John Roebuck was born in 1718 in the Yorkshire town of Sheffield, where he was educated at Sheffield Grammar School. In 1737, he began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. There, he developed a taste for chemistry from the lectures of William Cullen (1710-1790), Professor of Medicine and Joseph Black (1728-1729), Professor of Chemistry, and in 1743, he published a thesis entitled “An enquiry into the effects of a rarefied atmosphere on the human body”. After finishing his studies he began practicing as a physician in Birmingham.
Roebuck had a keen interest in scientific matters, and especially their application in the industrial field, while Birmingham at this time had a thriving and expanding industrial sector. Being at the cutting edge of the industrial revolution, this included iron manufacture, metal-ware, jewellery, textiles and chemicals, one of which, sulphuric acid, was in great demand for the bleaching of linen fabric. However, the acid was manufactured in glass vessels, which were fragile and expensive to produce.
In 1746, Roebuck found he could modify the production process, producing sulphuric acid in lead-lined chambers which had the advantages of being sturdier, cheaper, and bigger than the previously used glass containers. This process allowed the effective industrialization of sulphuric acid production and in 1748, he opened a factory in Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham to manufacture the acid. To make the production process more economical, the following year, he entered into a partnership with Birmingham industrialist, Samuel Garbett (1707-1803) to build a factory in Scotland where there was a high demand for the acid to bleach linen, thus considerably reducing the transportation costs. After several modifications, this method, called the lead chamber or “chamber process”, became the predominant industrial method for sulphuric acid production for the next two hundred years.
After this, Roebuck turned his attentions to the manufacture of iron, and in 1759, he founded the Carron Company ironworks at Carron, Stirlingshire with his brothers Thomas, Benjamin and Ebenezer Roebuck and Samuel Garbett, William Cadell Jr. and William Cadell Snr. There he developed and improved the production processes, including the method of converting cast iron into malleable iron.
While at the Carron Iron Works, he leased a colliery to supply the ironworks with coal which used the Newcomen engine and he subsequently took an interest in James Watt’s steam engine, investing in and supporting Watt’s work. However, due to problems at the ironworks and colliery, he came into financial difficulties and was forced to sell his share in James Watt’s engine to Matthew Boulton in return for cancellation of his debts. He continued to manage the works and to reside in the area while becoming involved in agriculture. In 1784, Roebuck took charge of a pottery firm where he continued his interest in new technologies and this continued until his passing in 1794.
The Iron Room 
Reblogged this on keithbracey and commented:
John Roebuck invented the chamber process for the safe manufacture of sulphuric acid which was used extensively in the linen industry . Although born in Sheffield he invented the process in Birmingham which was at the centre of the Midlands Enlightenment with the Lunar Society creating the modern world with an industrial revolution based on steam power delivered by Boulton and Watt’s steam engines built at The Soho Foundry in Smethwick just to the west of Birmingham a small manufacturing town which grew in importance as the 18th century turned to the 19th century and the industrial age with revolutions in transport with steam railways and steam ships powered by coal