702 REPORT— 1863. 
of the most wealthy families in the neighbourhood, in the beginning of the 
last century, and about 200 pans were employed in producing salt, which 
was extracted from sea-water and brine-springs. Shields salt was the most 
celebrated salt in the kingdom, and was produced in such quantities at South 
Shields as to give a character, and even a nomenclature, to the town, which 
to this day is divided into East Pan and West Pan Wards. The remains of 
a large hill are still to be seen, formed from the ash of the salt-pans, After 
a time, these ashes took fire, and Mr. R. W. Swinburne—to whom we are 
indebted for this information—states that the Chapter of Durham are in 
possession of a picture representing the burning hills at South Shields. The 
production of salt from sea-water in this locality has given place to that 
obtained from the brine-springs and rock-salt of Cheshire, and the fact illus- 
trates what great changes take place in altering the locale of manufactures. 
A considerable quantity of white salt is still made, on the Tyne, from sea- 
water, in which rock-salt from Cheshire and Ireland is dissolved, in order to 
diminish the cost of evaporation. Two improvements have been successfully 
introduced in making white salt, which have the saving of fuel as their object. 
Mr. Wilkinson employs the waste heat of coke-ovens for this purpose; and 
Mr. Fryar dries whitening with the heat which escapes from his salt-pans. 
Alkali ( for this and the last century).—Towards the end of the last century 
two gentlemen, Mr. W. Losh and Mr. Thomas Doubleday, were engaged, un- 
known to each other, with a series of experiments on the best plan of con- 
verting common salt into carbonate of soda. These chemists appear to have 
used very similar processes; and when the late Lord Dundonald came to 
reside in the neighbourhood, he was soon on intimate terms with both 
parties. Both Mr. Losh and Mr. Doubleday tried numerous plans at his 
lordship’s suggestion ; but after spending upwards of £1000, Mr. Doubleday 
seems to have become tired of making an outlay which promised little or no 
result. The first plan tried was to effect the decomposition of common salt 
by means of oxide of lead, and to carbonate the caustic soda, while the 
insoluble chloride of lead was heated to form a yellow pigment, long known 
as Turner’s yellow. Another process consisted in decomposing common salt 
by sulphate of iron. The resulting sulphate of soda was fluxed with coal, 
and the sulphide of sodium which was formed was carbonated with sawdust. 
This plan-was also worked, some time afterwards, at an alkali manufactory 
situated near Blyth. Another process, which was tried, was founded on the 
mutual decomposition of common salt and sulphate of potash. This opera- 
tion was always carried on by Mr. Losh and Mr. Doubleday whenever the 
price of the two potash-salts allowed a profit to be made, and the chloride of 
potassium was regularly sold to the Yorkshire alum-makers. Mr. Losh re- 
sided in Paris in 1791, where he acquired a knowledge of chemistry, and 
soon after his return home, a company was formed to manufacture soda at 
Walker. The original partners were Lords Dundas and Dundonald, Messrs. 
Aubone, and John Surtees, and John and William Losh. They obtained 
their salt from a brine-spring found in a coal-pit at Walker, and the heavy 
duty upon salt at that date, which was £36 per ton, was avoided by evapo- 
rating a concentrated solution of the brine-spring with sulphuric acid; thus 
making sulphate of soda, and not salt. Another plan adopted by Mr. Losh, 
to avoid the duty, was to add ground coke or ashes to the concentrating salt- 
pan before the salt was formed, and use it, in this damaged condition, for the 
manufacture of sulphate of soda. This was about the year 1796 ; and Messrs. 
Doubleday and Easterby, in 1808, commenced making sulphate of soda by 
decomposing the waste salts from the soap-boilers, which consisted chiefly of 
