The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-05-31
SAGINAW SALT MANUFACTURE.
MAKING A SALT wELL-A "sALT BLOCK" y
THE VARIOUS PROCESSES.

THE VARIOUS PROCESSES.
In making a salt well it is necessary to
keep out the surface water. To obtain
this result five or six inch hole is made
down to solid rock on which shoulder"
is made, upon which rests the lror tub
ing or casting" Below IL at the hole is
narrowed to two or three inches, and car
ries that size down to brine or salt.
Where rock salt is the material at bottom
fresh water is forced down from the sur
face. 1t dissoives the salt, loads itself
with all it can take up, about "a per
cent, and by the same downward pres
sure of surface water flows into the
''cisterns" through an inside pipe, as
clear as distilled water. A good we'll
will yield from 400 to 600 barrels of
brine per day. But constal. pumping
will clog up the pores on salt rock, pro-
duce constipation of the well, so to speak
and the yield fails to such an extent that
1T become necessary to remove the pump
and administer cathartic in the form
of nitro glycerine torpedo.
The water as it comes to the surface
empties into huge cisterns built on
trestles high enough to admit of drain
ing them into the "settlers" inside of
the "salt block" The brine is clear as
pumped, but as the air acts upon it the
iron it contains in solution takes on a
rust color. To get rid of this the brine
is ''limed" in the cisterns. A wash of
lime is stirred into it, which precipitates
the iron, and in a week it stands per-
fectly and permanently clear. Then it
is dawn into other large cisterns IN the
block that are called settlers. These are
fitted with four-inch galvanized iron
pipes, through which a current of steam
flows, heating the water to IT'S degs.
Fahrenheit. This heating does two
things. 1t throws down the gypsum
which exists in the brine as a sulphide,
and it evaporates the water, rs per cent.
of which must be thrown off in vapor be-
fore crystallization takes place. But the
reader will understand me better if l
first show him d salt block
One having a capacity of 225 barrels
per day NAV be described as follows:
The "block" is 208 feet by 80, 40 feet
high under the center, which includes
the ventil9tor running the entire length
of the grainers. and 16 feet high in the
posts. 1t contains two "settlers," each
40 feet long, 9 feet wide and feet
deep. AS the cisterus outside are high
enough to drain into the settlers, so the
latter are high enough to drain into the
"grainers," of which there are four,
each $50 feet long, 10 feet wide and IS
inches deep. Through these also run
galvanized inch steam pipes. To heat
settlers and grainers there are 3,744 feet
of such pipe, and other pipes connected
with the works make total of 5000 feet.
The grainers stand about or feet from
the ground; over their center runs plat
form upon which the salt as ''lifted" is
left to drain before being dumped into
the "bins" of which there are about
twenty. Connected with the bins are
the packing rooms," and adjoining the
block is the "shed," 230x150 fec t, with a
capacity of $4,000 barrels of salt.
Now let us go into the block again.
The settlers are full. It is, say O'clock
a. m. The block is SO full of steam that
You will have to strain your vision to see
the floor on which you walk and guard
against missteps. The grainers are near
ly empty of brine, but their bottoms are
covered with the salt that has been quiet
lv falling there for twenty four hours un
der heat of 1S5 degs. Along each side
of a grainer the gang of eight men is
strung out each with his 'stent."
These men are naked to the waist, over
the lower limbs are drawn Old woolen
drawers, red being fancy color, and on
the feet old shoes or boots with the legs
cut away. Each man has hoe and n
shovel. With the one he pulis the salt
from the center TO the side of the graner
and with the other he cliffs" it upon the
aforesaid platform. On every man per
spiration stands IL great beads or trickles
down his skin in tiny streams. No need
of Turkish baths for these fellOwsi They
are as clean solid and hardy as we'll
trained athletes.
The salt lifted, the graiuers are refilled
with brine from the settlers, its temper
ature raised to 1S5 degrees, and in
short time you will see film forming
over the surface of the saturated brine.
That is salt. Watch it few moments
and you will see this film break into
pieces and take 'sheader" down below.
So the process goes on for twenty four
hours, when the lifting operation is re,
peated, and from day to day through the
season. By IL o'clock the men have
wheeled the salt to bins and there settles
over the graining room silence as pro-
found as that which must have brooded
over the abyss of nothingness ere it was
said there should be light. Yet in that
silence goes on increasingly from hour to
hour a mystery as wonderful as beautiful
as divine, as is seen in the evolution or
dissipati on of a world. The heat IN
folds the wings as it were. of the mole
cules of water and they rise through the
air, but the sodium is too heavy, too
earthly, and cannot soar. Having got
the mitten, as it were, it turns to the
atoms of chlorine hanging round. They
embrace and materialize in tiny crystal
cubes.-Charles Ellis in Chicago Her
aid.