DEVELOPMENT OF BRINE PROCESSES
It has been said that _De Re Metallica_ of Georgius Agricola, published
in 1556, was regarded as the standard text-book on the subject for
nearly two centuries, and in that long period the method he describes
of salt-making by the artificial evaporation of brine underwent no
material change. But from the last half of the seventeenth century,
various attempts were made to effect improvements in the open-pan
process in this country, and the history of these endeavours is
set forth in a sequence of interesting publications. Among the
most important of these is an article, which was printed in the
_Philosophical Transactions_ of the Royal Society of England, in 1669,
in which Dr. William Jackson, in the form of a catechism, gives a
number of particulars concerning the salt springs of Nantwich and the
ways of salt-making as practised in that town. It appears from this
account that each of the salt houses was still furnished with six
leads, but one learns that this number of leads had, in the case of
the majority of the salt-houses, been converted into four iron-pans,
rather more than 3 ft. square by about 6 in. deep, and containing the
same quantity of brine as was previously distributed among the six
leads; while still more recently the four pans had been again changed
into two larger pans, and some salt-makers had re-fashioned these two
receptacles into one great pan. The description which Dr. Jackson gives
of the process is so concise and lucid that it may be reproduced here
without the alteration of a word. The question that he propounds to
himself is--
“What is the manner of their (the salt-makers) work? or what time of
boiling the salt water? Whether they use any peculiar thing to make it
granulate, and, if so, what that is?”
In the course of his reply, he says: “They use for their fuel pitcoals
brought out of Staffordshire. These pans are set upon iron bars,
bricked in very close. They first fill their pans with brine out of
the pit: which comes to them in several wooden gutters: then they put
into their pans amongst the brine, a certain mixture, made of about
20 gallons of brine, and two quarts of calves’, cows’, and, chiefly,
sheep’s blood. Of this mixture they put about 2 quarts into a pan that
holds about 360 quarts of brine: this bloody brine at the first boiling
of the pan brings up a scum which they are careful to skim off: they
continue their fire as quick as they can till half the brine be wasted,
and this they call boiling upon the fresh. But when it is half boiled
away, they fill their pans again with new brine out of the ship (so
they call a great cistern by their pan sides, into which their brine
runs through the wooden gutters from the pump, that stands in the pit)
then they put into the pan two quarts of the mixture following: they
take a quart of white of eggs, beat them with as much brine, as before
was done with the blood; and thus that which they call the whites is
made. As soon as this is in, they boil sharply till the second scum
arise: then scum it off as before, and boil very gently till it corne;
to procure which, when part of the brine is wasted they put into each
pan of the size aforesaid, about a quarter of a pint of the best and
strongest ale they can get: this makes a momentary ebullition, which
is soon over, and then they abate their fires yet not so but that they
keep it boiling all over though gently: for the workmen say that if
they boil fast here, it wastes their salt. After all their leach brine
is in, they boil gently till a kind of scum comes on it like a thin
ice: which is the first appearance of the salt: then that sinks and the
brine everywhere gathers into cornes at the bottom to it, which they
gently rake together with their loots, this they continue till there is
but very little brine left in the pan: then with their loots they take
it up, the brine dropping from it, and throw it into their barrows,
which are cases made with flat cleft wickers, in the shape almost of a
sugar loaf, the bottom uppermost. When the barrow is full they let it
stand so for an hour and a half in the trough where it drains out all
the leach brine, then they remove it into their hothouse behind their
works made there by two tunnels under their pans, carried back for
that purpose. The leach brine that runs from the barrows they put into
the next boiling, for it is to their advantage being salt melted and
wanting only hardening.
“This work is performed in two hours in the smaller pans, which are
shallower, and generally boil their brine more away: wherefore their
salt will last better, though it does not granulate so well, because
when the brine is wasted, the fire and stirring breaks the cornes.
But this salt weighs heavier and melts not so soon: and therefore is
bought for many sales to a distance. But in the greater pans, which
are usually deeper, they are above half an hour longer in boiling;
but because they take their salt out of their brine, and only harden
it in their hothouse, it is apter to melt away in a moist air: yet of
this sort of salt the longer the grain is, the longer it endures: and
generally this is the better granulated and the clearer, though the
other be the whiter. And I think it is rather the taking of the salt
out of the brine before it is wasted, that causes the granulating of
it, than the ale, to which the workmen impute it.
“They never cover their pans at all, during the whole time of boiling.
They have their houses like barns open up to the thatch with a
cover-hole or two to vent the steam of the pans.”
