Note 179 — Chapter VII · Third Week at Great Salt Lake City.—Excursions.
Reading edition
“One hundred parts by weight were,” says Dr. Gale, “evaporated to dryness in a water-bath below the boiling-point, and then heated to about 300° of the thermometer, and retained at that heat till the mass ceased to lose any weight. It gave solid contents 22·422 (?), and consisted of
Chloride of sodium (common salt) 20·196 - In the Abbé Domenech’s work the analysis is taken from Col. Frémont: thus— - Chloride of sodium 97·80
Chloride of calcium 0·61
Sulphate of soda 1·834 Chloride of magnesium 0·24
Chloride of magnesium 0·252 Sulphate of soda 0·23
Chloride of calcium a trace Sulphate of lime 1·12
Total 22·282 (?)” Total 100·00
The waters of the Dead Sea give solid contents 24·580, and consist of
Chloride of sodium 10·360
Chloride of calcium 3·920
Chloride of magnesium 10·246
Sulphate of soda ·054
Total 24·580
The strongest natural brine in the United States, according to Professor Beck, is that of the Syracuse Saline, New York, which contains 17·35 per cent. of chloride of sodium.
[180] “The salt water” (it is elsewhere called “one of the purest and most concentrated brines known in the world”) “yields about 20 per cent. of pure common salt, and about 2 per cent. of foreign salts; most of the objectionable parts of which are the chloride of lime and the chloride of magnesia, both of which, being very deliquescent, attract moisture from the damp atmosphere, which has the effect to moisten and partially dissolve the common salt, and then, when the mass is exposed to dry air or heat, or both, a hard crust is formed. I believe I have found a remedy for the caking, which is cheap and easily used. It consists in sprinkling over the salt obtained by the evaporation of the water, and heaped up in a bin or box containing a porous bottom of blankets or other like material, a cold solution of the salt as it is concentrated from the lake till crystals begin to be deposited. This concentrated brine, while it will dissolve none of the common salt, will dissolve all the chlorides of calcium and magnesium, and carry them down through the porous bottom, and thus leave the salt purer and better than any now found in our markets. For persons who are obliged to prepare temporarily the salt, as travelers passing through the country, the water of the lake, without concentration, may be used for washing out the deliquescent chlorides, sprinkling the heap of salt by a watering-pot at intervals of two or three hours during a single day, and allowing it to drain and dry at night, and be spread to the sun an hour or two the following morning.”
[181] “The Physical Geography of the Sea” (by Captain Maury), chap. ix., § 502, quoted from “Youmans’ Chemistry.”