Mr. A. B. Northcote on the Brine-springs of Worcestershire. 29 



deep : the evaporation is conducted rather rapidly in the manu- 

 facture of ordinary salt, to prevent its deposition in crystals of 

 too large a size ; in the case of bay salt, the crystallization is 

 allowed to be slower ; in the large pans, however, such is the 

 difference of temperature in different parts of the pan, from the 

 furnace being placed at one end, that while the fine-grained salt 

 is produced at the hottest end, bay salt is the result of the dimi- 

 nished temperature at the other. The salt as it crystallizes out 

 sinks to the bottom, and is continually removed by the workmen, 

 who place it in tall boxes having their bottoms pierced ; in these 

 the salt is allowed to drain and settle, and is shortly afterwards 

 removed in the form of a consolidated block and placed in the 

 drying-room. The fine salt, which is not sent to the market in 

 blocks, is drained and dried in conical wicker baskets, from which 

 it is easily shaken out as a rough powder, whilst the bay salt is 

 merely removed from the pans by the shovel. 



Formerly the brine reservoir beneath Droitwich was drawn 

 upon in several places, each proprietor sinking a shaft for him- 

 self; but by degrees these shafts have all, with one exception, 

 fallen into the hands of a single firm, that of Messrs. Clay and 

 Newman, who finding the supply afforded by one shaft quite 

 sufficient for their purpose, have discontinued working the others. 

 This brine I have examined, and the results obtained will be 

 found below : the brine yielded by the other shaft to which I 

 have alluded I have not analysed, since as it is sunk within 50 

 feet of that belonging to Messrs. Clay and Newman, the proba- 

 bility is that the composition of the two waters is identical. 

 What has been said of the sinkings at Droitwich applies in a 

 great measure also to those at Stoke Prior ; at this latter place 

 three or four shafts are in action, all within a very short distance 

 of each other, I therefore considered it useless to examine the 

 water from more than one, thinking them to be not sufficiently 

 far removed from one another to furnish brines having any 

 material difference in their composition. The water which I 

 took at this place for the purpose of analysis was that obtained 

 at the works of Mr. J. Corbett. It will be seen by reference to 

 the tables which follow, that two analyses of the Droitwich spring 

 have been madf : the water for the first analysis was kindly sent 

 me by Sir C. Hastings in the January of the present year, that for 

 the second was taken at the same time as the Stoke brine, in 

 August last. This second examination was made chiefly for tbe 

 more accurate comparison of the two waters, but it also serves 

 to show that the composition of this saline spring is almost 

 invariable, the analyses having been made at the most opposite 

 periods of the year. 



It was soon found by the qualitative examination of both 