[Illustration: THE GREAT CANAL-BURST AND LANDSLIP, OWING TO SUBSIDENCE
NEAR NORTHWICH, 21ST JULY, 1907]
On the subject of the supply and quality of the brine obtained at
Nantwich and Middlewich, Dr. Jackson explains that the springs are rich
or poor in a double sense, as a spring may be rich in salt but poor in
the quantity of brine it affords. Thus, the chief pit at Middlewich
contained a rich brine yielding a full fourth part of salt, but the
supply was so meagre that the inhabitants were “limited to their
proportions out of it,” and their requirements were made up out of
pits furnishing a weaker brine. The pit at Nantwich was so plentiful
as to supply all the salters, but while the brine contained only a
sixth part of salt, “such quick use of it extremely strengthens the
brine, perhaps to a degree little less than that of Middlewich pit.” In
support of this statement that freshly drawn brine is richer than the
liquor that has stood for some days in the pit, Dr. Jackson testified,
as the result of personal experiment, that “a quart of brine, when the
pit has been drawn off three or four days first, to supply five or
six wich-houses, has yielded an ounce and a half more of salt than at
another time, when it has had a rest of a week or thereabouts.”
In the Droitwich locality of Worcestershire, the quality of the
brine closely resembled that of the Cheshire salt springs. In the
account by Dr. Thomas Rastel, published in 1678 in the _Philosophical
Transactions_, the writer says: “In the great pit at Upwich, we have
at once three sorts of brine, which we call by the names of first-man,
middle-man, and last-man, these sorts being of different strengths. The
brine is drawn by a pump: that which is in the bottom is first pumped
out; which is that we call first-man, etc. A quart measure of this
brine weighs 29 ounces troy, but of distilled water only 24 ounces.
This brine yields about a fourth part of salt; so that four tons of
brine make about a ton of salt. The other two sorts less, or 28 ounces.
And the pit yields 450 bushels of salt per day. In the best pit at
Netherwich a quart of brine weighs 28 ounces and a half; this pit is 18
feet deep and 4 broad, and yields as much brine every 24 hours as makes
about 40 bushels of salt. The worst pit at Netherwich is of the same
breadth and depth as the former: a quart of brine out of which weighs
27 ounces and yields as much brine daily as makes about 30 bushels of
salt.”
Although Dr. Rastel’s account of the salt-making methods in use at
Droitwich coincides with that employed about the same period in
Cheshire, he explains one or two minor variants and the reason of their
adoption. “The vats we boil the brine in,” he writes, “are made of
lead, cast into a flat plate 5 feet and a half long and 3 feet over:
having the side and ends beaten up, and a little raised in the middle,
which are set upon brickwork called ovens, in which is a grate to make
the fire on, and an ash-hole which we call a trunk. In some seals are 6
of these pans, in some 5, some 4, some 3, some 2. In each of these pans
is boiled at a time as much brine as makes 3 pecks of white salt. For
clarifying the salt we should have little need, were it not for dust
accidentally falling into the brine. The brine of itself being so clear
that nothing can be clearer. For clarifying it, we use nothing but the
whites of eggs, of which we take a quarter of a white, and put it into
a gallon or two of brine, which being beaten with the hand, lathers
as if it were soap, a small quantity of which froth put into each vat
raises all the scum, the white of one egg clarifying 20 bushels of
salt, by which means our salt is as white as anything can be: neither
has it any ill savour, as that salt has that is clarified with blood.
For granulating it we use nothing at all, for the brine is so strong
of itself, that unless it be often stirred, it will make salt as large
grained as bay-salt. I have boiled brine to a candy height, and it has
produced clods of salt as clear as the clearest alum, like Isle of May
salt: so that we are necessitated to put a small quantity of rosin into
the brine, to make the grain of the salt small.”
“If it is asked why we use not iron pans as in Cheshire,” Dr. Rastel
concludes, “I answer there have been trials made of both forged iron
pans and cast iron. The former the strength of the brine so corrodes,
that it quickly wears them out, the latter the brine breaks.”
