Excerpt from Journal of the Franklin Institute, Vol. 174: Devoted to Science and the Mechanic Arts

In the Classification of the products Of manufacture, three groups are recognized - viz., principal product, which is that product Of an establishment manufacturing more than a single product that has the largest total value; subsidiary product, Which is a product Of such an establishment having a less total value; and by-product. A subsidiary product may be a utilized by-product, or it may be the product Of an allied industry - as, for instance, bookbinding in a printing Office, or compounding fertilizers in a cottonseed-oil mill. This last example is one Of many occurring in factories Where the by - product Of the prin cipal industry - in this case cottonseed meal - becomes the raw material for the manufacture Of a subsidiary product. The development and growth Of manufactories using manufactured products as the raw material for further manufacture has not in frequently created such a change in the demand for the products Of the primary establishment as to make one Of its subsidiary pro ducts its primary product. A notable example Of this is the Le Blanc process for the manufacture Of soda products from com mon salt by the action upon it, in the first stage Of manufacture, Of sulphuric acid. In this operation, hydrochloric acid gas is given Off as a by - product. At first this was wasted by being allowed to escape into the atmosphere, Where it produced most devastating effects. TO avoid the nuisance thus created, this gas was collected by dissolving it in water, and sold, thus be coming a subsidiary product; but With a greatly increased de mand for this substance, for the manufacture of bleaching powder and other uses, through which its value was enhanced, and with the competition Of electrolytic and other processes, through which the cost Of the production Of sodas was reduced, hydrochloric acid became in many cases the principal product Of the Le Blanc factories.

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