The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-30
Common Salt.

common salt, or sodium chloride, writes
George 2. Merrill in the Chdutauoudn, is
now manufactured from brines or mined as
rock salt in fifteen of the fortY-seven States
and Territories of he Union. These named
ini the order Of their Importance are Micni-
gan, New YorK, Ohio, Louisiana. West
Virginia, California, Utah, Nevada, Penn
syivahia, Virginia, Kentucky Texas, Kan
sas, Massachusetts and Wyoming. In Mas
sachuset's alone the product is obtaired
wholly from sea water; in Michigan, New
York Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kan
s0s and Kentucky it is made from brine
obi ined from springs or by sinking wei
into the salt bearing strata; while in Louis
ana and the remain ing STAGES it is ob'ainCd
from brines or by mining as rock salt
OF the foreign sources of rock salt, the
following districts are the most important:
|, the CarDathian mountains: 2. the Aus
TRAN and Bavarian Alps; 3, West Germany;
4, the Vosg,s; 5, Jura 8, Spain; Z, the Pyre-
neeS and the Celtibsriaa mountains; 3,
Great Britain; while salt is an important
product of Turks Island in the Babamas,
OF tho Island of Sicily, and of Cadiz,
Spain.
The geological history of the beds of rock
salt Is as follows: No terrestrial waters aIe
absolutely pure, but all hold in solu ion
more or less mineral matter which has.
been taken up from the rocks and soils with
ture of these impurities depend on the no
ture of the formatiC MS passed over and tn ir
relative solubility. Numerous ara yses
river waters have shown that the SUI
stances mentioned below, though sometim s
existing as mere traces, are almost invar ~
bly, present; these are sodium, potassium,
magnesium. silicon, aluminium and iron,
which exists mostly in the form of carbon
ateS, oxides, sulphates and chlorides.
xxJh. on hos sin
stances in solution flows into a lake with
no outlet, as tho Great Salt Lake or the
Dead Sea, the result is inevitably the same;
the water is returned to the atmosphere by
evaporation, while the impurities remain.
In this way the lake gradually becomes
charged more and more heavily with min
eral matter until the poiat of saturation IS
reached and further concentration Is inn
possible without precipitation. When
such precipitation of mineral matters takes
place, it is always in the inverse order of
their solubilities; that is, those substaU ces
which are least soluble will, under like con-
ditions of temperature, be first precipl-
tated Hence a water containing the ingredi-
ents before mentioned, on being subject to
complete evaporation, would deposit its
load in the following order: /, Carbonatts
Of lime and magnesia in the form of lime
stones, marls and dolemites 2 Sulphate
Of lime in the form of anhydrite and gyp-
sum. 3. Chloride of sodium, or comm on
salt: and these followed in regular order by
the sulphates of magnesia and soda Epson
salt and Glauber's salt and tho chlol ides of
potash and magneSia. These last are, how
ever, so readily deliquescent that they are
rarely found crystalized, but in the state OF
nature
Such then having been the method of for
nation, it is scarcely necessary to stat =,
that salt beds are not c)nfined TO strata O.
any one geological horizon, but are to b
found wherever suitable circumstance
have existed for their formation and pre-
servation. The beds of New York State
and of Canada lie among rocks of the Up
per Silurian age. They are regarded by
Prof. Newberry as the deposit of great
salt lake that formerly occupied central
and western New York, northern Pennsyl-
vania, northeastern Ohio and southern On
tario, and which he assumes TO have been
as large as Lake Huron or possibly Lake
Superior. The Michigan beds, on the other
hand, were laid down near the base of the
carboniferous series, as were also tho Q of
tho Ohio valley, while those of the Polite
Anse, louisiana are of cretaceous or posi-
bly, of Tertiary age, tn which later period
also belong those OF Saltville, Va. The beds
OF the Western States and Territories are
likewise OF recent origin, many OF them
being still in the proc ess of formation.
Many OF the salt beds of Europe are of the
same age as the brown and red sandstones
of the eastern United States, that is the
TraSsic