The first serious attempt to effect a real improvement in the making of
salt from brine was communicated to the Lords of the Admiralty in 1746
by Thomas Lowndes, and under the title of “BRINE SALT IMPROVED or the
Method of Making Salt from Brine, that shall be as good or better than
FRENCH BAY-SALT.” It was published in the same year in a handsomely
printed, block-type brochure of 40 pages by S. Austin, of Newgate
Street, Lowndes, who had spent his infancy in Middlewich and had
acquired in his youth a thorough acquaintance with the Cheshire manner
of salt-making, employed several years in travelling in France, during
which he studied the process employed in the making of salt by solar
evaporation from sea-water in the neighbourhood of Rochelle. At this
time the bay-salt of Rochelle was regarded by merchants, victuallers,
and fishermen as the best in Europe. He afterwards visited Holland for
the purpose of ascertaining why the Dutch white herrings were superior
to those cured in England, and he learned that the cause was explained
by the method employed by the Dutch in purifying their salt. Armed with
the knowledge he had acquired in France and Holland, and allowing for
the difference between the French, Dutch, and English brines, Lowndes
offered to enter into an agreement with the Admiralty to supply them
with a better article than the French bay-salt, made by the following
process--
“_Let a_ Cheshire _salt-pan_ (which commonly contains about eight
hundred gallons) _be filled with Brine, to within about an inch of the
top; then make and light the fire; and when the Brine is just lukewarm,
put in about an ounce of blood from the butcher’s, or the whites of two
eggs; let the pan boil with all possible violence; as the scum rises
take it off; when the fresh or watery part is pretty well decreased,
throw into the pan the third part of a pint of new ale, or that
quantity of bottoms of malt-drink; upon the Brine’s beginning to grain,
throw into it the quantity of a small nutmeg of fresh butter; and when
the liquor has sailed for about half an hour, that is, has produced a
good deal of Salt, draw the pan, in other words, take out the Salt._
By this time the fire will be greatly abated, and so will the heat
of the liquor. _Let no more fewel be thrown on the fire; but let the
Brine gently cool, till one can just bear to put one’s hand into it;
keep the Brine of that heat as near as possible; and when it has worked
for some time, and is beginning to grain, throw in the quantity of a
small nutmeg of fresh butter; and about two minutes after that, scatter
throughout the pan, as equally as may be, an ounce and three quarters
of clean common Allom pulverized very fine; and then instantly, with
the common iron-scrape-pan stir the Brine very briskly in every part of
the pan, for about a minute; then let the pan settle, and constantly
feed the fire, so that the Brine may never be quite scalding hot, nor
near so cold as lukewarm; let the pan stand working thus, for about
three days and nights, and then draw it._
“The Brine remaining will by this time be so cold, that it will not
work at all; _therefore fresh Coals must be thrown upon the fire, and
the Brine must boil for about half an hour, but not near so violently
as before the first drawing; then, with the usual instrument, take out
such Salt as is beginning to fall, (as they term it) and put it apart;
now let the pan settle and cool. When the Brine becomes no hotter, than
one can just bear to put ones hand into it, proceed in all respects
as before; only let the quantity of Allom not exceed an ounce and a
quarter. And in about eight and forty hours after draw the pan._”
This process, as will be seen, involved the use of much slower fires
than were usually employed in Cheshire, and allowed the liquor to
simmer instead of boiling for a longer period. For this purpose, Mr.
Lowndes proposed to use a large proportion of cinders in his furnaces,
“since long boiling with great fires not only deprives salt of its
spirit and strength, but causes its grain to become loose and soft,
since cinders are better than coals in preserving a constant, equal,
and gentle heat.” In order to correct the ill-effects suffered by the
salt through being made in an enclosed, intensely hot room, filled
with steam and smoke, he had recourse to the use of alum, which, he
claimed, would restore to the salt its “natural cubical shoot and give
it a proper hardness.” He further claimed that by this process the
hot-houses or drying-houses could be dispensed with, waste in carriage
would be avoided, and the pans would last three times as long; while,
in order to anticipate the inevitable objections of the salt-makers
and dispel the pretended difficulties that the workmen would find in
executing his directions, the inventor explained that he had been
careful to accommodate his process, as near as possible, “to the
present practice in Cheshire.”
At the request of the Admiralty, the College of Physicians conducted
several examinations of salt made by the Lowndes process, and reported
that it was “in all respects, a strong and pure salt, equal at least,
if not preferable to any we are acquainted with.” On the strength of
this testimonial, Mr. Lowndes applied to the Admiralty to allow him
a six months’ trial to prove the goodness of his salt for domestic
purposes, twelve months to prove its excellence for the purpose of
the Fishery of America, and two years in which to prove its efficacy
in preserving beef and pork for the Royal Navy. If in this series of
tests it should be proved that salt made by his process equalled French
bay-salt, he proposed that they should pay him a total sum of £7,000,
and should the trials demonstrate the slightest inferiority, he would
be content to make his country a present of his labours. When the
Admiralty declined to enter into negotiations with him, Mr. Lowndes
laid his scheme before the House of Commons, which petitioned the King
to instruct the Admiralty to make the tests on the inventor’s terms,
but the sudden death of Lowndes in 1748 closed the controversy.
