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" MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF NITRATE OF SODA 

 AT THE RAMIREZ FACTORY, NORTHERN CHILI." 



BY ROBERT HARVEY, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. 



(Extracted from, the Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 by permission of the Council^ 



The production of Nitrate of soda has, since 1869, been 

 developed with great rapidity, and its manufacture gives 

 employment to a vast amount of English-made machinery and 

 capital, and many English engineers and mechanics. In 1845 

 nitrate of soda was produced by extracting the "caliche" or 

 raw material from the ground, and boiling it in copper pans of 

 native manufacture, the fuel employed being carbonized wood 

 dug up from the Tamarugal Pampa, in the province of Tarapaca, 

 formerly in Peru, but recently annexed by Chili, where there 

 are in many parts indications of a sunken forest. Probably 

 owing to the primitive method of manufacture, and the fact that 

 nitrate of soda was not commercially known, the exportation in 

 1845 was only 6,000 tons. It increased by degrees up to 70,000 

 tons in 1859, and in 1883 the exportation of this valuable fertilizer 

 reached 12,500,000 Spanish quintals, or 570,000 tons. Such a 

 production would have created an excess over the demand, had 

 not the producers formed an agreement to limit their output, so 

 as to meet European requirements, which at present are 460,000 

 tons annually. This amount is produced by thirty-seven 

 different establishments or factories, technically known as 

 "oficinas," and by thirty distinct firms or owners, the production 

 of English companies being 186,000 tons, or 40 per cent, of the 

 whole. The productive capacity of the Ofieina Eamirez is 

 140,000 quintals, or 6,360 tons monthly ; but the works are now 

 like all the other establishments, limited to 40 per cent, of their 

 productive capacity, or 56,000 quintals per month, giving an 

 annual output of 30,000 tons 



The process of manufacturing nitrate of soda, and a 

 description of the machinery of the Ofieina Eamirez, which is 



