An 1815 perspective of chlorine as a chemical agent used in bleaching - a section from James Rennie's essay on bleaching.

Among publications concerning the chemical properties and bleaching aspects of chlorine in early bleaching is included the analytical testing of bleaching solutions, as described in a manuscript entitled “An Essay on the Improvements in the Art of Bleaching by the Application of the Principles of Chemistry” by James Rennie (1787-1867). The manuscript is held by Birmingham City Archives within the James Watt Collection, and it is thought to have been written in 1815-16, very probably shortly before Rennie was awarded a first prize for this essay in the same period. The authorship is indicated by a pencil insertion in an apparently different hand. An edited but incomplete version was published as a series of articles titled “Essays on Bleaching, By James Rennie, A.M. Lecturer on Philosophy, &c. &c., London,” in The Glasgow Mechanics’ Magazine; and Annals of Philosophy during the period 1825-1826. For this present short article Rennie’s section entitled “Chlorine and its Compounds,” part of Chapter IV, “Chemical Agents used in Bleaching,” has been fully transcribed; and it is within this chapter that Rennie covers his main chemical considerations within the entire essay.