WILLIAM GOSSAGE 31 



down as molten glass. The obstacles that 

 were encountered were very serious. It was 

 difficult to obtain a sufficiently high tempera- 

 ture, the heat of the tower was not constant, 

 the draught was interrupted, and the process 

 arrested by the melting silicates stopping up 

 the interstices between the flints, and the 

 vapours acted upon the siliceous lining of the 

 furnace. " I am afraid this last baby will not 

 get over its teething," Mr. Gossage once 

 remarked, as he was discussing the difficulties 

 he was combating with. He felt he was 

 beginning to experience the failing of his 

 physical energies, for he added, " I would 

 nurse it through if I were only twenty years 

 younger," but that could not be. He had to 

 leave to others what in his younger days he 

 would have carried through himself, and he 

 found no one who shared his sanguine hopes 

 and indomitable perseverance, and he was 

 reluctantly compelled to abandon this his last 

 serious undertaking. This patent bears the 

 date of July i8th, 1862 he would at this time 

 be sixty-three years of age. It was time he 

 should seek the rest and retirement that he 

 had so deservedly earned, and wear in peace 

 the laurels he had won. 



Only one more invention was patented, and 



