OneGuyFromBarlick

Tennant’s Stalk, Springburn.

The Tennant Chemical Works had been established at St Rollox by Charles Tennant, whose first product was a bleaching powder, patented in 1799 for use in the textile industry on cotton and linen.
It was the largest works of its kind in Europe. The works' enormous chimney, known as 'Tennant's Stalk', was, at the height of 455 feet, the tallest chimney in the world. The large heap of waste by-products dumped beside the factory was known to local people by nicknames such 'the soda waste' and was an unofficial children's playground.
The 'Stalk' was dismantled in the 1920s, and during the hazardous operation four men were killed. The chemical works closed in 1964. The company still exists and has headquarters in Bath Street and a factory in Maryhill.

This had me wondering whether Charles Tennant was the man who gave the name `tennantite' to the mineral known chemically as copper arsenic sulphide which is found in Cornwall. A search on Google shows that the mineral gets its name from Smithson Tennant, another chemist.

Charles Tennant (1768–1838) was a Scottish chemist and industrialist who started his working life as a weaver then became a bleacher and patented his composition for bleaching powder. He and his partners built a factory to make the powder alongside the Monkland Canal at st Rollox north of Glasgow. By 1832 the factory consumed 30,000 tons a year of coal and transport of the fuel was limiting production. He learnt of steam engines moving on iron rails from his friend George Stephenson and Tennant became a leader in developing railways. He also has the largest fleet of schooners in Galsgow. Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Tennant

Smithson Tennant (1761–1815) discovered the elements iridium and osmium in the residues from the solution of platinum ores in 1803, contributed to proving the identity of diamond and charcoal. He was born in Selby and studied botany and chemistry at Cambridge. He purchased an estate near Cheddar where he carried out agricultural experiments. Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithson_Tennant

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the chimney height was to get the plume high enough in the sir so that the small would be carried away from the city. Same principle used by today's East Coast power stations.