John Roebuck was a contemporary and business rival of Matthew Boulton and James Watt who made his fortune by first inventing the chamber process in Birmingham for the safe manufacture of sulphuric acid used in the Scottish linen industry. Roebuck diversified into iron making at The Carron Works but overstretched himself by buying one of Watt’s steam engines and was forced to sell his business to Boulton and Watt those “Friends that made the Future” of The Midlands Enlightenment to cancel his debts.
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