Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1861-03-27
The Salt if you Please. !"

Everybody has partially for dinner
and one OF the most frequent expression
~ dinner table is the one which forms ou
title, and in order that our readers may
know something Of the substance they
are using, we will tell them a few facts
about salt This is a chemical compound
OF twentysthree parts, by weight, of q
beautifully silyer,white but soft metal
called sodun, discovered by Sir III. Davy
10 1807, and thirty five parts ola pungent'
vellowish green grass, called chlorine,
discovered by Scheele, in l774; these two
combined form this, the most widely diff
fcsed and useful of any one compound in
the world. 1t is found in the sea, and in
The rocks, from which our principal sup
ply comes. The most wonderful deposits
IRE in Poland and Hungary, where it is
Huarried like rock, one of the Polish
mines having been worked since 1851.
These Polish salt mines have heard the
sroan of many poor captive, and have
een the last agonies Of many brave
nan for, until lately, the were worked
entirely by the state prisoners of Austria,
Russia or Poland, whichever happened
q be IN power at the time; and once the
offender, or tanciel hiRdrance to some
other persons advancement, was let down
nto this subterranean prison, he never
baw thC light Of day again. So salt has its
history as well as science. Other large
deposits are found in Cheshire, England,
where the water is forced down by pipes
nto the salt, and is again pumped up as
brine, which is evaporated and the salt
obtained To such an extent has this
been carried, that one town in the "Sal:
country" as it is called, has scarcely an
upright house in it, all the foundations
having sunk with the ground, to fill up
he cavity left by the extracted salt.
In Virginia there are beds Of salt, and
Lhe Salmon Mountains, in Oregon, arc ca
pable of .flordng large quantities of the
ame material. The brine springs of Sa-
ina and Syracuse are we'll known, and
from about forty gallons Of their brine one
Dushcl Of salt i, Obtained There are also
Extensive salt springs in Ohio. The brine
$ pumped rp from wells made in the rock
and into which it flows and runs into
boilers. These boilers are large iron ket>
les set in brickworl, and when fires are
lighted under them, the brine is quickly
eyaporated. The moment the brine be.
gins to boil, it becomes turbid, from the
compounds Of lime that il contains, and
which are soluble in cold, but not in hot
water; these first sediments are taken out
with ladies' called Dittern ladies'. and the
salt being next deposited from the brine
s carried away to drain and dry. The
remsining liquid contains great quantity
of maenesia in various forms, and gives il
the name of 'bittern,' from the taste
peculiar to magncsia in every form.
But how did this salt come into the
ock ? is the natural query, and the won=
der seems greater, when we recolect that
salt beds are found in nearly every one Of
he strata composing the earth's crust
|rhis fact proves another, that MS the ma,
jcrity of these salt beds have come from
the lakes left in the holows of the rocks
~ the recedencc of the sea, the sea has
through all the geologic ages, been as salt
as it is today Let us take the Great Salt
Lake as an illustration it being the lar
gest salt lake in the world, but by LC
means the only one as such inland mas
ses of saline water are found over the
whole earth but as this is The greatest ir
extent, it will form the best ex
ample. II is situated at an elevation o
4,200 feet above the sea. on the Rocky
Mountains. and has an area of2, 900 square
miles; yet, high as it is, once upon {
time. as the story,books of our ,juvepal
ity used to say ii was part Of the sea
which retired, by the upheaval of the
rocks, and that great basin took its sail
water up with it. There are also however
salt rocks taking their place in regular
geologic series with other rocks, inter
spersed between red sandstone, magnesi-
and carbonilerous strata; these we can
only account for, as we do for other stra,
tiaHed rocks, viz; that they were de.
posted from their solution in water, o,
carried mechanically TO the spot where
now found by that ever mobile liquid.
A Nu7 TO CRAcK.--A certain aged an,
respectable female in the apple trad