THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



Scotland, and in some of the islands of the
sea. Now it is manufactured from common
salt-which is hydrochlorate of soda-and nu-
merous immense establishments in Great Brit-
ain yield it in unlimited quantities, and at the
comparatively trifling cost of some £4 per ton.
  The improvements of lWte years consist in
greatly increased facilities for the saving of
almost everything of the least value, which
either already exists in the materials employed
or which may be the result of chemical action
and re-action.
  A visit to some of the great nkanufactories
where salts of soda are manufactured afforded
us an excellent opportunity to prove the cor-
rectness of this statement  One of these oe-
cupied no le"s than :11 acres of ground. atd
one thousand to fifteen hundred hands, turning
ou! an incredible number of products-here
glauber salts, there hydrochloric acid: here
sal soda. there chloride of lime: here hicar-
bonate of soda or saleratus, there iron or cop-
per for castings !-and yet leaving. aftler all.
an amount of refuse which had already aectt-
mulated in the neighboring open tields in
quantities almost tmtontainots.  Who knows
but that, in the rtether progress of chemical
science, this, too. still become a mine of ftbu-
lous wealth to samt fortunate manufacturer?
At present the fllowing raw materials are ne-
cessary to the production of A single ton of
soda ash:-l tons of pyrites.. 1 tons of salt,
I tons of limestone. I cwt. nitrate of soda,
3J tons of fuel.  Formerly, and but a few
years since, so mnich of all this was lost in the
process of manufacture that the price of car-
bonate of soda was £60 ($30)) per ton.
  Sodium itself-the pure metallic base of so-
da, and a beautiful silver-white body. so light
and so inflammable that it will float and kin-
dle into a blaze upon water-though within
our recollection as high as two dollars an ounce,
is now manufactured on a large scale, and sold
at a few pence per pound.
  This greyish powder here, marked Chloride
of Lime, is a very simple looking substance,
and will attract but little attention from the



one of the most potent and valuable chemical
agents within the vast area of the Exhibition
Palace.  Think of what it has done for the
cotton manufacturer-that most important
branch of the manufacturing industry of the
greatest manufacturing nations of the world!
-of the innumerable millions of yards of
brown, dirty looking muslin it is annually con-
verting into the handsomest cotton fabrics, of
an immaculate whiteness! True, we have the
rain and sunshine and dew, with all their clev-
er bleaching powers, just as then, but who
wants to wait six months for a result which
chemistry can accomplish for us in just a few
hours? And more unanswerable yet, where
would little, sea-girt England, with her thou-
sandi cities. standing so thick in all their soot-
iness, find meadow enough whereon to spread
the thousands of miles of such muslin required
to supply the craving markets of the more and
ttioe exacting and It'stidious worlds More-
over this chloride of lime is also a deodorizer
and disinfectant-ridding the atmosphere of
hl.)spitals and private abodes of noxious smells,
attl. as some believe, neutralizing a thousand
fatal poi-ons which float therein.  If it could
only neutralize the virus of bad principles and
rid the great American ilepublic of the bad
(lop of the Rebellion
  Ilere, too, are numberle:s riTe allic salts and
othet chemicals-useful and beautifttl products
of the wsonderful chemic art: as also a host of
other highly interestingbodies, such as Iodine,
with its train of iodides, applicable in the
strange and beautiful processes of sun-paint-
ing: Phosphorus, that most irritableand fierce
of all the elements, with its numerous family
ot phosphates, and a fair show of lucifer
matches, so ready to kindle at a touch, and
yet patient to wait until wanted. But we have
no time for all these, and so must admire and
pass on.
  But here we come to a group of
     ARMARKADLu raoDrcTS FROM COAL.
  Tar, pitch, naptha, napthaline, napthalmine,
para-napthaline, nitro-napthaline, bensole, ni-
tro-benrole, creosote, paraffine, carbolic said,



unseientile observer; but it is, nevertheless.] picric acid, analine, and
a multitude of new



60



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, _



unsoientille observer; but it is, nevertheless.



picric acid. analine, and a multitude of new