34 WILLIAM GOSSAGE 



carbonate, and the apparatus he contrived, 

 and also the uses to which the carbonate of 

 ammonia so prepared should be applied, one 

 of these was no other than the ammonia-soda 

 process. He used the bicarbonate of ammonia 

 which he prepared to decompose common 

 salt, producing bicarbonate of soda and sal- 

 ammoniac. 



It seems as if his ingenuity and unwearying 

 industry had overlooked none of the many 

 problems which the manufacture of alkali 

 has presented for solution. Occasionally his 

 attention has been attracted to subjects some- 

 what outside his immediate business ; and he 

 tried to devise an improved method in the 

 smelting of iron and steel, and to make coal 

 gas a better illuminant than he found it. 



In this sketch, the career of William 

 Gossage has been traced, exhibiting him as 

 an inventor whose services to the world in the 

 realm of practical chemistry have rarely if ever 

 been surpassed. His knowledge was so cor- 

 rect, his experiments so accurate, his researches 

 so thorough, that those who follow him find how 

 truly he has indicated the work that needed 

 doing, and the best way of doing it. The 

 labours which year after year he undertook, 

 were not expended on problems of mere 



