[Twitter] Historical scholarship on business-environment interactions has largely sidestepped the study of corporate innovations that had both economic and environmental benefits.

A case is made that the individuals involved in this effort not only anticipated concepts and debates now at the heart of the modern sustainable development literature, but also that their work questions some fundamental premises of this discourse.

…Among other topics discussed, Charles Babbage explained how competition between firms spontaneously resulted in a more efficient use of resources, particularly since one of its main results was “the care which is taken to prevent the absolute waste of any part of the raw material” in order to create as much value as possible out of inputs.³ Babbage illustrated this principle with a few examples, the most striking of which were the various products then derived from cattle horns. The lower portion was made into combs, and the remaining clippings of this process were sold for manure. The middle portion was split into thin layers used as a substitute for glass in cheap lanterns, and some leftover material was “cut into figures, painted, and used as toys” while the rest was sold for manure. The tip was turned into knife handles, tops of whips, and other such related articles. The core of the horn was then boiled in water. The resulting fat was used by yellow-soap producers, and the remaining liquid was purchased by cloth dressers for stiffening. The insoluble substance was then ground down and sold as manure.

One could infer from this example that the efficient use of byproducts could be achieved through complex inter-firm arrangements, but Babbage argued that the possibilities for effectively using waste were generally greater in larger plants, and that this circumstance often led to “the union of two trades in one factory, which otherwise might have been separated.”

…One major problem facing this textile industry was the root leftovers of the madder plant from which coloring had been extracted. This residual matter was not valuable enough to be sold as manure and was therefore typically disposed of in rivers, where it caused considerable damage. In time, however, a simple treatment with a hot acid was devised that recovered profitably the 1⁄3^rd of the coloring matter lost in the process. As Lyon Playfair would later observe, “The dyer no longer poisons the rivers with spent madder, but carefully collects it in order that the chemist may make it again fit for his use.”

…The chemist gave further thought to wasteful production processes when he was approached in 1846 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science to report, along with Professor Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811^–₈₈1899_125ya) of Heidelberg, on the chemistry of blast furnaces. Both researchers noticed not only that more than 4⁄5^ths of the fuel escaped through smokestacks, but also that nothing was done with the ammonia produced in the process, a substance that could be a valuable manure if recovered properly.

In 1847, Playfair’s attention was drawn to a “thick, dark, oily fluid” on a Derbyshire colliery belonging to one of his brothers-in-law, and he rapidly came to the conclusion that it might have some potential uses if treated properly. He brought it to the attention of his long-time friend, the chemist and entrepreneur James Young. After distilling and refining the substance, Young asked Playfair’s opinion about what the solid crystals floating on top of his oil might be and received the answer, “Paraffin.” Playfair then asked his friend to give him enough of the substance to prepare two candles, which were lit on a lecture table of the Royal Institution of Great Britain during one of his presentations, in which he predicted that, despite what was then a prohibitive price, such candles would eventually take over the market. This soon turned out to be the case, as various ventures headed by Young and others capitalized on this discovery. In time, the main input of this industry would be the bituminous shale found in Scottish coal, a material long considered “worse than valueless, as it had to be taken along with the coal, separated, and thrown on the waste heap.”

…Playfair mentioned the “particularly foetid” fusel oil formed in the preparation of brandy and whiskey. When mixed with compounds ranging from acetate and bi-chromate of potash to sulfuric acid, it was the main ingredient in the preparation of the oils of pears, apples, grapes, and cognac. “Many a fair forehead”, he added, was “damped with eau de millefleurs, without knowing that its essential ingredient is derived from the drainage of cowhouses.”

…Coal-tar residuals remained his favorite example, but he could by then point out that chemists had found “sulphide of ammonium and carbonate of ammonia” in the “badly-smelling, black, ugly gas water of the gas-works” and that the agricultural value of ammonia salts was already well known. Indeed, ammonia derived its name from “Jupiter Ammon”, near whose Egyptian temple ammonia had long been manufactured from the refuse of camels…“Waste scrap iron and the galls on the oak are converted into ink…the badly-smelling waste of gasworks is transformed into fragrant essences, brilliant dyes, and fertilizing manure…the effete matter of animals or old bones is changed into Lucifer-matches.”

…A few selected entries from the 13-page index will demonstrate the breadth of coverage: Albumen from fish spawn; Ammonia from coal gas; Asparagus stems for paper; Bullocks’ liver; Crab-shell manure; Dog’s fat (use of) [cf. Cats’ meat man]; Furnace slag (uses for); Fossil flour; Hematite sand; Iodide of potassium; Martin’s process for recovering tin; Naphta distillers in London; Papier-mâché from coconut-fibre dust; Petroleum (residuum from); Photographic waste (uses of); Port-wine dregs; Printers’ rollers of glycerine; Rags (classification of); Railway grease (use of old); Sawdust; Ship-breakers in London; Slag (or scoriae of metal, uses of); Sulphur from coal gas; Tailings of mines; Tin clippings; Waste coal; Webster’s process for using spent flax from galvanizing works; and Yolks of eggs (uses for).

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