John Tennant
| John Tennant FRS | |||||||||||||
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| Born | 1796 | ||||||||||||
| Died | 1878 | ||||||||||||
| Residence | St Rollax Glasgow and Brooke's Club London [1862] | ||||||||||||
| Occupation | business | ||||||||||||
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John Tennant
1796-1878
The son of one of the founders of the St Rollox chemical works in Glasgow, Tennant entered the family business and soon became manager. On his father Charles's death in 1838, Tennant moved into the house built by his father at 195 West George Street and stayed until his own death on 17 April 1878.
He became a partner in chemical works at Jarrow and Newcastle, and owned extensive West Indian sugar estates. His father had patented a process for using chloride of lime instead of chloride of potash for bleaching cloth, and this powder was manufactured in large quantities at St Rollox. The calculated saving to the country from this invention from 1799 to 1846 was £423,667,014 2s 1d.
Under Tennant, St Rollox became the greatest chemical works in the land. It also had the highest chimney in the world.