The New York packet, and the American advertiser — New York [N.Y.], 1776-05-16 00:00:00, page 1

ASSIZE of BREAD. Flour at 1, s. per Ct.
AWheaten Loaf of the fiaeft FLOUR, to
weigh 1 lb. 11 1-2 oz. for 4 Coppers.
Published March tB, 1776.
An EXTRACT from a TREATISE entitled, " The Art of making Common Salt,
'' as now praaifed in most Parts of the World. By William Brownrigg, M. D. F. R. S. 1748."
Of such Parts as are applicable to the making Pay Salt in the American Colonies.
— —"f" E French marshes, in which immense quantities of salt are annually made, are
M contrived in a much more artful manner ; and as they are the most commodious
, -= - that have hitherto been invented, it may be proper here to transcribe an account of
them, as given by an ingenious French phylician, and publilhed in the TranfaCtions of the Royal
Society.
rcw&mraa^rcm^^ mra»«wmw!U«»Kfl^^ MWAlMWwlW»Bi^MWMiaßmmw»MHMßß^^u!■—■■awn ■ ■—
j j—nam-wm b«k a»sswKa» ams-a,™a. .-.Troratyvn-w<——njam^ (, „=
' .'c Rei B
4 I I ~—== ..■l*!-,* • ' , '
'^R' +^: : :
'''bb i I $ • '
—CT-O,' • ', ~ t
AAA, is the sea.• j;
1 j, the entry by which the sea water passes
into B B. +
B B, the firft'recepfade, in which, the water
maketh three- turnings', as you fee, and is ten.
inches deep.
2 2, the opening by which the firft and second
receptacle have communication 'with one ano
ther.„
E E F, the third receptacle is properly called
the marih.
dddd, is a channel very narrow, through
which the water must pass, before it enters in
to the second receptacle.
3 3, is the opening by which the water
runs out of the second into the third receptacle.
The pricks you fee in the water throughout the
whole scheme, do mark the course and turnings
which the water is forced to make, before it
comes to hhh h, which are the places where
the salt is made.
hhhh, are the beds of the marsh, where the
salt is made, and in them the water must not be
above an inch and a half deep; each of these
beds is fifteen feet long, and fourteen feet wide,
.-and framed on every fide with wood.
888 8, are the apertures by which the beds
receive the sea-water, after many windings and
turnings.
9999, are the little channels between the
beds.
When it rains, the openings 2 2, 3 3, are
flopped to hinder the water from running
into the marsh. Unless it rains much, the rain
water doth little hurt to the man'll; the heat of
the fun fufficiently exhaling it, it it be not above
an inch high : only if it have rained very plen
tifully that day, no salt is drawn for three or
four days next : but it it rain five or fix days,
the people are then necessitated to let all the wa
ter out of the beds by a peculiar channel, which
cannot be opened but when it is low water.
But it is very seldom that it rains so long as to
constrain men to empty those beds. The hot
test years make the mod salt, and in the hottest
part of the summer, there is salt made even ip
..V OL. I. # . . r NU MB. 20.
THE '.
<Jt,Z„r4fc&Q_,tt^#^l _^^ / OTO frtyfflU^=^ —ItG^XQ^^—Q/O ^X^/GnJ
AMERICA N ^ In A D V E R T I S E R.
! —— ——— —■— ————* —■ — —■— —— CT— —— —— — ^^—.—„———_
THURSDA Y, M A y 16 th, 1776.
Explanation of. the Plan.
Printed by SAMUEL LOUDON, in Water-Street, between the Coffee-House and the Old Slip.
Thursday, 15 Min. after 8
Friday, 6 Min. after 9
Saturday, gg Min. after 9
Sunday, go Min. after 10
The weft and north-weft winds are the best
for this purpose.
The country people draw the salt every other
day, and every time more than a hundred pounds
weight of salt. ^'•
the night.'' Lel sfalt in calm than in windy
weather.'
The inftrumehts used to draw the salt have
many small holes to let the water pass, and to
retain nothing but the salt.
The reddish earth in the marshes makes the
salt more grey, the bluish more white. Betides,
if you let run in a little more water .than you
ought, the salt then becomes more white, but
then it yields not so much. Generally all'the
marshes require a fat earth, neither springy nor
Tandy.
The salt man who draws the salt must be ve
ry dextrous. In this isle of Rhee, men there
are who draw very dark salt, and others that
draw it as white as snow, and so it is at Xain-.
tonge. Chiefly care is to be taken that the
earth at the bottom of the beds mingle not with
the salt.
