Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/911

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PLYMOUTH— POOKNELL.

Bight Hon. Charles Kendal Bushe, was born in 1828, and succeeded to the title on the death of his father in 187 1 . He was formerly Treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and for many years he was chaplain to his uncle, the Bishop of Tuam. He was elected Bishop of Meath in Oct., 187G, in succession to the late Dr. Butcher.

PLYMOUTH, Bishop of. (See Vauohan.)

POCHIN, Hbnby Davis, horn at Wigston, Leicestershire, 1824, is the eldest son of William Pochin, Esq. He was educated at the Pro- prietary School, Leicester, and studied chemistry at the Pharma- ceutical Society, London. Subse- quently he commenced business in Manchester, as a manufacturing chemist, and soon afterwards dis- covered the means of completely decomposing China clay (silicate of alumina) by sulphuric acid, which produced a rich salt of sulphate of alumina. That process he patented in 1855, and shortly afterwards introduced the material into com- merce, by the term " Aluminas Cake." It is now used by almost all paper-makers in the world for sizing paper. Another invention that Mr. Pochin patented in con- nection with Mr. Edward Hunt, was the purification of rosin, by means of distillation ; prior to this invention, rosin was always believed to be incapable of distillation with- out decomposition. Mr. Hunt and Mr. Pochin, however, discovered that if rosin is heated to 400 de- grees Fahrenheit, and steam in con- siderable quantities passed (blown) through, it distils undecomposed, and free from colour ; rosin refined by this process is now very largely used in the manufacture of the pale yellow soaps of commerce, being the foundation of almost all fancy soaps. Mr. Pochin has for many years taken an active part in connection with popular education both in Manchester and in Salford, , of which latter place he was elected j

an Alderman in 1861, and again in 1865. In 1866 he was elected Mayor of that Borough, and a second time in 1867. His name was also added to the Commission of the Peace for the county of Lancaster, and the city of Manchester: also in 1876 for the county of Denbigh. At the general election of 1865, he unsuc- cessfully contested Stafford, in the Liberal interest, but at the general election of Dec., 1868, he was re- turned at the head of the poll, though on petition he was unseated. Mr. Pochin published a pamphlet on Parliamentary Reform in 1866. POCKNELL, Edwabd, was lK>m at Heavitree, Exeter, Jan. 7, 1837, being youngest son of the late Thomas PockneU, formerly of Blackheath Hill, Kent, stockbroker, and treasurer of the parish of Green- wich. He was educated at the Mansion House (private) School, Exeter ; was apprenticed at Exeter in 1852 as a reporter on the Western Luminary ; in 1854 was transferred as apprentice to Woolmer*M Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Exeter ; and in 1857 was appointed to the Man- chester Guardian. About 1801 he transferred Ms services to the Man- chester Examiner. Mr. PockneU was shorthand secretary and chief clerk to the general manager of the Lon- don, Chatham, and Dover Bailway from 1862 to 1869, and has since been engaged as a profe^onal shorthand writer and reporter in London. He is the author of " Legible Shorthand,*' published in Dec, 1880, a brief reporting system, in which the phonetic and ortho- graphic principles are optional, and in which the places of all vowels are shown in the outlines without writing sifi^s for them ; " Common Shorthand," Nov., 1882, a system for office use, based on the former ; and several subsidiary works on " Legible Shorthand." In 1881 he established the quarterly magazine

  • ' Shorthand," and suggested to its

readers the foimdation of *'The Shorthand Society ," now recognised