But the determination to bring the art of salt-making to “greater
perfection” was not abandoned, although, as Dr. William Brownrigg
admitted, the success achieved by Thomas Lowndes was thought by
some people “to supersede the necessity of any further attempts for
improving or extending our salt manufacture.” Brownrigg commended
Lowndes’s method and testified to the purity and strength of his salt
which had been exhibited before the College of Physicians, but he
maintained that by other methods a purer and stronger salt might be
made at a less expense. In point of fact, Dr. Brownrigg’s objection
to the Lowndes’ method was that it was applied only to salt made from
brine, or a solution of English rock-salt often prepared with impure
water, and that the salt so produced, in his opinion, was inferior to
marine salt. Brownrigg, only half realizing Lowndes’s intention, would
appear to have grasped the fact that his process aimed at economy of
fuel combined with uniformity in the degree and distribution of heat,
but he does not seem to have appreciated the value of the improvement
anticipated therefrom.
It must by this time have become evident to scientific investigators
and practical salt-men that the solution of the problems of economical
manufacture and increased output lay in the application and regulation
of heat. Christopher Chrysel, of Leipsic, after fourteen years of
“great industry, much pains, and cost” spent in the practice and study
of salt-making in Cheshire, published the result of his labours in
1787. Chrysel claimed that by his method “with the least Fire and
Coal the most Salt can be made and the greatest Profit received such
as in no other way can possibly happen,” but curiously enough the
improvement for which he obtained a Royal Patent, was primarily based
upon a more advantageous arrangement of the brine pans, while the
improvement effected in the furnace was treated as a matter of only
subsidiary importance. Chrysel demonstrated his method at Bye Flat,
near Northwich, in Cheshire, in June, 1776. The experiment was carried
out in the presence of witnesses, the same pan was used in testing both
the old and the new methods, the same two salt-boilers were employed in
conducting both operations, and the amounts of fuel consumed and salt
produced were carefully weighed and attested. The results were recorded
in the following report furnished by the Liverpool Agent of Mr.
Richard Kent’s salt-works at Bye Flat--
[Illustration: A SALT STORE-SHED]
“In three ‘firings’ of 2 Furnaces under a salt pan set up on the old
plan ten years ago and constantly worked till the present time--24 feet
long: 15 feet broad and 12 inches deep--filled with Brine three times
in a half week, and boiled down each time in 24 hours and the salt
drawn out there was burnt 5½ tons of Coal and made 7 tons 31 bushels,
or 155½ cwts. of salt.
“After the experiment the Patentee, Mr. Christopher Chrysel, set up
the same pan on his improved Patent Method, and then in three similar
firings in half a week as before there was only burnt 3 tons 5 cwt. of
coal and made 8 tons 2 cwts. or 162 cwts. of salt=2 tons 10 cwts. of
salt per ton of fuel.”
Chrysel says in his treatise that the pan mentioned in his
experiments--24 ft. long, 15 ft. broad, and 12 in. deep--will be
regarded by his German readers as of phenomenal bigness, but he
explains that in England it is looked upon as only a medium-sized
receptacle. The pans in use in Cheshire at this period were of various
sizes, but the tendency was to introduce pans of increasing dimensions.
“Indeed I can with all truth say,” he writes, “that in England I have
seen with my own eyes, pans two, three and four times as big (as the
one he used at Bye Flat) and have measured them with my own hands, and
have proved each one designedly and have seen and marked and become
persuaded that from large salt pans the greater advantage and the most
noted cheapness in the manufacture of salt depend and proceed.”
In the course of his experiments with pans of all sizes, he proved that
in a small pan, 8 ft. square and 9 in. deep, heated with one furnace,
he obtained in five weeks a clear profit of £35 15s. 2d., while in
one pan, compounded out of five of the small pans, and heated with two
furnaces, the profit of one week’s working was £42 15s. 5d., or a net
additional profit of £7 0s. 3d., and the saving of four weeks in time
and labour.
He further experimented with three of the largest pans for one week,
with the following results--
“The first--36 by 25 feet and 13 inches deep holding 975 cubic feet of
Brine--burnt in 3 Furnaces in one week 12 tons of coal and made 32 tons
2 cwts. of salt.
