Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1919-05-07
BOTH ARE MOST NECESSARY OF
KITCHEN CABINET SUPPLIES
ONE DEPENDS ON OTHER.
.BRIEt IS PUMPED TWENTY MILES
National Museum Shows New York
Soda Plant and Salt Wells
in Operation.


# existence. In other words. without
salt, or sodium chloride, as il is tech
mcally termed we could not manufdc.
ture baking powder sodium bicarbon-
ate and would be sans biscuit. bread,
| cakes, etc. There are many and al
verse uses. however. for sodium cora.
| pounds other than the common use in
| baking. some of them being soda
water, soap and soap powders, qui-
nine, oXalic acid, starch. paper, paiat,
glass, alum and in silk bleaching,
cleaning and treating skins and wool,
in dynamite and textiles, as well as
| in many chemical compounds,
An especially constructed model in
the older building for the National
Museum at Washington, with brooks
OF running water. wooded hills and 4
well-built town, shows graphically the
| soda plant, the salt wells in OPP
Grafton, and the surrounding country
| OF a we'll known soda manufacturing
establishment in New York state. This
| interesting model in the division OF
mineral technology shows in reduced
scale the method of obtaining salt for
use in making soda from beds deep
within the earth without mining. ana
illustrates the conveyance of the sane
in the form Of brine TO the soda Plant
over 20 miles away.
A narrow strip of land is shown in
plan and profile, from the hilly region
of the Tully Lakes, south Of Solyay,
n. Y, to the fiat country near Sol
way including the outlying portions of
Syracuse, y. Y. The model is unique
In that it is not only geographically
pressions carefully worked OUT, but
has the manufacturing plant, the salt
wells, tanks, etc, and roads, houses
and trees together with brooks and
lakes of real water. The salt wells
living at a depth of 1900 feet below
the surface of the hills are shown,
with the pipes which feed the tanks
and reservoirs below in the town of
Solvay. Sections of Lake Onondaga,
and the Erie canal are also to be seen.
Bearing in mind the fact that salt is
soluble in water, the engineers of the
concern at Solvay evolved the scheme
of using the abundant supply of pure
water furnished by the numerous
lakes in the region Of Tully, n. Y, by
forcing it into the deep lying salt
beds and drawing it off in the form
of salt water.
This was accomplished by sinking
two pipes, one within the other, send.
ing the fresh water from the lakes
down the larger pipe and sucking up
the salt water through the inner pipe.
The salt water or brine is stored in
concrete reservoirs, constructed near
at hand from where it is connected
10 the plant at Solvay. u miles away,
by pipe line, and may be drawn of
as desired.
This method of securing the salt is
one OF the modern devices employed
by man to overcome the great de-
lenses of nature against his attack,
and saves much labor and expense,
for the salt is obtained directly in the
form required for the process.
The process used here for making
baking soda with ammonia is known
as the Solvay process, invented in
1868 by Ernest Solvay of Brussels.
The many complicated chemical opera
tons necessary in this system Of man.
ufacturer will be but briefly men
toned, Three principal ingredients
are used-salt, which is obtained in
which is secured as byproduct from
the coke ovens operated both for the
coke and gases, among which Is the
ammonia, and lime, which is obtained
by burning limestone secured from
GAINESVILLE, a nearby town,
In simplest terms, this process con-
sists of treating the brine solution
with ammonia obtained from the coke
ovens. When thoroughly saturated
with ammonia gas, the brine is forced
under pressure into tanks containing
carbon dioxide, which in turn is OBJ
tanned when limestone is converted
into lime. The resultant products OBJ
tanned from these reactions are bicar-
Donate of soda, and ammonia chic
ride BY further treatment the car
bon dioxide is liberated and used over
again, while any ammonia given off
is condensed and returned to the
tanks.
The sodium bicarbonate thus for:ned
is heated in rotary dryers and thus
converted into sodium carbonate
which is the soda ash of trade. Some
OF the sodium carbonate is dissolved
in water and boiled with milk of lime,
this converts the sodium carbonate in
to caustic soda, another well-known
compound. Another part of the So
dunn carbonate is dissolved in water,
recarbonated and then dried to oon-
vert it into refined bicarbonate of
soda, known commercially as baking
soda.
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