bottom forming a kind of prismatical depression, 3 feet deep in the
centre line. An ashpit, 3 feet deep, is then excavated, starting from
the front wall, and extending about 4 feet into this depression at its
deepest place; it communicates with the outside by a channel sloping
gradually upwards, and passing underneath the front wall. The ashpit is
covered by a clay vault, with holes in its sides, so as to establish a
communication between the ashpit and the hollow space under the pan.
This vault is used as a fire grate, the fuel (brown coal and small wood)
being inserted by the fire-door in the front wall. The air-draught
necessary for burning the fuel enters partly by the fire-door, partly
through the ashpit and the openings left in the vaulted grate. Through
these same openings the ashes and cinders are from time to time pushed
down into the ashpit, for which purpose small openings are left in the
side-wall of the furnace, through which the rakes may be introduced. A
passage in the back wall supporting the pan leads off the products of
combustion and the hot air into a short flue, sloping upwards, and
ending in a short vertical chimney. At the lower part some iron kettles
are placed in the flue for the purpose of heating the lye before it is
ladled into the evaporating pan.
With reference to the pan, it is made in a way that requires a great
deal of skill and practice. In the first place, beams reaching from the
one side to the other are laid on the top of the furnace walls, and are
covered with wooden boards, forming a temporary floor. Two or three feet
above this floor a strong horizontal network of poles of wood sustains a
number of straw ropes, with iron hooks hanging down, and of such a
length that the hooks nearly touch the wooden floor. The floor is
thereupon covered with a mixture of clay and small stones, 4 to 5 inches
thick, the workman being careful to incrustate the iron hooks into this
material. It is allowed to dry gradually, and when considered
sufficiently hardened, the wooden beams and flooring are removed with
the necessary precautions. The bottom of the pan remains suspended by
means of the ropes. The open spaces left all round between the bottom
and the top of the furnace walls are then filled up, and the border of
the pan, 9 inches to 10 inches high, is made of a similar mixture. It is
said that this extraordinary construction lasts from 40 to 50 days when
well made, and that it can be filled 16 times in 24 hours, with an
average of 500 litres of concentrated lye at each filling; but the
quantity depends upon the weather, and is less in winter than in summer.
During the cold season one pan yields 140 litres (of salt) each time it
is filled, and in the hot season from 190 to 210 litres. The average
consumpt of fuel is said to be 1500 kilos. in 24 hours.
In Persia, near Ballakhan, salt is still made, and has been made from
time immemorial, in a very primitive way, which is described by Bellen,
in his description of his journey in 1872 from the Indus to the Tigris,
as follows:--
"For several miles our road led over a succession of salt pits and
ovens, and lying about we found several samples of the alimentary salt
prepared here from the soil. It was in fine white granules massed
together in the form of the earthen vessel in which the salt had been
evaporated. The process of collecting the salt is very rough and simple.
A conical pit or basin, 7 or 8 feet deep and about 12 feet in diameter
is dug, and around it are excavated a succession of smaller pits, each
about 2 feet diameter by 11/2 feet deep. On one side of the large pit
is a deep excavation, to which the descent from the pit is by a sloping
bank. In this excavation is a domed oven with a couple of fireplaces. At
a little distance off are the piles of earth scraped from the surface
and ready for treatment. And, lastly, circling round each pit is a small
water-cut led off from a larger stream running along the line of pits.
"Such is the machinery. The process is simply this:--A shovelful of
earth is taken from the heap and washed in the basins (a shovelful to
each) circling the pit.
"The liquor from these is, whilst yet turbid, run into the great central
pit, by breaking away a channel for it with the fingers. The channel is
then closed with a dab of clay, and a fresh lot of earth washed, and the
liquor run off as before; and so on till the pit is nearly full of
brine. This is allowed to stand till the liquor clears. It is then
ladled out into earthen jars, set on the fire and boiled to evaporation
successively, till the jar is filled with a cake of granular salt. The
jars are then broken, and the mass of salt (which retains its shape) is
ready for conveyance to market.