“The second--40 by 27 ft. and 13 inches deep holding 1170 cubic feet of
brine--burnt in 3 Furnaces in a week 15 tons 18 cwts. of coal and made
34½ tons of salt.
“The third--52 by 26 feet and 13 inches deep holding 1464 cubic feet
of Brine--burnt in 4 Furnaces in one week, 24 tons of coal and made 62
tons of salt.”
Chrysel is himself amazed that pans containing 360, 900, and even 1,400
cubic feet of brine can be boiled into salt in the same space of time,
and he is feign to admit that “up to now, nobody, to my knowledge,
has proved what length, breadth, and depth of pan is calculated to
make the most salt with the least consumption of coal. Consequently
everywhere are to be found many different pans, and other varieties are
continually being tested. And I myself cannot feel that I am capable
of deciding the question, nevertheless I will, from my experience and
conscientious conviction, say what I consider is the best, cheapest,
and most reliable pan for this purpose.”
After long search, and close inquiry in numerous salt-works, and as
the result of his study of salt-making in pans of every size, Chrysel
came to the conclusion that a single pan--“26 feet long, 18 feet
broad, and 12 inches deep, with two furnaces, in a roomy salt-works
with sufficient room for the workmen and baskets on both sides of the
pan”--was to be preferred to all others. But this considered judgment
was amended after further application to the problem by advocating
an increase in length without changing the breadth of the pan. His
ultimate verdict was in favour of a pan 52 ft. long, 18 ft. broad,
and 1 ft. deep, with a capacity of 936 cubic feet of brine, equipped
with two furnaces, and he declared that this pan, producing about 638
cwt. of salt per week, at a cost of £10 5s. 6d. for fuel, and selling
for £127 15s. 6d., and giving a profit of £117 10s. was “the perfect
article.”
Although, as I have pointed out, Chrysel’s patent was principally
concerned with the arrangement of the brine pans, which were so
arranged as to obtain the maximum amount of heat from the fuel consumed
in the furnaces, in the course of his experiments he evolved an
improved, if by no means a perfect, furnace. The peculiar nature of
the superiority effected was based on the common knowledge that it is
the natural tendency of fire heat and smoke to escape into the open
air and disappear. He proceeds: “If, however, they are confined and
shut up in a furnace under a salt pan they still require an opening to
escape to the chimney else the fire cannot burn and is extinguished.
If however the opening and place of exit into the draughts and chimney
is too large and wide, as it is generally, and particularly under salt
pans, not only will the draught of Air cause Wood and Coal to be more
rapidly consumed and changed into Ashes which will choke the fire but
also the fireheat and smoke will, by the draught of the air, hasten
into the draughts and chimney, and the bottom of the pan will hardly be
touched and scarcely half the work be done. On the contrary, if the
opening and exit into the draughts and chimney has a proper proportion,
according to the different sizes of the Pans and to the requisite Fire
in the Furnace under the pan, the Fireheat and Smoke will be longer
contained under the pan and that, steadily coming from the Furnace,
will be increased and strengthened, so that double work under the pan
will result, and wood or coal will not so rapidly be burnt to ashes but
last longer and consequently do more work. All that is required in this
is to calculate the mathematical proportion between the different sizes
of the pans, the Furnace and the Fires and between the opening and Exit
into the draughts and chimney, and to apply it.”
It will be recognized that both Lowndes and Chrysel were on the way
to the solution of the problem of the perfect salt-making plant when
they devoted themselves to the improvement of the furnace, but another
century and a half was to elapse before the secret that eluded their
efforts should be revealed. The luckless Furnival, some fifty years
later than Chrysel, approached nearly to the goal to which they were
all striving, and he, in common with his forerunners, had his share
of the savage jealousy and persecution that the salt-men have ever
visited upon those who venture into the lists with them. “No malice
has been wanting to bring a disreputation upon my salt; and every
wicked art will be practised to render its virtues ineffectual. The
Salt Commissioners are my avowed enemies; for the miscarrying of my
attempts will be their gain.” Thus wrote poor Lowndes, and Chrysel had
similar grounds for complaint. “Before the above proof (the result of
his experiment at Bye Fleet) was made openly, nobody believed in the
anticipated saving,” he says, “but everybody doubted and some declared
it to be impossible. After, however, the thing was made known,
everybody on the contrary was in a state of wonderment. In a short time
wonder was changed into envy, ill-will and malice, and many attempts
were made to suppress me and destroy my patent, although it was not
possible for any one to point out any failures or errors.” We shall see
presently how the salt-men dealt with their successor, William Furnival.
