A WAY TO MAKE BAY SALT IN THIS KINGDOM BY THE HEAT OF THE SUN ONLY, FREE FROM MUDD, AND PERFECTLY FIT FOR ALL THE USES TO WHICH BAY SALT IS APPLYED, AND THAT TOO IN A DEGREE AT LEAST EQUAL TO WHAT IS IMPORTED FROM FRANCE
Year: 1744

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
REID, Esquire, of the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Second, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Thir-
teenth day of July, in the eighteenth year of His reigne, did give and grant
unto me, the said Andrew Reid, His especiall licence that I, the said Andrew
Reid, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend my new Invention of "A WAY TO MAKE BAY
SALT IN THIS KINGDOM BY THE HEAT OF THE SUN ONLY, FREE FROM MUDD, AND
PERFECTLY FIT FOR ALL THE USES TO WHICH BAY SALT IS APPLYED, AND THAT
TOO IN A DEGREE AT LEAST EQUAL TO WHAT IS IMPORTED FROM FRANCE," within
England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in His Majestie's
Colonies in America; in which said recited Letters Patent there is contained
a provisoe obliging me, the said Andrew Reid, by a writing under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majestie's High Court of Chancery within four kalendar months after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being there-
unto had) may more at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Andrew Reid, do hereby declare that the said Invention is to be performed in
the manner following (that is to say):
First, the art of making bay salt by the heat of the sun, free from mudd,
and fit for curing provisions, depends wholly on this principlo (to wit):-
That as soon as the brine is evaporated to such a degree that little films,
pollicles, or chrystals of salt begin to appear on its surface, it is then perfectly
fine, however muddy and dirty before. The natural reason whereof is the
mutual attraction between sea salt and water, which is so strong that they
will part with their mudd sooner than with each other.
Secondly, if the chrystallization be now suffered to proceed (as has hitherto
been the practice for want of attending to the above principle), the salt will be
precipitated, as fast as formed, from the surface to the bottom, and there again
incorporate with the mudd, slime, bittern, and other impurities which were
before seperated from it.
Thirdly, to prevent this, as soon as the salt begins or is ready to kern, the
brine, being now perfectly fine, must be drawn off from its sediment into
proper cisterns or reservoirs made water-tight and secured against the rain,
that no undue mixture may spoil or weaken it. In these, if any of the sedi-
ment has by stirring it fouled the brine, it will soon clear again and so be fit
to be conveyed to the chrystallizing pans, and there made into salt by the heat
of the sun, which dissipates the superfluous moisture.
Fourthly, the chrystallizing pans must not, as in France and elsewhere,
be floored with mudd or clay only, for these, being softened and dissolved by
the water, suffer the salt to sink into them as it drops, and so render it foul,
thereby defeating the former preparation. In order to preserve the effect
whereof, as well as to reap the full benefit of the sun's heat, the bottoms and
sides of the chrystallizing pans must be terrassod or paved with any sort of
stone, tile, brick, plank, or other such materials, but I prefer pebbles, laid
upon a clay or hard mudd bottom, as the latter will prevent the brine from
soaking through, while the former not only receive the salt as it falls, and so
keep it clean, but also augment the sun's heat by the various reflections of their
unequal surfaces.
Fifthly, the purified brine may also be chrystallized in glass or earthen pans,
and the salt so made will excell any other for the table, with regard both to
the
eye and palate, and above all, to health.
Sixthly, besides the usuall ways of evaporating brine to a kerning strength,
I have contrived the following one, which may be of use in any fair weather,
whether winter or sum (it):
sistern, being covered

page_text: with a tiled penthouse, the brine is, by a windmill or other engine, thrown up
to a gutter on the ridge thereof, from whence it runs down the sides of the
penthouse and falls back into the reservoir, till, by being thus exposed to the
sun and air, the moisture is sufficiently exhaled and the brine ready to kern.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Reid, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Tenth day of November, One thousand seven hundred
and forty-four.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the Tenth day of November above
written, the before-named Andrew Reid came before our Lord the King in
His Chancery, and acknowledged the above Writing, and all and every thing
therein contained and specified, in form above said. And also the same was
duly stamped according to the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled Tenth day of November, in the eighteenth year of King Georgo
the Second, within written, One thousand seven hundred and forty-
four.