Present improvements in Salt maJcing. 119 



ments made both above and below this spot. The salt water in the 

 gums, at this early day, usually rose about a foot above the surface 

 of the river at low stages — at high stages, the water rose with that 

 of the river, but not quite so high as it was in the river. The salt 

 water was also increased in strength as well as in quantity by a rise 

 in the river. When the wells were only twenty six feet deep, they 

 afforded water only for two furnaces ; but when, in the second year, 

 they were deepened to sixty and ninety feet, the water was suffi- 

 cient to supply four furnaces of sixty kettles, holding thirty or forty 

 gallons each, making from fifty to sixty bushels of salt every twenty 

 four hours. To prevent the river, when high, from flowing into the 

 gum, an additional one of eight or ten feet was set upon its top, and 

 the v^^ater drawn out of it with a bucket and sweep by the hand. 

 Soon after, pumps were used worked by horses, one set of pumps 

 raising sufficient to supply two furnaces, which was the usual num- 

 ber attached to each well. The furnaces were about fifty or sixty 

 feet in length, with the same number of kettles set in two rows. 

 The fuel then used was wood. Successive improvements continued 

 to be made, both in the form of the furnaces and in the size and 

 shape of the kettles, until the latter reached the capacity of one 

 hundred and fifty or two hundred gallons each, weighing from sev- 

 enteen to nineteen hundred pounds, and requiring only five or six 

 for a furnace. These large kettles were used only for boilers, the 

 smaller ones still being continued for " graining" or crystallizing the 

 salt. After coal came into use for fuel, which was not until the ad- 

 jacent hills were striped of their wood, in the year 1819, broad pans 

 of sheet iron were used for boilers. Col. David Ruffiier first in- 

 troduced the use of coal, and his example was soon followed by the 

 other manufacturers, who, at that time, had become numerous. He 

 suffered considerable loss, and many disappointments before he 

 could adapt the form of the furnace and the pans to this new fuel. 

 The pans were twelve or fourteen feet long, and three feet eight 

 inches wide, and were placed in the front part of the furnace over 

 the fire, for boilers. These being soon corroded and worn out, cast 

 iron pans were substituted, made of separate pieces and fastened to- 

 gether with screws, the joints being tightened with a cement of cast 

 iron borings. With care, these pans last a long time. The pans 

 used at the present period are about twenty five feet long and six 

 and a half feet wide, and the length of the furnace from eighty to 

 one hundred feet. The quantity of salt made at the time when they 



