The second part of the paper referred to the uses to which the brine was applied, the chief one being the manufacture of common salt.  For this purpose the brine, as delivered from the wells, was run into a large reservoir, where any earthy matter held in suspension was allowed to settle.  The clear solution was then run into pans sixty feet long by twenty feet wide by two feet deep.  Heat was applied at one end by the combustion of small coal, beyond which longitudinal walls, serving to support the pan and to distribute the heat, conducted the products of combustion to the further extremity, where they escaped into the chimney at a temperature of from 500 deg. to 700 deg.  Fahr.  On the surface of the heated brine, kept at 196 deg.  Fahr., minute cubical crystals speedily formed.  On the upper surface of these, other small cubes of salt arranged themselves in such a way that, in course of time, a hollow inverted pyramid of crystallized salt was formed.  This ultimately sank to the bottom, where other small crystals united with it, so that the shape became frequently completely cubical.  Every second day the salt was “fished” out and laid on drainers to permit the adhering brine to run back into the pans.  For the production of table salt the boiling was carried on much more rapidly, and at a higher temperature than for salt intended for soda manufacture.  The crystals were very minute, and adhered together by the solidification of the brine, effected by exposure on heated flues.  For fishery purposes the crystals were preferred very coarse in size.  These were obtained by evaporating the brine more slowly and at a still lower temperature than when salt for soda makers was required.  At the Clarence works experiments had been made in utilizing surplus gas from the adjacent blast furnaces, instead of fuel, under the evaporating pans, the furnaces supplying more gas than was needed for heating air and raising steam for iron making.  By means of this waste heat, from 200 to 300 tons of salt per week were now obtained.

The paper concluded with some particulars of the soda industry.  The well-known sulphuric acid process of Leblanc had stood its ground for three-quarters of a century in spite of several disadvantages, and various modes of utilizing the by-products having been from time to time introduced, it had until recent years seemed too firmly established to fear any rivals.  About seven years ago, however, Mr. Solvay, of Brussels, revived in a practical form the ammonia process, patented forty years ago by Messrs. Hemming & Dyar, but using brine instead of salt, and thus avoiding the cost of evaporation.  This process consisted of forcing into the brine currents of carbonic acid and ammoniacal gases in such proportions as to generate bicarbonate of ammonia, which, reacting on the salt of the brine, gave bicarbonate of soda and chloride of ammonium.  The bicarbonate was placed in a reverberatory furnace, where the heat drove off the water and one equivalent