Nicolas Leblanc

Nicolas Leblanc (1742 – 16 January 1806) was a French chemist, known best for the development of the Leblanc process, which is the distillation and preparation of soda from common salt: When salt is treated with sulphuric acid to yield sodium sulphate, this is reduced by carbon to give sodium sulphide. Sodium carbonate (or soda) is formed from the reaction between the sulphide and limestone (calcium carbonate). However, the Leblanc process was later displaced by the Solvay process.