"Large quantities of this salt are used by the nomad population, and a
good deal is taken to Kandahar. The quantity turned out here must
annually be very great. The salt pits extend over at least ten miles of
the country we traversed, and we certainly saw some thousands of pits."
From what I have laid before you, it will be seen that I am strongly of
opinion that we must go far beyond the time of Geber or the Arabian
school for the origin of our science. The study of the question of its
antiquity leads up to such remote times that there is little probability
of any date being assigned to its beginning, and to some it may appear
but a waste of time to indulge in researches upon the subject; but it
has a fascination peculiar to itself, and, in addition, brings before
our minds so many phases in the philosophical thought of the world, that
it will no doubt long continue to exercise the minds and attract the
attention of chemists.
In the course of my own study of the subject, I have felt much
dissatisfied with the derivation of the name chemistry or alchemy, as it
is given in all works to which I have had access. It is said to be
derived from a word meaning dark, hidden, black, and from the ancient
name for Egypt, but to my own mind this is an unsatisfactory
explanation, and seeking for another more consonant with the character
of the science, I think I have found it in quite a different direction.
It is well known that in the old Hindoo philosophy there were recognized
five elementary bodies or rather types. These were Water, Fire, Ether,
Earth, and Air, and the system of Menu, of which the antiquity is
enormous, recognizes as the greatest conception of the universe--
1st, God.
2nd, Mind.
3rd, Consciousness.
4th, Matras.
5th, Elements.
(matras being the invisible types of the visible atoms which compose the
five elements previously named--viz., Water, Fire, Ether, Earth, and
Air).
Now, these elements, with the sun and moon, composed the attributes of
the dual deity Iswara and Isi, representing the male and female natural
powers, and, applying this to the famous Pythagorean triangle, we find
that the upright symbol or male, which was the number or power 3, when
combined with the female prostrate symbol, which was the number or power
4, gives a product in the Hypotenuse of 5, which is the number of the
typical elements of the oldest known Hindoo philosophy. It is also the
product of the first male and female numbers, and was anciently called
the number of the world--repeated anyhow by an odd multiple it always
reappears.
If now we consider chemistry as that science which has to deal with the
changes and combinations of the five elements, and if we call it--
_The science of the five parts or elements_, should we not, when we find
that the Arabic word for five is _khams_, rather refer the name of our
science to this word khams, and read it as
_Al-Khams_,
The five-part science?
I am inclined, however, to go yet a step further, and remembering that
the _fifth_ element or Ether of the most ancient Hindoo philosophy, was
in reality an expression for active force, or, that emanating from the
central sun caused the natural phenomena of attraction and repulsion,
the emission and refraction of light, and other sensible changes of
condition, would read the compound word
_Al-Khamis_
(The fifth),
as the grand and simple title of our ancient science, meaning
_The force_--
that which causes the changes in the elementary types and their
combinations--than which no more descriptive title could be assigned to
it, even in the present enlightened age.
* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
Errors and Anomalies
Apollonius Tyanaeus [_text reads "Appolonius"_]
Hercules and Bacchus (Dionysius) [_text reads "Dionsyius"_]
Ommiades ... Abassides [_standard spellings for this text_]
Ibn Osaibe's testimony [_text reads "Ibu"_]
body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid
[_spelling as in original, but elsewhere spelled "Haroun"_]
Xenophon in his Anabasis [_text reads "Zenophon"_]
Megasthenes [_text reads "Megesthenes"_]
the first of the Grecian philosophers [_text reads "philosphers"_]
the Hindoos believe in _fourteen Menus_
[_and six further occurrences of "Menu"_]
[_standard spelling in this text: correct form is "Manu"_]
Libyans in war chariots with four horses [_text reads "Lybians"_]
under the reign of Pharoah Necho [_spelling as in original_]
from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean [_text reads "Mediterreanean"_]
Jackson in his "Antiquities" tells us that, [_comma in original_]
Indra instructed Dahnwantari;
Dahnwantari is also styled Kasi-rajah
[_correct form is "Dhanwantari"_]