Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/670

 SAL

and that for a long Time. At Nantwich, they bake the Loaves twice, or thrice, in an Oven, and keep them in a Stove, or the Chimney-corner.

Salt from Srine raifed by the £tm.

In feme Parts of England, as at Ijmington, Tort-fea, &c. they u!c Water raifed by the Sun, and then boiled, which they find preferrable to the natural Brines of Springs; thole being always found either too weak, or too ftrong. To this End, they have feveral l'onds, or Citterns, called Sun-'Fonds, built with Mud, and well expofed to the Sun, with little Channels, to convey the Brine from them all to a large fhallow Relcrvoir, called the Common-Sun- 'Fan, not exceeding leven or eight Inches in Heighth. Here the Liquor is left to mellow, from twelve to twenty- four Hours, or till the Liquor will bear an Hen's Egg new laid ; and when it has attained a fufficient Strength, it is from thence derived by Channels into the Citterns, where the Rain and Sun breed Red Worms, which deanfe and purify the Liquor, which ripens by Age, and is ren- dered fitter for boiling, which is perform 'd after the lame Manner as is already defcribed.

Properties of S a l t.

The great Property of Salt is, that it is incapable of Corruption, and that it even preletves Meats, l$c. feafoned rherewith, or fteeped in Solutions thereof. It endures the Fire, and even comes out purified thereby, as being thereby freed of its Humidity. In very hot Fires it fufes, and is converted into corroiive Waters. It gives Fertility to Lands, and promotes the Fufion of all Metals; yet, we read of Princes, who, as a Mark of their Indignation, fowed Grounds with Salt to render them barren. "Plutarch obferves, That the Fgyftians believed Salt to be the Spittle, or Foam, of the Giant Tyfhon, the great Enemy of their Gods : And hence, adds he,

they held it in the greareft Horror Salt is found to

have two oppolite Qualities; By its fubtle, penetrating Acidity, it breaks and diflolves the hardeft and molt compact Minerals and Metals ; and by a contrary Pro- perty coagulates Liquid Bodies, as Milk, Blood, lie. Some of its Spirits, mixed in a certain Proportion with Water, produce an cxceffive Heat, yet, when mixed in a lefs Quantity augment its Coldnefs, as Salt-fetre in Snow, S$c, Though all Salts diflolve by Moilture, yet Water only diflolves, &c. a certain Quantity. However when impregnated with any Salt as much as it can bear, it will ftill diffolve a Quantity of another Salt, whole Particles are of different Figures, proper to infi- nuate into the remaining Vacuities of the Water; Thus, after Common-Salt will no longer diflolve in it, Alum will and after Alum, Salt-fetre, then Sal-Armoniac, &c.

Bay-Salt, J ~, ,.,.,„

Rock-Salt. 5 See the P receedln g Article Salt.

Salt of Steel, >tr»™».«» „„ i\/r —

Salt of Glafs, Salt of Saturn, Salt of Tin, Salt of Sulphur, Salt of 'Tartar, Vegetable Salt Soluble Tartar,

c *n

SAL

See

'Vitriol of Mars.

Glass.

Sascharum Saturni.

Tin.

Sulphur.

Tartar.

Tartar.

SALT-PETRE, called alCo Nitre, and by the Chyniifls Tlragon, Cerberus, and Salt of Hell, a Kind of Salt either natutal or fictitious ; of very great Ufe both in Chymi- cal Preparations, in the Compofition of Gun-powder, and in Dying, in the Glafs-Mauutacture, and in the making of Anna Fords for the Diffolution of Metals. Its minute Parts, or Cryltals, are in Form of Needles ; though lome will have them Triangular, as thole of Alum are Trian- gular, and thole of Common Salt Cubical. When perfefl: they are faid to be filtulous, or hollow, like Copula.

Of Natural Saltpetre there are two Kinds: The Firft formed by a natural Cryftallization of laline fulphurous Juices dittilling in Caverns, or along old Walls. This is what they call SaJt-petre of the Rocks ; the lame with the ■afhrmitre of the Ancients.

The Second Kind of Natural Salt-fetre is furniffted by ™e Water of a dead Lake in the Territory of Terrane '"Egypt, called the Nitrian Waters, exalted and con- cocted by the Heat of the Sun, much after the Manner of out Say-Salt. This is the Natrtim, or Anatrum of the ftncients, which our Druggifts call Natron ; now little /, ■} m the D,eac hing of Linnens. See Natrum.

