62 JOSIAS CHRISTOPHER GAMBLE 



untrodden path and feel his way in dim 

 uncertainty. 



Another point of contrast is the facility 

 with which in these days any apparatus, how- 

 ever novel or complicated, can be obtained. 

 No matter what process is devised, that 

 suitable appliances cannot promptly be 

 manufactured is never suggested ; pressure, 

 temperature, or chemical action present no 

 difficulties, the chemical engineer is ready at 

 once to make the way plain, but in Gamble's 

 days he had to be his own chemist, engineer, 

 and architect. He had to discover the nature 

 of his reactions, to devise his tests, to con- 

 ceive his plans, to design their construction ; 

 he had no trained draughtsman to whom he 

 could entrust his plans, he had to do all this 

 himself. 



The difficulties which he encountered may 

 be illustrated by the way in which he had to 

 make his chlorine stills. They were of 

 earthenware, in them was placed the ground 

 manganese with the acid, the charge was 

 kept continually agitated by a mechanical 

 appliance, and kept hot by the circulation of 

 hot water. There were, however, no manu- 

 facturers of such vessels as Gamble required 

 and he had to undertake their construction 