Henry Holland, writing in 1808 on “The Production of Salt Brine,”
furnishes some reliable details concerning the manufacture of
brine-salt as it was conducted in Cheshire at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. According to this authority: “The pans used in
Cheshire, for the evaporating of the brine, are now made of wrought
iron. The dimensions of these vary very much; but, in general, those
of modern erection are considerably larger than what were in use a few
years ago; and they usually contain from 600 to 800 superficial feet.
One or two pans of still larger dimensions have been erected, each
containing nearly 1,000 feet. Their usual form is that of an oblong
square, and their depth from 12 to 16 inches. To a pan containing 600
to 800 superficial feet, there are usually three furnaces, from six
and a half to seven feet long, and 20 to 24 inches wide. The grates
are from two and a half to three feet from the bottom of the pan. The
furnace-doors are single, and there are no doors to the ash-pits.
“The different pans are usually partitioned out from each other, and
there is a separate pan-house to each pan. Within this pan-house, at
one end is the coal-hole; the chimney occupies the other end, there
is a walk along the two remaining sides of the pan, five or six feet
wide; and between these walks and the sides of the pan-house, which
are generally of wood, long benches four or five feet wide, are fixed,
on which the salt is placed in conical baskets to drain after it has
been taken out of the pan; a wooden or slated roof is placed over the
pan-house, with louvres to allow the steam to pass freely out.
“The manufacture is conducted in several different ways, or rather
heat is applied in various degrees, to effect the evaporation of the
water of solution; and according to these different degrees of heat,
the product is the stoved or lump salt; common salt; the large grained
flaky; and large grained or fishery salt.”
In the making of stoved salt, the brine was brought to a boiling
heat--which in brine fully saturated is 226 degrees of Fahrenheit--and
the pan was twice filled in the course of twenty-four hours. In the
making of common salt, the brine was first brought to boiling heat,
for the double purpose of expediting saturation and clearing the brine
of any earthy contents, and then, moderating the fires, the process
of crystallization was completed with the brine heated to 160 or 170
degrees of Fahrenheit. The pan in which common salt was made was filled
only once in twenty-four hours. The large grained, flaky salt was made
with an evaporation conducted at the heat of 130 or 140 degrees, and
the pan was filled once in every forty-eight hours; while in the case
of fishery salt, the brine was brought to a heat of from 100 to 110
degrees of Fahrenheit, and five or six days were required to evaporate
the water of solution. In the course of these several processes,
various additions were often made to the brine, with the view of
promoting the separation of any earthy mixture, or the more ready
crystallization of the salt. These additions varied in different works,
and many of them seem to have been made from ill-founded prejudices
without any exact idea as to their probable effects. The principal
additions made at various times were acids, animal jelly and gluten,
vegetable mucilage, new or stale ale, wheat-flour, resin, butter, and
alum.
Holland believed that the addition of acids to the brine was an
innovation based upon the mistaken idea that the use of acid accounted
for the superiority of the Dutch salt, but at the time at which he
wrote the practice had been discontinued in Cheshire. Animal jelly
and gluten for clearing the brine and promoting the separation of the
earthy contents, were much used in preference to blood, which, while
excellent for the purpose when fresh, was difficult to procure in
sufficient quantity and to preserve from putrefaction. White of eggs,
glue, and jelly procured by boiling cows’ and calves’ feet, were also
found to answer perfectly well for the purpose of clarifying brine, but
the use of new or stale ale and beer grounds as a brine clarifier, had
been abandoned as inefficacious by Cheshire salt-men. Dr. Brownrigg
was of opinion that salt-boilers had little to plead in favour of the
addition of butter during the evaporation process, beyond immemorial
custom, but Holland considered the salt-makers had ample grounds for
their belief that butter assisted the granulation of the salt and made
the brine “work more kindly.” On the question of the addition of alum
opinions varied. Lowndes ascribed the superiority of his salt to the
use of alum, but Brownrigg declared that “the goodness of Mr. Lowndes’
salt does not seem to be owing to the alum with which it is mixed, but
may be attributed chiefly to the gentle heat used in the preparation.”
