Not only did the process of generating salt cake from salt and sulfuric acid release hydrochloric acid gas into the atmosphere, it also produced an insoluble, smelly solid waste that became piled in heaps and spread on fields near the soda works. Yet while many contemporary observers praised the alkali industry for providing materials that facilitated modern activities, others saw a different side to the new chemical industry. Like modern-day alchemists, chemical industrialists transformed the rural landscape, their factories churning out base elements that were transformed into textile dyes, soap, and glass: materials that seemingly defined the Victorian era. Helens, where many of the world’s first chemical factories and towns were created in open farmland during the nineteenth century, are especially important places to study historical responses to industrial pollution and its associated costs. This paper discusses how the alkali industry transformed two towns in northwestern England and considers some of the complexities of environmental systems and stories that are still embedded in the landscape – long after many of the physical traces of the Victorian chemical industry have long since disappeared. Dangerous Exposures: Work and Waste in Victorian Photography & the Chemical Trades
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