The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1858-11-24
THE Salt, if You Please"


one Of the most frequent expressions at a din
ner table is the one which forms our caption, and
in order that our readers may know something
of the substance they are using, We will tell
them a few facts about salt. Salt is chcmca
compound of twenty three parts by weight of a:
beautifully silver white but soft metal, called
sodium. discovered by Sir H. Davy in 1907,
and thi:ty-fve parts of pungcnt, yellowish
green gas. called chlorine, discovered BY
Scheelc in l774-thcse two combined form this,
the most widely difsused and useful VI any one
compound in the world. 1t is found in the sea -,
and in the rot ks, froif which our principal sup
ply comes. The most wonderful deposits are
in Poland and Hungary, where it is qualried
like rock, one Of tie Polish mines having
been worked since 1921. The Polish salt mines
have heard the groan Of many poor captive.
and have seen the last agonies of many brave
nan-for, until lately, they were worked en-
tirely by the State prisoners of Austria, Russia
or Poland, which ever happened to be in power
at the time; and once the offender, or fancied
hindrancc to some other PERSONS advancement
was let down into this subterranean prison, he
never saw the light of day again. So salt has
its history as we'll as science. Other large de.
posits are found in Cheshire, England. where
the water is forced down by pipes into the salt.
and is again pumped up as bline, which is
extent has this been carried. that one town in.
the "salt country" as it is called. has scarcely
an upright house in it, all the foundations hav-'
ing sunk with the ground, to fill up the cavity
left BY the extracted salt.
In Virginia there are beds of salt, and ,h,
Salmon Mountains, in Oregon, are capable Of
aifordng large quantities of The same material
The brine springs Of Salina and Syracuse are
well known. and from about forty gallons Of
their brine. one bushel Of salt is obtained-
There are also extensive salt springs in Ohio.
The brine is pumped up from wells mate in
the rock, and into which it flows and runs into
boilers. These boilers are large iron kettles ser
in brickwork, and when fires are lighted under
them. the brine is quickly cvaporated The
moment the brine begins to boil, it becomes
turbid. from the compounds of lime that it cen
tains and which are soluble in cold, but not id
hot water: these first sediments are taken out
with ladies' called .sbiltern ladies'" and the salt
being next deposited from the brine is carried
away to drain and dry. The remaining LIQUID
contains great quantity of magnesia in va.i-
ous forms, and gives it the name of 'bittern"
from the taste peculiar to magnesia in every
form.
"But how did this salt come into the rock ?"
is the natural query, and the wonder seems
greater when we recollect that salt beds are
found in nearly every one of the strata c conl-
posing the earth's crust. This fact proves
another that as the majority IF these salt-beds
have come from lakes left in the hollows Of
the rocks by the recedcnce of the sea, the sea
has through all the geologic ages been as salt
asit is to-day. Let us take the Great Salt Lake
as an illustration, it being the largest salt lake
in the waeld, but by no means the tuly one, as
sncA inland passes Of xsssrs4SA.ter are found
over the whole earth but a. ss.,. = ,grsaf-
est in extent, it will form the best exasnrls. II
is situated at an elevation Of 4 100 feet above
the sea, on the Rocky Mountains, and has an
area of 1000 square miles yet, high as it is.
'once aron time," as the story books Of our
juvinility used to say, ii was part of the sea,
which retired by the upheaval Of the rocks, and
that great basin took It's salt water up with it.
Should this in time evaporate, and its salt be-
come covered with mud and sand. and the land
become again depressed, then, at some distant
future age, the people would be wandering how
the salt got there, little thinking that the Nor
mons had ever built city on its shores when il
was great salt lake. There are also, how
ever, salt rocks taking their place in regular
geologic series with other rocks. intcrspersed
between red sandstone, magnetism, and caybo.
niterous strata these We can only account for.
- we do for other strati6ed rock, viz that
they were deposited from their solution in wa
Ter, or carried mechanically to the spot where
now found by that ever mobile liquid. We
lear we should be accused Of an attempt to put
Dur readers in pickle, 90 will stay our pen, ho-
ping they will remember these bits Of insorma-
ion when they say. The salt, II you please
Scientific American.