The salt that we use at our tables is perfectly
white, being the cream (or that salt which is
formed on the top of the water) drawn four or
five hours before the salt is drawn. The grains
of it are smaller than the,other. Generally the
salt ot Xaintonge is somewhat whiter than ours.
The bigness of our salt is the size of a pepper
grain, and of a cubical shape.
The marshes are preserved from one year to
another by overflowing them a foot high.
The timber of the marshes, if it be of good
oak, keeps near thirty years; but there is used
but little wood, all the ditches and apertures
being done with Hone.
The foregoing description beingin some parts
obfeure, and in others imperieft, it is necessary
to add to it a few remarks by way of explana
tion, that the conllru&ion of the French salt
marsh, and the method of preparing salt there
in, may be better under Hood. And this seems
to be the more necessary, since although the
above account of the French method of making
salt hath long been published, yet it hath not
HIGH WATER at NEW-YORK.
Monday, 43 Min. after 13
Tuesday, 33 Min. after 12
Wednesday, 23 Min. after 1
New Moon 17th.
These therefore, who would make a salt
marsh, commonly choose a low plat of ground,
adjoining to the sea, distant from the mouths of
large rivers, but nigh a convenient harbour for
boats or larger vefleis; this ground must be free
from springs of frefh water, and no ways fub
je& to land floods, and if possible, should have
a clayey bottom ; it should also be defended
from the sea either by banks of rising ground,
or by an artificial mole raised for that purpole.
been brought into use, neither in Great Britain,
nor in the British colonies in America.
The firft receptacle or reservoir mufthave a
communication witl the sea by a ditch defend
ed on each tide by- walls of brick or stone, and
made of such a depth that by it all the water
contained in it and other parts of the silt marsh
may flow out at low water; and by it also the
sea water may be admitted into the reservoir at
full sea; so that at neap tides the marsh may
be filled with sea water to the depth of two feet,
when there is occasion to overflow the marsh,
as is done in the winter season, when no salt is
made: by which means the wood work is longer
preferred from decay, and the bottom of the
marsh from froft and other injuries. And in or-•
der that the marsh may be thus overflowed when
occasion requires, it is necessary that the several
receptacles should be funk so deep that the
ground on all sides may be fufficiently alerated
to keep in the sea water at the depth above
mentioned. The ditch between the sea and
reservoir mull also be provided with a sluice or
floodgate by which the sea water may be admit
ted, retained, let out, and the whole salt marsh
drained, as occasion may lequire.
The several ponds or receptacles must not
have their bottoms all upon the fame level, but
must be made or unequal depths, so that the
firft receptacle or reservoir must be 8 1-2 inches
deeper than the salt pits in the third receptacle;
the three brine ponds fixated between the re
servoir and the salt pits muff also be of unequal
depths, that adjoining to the reservoir being the
deepest, and that which is nighest the salt pit
the fhalloweP, but all of them mull be shallower
than the reservoir; and the three receptacles
being thus conftru&ed, the water Handing at
the fame height in them all, and forming by its
furface one continued plane, will be ten inches
deep in the reservoir, when only one inch and
a half in the salt pits.
The judicious French author hath not given
us any account of the length and breadth of the
reservoir and brine ponds, but some judgment
may be formed of their size from his plan of
the whole work. It will be better to err by
making them too large than too small. In
general they ought to be large enough to fur
niih the salt pits with a constant supply of brine,
fully saturated with salt ; and for that purpose
it is necessary to have them of different dimen
sions in different countries, as will be hereaf
ter explained.
The ground so chosen muff be hollowed out
into three ponds or receptacles ; the firft into
which the sea water is usually admitted, may be
called the Reservoir; the second receptacle
(which is divided into three diftin& ponds com
municating with each other by narrow passages,
and containing brine of different degrees of
strength) may be called the Brine Ponds; the
third receptacle is furnifhed with an entrance,
between which and the brine-bonds, there runs
a long winding narrow channel, the rest of it is
divided into several Fallow pits, containing a
fully faturdted brine, which in them is converted
inte salt, and may therefore be diflinguifhed by
the name of the Salt Pits.
It is not necessary that the reservoir should
be exactly of the fame form as the French au
thor has described, where the ground will ad
mit of another that may be chosen ; and even
the brine ponds and salt pits may be made of
different forms, if due regard be had to the
general contrivance of the whole work.
