JOSIAS CHRISTOPHER GAMBLE 53 



told of the "marlocks" of the men who were 

 then young, and of the convivial gatherings 

 of their fathers. 



The Plate, Crown, Flint and Bottle Glass 

 trades were all established in St. Helens 

 when Gamble settled there, and the Crown 

 makers soon after began to use sulphate of 

 soda ; the colliery proprietors welcomed a 

 new trade which promised to increase very 

 largely the demand for fuel ; these interests 

 lessened the opposition which would other- 

 wise have been fatal to a manufacture which 

 was associated with serious injury to vegeta- 

 tion, and which was suspected of being 

 injurious to health. From the agricultural 

 interest, the pioneers of alkali making en- 

 countered bitter opposition. The lawsuits 

 brought against Muspratt by the Corporation 

 of Liverpool and the landowners of Newton 

 are historical ; at St. Helens, Gamble, 

 Crosfield, Clough, Darcey, Kurtz, and Morley 

 only avoided the harass of ceaseless and 

 ruinous litigation by the liberal payment of 

 compensation. That the acid vapours emitted 

 from the works did very great damage was 

 unquestionable, when we consider that the 

 whole 100 per cent, of the Muriatic Acid 

 produced from the salt was then emitted 



