Abstract
WE learn with interest that the tomb of Dr. J. Roebuck, one of the founders of the famous Carron Iron Works, Falkirk, has recently been restored. Roebuck was born in Sheffield in 1718 and after studying in Edinburgh took the degree of M.D. at Leyden. Returning home, he practised in Birmingham, but, becoming interested in practical chemistry, he was successful in introducing the use of lead chambers into the manufacture of sulphuric acid. In 1759, with Samuel Garbett and William Cadell, he founded the Carron Company, the first concern in Scotland to use coal for smelting iron and the first to use ironstone from the carboniferous formation of central Scotland. Roebuck was the friend of Watt, Boulton, Smeaton and Black, and was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh. He died in July 1794 at Bo ness, near Grangemouth, and was buried in Carriden churchyard. His grave is surrounded by a low wall while at the head of it is a marble tablet bearing a long inscription in Greek and Latin, referring to his studies in chemistry and metallurgy, which sciences he expounded and adapted to human needs with a wonderful fertility of genius and a high degree of painstaking labour. The restoration of the tomb has been carried out by the descendants of Dr. Roebuck and the Carron Company. The Company, it may be added, has published an interesting series of leaflets recalling some of the famous men who have been associated with the works.
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Dr. John Roebuck, F.R.S., 1718–94. Nature 131, 196 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131196b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131196b0