造幣寮における最初の硫酸工場について

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概要

• 論文の詳細を見る

• Most of the literature dealing with the origin of the sulfuric acid industry in Meiji Japan states that Japan's first sulfuric acid plant was built under the guidance of a foreign employee. However, this is a misunderstanding, because the first plant had already been built by Japanese engineers before the foreign employee arrived in Japan. Most of the references do not view the historical fact, precisely. The process of establishing Japan's first sulfuric acid plant should be explained as follows. Around the end of 1868, Japanese engineers of the Mint planned to build a sulfuric acid plant by themselves in order to supply the Mint with the necessary chemicals. At the beginning of 1871, construction of Japan's first sulfuric acid plant began with machinery parts which contained the lead chambers being imported from a British maker. The plant was completed in March of 1872. It had a nominal production capacity of 400 pounds per day, and its productivity was very low. We cannot find a more detailed record of this plant, but it actually did produce sulfuric acid in Japan and was, in effect, a pilot plant. Thus, Japan's first plant, though primitive in technical level, was planned and built using imported parts by Japanese engineers whose knowledge was acquired only from Western books. Based on the building and operation of this first plant, the Japanese realized that their knowledge and skill were behind the times. In April of 1871, the Japanese government formulated a plant to construct a modern plant of larger size, and decided to hire a foreign engineer as a consultant. R. Finch, selected to be the foreman of the new sulfuric acid plant made a contract with the Oriental Bank, which was entrusted with project responsibility by the Japanese government, in May 1872, and arrived at the Mint in June of the same year. Construction of the new plant, to be Japan's second, began in July of 1872, with imported parts, and it was completed in May of the following year. This plant had a nominal production capacity of 5 tons per day. Authors of the literature mentioned above did not try to assess the historical evidence critically, so that they have also been completely mistaken concerning the process leading to the construction of this second plant.

• 日本科学史学会の論文
• 1975-09-30

著者

• 鎌谷 親善

  東洋大学

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• 造幣寮における最初の硫酸工場について

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