^^£KICAN HERD-BOOTi 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Liebio. 



Vol. XI.— No. 11.] 



6th mo. (June) 15th, 1847. 



[Whole No. 149. 



PnBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAH TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 

 PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year. — Porconditions see last page. 



Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid. 



My Dear Sir, — The manufacture of soda 

 from common culinary salt, may be regarded 

 as the foundation of all our modern improve- 

 ments in the domestic arts; and we may 

 take it as affording- an excellent illustration 

 of the dependence of the various branches 

 of human industry and commerce upon each 

 other, and their relation to chemistry. 



Soda has been used from time immemorial 

 in the manufacture of soap and glass, two 

 chemical productions, which employ and 

 keep in circulation an immense amount of 

 capital. The quantity of soap consumed by 

 a nation would be no inaccurate measure 

 whereby to estimate its wealth and civiliza- 

 tion. Of two countries with an equal amount 

 of population, the wealthiest and most highly 

 civilized will consume the greatest weight 

 of soap. This consumption does not subserve 

 sensual gratification, nor depend upon fash- 

 ion, but upon the feeling of the beauty, com- 

 fort, and welfare attendant upon cleanliness; 

 and a regard to this feeling is coincident with 



Cail— Vol. XL— No. 11. 



wealth and civilization. The rich in the 

 middle ages concealed a want of cleanliness 

 in their clothes and persons, under a profu- 

 sion of costly scents and essences, while they 

 were more luxurious in eating and drinking, 

 in apparel and horses. With us a want of 

 cleanliness is equivalent to insupportable 

 misery and misfortune. 



Soap belongs to those manufactured pro- 

 ducts, the money value of which continually 

 disappears from circulation, and requires to 

 be continually renewed. It is one of the 

 few substances which are entirely consumed 

 by use, leaving no product of any worth. 

 Broken glass and bottles are by no means 

 absolutely worthless; for rags we may pur- 

 chase new cloth, but soap-water has no value 

 |Whatever. It would be interesting to know 

 'accurately the amount of capital involved in 

 jthe manufacture of soap; it is certainly as 

 large as that employed in the coffee trade, 

 with this important difference as respects 

 Germany, that it is entirely derived from 

 our own soil. France formerly imported 

 'soda from Spain, Spanish soda being of the 

 jbest quality, at an annual expenditure of 

 twenty to thirty millions of francs. During 

 the war with England, the price of soda, and 

 consequently of soap and glass, rose contin- 

 ually; and all manufactures suffered in con- 

 'sequence. 



I The present method of making soda from 

 icommon salt was discovered by Le Blanc at 

 the end of the last century. It was a rich 

 jboon for France, and became of the highest 



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