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