George McRoberts (1839–1896) was a Scottish chemist and early explosives expert. He assisted

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( , ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedes, Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel ...

in establishing the original

Nobel Enterprises Nobel Enterprises () is a chemicals business that used to be based at Ardeer, in the Ayrshire town of Stevenston, in Scotland. Specialising in nitrogen-based propellants and explosives and nitrocellulose-based products such as varnishes and in ...

dynamite factory at Ardeer. He was a close colleague of Nobel and probably a close friend.

Life

He was born in 1839 in central Scotland the son of John N McRoberts and his wife, Sarah Ogle. He was educated at

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

Grammar School. In 1870 he established a chemical factory at Westquarter in Falkirk, mainly producing sulphuric acid.

bought the company in 1871 and started making detonators there, mainly for the Scottish coalfields. He was very impressed by McRoberts and in 1873 he moved him to the new British Dynamite Factory in

Ardeer, North Ayrshire Ardeer was a small town now officially incorporated into Stevenston on the Ardeer peninsula, in the parish of Stevenston, North Ayrshire, originally an island and later its extensive sand dune system became the site of Nobel Explosives, a do ...

as its Manager, directly under

, the first dynamite factory in the world. It was McRoberts and a partner John Downie who raised the £24,000 to build the factory rather than Nobel himself, who was yet to become rich from his invention. The company had its offices at 7 Royal Bank Place in Glasgow. The Chairman of the company was the Glasgow shipbuilder, Charles Randolph. McRoberts was injured in an explosion during his early years there. He also built a second explosives factory at

Pitsea Pitsea is a small town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Basildon, in south Essex, England. It comprises five sub-districts: Eversley, Northlands Park Neighbourhood (previously known as Felmores), Chalvedon, Pitsea Mount and B ...

in Essex in 1876. In 1883 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

his proposers being Sir

James Dewar Sir James Dewar (20 September 1842 – 27 March 1923) was a British chemist and physicist. He is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask, which he used in conjunction with research into the liquefaction of gases. He also studied ato ...

William Dittmar Professor William Dittmar FRS FRSE LLD (1833 – 1892) was a German-born scientist renowned as a chemical analyst. He was based largely in Scotland. He did much analytical work on the findings from the Challenger expedition. He was the first to ...

John Gray McKendrick John Gray McKendrick FRS FRSE FRCPE LLD (12 August 1841 – 2 January 1926) was a distinguished Scottish physiologist. He was born and studied in Aberdeen, Scotland, and served as Regius Professor of Physiology at the University of Glasgow fr ...

and Robert Rattray Tatlock. He died on 15 January 1896.

Family

He was married to Jane Paton.

References

1839 births 1896 deaths People from Falkirk Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 19th-century Scottish people Scottish chemists Alfred Nobel Explosives engineers {{Scotland-engineer-stub