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Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library @mdhs.org
Buy the Book
Maryland
History In Prints: 1752-1900
by Laura Rice |
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The Maryland Chemical Works
[1828]
Engraving
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In 1816, a writer for the Niles' Weekly Register observed that during
the recent war, goods previously imported to the United States became scarce
and expensive. This fact was especially disturbing, he said, because
if the United States remained dependent on imports "we shall not only be
subject to great inconveniences from the political and commercial changes
in Europe, but shall exclude ourselves from some of the most productive
sources of national wealth and national independence.What can, indeed,
be of more use, or of more lasting importance, than to secure within our
own country the manufacture and collection of all those chemical combinations
and medicines, which are indispensable to the physician and the artisan-to
the merchant and to the laborer?"
The need for domestic chemical manufacturing was answered, in part,
by the Maryland Chemical Works, established in 1825 by John K. McKim.
Located at the foot of Patterson's Wharf in Baltimore's inner harbor, the
plant employed a mixed work force of free and slave laborers. They oversaw
round-the-clock production of various types of acids and industrial chemicals,
pigments, and medicinal compounds, such as calomel and Epsom salts.
Alum, used to set dye in cloth, was the firm's most popular product and
could take as long as eight months to produce.
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