The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-07-08
Whv the Water Of the Sea is
Salty.

Very many years ago there lived
in Europe wise man who was all
the time trying, in his own way to
make new discoveries in nature. He
had noticed, as perhaps many OF you
have done, that in old tea kettles
which have been in use long time
there is often crust of stone about
the sides and bottoms.
1T is certainly stone," said he.
"Now, there has been nothing but
water put into this kettle, and whence
has this stone Gomez"
He studied the matter carefully
and fer long time, and then he
came to the conclusion that the water
had, by boiling, been changed into
stone. To prove that this was true,
be took clear, fresh water from a
spring, and boiled it in a clean, new
kettle. After a time, just as he ex-
pected, the sides and bottom OF the
kettle were covered with layer of
stone.
'No one can now dispute the fact, y
said he. '.Stone is made from hot
water. If we could only produce
enough heat, all the water of the
ocean might be turned into solid
rock"
This was a very strange conclusion,
you will think; and 50 it was. But
where did the stone in the tea kettle
come from if it was not made out OF
the water?
Put a little salt into a basin of
water. After little while you will
see no salt in it, but all of the water
will taste salty. The salt is so nearly
the color of the water that one can
not see any change in the liquid-it
looks as pure and fresh as when it
was first drawn from the spring.
But taste the smallest drop Of the
water and you taste the salt also; for
the salt has been divided into great
number of little particles, which float
all through the water-thousands OF
them in every drop-and make it
salty.
If you had put indigo instead Of
salt into the water, every drop of the
water would have been blush, be
cause it held many particles OF indigo.
IL the same way little sugar will
sweeten a great deal Of water. The
sap or juice Of the sugar cane, or
the sugar maple is nothing but water,
with many fine particles of sugar in
it. When the water is boiled away,
these particles remain behind as so
much sugar. By boiling salt water
we also obtain salt The water goes
away in the form of vapor or steam,
and leaves the solid matter behind.
If you had weighed the water be-
fore you put the salt in it, and had
caught all the steam and heldit until
it had cooled into water again, you
would have found, on weighing it
a second time, that no water had been
lost; and you would have found that
it did not taste of the salt. Also, if
you had weighed the salt before put
ting it into the water, and then again
after the water had been all boiled
away, you would have discovered
that none of it had been lost.
There is great deal Of salt in the
ground. There are also many other
things which dissolve in water.
When the rain falls from the clouds,
it sinks into the earth and takes up
these substances in small particles,
just as you have seen water dissolve
sugar and salt. When the water
bubbles up in springs and runs down
the rivers into the sea, it still holds
the little particles of salt, or stone,
or whatever they may be, and adds
so much more-however little it may
be-to that which the sea already
contains. Thus it is that the water
Of the sea has become salty.
When salty water is boiled, what
becomes of the water! 1t escapes
in the form of yapor or steam.
White omes of the salt? tits left
behind in the vessel. When water
that is full of particles of stone boils
away, what becomes of the stone?
You will have no trouble now in
telling where the stones which is
found in the tea kettles comes from.
You are wiser in that respect than
the wise man of whom I told you,
for you know that stone is not made
of water.
What forces the water to leave the
particles Of salt and other matter
which is gathered from the earth?
| It is heat. It is by heat that it is