90 Mr. R. Bakewell on a Mode of manufacturing Salt. 



were not soon injured by it when it had acquired five degrees 

 of strength. The cords, we were informed, had many of 

 them remained thirty years in use without being changed: 

 indeed, they were so thickly encased with depositions of se- 

 lenite, that they were defended from the action of the water. 

 This mode of "evaporating is found to be niore expeditious 

 than that of the faggots. 



A sketch of the evaporating-house No. 1 is annexed ; No. 2 

 is similar to it in every respect. 



In the covered house No. 3 there are twenty-four pumps, 

 twelve on each side, to distribute the water more equally oyer 

 the whole. This system of pumps is worked by joined bars 

 of wood, which move backwards and forwards, and are con- 

 nected by crank wheels with each piston, to raise and depress 

 it. As I have before mentioned, they take care to evaporate 

 on the windward side of the building. When I was on the 

 top of No. 3, though the air was very warm, I felt an intense 

 degree of cold, the consequence of speedy evaporation. 



In the Maison de Cordes, it is found that the evaporation 

 goes on more speedily in windy weather than in the Maisons 

 d'Epines, as might be expected from the more ready access 

 of air to the surface of the water. The cords are double, 

 passing over horizontal rods of wood at the top and the bot- 

 tom, to keep them firm in their positions, and at regular di- 

 stances from each other. I did not see the cords without their 

 envelope of selenite ; but I was informed that they were not 

 thicker than the finger. With the incrustations they were 

 become as thick as the wrist. 



Near the salt-springs there are the remains of a large re- 

 servoir, into which the water was formerly made to fall from 

 a considerable height by a machine; but this mode of evapo- 

 ration was only found to answer in very hot weather, and 

 the process is given up. 



The saline water is received into reservoirs from the springs, 

 where it remains some time before it passes to the Maisons 

 d'Epines, and here it deposits a considerable quantity, or 

 nearly all, of its ferruginous matter : the canal along which it 

 runs to the reservoirs is also lined with a red ocherous in- 

 crustation. 



The total length of the Maisons d'Epines is as under: 

 Yards, English. 

 Nos. 1 and 2, together . . . 700 



. 3 370 



4 70 



Total, 1140, or nearly two-thirds of a 

 mile. 



The 



