256  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  SALT. 
Kew  certificates  should  not  have  acquired  the  same  increased 
error  ?  This  may  be  that  those  instruments  were  originally  more 
carefully  made,  or  adjusted  some  time  after  their  manufacture. 
But  if  such  considerable  errors  are  possible  even  in  certified 
thermometers,  it  would  perhaps  be  advisable  to  place  at  different 
easily  accessible  localities  standard  instruments  which  are  care- 
fully rectified,  to  enable  any  gentleman  engaged  in  meteorologi- 
cal, medical,  chemical,  or  other  thermometric  observations,  to 
convince  himself  of  the  correctness  of  his  instrument,  so  that  an 
accurate  comparison  of  different  observers  can  easily  be  made. 
I  am,  &c, 
A  Subscriber. 
—London  Chem.  News,  Feb.  22,  1867. 
THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  SALT. 
Our  attention  has  been  called  to  the  following  extract  from  a 
work  entitled,  "  The  Resources,  Products,  and  Industrial  History 
of  Birmingham  and  the  Midland  Hardware  District,"  1866.  Mr. 
Samuel  Timmins  is  editor,  but  the  name  of  the  author  of  the 
chapter  on  salt  is  not  given. 
When  factory  and  other  operatives  receive  so  much  legislative 
attention,  it  is  only  fair  to  remember  these  neglected  saltmakers 
of  Worcestershire. 
Solution  and  crystallization  are  so  interesting  to  chemists  that 
we  think  it  probable  that  mention  of  this  subject  in  the  Chemi- 
cal News  will  bring  a  large  amount  of  attention. 
"  The  social  condition  of  the  saltworkers  has  for  centuries  been, 
and  in  most  cases  continues  to  be,  a  reproach  to  English  civiliza- 
tion. The  heat  of  the  stoves  and  pan  houses  in  which  they  work, 
and  which  frequently  better  deserve  the  name  of  their  homes 
than  the  miserable  hovels  in  which  they  huddle  out  of  working 
hours,  renders  more  than  a  minimum  of  clothing  unnecessary,  if 
not  burdensome,  and  even  this  minimum  is  not  unfrequently  dis- 
pensed with  by  both  sexes.  The  work  is  necessarily  continuous 
day  and  night,  and  from  Monday  morning  to  Saturday  evening 
it  often  happens  that  the  laborer  never  quits  the  precinct  of  the 
works,  snatching  his  intervals  of  rest  beside  the  pans.  Men  and 
