A GOOD OLD INDUSTRY..

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 17 March 1927, Page 3

A GOOD OLD INDUSTRY..

PRIMITIVE BUT EFFECTIVE WOllKING. Ouce Upou a tiiDe^ when Itonie ruled over Britain witli iron Land, when wcl^es roanied in tlie f'orest, and tlie fea-fog, breeder of ague and fevers, j hung perpetually over the lov-l.ving undrained marsli-lands of the Essex .sbove, Cassins PetroXj a eommander of a legion was stationed at ihe Homan town of Maldon. writes 'W. E. WigfuFl in "Tlie Graphie." lnasmueh ns iie came from sunnier climes, he suffered greatly in all liis joints throngh the dank and chilly air 0f that district. ToO' far from the .curative waters oi" Bath, lie bethonght himself of taking baths of ^ warm sea water, whieh he eansed his slaves to prepare for liini. These he .fonnd of great service, and he invariablv resovted to them after strenuous days spent in inipr-essing the advantages of Roman civilisation on the wild and untutored Britan, hidden, with the wolves and other vermin in the deep recessesi of the woods. On one occasion it appeared that he was very late in xeturning to his quarters, where the worried slaves, in their auxiety to please, had for some houra been keeping the bath-water not xnerei?' • "°ihng, and were discovei«d by their master in the act of attempting to serape from the bottora of u- , a guantity of white crj'stals which (nnaccountably to them) had fornied there. Cassius recognised them as salt, and, owing possibly to a strain of I hoenician blood, at once grasped possibilities. The slaves were •t nraised instead of beaten, and were . qrdered to "earry on." Cassius tlien j pnt up samples in small bags, which he | de&patched. witli full instructions for j dissolvmg in fresh water to brother j ofncers at inljand stations. Repeat ^orders immediatelv followed; Cassius j/etired frorn hi.s command and devoted i ii/niself (and hi.s slaves) to the produc- j pon of pure sea-water salt, thus found- | Jng the business still carried on (ancl the only one in existence in England!) at Maldon, in Essex. And if that is not the true story of how the business was started, it may very likely have been so. and, anyway,-' there is no one in a position to contradict it. For its origins are lost in the mists of time. "It's allus been there'' ; but authentie history, in the shape of correspondence still preserved, takes it back cnly to the year 1705 — and that's quite a^ while ago. Local rumour has it that its founder thoiight it out as he lay in bed — whether with rheumatism • or no is not said. He had two ships built— " tankers" — io fetch the seawater up from helow Osea Island "where the eea was saltest" and , thereby circumvented the -troublesome : "freshes"— good^ times pf river-water that. mixing with the sea, so diluted | the latter that inany extra liourg -of j boiling was necessary to get any re- i sult at all. Now the sea-water is i trapped at the top of tbe flood tide I in a reservoir fhat holds a week's j supply, so that "freshes" can be i avoided. From the reservoir the water passes : through two filtering beds into the ! storage tanks as required. From i there pipes lead to the steel boiling ! pans — some twelve feet square by a i foot and a. liaif deep. These pans are I set in bfickwork, like old-fasliioned j "set pots,"" with the flues from the } furnaces (a furnace to eacli pan) lead- [ ing under the wbdle of the flat under- ' there pipes lead to the steel boiling I is grouped around the central hrick j chimney, and, like many old tliings, j has shown itself best adapted for the ! purpose intended. Around the fires j and found ation.s is brick ; the rest is j old timber worlt, black with age and cqnstant "pickling," and weatherboarded. A roof oi. tiles is ounningly. placed so that the sunlight streams in (and. more important, th© steam escapes1) through many Interstices. It | takes two Iio-urs to bring the pan to i boiling point, and then for fiv© o-r six hours tney are kept simmering. Impurities rise to the surface and are skimmed off with a ladl'e. The salt falls to the bottom in transparenfc crystals that are perfect hollow pyramids of paper-like thickness, and of anything to an inch on more square. 9 Scooped out hy, naeans of a flat wood- > en rake, they are transfeiwed to drain- j ing boxes, where th© crystals "rough j dry." Then to the storage bins. Sait ] for every purpose is made — table salt, 3 cooking salts, and salis for the butcher, | th© baker, and the bath..; I

March1 and Deceraber of last year were the driest ever known in London. Novem'bei was the wettest on record, while February was the warmest since 1869. The counicil of a city in India has prohibited the killing of mad dogs, on the .ground that they are the same as human lunatics .and must he put in asylumns.