34 Facts About Lowthian Bell

Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, 1st Baronet, FRS was a British ironmaster and Liberal Party politician from Washington, County Durham.

Lowthian Bell was described as being "as famous in his day as Isambard Kingdom Brunel".

Lowthian Bell was involved in multiple partnerships with his brothers to make iron and alkali chemicals, and with other pioneers including Robert Stirling Newall to make steel cables.

Lowthian Bell pioneered the large-scale manufacture of aluminium at his Washington works, conducting experiments in its production, and in the production of other chemicals such as the newly discovered element thallium.

Lowthian Bell was a director of major companies including the North Eastern Railway and the Forth Bridge company, then the largest bridge project in the world.

Lowthian Bell was a wealthy patron of the arts, commissioning the architect Philip Webb, the designer William Morris and the painter Edward Burne-Jones on his Yorkshire mansions Rounton Grange and Mount Grace Priory.

Lowthian Bell was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and educated at Dr Bruce's academy in Percy Street, Newcastle, followed by studying physical science at Edinburgh University and the Sorbonne University, Paris.

Lowthian Bell gained experience in manufacturing alkalis at Marseille before returning to Newcastle in 1836 to work in his father's Walker iron and chemical works.

In 1850 at Washington, County Durham, Lowthian Bell made a breakthrough discovering a new process for manufacturing lead oxychloride.

Under an 1850 Indenture, Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, Pattinson and Lowthian Bell declared themselves "chemical manufacturers and co-partners in trade".

Lowthian Bell decided the partnership might be incompatible with his continued involvement in the running of Losh, Wilson and Lowthian Bell.

The works produced iron for bridges and steel rails for railways across the British Empire including the North Eastern Railway company, of which Lowthian Bell was a director from 1864 onwards, and deputy chairman from 1895 until his death.

Lowthian Bell was a professional metallurgist and industrial chemist, constantly pioneering processes such as the recycling of heat from escaping flue gases, and trialling many process improvements.

In 1859 Lowthian Bell opened Britain's first factory able to manufacture aluminium, a metal which had been as costly as gold because of the difficulty of chemically reducing the metal from an oxide.

In 1863, Lowthian Bell exhibited "several pounds" of the recently discovered element thallium when the British Association met in Newcastle that autumn.

In 1867 and 1868, Lowthian Bell gave papers on the state of the manufacture of iron and that of foreign competitors, in particular France, Belgium and Germany.

In 1882, Lowthian Bell successfully drilled for salt at Port Clarence, finding an exploitable salt bed at a depth of 1200 feet.

Lowthian Bell used the salt for making soda, but the borehole was sold to the Salt Union in 1888.

In 1875, Lowthian 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.

Lowthian Bell continued to own shares in Bell companies and the North Eastern Railway.

Lowthian Bell 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.

For 30 years from 1850, Lowthian Bell was active on the town council of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Lowthian Bell became sheriff of the town in 1851, mayor in 1854 and alderman in 1859.

Lowthian Bell was elected as the Member of Parliament for North Durham from February to June 1874, and for The Hartlepools from 1875 to 1880.

Lowthian Bell lost his seat in North Durham in 1874 on the grounds that his agents were guilty of intimidation.

Lowthian Bell founded the Iron and Steel Institute and was its president from 1873 to 1875.

Lowthian Bell became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1874 for his distinction in chemistry and metallurgy, especially of iron.

Lowthian Bell was accordingly made an honorary member of the American Philosophical Institution and an officer of the Legion d'Honneur.

Lowthian Bell became president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1884 and was made a baronet in 1885.

In 1886 Lowthian Bell became the 10th president of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.

Lowthian Bell was awarded the George Stephenson Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1890, and the Telford Medal from the same institution, both for papers that he presented there.

In 1895 Lowthian Bell was awarded the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, in recognition of the services he has rendered to Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, by his metallurgical researches and the resulting development of the iron and steel industries.

Lowthian Bell promptly moved into the newly built Rounton Grange near Northallerton, leaving Washington Hall empty for nineteen years until he donated it as a home for poor children, named at his request "Dame Margaret's Hall".

Lowthian Bell died on 20 December 1904 at his house in London, 10 Belgrave Terrace.