizer,

References