WILLIAM GOSSAGE 5 



where, in partnership with Mr. Pardon, he 

 started a Salt and Alkali Works. 



On the 29th of March, 1839, we find a 

 patent in which William Gossage is associated 

 with Edward White Benson ; they specify a 

 process for effecting improvement in the manu- 

 facture of ceruse or white lead. This Mr. 

 Benson was the father of Dr. Benson, Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury. They mixed oxide of 

 lead or massicot with acetic acid or acetate of 

 lead and water, and exposed these to the action 

 of carbonic acid gas. On the I9th of January 

 in the following year, improvements in the 

 manufacturing of oxide of lead for paints, 

 etc., and also bleaching and purifying oils, 

 suitable for mixing paints, are patented. Here 

 we have him engaged in studying the action 

 of carbonic acid gas, and also of chlorine as a 

 bleaching agent, produced by the action of 

 muriatic acid on the peroxide of manganese. 

 But before he applied for the latter patent, 

 he made the invention which promises to be 

 his most lasting and notable monument. 



On the 24th of December, 1836, he specified 

 his condensing towers, and wherever the 

 Leblanc process has been established a Gos- 

 sage condensing tower has been one of the 

 essential features of the plant. In his paper 



