The development of soda ash as part of the heavy chemical industry is closely linked with the chemical revolution that took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Strong political and economic reasons led to the search for synthetic procedures to replace the natural sources of carbonates that had been available since the seventeenth century. In 1789 Leblanc developed a synthetic process using common salt as raw material and made available to France and the world
whole a discovery of undeniable usefulness. Strong political events prevented Leblane from receiving adequate compensation; the following generations were the great beneficiaries of its discovery
