84 JAMES MUSPRATT 



The partnership between the compatriots 

 only lasted a couple of years. Gamble 

 remained at St. Helens and Muspratt took 

 some land at Newton, close to the new 

 railway between Liverpool and Manchester, 

 and on the St. Helens canal. The only 

 drawback to this site was, that it was in the 

 very heart of an agricultural district. New- 

 ton and Winwick were well wooded and 

 highly cultivated, and the lands belonged to 

 rich and influential landowners. It was to 

 continue working the Leblanc process that 

 these works were first erected ; but wherever 

 salt was decomposed, the appliances for the 

 condensation of the acids were so imperfect 

 that large quantities of gas escaped, causing 

 great destruction to the surrounding vegeta- 

 tion. Gossage had not yet invented his 

 condensing towers. 



Before leaving Dublin, in the year 1819, 

 Muspratt married Miss Connor, by whom he 

 had ten children ; his four sons, James 

 Sheridan, Richard, Frederic, and Edmund 

 Knowles, he had educated to be chemists, 

 and to succeed in the business. 



About the year 1835 ^ e fame of the 

 young professor, Justus Liebig, was be- 

 ginning to attract men of all nationalities 