For the bottoms of the brine ponds and re
servoir, any kind of tough clay or earth, that
will hold water, may serve very well. The
French make the bottoms of their salt pits
of blue o^ any red clay they meet with; but,
in order to have a white clean salt, it is ne
cessary that those pits should be carefully laid
with feme Hrong cement, that will retain the
IWheat per Bufhcl, <s, gdj
Flour,'.- .- -16 s. od.|
I Brown Bread, -14 s. od.
IWelt-India Rum, 6s. od.
; New-England do. 4s. od.
PRICE-CURRENT, in NEW-YORK.
§ Muscovado Sugar, 70s. od.
I Single rein'd do. Is. 3d.
, Molafles, - - , - 3s. 6d.
IBeef, per Barrel, 60s. od.
IPork, - - -80 s. od.
The marsh being thus conftrufled, the falt
men at the proper season of the year, open the
floodgate, when the tide is out, and drain off all
the Itagnated water, and if there be occasion re
pair the bottom of the marsh, and clearefe the
several receptacles from mud and dirt. Afterwards
when the tide rises, .they by the fame floodgate
admitthe salt water unto the marfh,till it Hands in
the reservoir at the height of 'ten inches. In a
day or two most of the water in the salt pits is ex
haled, and what remains in them is a very Hrong
brine. They then let in more sea water, and 10
take care every two or three tides (oftner or fel
domer as occasion requires) to admit as much
water into the reservoir as will supply the place
of that which hath been wafted in vapours,
constantly railing it to the height of ten inches
in the reservoir, and consequently to an inch
and a half in the salt pits; all the parts of the
mar£h are thus Supplied with water out of the
reservoir; but the sea water which flows into
the reservoir is not coafufedly mixed with the
salt water contained in the other parts of the
works; for as the several parts communicate
only by narrow passages, it is provided that the
salt water flowing out of the reservoir never re
^urns thcre again, but gently flows along, till
it arrives at the second brine pond, and after
wards at the third, being forced forward by the
Seawater from time to time received into the re
servoir. During this How course, the watery
fluid continually flies off in exhalations, and the
brine is continually preparing for cryftallizatiou
as it gently fiows along, grows stronger and
stronger the nearer it approaches the salt pits ; so
that when it enters these pits it is fully saturated
with salt, and particular care is taken to guard
the entrance of the salt pits with a long winding
narrow channel; by which means the Ihong
pickle contained in these pits is prevented from
returning back and mixing with the weaker
brine in the brine ponds; care is also taken
that the Hrong pickle in the salt pits be Spread
out very thin to the fun and the air with a large
furface; by which means' the watery vapours
more quickly exhale from it, leaving the salt
concreted into cry Hals. These the salt-men
carefully draw out, and oftentimes dispose into
lafge pyramidal heaps, which they thatch over
with Hraw, and so pre Serve them from the in
juries of the weather. Thus, at a final! expence
and trouble, a salt is prepared which is found
extremely fit for all domestic uses: and thus
France is also furnifhed with a very profitable
article of exportation into foreign countries.
1 heFrench have f® many works of this kind,
that an ingenious author of that nation affirms,
that in favourable seasons, as much salt is Some
times made in a fortnight; as is Sufficient for
the annual consumption of that kingdom, and
of all those other nations who purchase much
more of it than the French consume themselves;
but after a rainy furnmer there is often a Scarci
ty of salt, and the price of it increases.
By attending to fae foregoing extract, it ap
pears Sufficiently evident, that bay salt mav be
made in any of the United Colonies, especially
the more Southern ones. Dr. Brownrigg has
given us the method of making it in France ;
by the description of which, it appears, that the
grand principle of the operation is to throw the
lea water into a large Surface, and thereby cause
the watery parts to be' speedily evaporated by
the fun and air. An ingenious operator may
apply this principle in many methods different
from that above described, and perhaps in some
that may be more profitable. In some cold
countries, the Dr. faith, where fuel is dear, they
firft raise water, not near so salt as rain water,
to the height of twenty or thirty feet by a pump,
and thence let it run down over bunches of
sticks, under a roof, but exposed to the air and
fun, and by the time it corn's to the bottom it
is exceeding salt, and then they boil it to salt
with little expence of fuel. If the water was
pumped in some such manner, only without a
loof, into the firft receptacle, it would doubtless
accelerate the evaporation.
The D.-. in a proposal to have bay salt made
brine, and cannot be easily broke up. As to
the other particulars relating to the French salt
marsh, they are fufficiently explained by the in
genious Physician whole account is before in
serted.
Fine Salt, - - - None.
Coarse Sait, - - 3s. gd
Indian Corn, per Buffi. 3s. od.