[Illustration: WITTON BROOK, NORTHWICH. SUBMERGED TRACT OF AGRICULTURAL
LAND]
Holland combated the general impression obtaining at the time, that
salt formed from the same brine varied by the application of different
degrees of heat, not only in external appearance but also in quality,
and the equally prevalent idea that salt formed from natural brine
was inferior in its power of preserving animal flesh to bay-salt. He
proved by quotation and experiment that such prejudices were entirely
unfounded, and proceeded to show that the action of bay-salt is exactly
similar to that of the large-grained salt, and that neither variety
has any advantage over the salt prepared by a boiling heat except
in the size and compactness of its crystals and in its containing a
somewhat smaller proportion of the water of crystallization; and as
the large-grained fishery salt is more than equal to the bay salt in
these important points, it at least equals the latter in its power of
preserving animal flesh or provisions.
The first person who introduced steam heat into the manufacture of
salt, and, in so doing, anticipated the revolutionary improvements
which were achieved some three-quarters of a century later by the
Vacuum System and the Hodgkinson Patent Salt-Making Process, was
William Furnival. For our knowledge of the intentions and achievements
of this bold and persevering innovator we have to rely almost entirely
upon his “Statement of Facts, Humbley and Respectfully submitted to
the Consideration of His Majesty, His Majesty’s Ministers, and Both
Houses of Parliament.” In this document we have a story of oppression,
conspiracy, and persecution which the author describes as “unparalleled
in free England,” and since his narration of the treatment he endured
has never been refuted, we must conclude that the gist of what he
writes is substantially true. It is to be regretted that in this
only available account of his activities, Furnival is so intent upon
exposing the wrongs to which he had been subjected that he omits to
furnish us with a detailed description of his process. We know that in
1823 Furnival erected works at Droitwich and commenced making salt,
and we have his assurance that his patent answered every expectation
he had formed of it. Moreover, its working was investigated by Messrs.
S. Fowler, Fardon & Co., who, on 17th April, 1824, certified that
the advantages of the Furnival method over all existing processes,
consisted--
“Firstly.--In the saving of fuel which may be stated at about one-half.
“Secondly.--In the production of twice the quantity of salt, as usually
made in vessels of the same size, in a given space of time.
“Thirdly.--In the superior quality of the salt, arising out of the
regular distribution of heat to the bottom of the brine pan.”
In April, 1825, Furnival disposed of his salt property at Anderton,
and three years later, to a month, he bought property at Marston for
£1,550. On this ground he erected works covering an area of about
twelve acres, and installed some three miles of pannage at a cost of
upwards of £135,000, capable of producing some 130,000 tons of salt per
annum. He subsequently bought and started to erect works intended, when
finished, to occupy nearly six acres of ground at Marston. He asserted
that these Wharton and Marston properties were the only two in the
kingdom possessing the peculiar advantages of inexhaustible supplies
of fully saturated brine and dry rock-salt on the same premises, and
he claimed that he could not only deliver rock-salt at fully 25 to 30
per cent. less than any other mine in the country, but, further, that
the salt made on his principle was admitted to be superior in quality,
owing to the regular distribution of heat, by which more uniform and
superior crystals were produced. In the autumn of 1829, he opened
negotiations in two separate quarters to lease on royalty certain
portions of his salt-works at Wharton, and two committees, each
consisting of three men, were appointed by the prospective tenants to
investigate the system. On 22nd August, 1829, the two committees drew
up a joint report, from which I extract the following--
“The first committee entered upon the investigation on the 15th August,
1829; remained on duty eight hours; was then relieved by the second
for the like period, and so continued the investigation, alternately
superintending the weighing and delivery of the coals and salt, and
taking note of the temperatures every hour.
“The following is the result of working for 162 hours, a steam boiler,
constantly fed with brine, the specific gravity from 23 to 25·100ths.
Length of the boiler, 20 ft.; width, 8 ft.
A triangular flue pan, 80 ft.; width, 8 ft.
A triangular steam pan, 101·6 in.; width, 8 ft.
forming a surface of 1,612 superficial ft. of brine.
The quantity of coal consumed was 8½ tons.
The quantity of fine salt produced was 356 cwt.
Ditto of common and fishery 404 „
--------
Making 760 cwt.
========
“Being a product of four and a half tons of salt for every ton of coals
consumed.”
It will be convenient here to explain what became of these several
Furnival properties, and then describe very briefly the stages which
led to the inventor’s incarceration in Horsemonger Lane Gaol and
caused him to address his Statement of Facts to the Government. In
April, 1825, he sold his works at Anderton to the British Rock and
Salt Company, which continued to ship salt until 1829. The Marston
property appears to have been worked until 1847. The Wharton works
were managed by Trustees until 1839, when they were taken over by the
National Patent Salt Company, which became one of the most important
firms in the Winsford trade. In 1875, Justice Manisty, the surviving
leaseholder, transferred his interests to Stubbs Brothers, who, in
1888, disposed of the business to the Salt Union.
