COMMERCIAL POTASH OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 39 
No. 7. A specimen of a beautiful reddish colour, which had 
been condemned by the inspector at New York, and labelled 
"highly salted." A large proportion of the one hundred and 
sixty-four grains consisted of common salt, which had appa- 
rently undergone no change. Although the insoluble resi- 
duum was much less than in No. 2, the total amount of impu- 
rities was more than fifty per cent. This is an instructive 
lesson to those who have been deceived by the notion ex- 
pressed in the first patent, that the salt is "burnt up." 
Having now determined, with what I conceived to be a 
sufficient degree of accuracy, the nature and proportions of the 
impurities contained in the above, I dissolved three other 
specimens in water, and to the filtered solutions added nitric 
acid of known specific gravity until the alkali was completely 
saturated, according to the ordinary chemical method of as- 
certaining the value of samples of potash or soda. The fol- 
lowing are the results. 
Table of the composition of specimens of Potash determin- 
ed by solution in water and saturation by nitric acid* 
Insoluble 
matter. 
Pure al- 
kali. 
Soluble impuri- 
ties , carbonic acid 
and water. 
Total. 
Carbonated alka- 
li per cent, by 
estimation. 
8 
9 
10 
3. 
5.5 
6. 
252 
251 
256 
245. 
243.5 
238. 
500 
500 
500 
From 65 to 
70. 
No. 8. Was common potash, " second sort" from New 
York. No.'s 9 and 10 were from Albany, but the mode of 
manufacture was not certainly known. 
I subsequently analyzed two specimens made with great 
care, expressly for the purpose of testing the relative merits of 
the common and patent processes. Depositions of these facts 
were presented to the committee of the Legislature, and the 
boxes, containing the parcels, were transmitted to me un- 
* This process is perhaps open to the objection stated in the concluding 
part of this paper. 
