 The first Solvay Process Company plant in the United States was erected on the southwestern shore of Onondaga Lake in 1884.The village was called Solvay to commemorate the inventor, Ernest Solvay.In 1861, he developed the ammonia-soda process for the manufacture of soda ash (anhydrous sodium carbonate) from brine wells dug in the southern end of Tully valley (as a source of sodium chloride) and limestone (as a source of calcium carbonate).