of Science promised to award him the prize. It was, however, never given to him. He obtained a patent in 1791, and, being physician to the Duke of Orleans, he received 200,000 livres from him for the construction of a plant in St. Denis, not far from Paris. In 1793, the Duke was guillotined by the French Revolutionists. Being desperate to obtain soda, the Committee of Public Safety of the Revolutionists' Government compelled LeBlanc to make his patent public without remuneration except by assigning to him the St. Denis Works from the confiscation of the Duke's property (Fig. 1). Deprived of his working capital, LeBlanc could not
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Fig. 1. LeBlanc forced by French Tribunal to make his patent public.
operate the works and was foroed to shut it down. He had to spend the latter part of his life in an almshouse where, in his misery, he committed suicide in 1806. Thus ended the life of a man whose invention was of such great value to the world. His original proportion of 100 pts. by weight of salt cake: 100 pts. of limestone: 50 pts of coal was only slightly modified to 100 pts. of salt cake: 100 pts. of limestone: 354 pts. of slack coal, in the course of the long period of its application. All improvements that were subsequently made on his process had to do with mechanical equipment. Rarely has there been a process so nearly perfect in form as that first discovered by LeBlanc. In spite of the fact that he was the founder of a process so beneficial to mankind and so lucrative to people who employed his process, LeBlanc himself died poor and unknown. His
