an Intermitting Brine Spring near Kissingen. 3J25 



the brine is seven times stronger after spontaneous evaporation 

 than before (rising from 2i to 17J per cent.), six-sevenths of 

 the water are driven off during this process. Hence, during 

 the part of the year in which the manufacture continues (for 

 during many winter months the frost renders it impossible), 

 the atmospliere actually absorbs 1 80 millions of pounds of 

 water in the form of invisible vapour. The volume of this is 

 three millions of cubic feet in round numbers, a quantity which, 

 if we suppose it uniformly distributed over the area of the 

 thorny stacks, through which it percolates, would reach the 

 astonishing depth of 68J feet, or more than twice and a half 

 that of the thorns themselves. In other words, the an- 

 nual evaporation from a given area of thorns (piled to a height 

 of 25 feet), is a stratum of water nearly 70 feet in thickness, 

 independent of the large proportion which must go to waste. 



The air in the neighbourhood of the evaporating houses is of 

 course sensibly affected by this process. It is cool in the 

 warmest weather ; and in the neighbourhood, several species of 

 plants occur, native commonly only near the sea shore.* The 

 smell of chlorine may occasionally be distinctly perceived. 



From the accumulation of stalactitic matter, the thorns re- 

 quire to be renewed once in two years, but even then they are 

 not profitless ; the earthy concretion is broken off and employed 

 on the roads, and the thorns being burnt, the ashes afford an 

 admirable manure from the quantity of alkali which they 

 contain. 



The evaporated brine at 17^ per cent, is conveyed in wooden 

 pipes to the pans at the Ober Saline, where it is boiled first to 

 saturation (26^ per cent.), during which process it deposits an 

 earthy sediment (ScJilamm). It is then removed to another 

 pan and farther evaporated, yielding good salt. Pure muriate 

 of soda being less soluble than the sulphate of soda and muriate 

 of magnesia is first deposited. At a certain stage the mother 

 liquor (Mutterlauge) is poured off, and again evaporated at 

 twice ; the first operation affording inferior s?alt, such as is used 



• Arenaria marina, Triglochin inaritinuira, Poa distans, Salicoraia her- 

 bacea, Eryngium maritimum, Arenaria rubra et marina, Scirpus setaceua 

 BaUin(/y Kisiiingens Biider und Ileilquellen, Stuttgart 1837, p. 10. 



