Page:Essays Upon The Making Of Salt-Petre And Gun-Powder.pdf/35

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tity was about three gallons, which we put into a kettle, and boiled to about three quarts. Third. We took a little wooden keg, bored an hole, as in the former ones, stopt it with a cork, and covered the bottom of the tub with cut straw to about three or four inches, on which we put about the same depth of wood, ashes, and gently poured thereon the hot liquor, so as to not make holes in the ashes; after letting it stand a few minutes to settle, we drew it off (throwing it up again till it run clear) when it ceased running, we put on about a quart of cold water to drive out the lye which the ashes had sucked up. Fourth. We boiled this second boiling to about a pint and a half, then poured it gently off into a bason, leaving the scum and sediment behind; after it has stood about a quarter of an hour to settle, we again poured it into earthen soup plates, set them in a cool place till next morning, at which time the sides and bottoms of the plates were beautifully covered with crystals of Salt-petre sprung up like large blades of grass, being in quantity about a quarter of a pound.


Second Experiment.

As we judged we had not all the Salt-petre from the earth in the tubs, we poured there on, that is on the earth, some boiling water; on Monday drew it off, and proceeded with it as before; on Tuesday morning it produced a larger quantity of Salt-petre than in the former experiment, and about two ounces of common salt.N.B. The