Page:Treatise on Soap Making.djvu/103

87 I shall here give an experiment, made with great precision, to ascertain with regard to the expence attending the making of white soap. The only materials used, of the alkali kind, was the second sort of American pot-ash, but of a quality very superior to what commonly is sold under that denomination.

I broke down pretty small a quarter cwt. of the above American pot; and, with a proportionate quantity of good lime-shells, mixed therewith, set them in a small yetlin cave. I added water just sufficient to saturate the mixture. In this state, having stood for about 12 or 14 hours, I let it run, and drew off 4 English gallons of ley, which I ascertained, by my hydrometer, to be 14½ strong. I filled up my cave with water, and continued the running slowly until I had 28 gallons more, of strength by hydrometer 18 strong. I then stopped up