68:. Using a scaled-up process similar to that used at the Zawar mines in India where this process was available centuries before William Champion rediscovered it, since the 12th century AD, he overcame the difficulties of zinc vaporising at 907 °C by introducing a condensing vapour into the process through distillation. He obtained a patent for his method in July 1738, and his system remained in production for over 100 years.
178:, and in 1767 petitioned Parliament to change its status to incorporation. In return, the partners offered to invest another £200,000 worth of capital, including £30,000 into the production of brass pins. This brought about the combined wrath of other metal companies formed under the Bubble Act, as well as the pin makers of
182:, who petitioned that such an investment was 50% greater than their existing facilities. In April 1767 the Commons issued a warrant that gave authority for the preparation of Charter of Incorporation, but this was countered by the competitors. After lengthy legal proceeding, a second warrant was issued by the
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By 1767, the
Warmley Company claimed to have a capital of £200,000 and to give employment to about 2,000 people. Further, William had taken out additional patents covering: the refining of copper by using wrought iron pipes to remove arsenic from the smelt; using pit coal instead of charcoal to make
121:, a counter petition by the powerful lobby of the merchants of Bristol delayed the passage, and William later abandoned the legal process. However, William continued to expand the business through development at both the Warmley site, as well as new furnaces at Kingswood, a forge at Kelston near the
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Due to the collapse of the process to incorporate, in April 1768 William's partners discovered that he had tried to withdraw part of his capital without permission, and he was instantly dismissed from the company. Because he could not pay his debts
William Champion was declared bankrupt. He died in
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By 1765, with excess capital on his hands, William commenced development of a new dock at
Rownham on the eastern bank of the River Avon, which would be capable of holding 36 large ships. However, after the increased cost of construction depleted his resources, and with a distinct lack of trade, he
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Now a debt-encased and loss-making enterprise, on 11 March 1769 the
Warmley Works were offered for sale in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal. Sold to the Harford & Bristol Copper Company, they also obtained the rights to Champion's patents. Using the process but winding down the operations until
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Under the
Bristol Brass Company, from 1738 within works established at the Old Market, by September 1742 he had produced 400 kilograms (880 lb) of zinc per charge from six crucibles located in the furnace, at a cost of around £7,000. However, he had now created two sets of enemies:
109:, over the next few years Warmley Works became the biggest metal processing plant in the world, with outputs of zinc, copper, brass and other metals. After the death of his father in 1747, William was joined in the business by his brother Nehemiah, and sister Rachael as a shareholder.
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greatly increased, which was used at the time as a sealant on ships. On 29 April 1780 an advert appeared in Sarah Farley's
Journal offering for sale a process of making English tar, from the estate of the deceased William Champion. Later, a tar works was established within
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sold the dock in 1770 to the
Merchant Venturers for £1770, who renamed it The Merchants' Dock. During the dock's construction, William had also proposed creating a complete floating harbour at Bristol, by building lock gates on the River Avon where it junctioned with the
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for some form of recompense for the losses he had suffered in making the first home produced zinc, which he hoped would allow extension of his patented process. Although a committee reported agreed that the patent should be extended through an
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As a young man, William
Champion toured Europe to learn the art of brass making, returning to become a junior partner in the Bristol Brass Company in 1730. He then experimented for six years to develop a process to create zinc – then known as
133:'15 copper furnaces 12 brass furnaces; 4 spelter or zinc furnace; a battery mill or small mill for kettles; rolling mills for making plates; rolling and cutting mills for wire; and a wire mill of both thick and fine drawn kinds.
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in
October 1767. This led to a further counter-petition, which claimed that the Warmley Company would become a monopoly. By March 1768, the opposition had won and no further steps were taken to obtain a Charter of Incorporation.
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The zinc importers and traders. When he started his experimentations, spelter sold at £260 per ton. By 1750, this had reduced to £48, resulting in a loss to the traders who were trying to force
Champion out of
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Companies formed after this Act were required to obtain an Act of Incorporation, in an attempt to limit the setting-up of dubious speculative companies and the financial crisis of the
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The local residents, who in September 1742 reported Champion to the City Council. They sought assurance that Champion would cease metal smelting at the site immediately.
55:, fellow Quaker Nehemiah Champion took over leadership. Nehemiah had three sons: John (1705–1794); Nehemiah (1709–1782); and the youngest William (1710–1789).
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101:, and in 1746 backed by the Goldney family, William left the Bristol Brass Company and began to construct the
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Crustal Evolution and Metallogeny in the Northwestern Indian Shield: A Festschrift for Asoke Mookherjee
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His brother John Champion developed a refined process and patented in 1758 the calcination of
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Craddock, P. T.; Gurjar L. K.; Hegde K. T. M. (1983). "Zinc production in medieval India".
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Day, J. (1991). "Copper, Zinc and Brass Production". In Day, J.; Tylecote, R. F. (eds.).
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In 1742 father Nehemiah – a widower – married a widow, Martha Vandewall, the sister of
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p. 46, Ancient mining and metallurgy in Rajasthan, S. M. Gandhi, chapter 2 in
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19:(1709–1789) is credited with patenting a process in Great Britain to distill
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brass wire; using zinc sulphide instead of calamine to make his brass.
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1809, they later sold the Bitton Battery Mill in 1825 for use as a
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The Gentleman's House in the British Atlantic World 1680–1780
271:, M. Deb, ed., Alpha Science Int'l Ltd., 2000,
471:(1950; Sessions Book Trust, York 1993), 192–6.
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462:The Goldney family: a Bristol Dynasty
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297:(2). Taylor & Francis: 211–217.
51:to form his own new copper works at
440:The Industrial Revolution in Metals
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371:. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 97.
153:Docks and Bristol floating harbour
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469:Quakers in Science and Industry
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303:10.1080/00438243.1983.9979899
209:American War of Independence
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230:National Smelting Company
367:Hague, Stephen (2015).
485:Engineers from Bristol
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495:English metallurgists
406:, pp. 89, 92–93.
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59:Early life and patent
49:Bristol Brass Company
129:. By 1754, he had:
444:Institute of Metals
421:David & Charles
460:P. K. Stembridge,
176:Bubble Act of 1720
91:Thomas Goldney III
453:978-0-9014-6282-4
348:. Bitton families
291:World Archaeology
119:Act of Parliament
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415:Day, J. (1973).
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515:1789 deaths
510:1709 births
160:River Frome
143:zinc blende
23:metal from
479:Categories
404:Day (1973)
392:Day (1973)
236:References
202:paper mill
180:Gloucester
127:River Boyd
123:River Avon
39:Background
80:business.
224:See also
166:Downfall
29:charcoal
25:calamine
147:Swansea
99:Warmley
66:spelter
33:smelter
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352:12 May
311:124653
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195:Legacy
191:1789.
93:. The
43:After
27:using
307:JSTOR
31:in a
500:Zinc
448:ISBN
425:ISBN
373:ISBN
354:2014
273:ISBN
21:zinc
299:doi
213:tar
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