26 WILLIAM GOSSAGE 



caustic soda from black-ash liquors by 

 concentration, without the use of lime. The 

 liquors are treated with a hypochlorite of 

 lime solution to convert any hyposulphite into 

 sulphite or sulphate, and concentrated until 

 the whole, or nearly the whole, of the car- 

 bonate of soda and ferrocyanide of sodium are 

 deposited as salts. The solution is caustic 

 soda, and may be evaporated to obtain the 

 solid hydrate. This is the first production, 

 on a large scale, of solid caustic soda. 



It was on the 3rd of April, 1854, that the 

 first patent was taken out connected with the 

 most successful industry which Mr. Gossage 

 founded. It is as manufacturers of soap that 

 the firm of William Gossage and Sons have 

 become established in fame and fortune. 

 From a very small beginning in 1855 the 

 soap works has grown until it is the largest 

 concern of the kind in the United Kingdom. 

 The patent above referred to was " for 

 improvements of certain kinds of soap, 

 effected by introducing into soap soluble 

 glass, prepared by mixing about nine parts 

 of soda ash, containing fifty per cent, of real 

 soda with eleven parts of clean sand, and 

 melting the mixture in a reverberatory furnace 

 with stirring, to obtain a combination of the 