Furnival had no sooner established himself as a salt-maker at Anderton
than the old salt proprietors, “who had contrived in the past to ruin
all, or any one who should dare to enter the lists against them,”
became seriously alarmed at the apparent magnitude of his plans and
the great improvements which threatened both their exorbitant profits
and their hitherto unchallenged monopoly. Furnival, to employ a
colloquialism, proceeded to “back himself both ways.” Having more than
once proved his strength by breaking up “the Coalition” (which the old
proprietors had formed to regulate the output and price of salt), and
bringing down the price of common salt from 20s. to 8s. per ton, he
offered to erect his patent apparatus at his own cost and risk on the
works of his wealthy rivals, and to allow them two-thirds of the saving
effected by its application. According to Furnival’s unsupported but
uncontradicted account, they ridiculed his offer, declaring that they
wanted none of his patents, that they could command their own profits
in defiance of him, and that they would never sanction any improvements
or innovations in the trade.
Furnival, who had secured patents for France and the Netherlands,
thereafter gave his English competitors a rest and proceeded to erect
salt-works at Rotterdam and Ghent capable of taking nearly 60,000
tons of rock salt annually from the British market. But the English
salt refiners prompted their Dutch and Belgian _confrères_ to bring
official discredit upon the enterprise, and Furnival and his partner
were compelled to abandon their works, which had cost them £13,000 to
erect, and to forgo the £33,000 they were to have received for their
patent rights.
Furnival returned to England and set up his salt-works at Wharton,
where he “produced some of the finest rock-salt in the kingdom.” The
old proprietors decided that no sacrifice was too great that would
have the effect of crushing this competitor. They lowered the price of
rock-salt 50 per cent., and kept manufactured salt so low that every
establishment was worked at a loss. A meeting of proprietors, convened
to consider the situation, resolved that while “they deeply lamented
the low price of salt, they considered, at the same time, that it would
not be prudent to raise the price until Mr. Furnival was disposed of.”
The salt manufacturers admitted, in a circular published in 1829, that
this cutting-out operation had, in four and a half years, involved the
trade in a loss of £282,194 14s., but it had the effect of frightening
away Furnival’s financial supporters, and landed him in further
misfortunes.
[Illustration: WORKING IN DANGEROUS GROUND AFTER SUBSIDENCE, DUNKIRK
LAKE, NORTHWICH]
In 1826, Furnival had entered into a contract with a Peter Bouvain
to erect a salt-works in the Isle of Rhé, but the month that was
required to prove the capabilities of the patent plant was sufficient
to demonstrate the commercial worthlessness of the Frenchman, and
Furnival cut his loss and returned to England. Bouvain brought a
claim against him for the loss of prospective profits and obtained a
judgment for £8,000, against which Furnival appealed to the Court of
Cassation in Paris. Before the case was heard, Furnival was inveigled
to the Netherlands by a forged invitation, purporting to come from a
wealthy Belgian salt-refiner, driven over the frontier, arrested in
France at the suit of Bouvain, and thrown into gaol. Finding that
legal redress was unobtainable, Furnival escaped from prison after four
months’ incarceration, and in January, 1830, was again in Cheshire.
He was engaged in a bitter and protracted altercation with his two
sets of tenants in the Wharton salt-works in August, 1832, when he
was arrested for the non-payment of his debt of £8,180 to Bouvain,
and lodged in Horsemonger Lane Gaol. In January, 1833, he brought
an action for perjury against Bouvain, who fled to France to escape
the warrant that was issued for his arrest, but this moral victory
brought Furnival neither release nor amelioration of his lot, and he
found himself “foully and unjustly charged by a band of conspirators,
defeated in every attempt to obtain justice, and left without a hope
or prospect of being able to vindicate himself, or extricate himself
from a confinement more close than that awarded to a felon.” The end
of Furnival need not occupy us; he came into the salt trade in 1822
with a sufficiency of financial backing, an unusual stock of confidence
and energy, and a patent which “created a sensation through the whole
salt trade”; we take our leave of him eleven years later in a debtors’
gaol--a victim to the methods which the Cheshire salt proprietors
invariably adopted in ridding themselves of an obtrusive competitor.