HENRY DEACON 167 



industries. In 1853, Gossage was the first to 

 invent the process for producing caustic soda 

 as an article of commerce, on a large scale. 

 The great importance of this invention was 

 at once discerned ; caustic soda would be an 

 article for which there would undoubtedly 

 arise a large foreign demand ; there would be 

 an export of caustic and a consequent 

 decrease in the import of tallow, for those 

 nations that had hitherto imported their tallow 

 would be our purchasers of caustic soda and 

 make their own soap. 



Gossage 's caustic soda also affected to an 

 enormous extent the paper trade. It was 

 just at the time when Gossage was bringing 

 out his great and valuable inventions, that 

 Gaskell, Deacon and Co. commenced their 

 business. They caught the tide of fortune at 

 the flood. 



Muspratt, Gossage, and Deacon, and 

 probably it would be unfair to exclude 

 Hutchinson, were the men who laid deep and 

 strong the foundations of the renown and 

 prosperity of Widnes. They had something 

 to work for, there was the vision of a golden 

 age before their eyes; impelled by genius and 

 energy, and drawn forward by the prospect 

 of a limitless field of enterprise, they realised 



