Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1871-03-15
A Chapter on Salt.

NnapttT On SALT
Its generality and importance regard
ed. common salt undoubtedly takes first
rank among the condiments. Almost
every animal tissue contains 1t in small
quantities, and nearly every vegetable.
The enormous quantity of salt held dis
solved in oceanic water may be imagined,
though many salts impart TO sea-water
their distinctive fiayors. All who have
tasted sea-water know that besides what
we call saltness il has certain bitterness,
due chiefly to the presence Of magnesia
in addition to which it holds saline COM
pounds of lime. soda, and, strange to
saw, silver. To extend the catalogue of
sea-water components, We must not for
get bromine and iodine, nearly three and
a half per cent. of solid matters III all,
the remaining ninety-six and a half be-
ing water. This estimate is taken on the
average of oceanic water in general, the
composition of oceanic water not being
everywhere alike. Thus the Mediter-
ranean is conspicuous for its sadness,
owing to the comparatively small volume
of fresh water disembogUing there, the
Nile being the only river of first rank.
As the Mediterranean is characterized
by its extreme sadness, so Is the Baltic
conspicuous among seas for the fresh
ness of its waters, which in some regions
towards the north can be even drunk
without inconvenience. The Dead Sea
is saline to such high degree that its
contents may almost be ranked among
the so-called mineral waters. According
to an analysis of the late DR.. Marcel, the
water of this renowned Syrian lake holds
no less than seventy-tive and half parts
nearly of saline matter, nearly ten per
cent and half of which is common
salt.
Though rock-salt is plentiful in this
country, vet the salt mostly consumed in
British household use is the product of
the evaporation of the brine-springs.
The British salt-yielding districts are
Northwich, Middlewich, and Nantwich
in Cheshire, Shirleywich III Staffordshire,
and Droitwich in Worcestershire The
Cheshire rOck-salt occurs in two beds,
which vary in thickness from four to one
hundred and thirty feet, and are separa-
ted by bed of clay ten or twelve feet
thick, the uppermost salt-bed not being
more than thirty feet from the earth.
For the most part the salt of this bed is
reddish in color, owing to the presence
of peroxide of iron some, however, is
quite colorless. The salt of this super.
fetal rock is mostly exported for purif.
cation we obtaining our salt. as before
emarked, from the evaporated product
of the brine-springs. The brine being
pumped up into tanks, is transferred
when wanted into large pans of wrought
iron, each of which is usually heated
with four or more fires If the brine bt
not completely saturated, little rock
salt is added with the object of saving
fuel Evaporation then takes place, an(
salt crystalizes out. Whatever impuri
ties may have been originally presen
either separate in the form of scum
easily removed by skimming, or deposi
IN crust known as pan-scale, pan
scratch, or bake. The size of crys
tails, or fineness of the salt deposited
varies according to the position of tn,
liquid i'll respect to the fire. The small
grained salt is formed by the stronges
heat, and is known in commerce as but
ter salt, slowed, lump, or basket salt
The large crystals which deposit in tn
cooler part of the pan constitute the ba,
or fishery salt.
When salt is obtained from sea-water
the manufacturing process must var
according to the climate. Thus in warn
Mediterranean regions the suns ray
suffice to do the evaporative work bu
IN our climate, with its large rainfall an
comparatively insignificant solar heat
fuel combustion must aid the process
otherwise there would be no salt-depos
ton. The French salt marshes are sha
low or pans of clay excavated along tn
sea shore. A sluice admits the waite
INTO a reservoir, which serves the tw
purposes of affecting partial evaporation
while some insoluble impurities are d,
posted. A subterranean communicate
next takes it to series of rectangulf
pans, next by very circuitous route
another subterranean drain, thence to
long, narrow, circuitous canal. Frol
this 1t passes into a second, and subs
quently into third series of salt pan
During all this time it is undergoin
evaporation, so that on arriving at I'll
third series of pans it is concentrate
nearly to the point of crystalizatiol
The salt-master watches the tint of h
solution. When it has assumed a re,
dish hue, crystalization is known to
about to begin. The salt is now wit
drawn from the pans, and collected upc
the borders, In conical or pyramid
heaps, where it is allowed to drain al
dry. At Huntington, in Hampshir
common salt is obtained from sea-wat
by different process-the differen
necessitated by the climate. The fir
stages are modification of the Frent
process Just described, solar heat beiI
depended upon for causing evaporation
The final stages, however, resemble Il
process of Cheshire, Worcestershire
and Saffordshire, fuel heat being ey
ployed. From particulars already stat.
as to the various salts contained in sc
water, it may be inferred that the L.
mington salt-manufacturer has a mo
complex task to achieve than his mort
country island competitor. 1t so ha
pens, however, that of all the bod
present In sea water, common salt is t
first to crystalize out, thus isolating
self from the others. The residue. no
ever, is not thrown away. 1t is high
charged with magnesia, as already state
hence, during winter, season when {
manufacture of table-salt can no lonc
be carried on, sulphate of magnesia,