The Savannah morning news., 1900-06-26
THE MANUFACTURE OF SALT.
Conspicuous Natural Resource of
the State of Michigan.
From the scientiic American.

Conspicuous among the natural resources
of the state of Michigan are the forests
which cover considerable extent of its
surface and the large deposits of salt
which underlie a great portion of its
area. In the vicinity of Manistee, where
the salt blocks" which form the subject
of the present article are located, this
deposit consists of a stratum of rock salt,
which is from twenty-five TO thirty feet
in thickness, and lies some 1000 feet be.
low the surface. Salt blocks are usually
built in connection with saw mill plants.
with view to making use of the refuse
as fuel; and for this reason the city of
Manistee has of late years become such
a large producer of salt that about half of
all this commodity manufactured In the
state is made at that point
Driving the Well.
AS soon as the site of a well has been
selected, a cellar is excavated and plank
ed up and derrick, usually about eighty
feet high, is erected, aud the work of
driving commences. The first operation is
20 sink a section of 10-inch pipe. by means
OF a sand pump, to a depth of about 400
feet, from which point the well is con-
tlhued by inserting an S-inch pipe within
me lo-lnch pipe and driving 1t down TO
the rock format lon the S-ihch pipe ex-
Sendlng from the rock up through the
lV-hch pipe 20 the surface OF the ground
From the rock formation down the rock Is
urlIIed without any pipe casing, except
through such portions as are La
pie 70 cave, Salt well No Of
me Buckley & Douglas Companys
pant at Manistee, which is described in
me present article. is fairly typical of the
wells IN this vicinity. The lO-iuch pipe
reaches to a depth of 400 feet. the s-inch
pipe to depth of 6ls feet, where The rock
formation is encountered The bed Of
rock salt, which is 30 feet in thickness,
reaches to a depth of 9S5 feet, making
total depth of 2,G15 feet. The yield pump
ed from this well amounts to from 1000 II
400 barrels of brine in twenty-four hours
Inc same engine, shaft and walking beam
used in putting down the wells of tms
company We're formerly utilized 10 do the
pumping, which was Accomplished by
sucker rods extending down the &C. sing 70
the PUMP cylinder in the we'll D De OF
late wears the air-lift system has been
adopted with such good results that 100
per cert more brine is now forced from
a wei by air than could be raised by the
ola method. As The brine is pumped from
the well II is delivered 10 the storage els
ter1s. from which it falls by gravity to
The settlers ard from the settlers 10 the
Fraiuels. In the settlers il is heated TO
4 temperature of about 40 degrees
Upon being allowed TO sool the gypsum
which, if it were not removed, would form
a coating on the steam pipes IN the
grainers, is preciptated, and as soon as
precipitation is completed the brine is
drawn to long box running across the
head eros of the grainers as required
The latter are long, shallow tanks, near
the bottom of which, and extending
throughout their fun length, is a series of
steam pipes. The brine being admitted
to the srainers, the steam is turned o.
the liquor soon acquires a high temrera
ture and rapid evaporation takes place
To assist the precipitation of grains of
salt the surface of the brine is agitated
at frequent intervals by means of Sc
ries of paddles, which are operated by a
lever at the end of the grainer. The salt
accumulates at the bottom, until in the
course of twenty -four hours there will be
a layer from 6 to inches deep. The sal
is lifted fren the grainer- by means of
long-handled, perforated shovels. and is
deposited on the runway. AS soon as It
is thoroughly drained it is shoveled into
cars, run out over the storage bin and
dumped.
The VaCuum-Pan Process.
Part of the salt manufactured in this
plant is made by the vacuum-pan process,
for which purpose two pans are in use.
One of the pans is run during the day and
the other during the night each pan maxi
ing in a twelve-hour run from 800 to 100
barrels of salt, the combined production
being from 200 60 1,4OO barrels a day.
In the manufacture of salt it is rec
ognized necessity that large quantity
must be kept in storage and for this
Il V..1 NNafA -
storeroOms which measure from 200 TO 300
feet in length. and the same in width;
the amount in store frequently aggregat-
ed 10000 barrels. AS these rooms are
from sixteen to twenty feet deep, the salt
becomes tightly packed, and has 20 be
worked loose by packers with picks
shovels. grub hoes etc, who proceed to
quarry, break up and pack the salt into
barrels. With the coarser grades of salt
made in the .grainers this is not a difn-
cult matter, bu4 the finer grained, vac
uum-pan salt becomes compact and very
hard. and the packer soon finds himself
confronted by a wall Of salt twenty feet
in hight and as white, If not as hard. as
marble. To undermine and bring down
this mass of salt is a dangerous operation,
and involves long delays; and 10 over
come these difficulties the companies
have used compressed-air driven spiral
auger which is ten inches In diameer
and provided with a double-spoon point
The anger is mounted on truck and the
back end OF the shaft is attached to
three-horse power Boyer rotary air-drin
machine. row OF holes is driven into
the salt at a hight of ten inches from
the floor for distance of six feet into
the mass the holes being drilled as close
ly together ns possible. After an inter
val of one to three hours a fall of salt
takes place. mass equal to 400 or 800
barrels Of salt being brought down in each
section The saving of labor by the use
of the compressed-air drill is shown by
the fact that sufficient salt can be I'M
dermined and caved in this manner in
one-half day 10 keep the packers at work
for two or three days following.
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