The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-01-07


Composed of busy
Business men.
j. M. Lewis in the Houston POST.
Automatic Salt Mining.
Salt is mined without human effort,
according to James Cooke Mills, who
has an interesting article in the Tech
meal World Magazine for January on
that subject.
In the city of Saginaw; there has
just been completed and put in opera
ton the most modern salt plant In
America, since advantage has been
taken of all new devices, machinery,
and methods of handling the product,
These factors. and that of utilizing the
waste steam from the Saginaw Plate
Glass company, of which the salt plant
is an adjunct, have reduced the cost
of producing salt to a figure surpris-
ing to all salt experts. Automatic ma
chinery has so supplanted labor in ev-
cry process that from the rocksalt to
the barrel loaded in the car for ship
ment no hand has touched a crystal
Only the master salt-maker, w. j.
Mason, a well known salt expert, and
few helpers, are required to watch
the machinery and keep it in perfect
running order.
The salt is pumped from wells in the
form of brine which Is purified and
then passed into grainers, where 1t is
crystallized by steam heat. This is a
most interesting action. Watching the
steaming surface of the brine, pei
licle of salt forms, which soon breaks
and sinks down, to be followed by an
other, and the capitalization then pro-
ceeds rapidly.
1t is this extreme rapidity of crystal
lization in the concrete grainers that
has astonished the oldest salt makers
and made glad the directors of the
Plate Glass company.
mo such fast salt making was ever
known before" said Saltmaker Ma
son. "It beats all how the crystals
form on the bottom and sides of the
grainer. I never saw anything like it,
and have been making salt-and
good salt too-for twenty-five years"
In this salt works anything that
saves manual labor or in any way
tends to reduce the cost of making salt
is hailed with delight by this skilled
mechanic and his assistants.
1t is fact that the estimated capa-
city of each grainer. of 100 barrels
every twenty-four hours, ia being
greatly exceeded, and more than 100
barrels are being made. ue
aa He Didn't Draw.
Sir William Perkins, the inventor of
mauve dye, said at a dinner given in
his honor at Delmonico's by the chem
lists of New York:
Chemists, in their search after new
things, have sorry time. When sue
cess comes, it is pleasant; but before
success nothing but one disappointment
after another meets. the investigator.
announcements but too often turn
out to be really disappointments, but
too many of the students encourage
ments are like the old woman's speech
to the minister, but discoura gements
misunderstood.
You know there was an old minister.
good man. but prosy and dry in his
sermons, who met an aged woman on
the road one day. And this aged wo-
man, after she had shaken him by the
hand, said heartily.
All. sir, I do like it when you
preach
THE minister, unusued to such COM
pliments, beamed.
Thank YOU he said. I wish there
were more of your mind. And why,
my good old friend, do you like it
"tAh. SIR she replied, when you
preach I can always get good seat
Fable for Bores.
w. Bourke Cochran, at a lawyers
banquet in New York deprecated long
speeches. HE who makes short
speeches." said Mr.. Cochran, will
position of friend of mine last month.
my friend, when certain case of
his was called, rose and pleaded in a
husky voice for an adjournment.
judge.
.tsYour honor was the reply, I'll
have been making an address IN an
other court all the morning, and find
myself completely exha usted.'
Very Well said the Judge. And he
called the next case.
Another counsel rose. and in his
turn asked for an adjournment.
Are you exhausted, too2' said the
judge. What have you been doing?' |
ho
have been listening to my learned
brother LOS Angeles Times.
Poor Christmas Fare.
A delegation of fellow-townsmen |
called on Rufus K. Combs of |
Ky, to congratulate him on |
the receipt of a Carnegie medal. AS
his friends were taking leave, MIR. !
Combs wished them all a merry |
land I hope" he ended, that you'll i
have a more bountiful Christmas din
ner than fell to the lot of "a young |
friend of mine last year. He. poor
chap, was stopping at a cheap New |
York boarding house, and on Christ |
mas day, after he had eaten turkey |
neck, a potato and a splinter of sodden !
mince pie, the landiady said to him, as /
he rose just as the weak coffee YVES
brought: on:
"'Oh, don't leave the table, Mr. |
Smith
- I must, madam said Smith grim |
ly. TITS hard wood, and my teeth are
not what they used to be."-Exchange. |
Would Be GraY-Headed.
The funny man" sometimes got caught |
mapping. Ex-senator Mason of Illinois |
was introduced to Digby Bell, the come |
dian.
II see by the sprinkling of silver in your |
hair" began the. ex-senator that you |
are older than I had supposed you to be, |
after seeing you behind the foolights"
''Silver hairs don't signify age" replied |
the funny man 1T simply shows how