Quite interesting: Sodium bicarbonate

I suspect some people are reading that title thinking “really?” But the fact of the matter is that the synthesis of sodium bicarbonate was the first triumph of industrial chemistry and therefore the first entry of the private sector into the chemical arena, something that still sets chemistry apart from the other major academic sciences, biology and physics; this is one of the reasons that chemistry is so advanced today.

But why sodium bicarbonate, is it really that important? The obvious answer is yes, but for things that we all now take for granted; soap and white cotton shirts. If this still sounds weird the industrial synthesis of sodium bicaronbate was described in 1856 as “one of the great benefits, if not the greatest that modern science has bestowed on humanity” but why?