Artificial or Factitious Salt-fetre, is alfo principally- of
 * "P Kinds. The firft, called, by fome, Mineral Saltpetre,

round 10 feveral Places in the Kingdom of 'J>egu, and

about Agra in Villages anciently populous, but now fTrfr; -alfo found in lome Places along the Banks of the miga .that famous River, which after watering a good Part oSMufiwy, empties itielf into the Caffian Sea. Ihe Natural Salt-fetre is drawn from three different kinos of Mineral Earths, Black, Yellow, and White. Die belt is that drawn from the Black, as being pureft from Common-Salt, and needing no purifying after it"come to us, to fit it for making of Gun.powder ; as the reft do. oee (jun Powder.

The Method of Working it is thus: Two flat Pits are dug; one of which they rill up with the Mineral Earth turning Water upon it for fbmeTime, and then treaditwith their teet into the Confidence of Pap, letting it Hand two Days for the Water to imbibe, and extract all the Salt therein. They then pafs the Water into another Pit, where Handing fome Time, it moots and cryliailizes into Salt-'Petre. This they boil once, or twice, as they would have it more or lefs white and pure, fcumming it con- tinually, and filling it out into Pots, holding 2 j or 30 Pounds each, and expofing thele to the Air in clear Nights; by which Means if there be any Impurity it finks to the Bottom : They then break the Pots, and dry the Salt in the Sun.

_ All the Salt-fetre we now have, M. Hombeig obfervesj is drawn either from Earths moiftened, ana manured with the Excrements of Animals, or from old Walls, and the Plaifter of ruin'd Buildings, which have been filled with fulphurous Matters as well from the Animals which inhabited them, as the Soot penetrating them, and the Air incompaffing them. See Salt. However, we ufuaily make a Divifion of Salt-feire into Natural and FaSitioas. _ The fecond Kind of Artificial or FaSitioas Sah-fetrej is that prepared from Nitrous Matters collefled in old Buildings, Dove-houfes, the Middle of ancient Ruins, fjc. by means of Lixiviums, or Lyes made of Wood Afh.es, and lometnnes ofthofe of Herbs. Of this there are great Quantities made in France, particularly in the Arfenal at "Paris, where there is a Corporation of Salt-fetre Makers appointed for the Purpofe. The Salt-fetre gained thus, they refine, by boiling it three or four times, and pafling it fucceffively through feveral Lyes.

Some Naturalifts prerend, that the Earths, which have already ierv'd for Salt fetre, may be reanimated, and made fit to ierve again, by keeping covered for Twelve or Fourteen Tears, and watering them with the Scum, fife, of the Salt-fetre, and even with Brine.

Good common Salt-'Petre Ihould be well clean'd, white, dry, and as free of Salt as poffible. The bed refined Salt-'Petre, is that whofe Cryltals are the longett, largeft, and fineft.

There are abundance of Chymical Preparations made with Salt-petre, as Spirit of Nitre. See Nitre: Aqua Regulis, Aquafortis, Cry fital- Mineral, Sal-fciychrejt, But- ter of Nitre, &c. each of which lee under its proper Article.

The Philoibphers generally allow the Air to be impreg- nated with a Volatile Nitre, or Salt-fetre, which is thence communicated to Plaifter, Mortar, ££?<;. ".('is probable it may derive it from Soot and Smoak, which are actually found to abound with Volatile Salt of a Nitrous Nature. Dew and Rain are fuppofed to fertilize the Ground prin- cipally by their bringing down this Nitre. See Air. _ Salt fetre has a Property of rarifying, or expandin" it- ielf to a prodigious Degree. 'Tis heiice Gun-powder°de- rives its Force, whereof Salt-fetre is the Principal In- gredient 'Tis computed, that when inflamed, it takes up above Ten Thoufand Times the Space it pofTeffed before. See Gun-Powder.

SALTIER, or Salteer, in Heraldry, aft Ordinary in Form of a St. Andrew's Crop; anciently called Crops of "Burgundy. See Cross. Its ordinary Breadth, when alone, is one Third of the Efcutcheon. 'Tis fbmetimes bore alaisc, and lometimcs in Number, placed in different Parts of the Field. Sometimes charged, countercharged with the Field, accompanied, engrailed, indented, quarterly- quartered, t£c. The Saltier was anciently a Piece of the Knight's Harnefs ; being fattened to the Saddle, and ferving him for a Stirrup to mount upon ; and 'twas hence it had its Name Saltier from the French Satitet, to leap. It was made of a Silk Cord, or of lome other Kind of Cord, covered with fome rich Stuff. Others will have it, that the original Saltier was a Kind of 'Palifade, ferving to fence Parks, Woods, gc. where wild Beafts were inclofed. Tho' Sfelmau fays, 'Twas an Inftrument for the taking them, thus called, Quod fit in tifu in Saltu. Laftly, others allure us, That Sal- tier was anciently the Figure of an Engine, which be- ing full of Pins, was ufed in the Scaling of the Walls

of