# Essays Upon The Making Of Salt-Petre And Gun-Powder/Experiments by Mr. Thomas Pain

New York Colony Committee of Safety, pages 34–36
​ [ 34 ] EXPERIMENTS made by Capt. PRYOR and Mr. THOMAS PAIN, for the Purpose of fixing some easy, cheap, and expeditious Method of making SALT-PETRE in private Families, in order to shew the practicality of a Plan proposed by Mr. PAIN, of forming a Salt-petre Association, for voluntarily supplying the public Magazines with Gunpowder.
FRIDAY afternoon we sawed an old cask (of little or no value) into two tubs, and bored a hole in the bottom of each near the side, of about the size of a common cork, and stopt it with a wooden peg; over each hole we put a full handful of straw, then filled the tubs with earth, taken from the bottom of a cellar, and poured water thereon, filling it up as it sunk in, till the water stood about an inch above the earth. This is the same as setting a lye tub.
Second. Saturday morning we drew the liquor off, throwing it up till it ran clear, the quantity ​ [ 35 ]
tity was about three gallons, which we put into a kettle, and boiled to about three quarts. Third. We took a little wooden keg, bored an hole, as in the former ones, stopt it with a cork, and covered the bottom of the tub with cut straw to about three or four inches, on which we put about the same depth of wood, ashes, and gently poured thereon the hot liquor, so as to not make holes in the ashes; after letting it stand a few minutes to settle, we drew it off (throwing it up again till it run clear) when it ceased running, we put on about a quart of cold water to drive out the lye which the ashes had sucked up. Fourth. We boiled this second boiling to about a pint and a half, then poured it gently off into a bason, leaving the scum and sediment behind; after it has stood about a quarter of an hour to settle, we again poured it into earthen soup plates, set them in a cool place till next morning, at which time the sides and bottoms of the plates were beautifully covered with crystals of Salt-petre sprung up like large blades of grass, being in quantity about a quarter of a pound.
Second Experiment.
As we judged we had not all the Salt-petre from the earth in the tubs, we poured there on, that is on the earth, some boiling water; on Monday drew it off, and proceeded with it as before; on Tuesday morning it produced a larger quantity of Salt-petre than in the former experiment, and about two ounces of common salt. ​ [ 36 ] N. B. The lye which remains is called Mo- ther of Nitre, and is to be put by and boiled up with the second lye of the next process, when it comes from the ashes. As these experiments were made to promote the public good, it is hoped the several Printers will give them places as soon as they can.
HAving for many months been sensibly affected with the great disadvantage the co- lonies labour under for want of ammunition, I thought it my duty to apply myself to the attain- ment of those necessary arts of making Salt-petre, and Gun-powder; and having far exceeded my expectations in both manufactures, I think myself still farther obliged to communicate the so much needed knowledge to my country at large. My first trial was on Salt-petre, two pounds of which my son has extracted from six bushels of stable dirt, perfectly fit for making Gun-powder. This was done by the method of Dr. Young and Mr. Rubsaman, lately published by the former, for which, and many other useful informations, I take this opportunity to return those gentlemen my public thanks.