JAMES SHANKS 207 



carbonate of soda in fragments, on trays in a 

 chamber, making it moist, and passing 

 carbonic acid gas through, until the whole 

 of the soda and lime is carbonated. Second, 

 a lye made from the black-ash is made to 

 percolate through a bed of pebbles, through 

 which carbonic acid is being passed. The 

 soda is perfectly carbonated when the liquor 

 has lost its greenish yellow colour. He says 

 this last method of carbonating the soda is 

 preferred. Mr. John Brock writes, he found 

 this patent being worked at Crosfields' works 

 when he went to them in 1857, and that it 

 was continued until the works were closed. 

 During the year 1853 an< ^ J ^54 when 

 Gossage had, by his inventions, quickened 

 into life and activity the whole trade, 

 Shanks shared in the enthusiasm of that 

 chemical revival, and once more patented a 

 process for improvement in the manufacture 

 of alkali from common salt, his idea was, 

 that he could work a practical process of 

 producing sulphate of soda by mixing to- 

 gether, alkali waste, common salt, and small 

 coal, using sufficient clay and water to give 

 them cohesiveness, and then heating this 

 mixture in kilns resembling pyrites burners. 

 We have no record that this attempt was 



