20 WILLIAM GOSSAGE 



into "Blister Copper" would be a great gain, 

 and he patented his plan. Mr William 

 Keates, who was at that time the most 

 experienced copper smelter in Lancashire, 

 if not in England, was engaged on similar 

 lines, and he patented his arrangement. But 

 neither of these inventions were adopted and 

 continued even by their inventors. The 

 most daring invention in this direction was 

 one by Mr. John Holloway, who used the 

 Bessemer converter, and really succeeded in 

 smelting Spanish pyrites without the use of 

 coal, generating the necessary heat by the 

 rapid oxydising of the pyrites rich in sulphur; 

 but as the sulphur was blown off and cold air 

 blown in, the heat rapidly went down, the 

 fire went out, and the converter got clogged. 

 Mr. Holloway worked at his experiments 

 with wonderful enthusiasm. It was to be 

 regretted that he spent so much money and 

 time, for his experiments were made on a 

 scale regardless of expense, on an object 

 that could not possibly recoup him. Had he 

 sought to follow out the line of Mr. Gossage 

 and Mr. Keates, there was a much greater 

 probability of some success ; for Manh6s 

 appears to have invented a furnace to expedite 

 the " roasting" by blowing in air, and by a 



