A SALT TOWN.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 55, 15 August 1877, Page 2

A SALT TOWN.

[ There is a little, town, in Worcester* . shire— Stoke, by name— in which every ■ single inhabitant, without exception, is employed, either directly or indirectly, in the production of. one single artiple— . salt. Here are some 25 acres of ground [ covered with brick-work, warehouses, workshops and dwellings for workmen, and, peopled by about 800, operatives with their wives and. families. The whole of this little' salt town is the property of Mr Oorbett, who has expended half a million of money on the work. He has built neat and pretty cottages, in which the workmen and their wives and families are comfortably lodged, and. has. erected large and. convenient schools for. boys and girls and infants, and pays the stipend of a clergyman of the Church of. England, who conducts both Sunday and reek-day services, and ministers to, the. spiritual needs of his flpck. The Worcester salt works can boast of high antiquity. Tbo

brine springs in tbis Ideality were certainly known to tbe Romans, and it is probable tboy had been discovered in even earlier times by tbo ancient Britons. The brine is pumped up wells from 500 to 600 feet deep into a large reservoir, and it thenc* conducted by pipes into monstrous pans heated by stoves underneath. In these the brine is boiled, and as the water is ovaporated the salt comes to the top in flakes and then falls to the bottom of the pans. When all tbe salt in the brine has thus been deposited, it is rated out from " the bottom of the pan and conveyed in small waggons to the warehouse, whore it is " tipped " out on the floor, and lies heaped up on either side in banks to the amount of many thousand tons. Salt for table use is moulded into blocks,- which is done by pressing it into oblong " tubs ■'•*■■ with perforated bottoms for drainage. When all the moisture is pressed out the blocks are taken out and carried to a •'drying room," heated by stoves to a<. very high temperature The differences ia the quality of the salt are only difference* tn the size of the crystal, which are the result of the quicker or slower temperature at which the brine is evaporated. At Stoke works a superior quality of salt is. made remarkable for fineness and hard* ness, by a process which, is patented hy^ the proprietor. The brine is boiled ia circular pans, which are closely covered with lids to confine the steam, and are 3 fitted with rakes which are worked with 3 machinery and keep the brine continually in motion. At Stoke they build their » own vans (the railway company refusing 9 the uso of theirs for the conveyance of f this material) and the proprietor has no 1 fewer than 5.00. of these built on the pre--3 raises and in constant use. Sidings from a thera\lwiy line run alongside the ware-, houses, and thus the salt c,an be packed in * vans on the spot where, it is made. About 2500} tons weekly are sent a,way fromth.e, p works for distribution all over the cojm. I try.