Samuel Alexander Sadler

Sir Samuel Alexander Sadler Knight MP JP VD (1842 – 29 September 1911) was an eminent industrialist, public servant and the first Conservative Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, the town with which his name is associated.

Samuel Alexander was the son of James Sadler and Mary Ann Millership of Langley Hall, near Oldbury, Worcestershire (now Oldbury, West Midlands). Members of the Sadler family contributed greatly to their native district of Oldbury and the Black Country during the nineteenth century, particularly Samuel Alexander's paternal uncle, John Sadler, yet the present subject found renown in the North East of England and surpassed all his kinsmen in that regard.

Sadler was a chemist by profession and, having studied at the University of London, reputedly under Michael Faraday, he established the successful chemicals business of Sadler and Company Limited based at Middlesbrough – Teesside's first oil and chemicals company.

He founded the firm in 1869 as a tar distillery and wood distillery. In 1880 he took over the neighbouring company of Jones & Sharp. It became a limited company in 1883 and subsidiary works were opened at Ulverston, Portsmouth, Carlton and Stockton. Products included coal gas, ammonia soda, ammonium sulphate, sulphuric acid, muriatic acid (HCl), nitric acid, caustic soda, sodium dichromate, oxalic acid, benzoles, carbolic acid (phenol), naptha light oils, creosote, heavy oil, pitch and coke. The original works closed in 1971.

It was due to the efforts of pioneers such as Sadler that Teesside became established as a leading centre of the chemicals industry in the United Kingdom. He was also a colliery owner and had interests in several colliery companies in County Durham.

...
Wikipedia