In 1853 Robert Eaton founded a chemical factory in northern Woburn, along the banks of the Aberjona River, and supplied the tanneries with the chemicals—blue vitriol, Glauber’s salt, sulfuric acid—necessary to produce leather. At the turn of the century, Eaton’s factory was one of the largest chemical plants in the country.

Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, loc. 27