CHAPTER XIII 

 BAKING POWDERS AND SODA 



Salts. A neutral liquid formed by the action of hydrochloric 

 acid and caustic soda solution (p. 142) has a brackish salty 

 taste, and is, in fact, a solution of common salt. This can 

 be demonstrated by evaporating the neutral liquid to dry- 

 ness. The residue of solid matter proves to be common salt 



When an acid is mixed with a base, the result is a substance 

 more or less similar in its properties to common salt ; for this 

 reason all compounds formed by the neutralization of an ack 

 and a base are called salts. If, instead of hydrochloric acic 

 (HC1), we use an acid solution 01 potassium tartrate, and i 

 instead of caustic soda we use bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) 

 the result is a brackish liquid as before, but the salt in the liquic 

 is not common salt, but Rochelle salt. Different combinations 

 of acids and bases produce different salts. Not all salts are 

 absolutely neutral; some of them have an excess of alkali 

 material and others have an excess of acid, Of all the vast 

 group of salts the most abundant as well as the most impor- 

 tant is common salt, known technically as sodium chloride be- 

 cause of its two constituents, sodium and chlorine. 



We are not dependent upon neutralization for the enor- 

 mous quantities of salt used in the home and in commerce. 

 It is from the active, restless seas of the present, and from 

 the dead seas of the prehistoric past that our vast stores of 

 salt come. The waters of the Mediterranean and of our own 

 Great Salt Lake are led into shallow basins, where, after evapo- 

 ration by the heat of the sun, they leave a residue of salt. 



148 



