History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 11

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840

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As to the source of the supply of these salt wells much speculation has existed Hon. Thomas Spen- cer, former Superintendent of the Salt Springs, in a letter to Hon. George Geddes, published in 1859, says : " We only know that we penetrate the earth in alluvial deposits at various points bordering upon

Onondaga Lake, to the depth of from one hundred to four hundred feet, and find the brine in a deposit of gravel resting upon a hard pan, (impervious to water,) which seems to form the floor or bottom of our salt basin. All beyoml this is mere conjecture. Eminent geologists, who have devoted much time to the investigation of this subject, have, I believe, uniformly arrived at the conclusion that the source from which our brine is derived is buried deep be- neath the mountains or hills south of us, and con- veyed to the points where we find it by subter- ranean currents of water which have passed through the saliterous material and dissolved it." This is the general opinion, bunt Mr. Spencer himself was of the belief that there is deposited immediately be- neath Onondaga Lake a solid mass of rock salt which is being gradually dissolved and flows to the points where we find our brine. He alludes to the analogy between these and the salt springs in the valley of the Holston, in Southwestern Virginia, and those in the valley of the Weaver, near Liver- pool, England, in both of which the brine is found m immediate contact with the salt rock. But his chief reason for adopting this theory is the peculiar formation of the shores and bottom of the lake, which is worthy of notice aside from any solution it may attord of this problem

On all sides from one-eighth to one fourth of a mile from the shores the water of the lake is quite shallow. At this distance there is uniformly a bold and precipitous bank where the water is trom fifteen to twenty feet deep. Beyond this the water deepens very gradually till you reach the center of the lake, which is about sixty feet deep. This precipitous bank at such a uniform distance from the shore, seemed to Mr. Spencer unaccountable unless it marks the outline of a bed of rock salt, which, as it is gradually dissolved, allows the loose and alluvial deposit above it to settle down, and in this way the abrupt bank is formed and preserved. Otherwise, the sediment which has been accumulating for ages would be deposited in a uniform manner from the shore to the center of the lake. Hon. George Geddes has given us from the soundings of this lake the following report :

" The toll wing staten ent h wa where the On indaga alt has found it market since 186"

14-5

1.4 ...

1.14

1.14 . 15

1. 13,1:5

4,15%

114.865

.141

1,655.2

1,44 7. 15

:. 4. 1,11

:, (4.120

:,5 7. 744

2.4 4.535

SI tr

1,1,2,35

1.572. 1

٢,٢٢٩٠/٠

1.44 .54 %

...

- 5,5.585

3.745,911

3.51". 41

م ٢٦٠١ ١

-. 4 .157

41 1

1,11-,115

(tcm v tentw -tlureg 14-5, there wa | | ped by way

1,4,2,471

1, 11, %1

c. Fut al .3. 3/4,38℃

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

At 500 feet from shore

6 3.5 feet depth

700

740

760

800

860

32.5

920

.39.5

In the middle of the lake. . 55

Opposite a point two miles from the east end of the lake, the water is sixty-five feet deep in the mid- dle. At Liverpool, three miles from the east end, the depth is fifty five feet, and many soundings prove this to be the general depth. Once away from the foot of the abrupt bank, and the bottom is so level that the deepest place exceeds the shallowest by only ten feet, and this depression is approached very gradually. Ten or fifteen feet of the bottom of this lake is marl, which has been precipitated from the water, and this marl lies on sand and clay with some strata of gravel. Every boring that has been made within this basin gives this general result, the only variations being in the thickness of the several strata, not in their character. The well near the road that crosses the beach at the head of the lake was intended to be the middle of the valley. The tube was sunk 414 feet through the following strata :

White and beach sand. 34 feet.

Blue clay .

100

Light-colored clay 48

Sand, coarse enough for mortar .. 209

Clear gravel. 6

Quick-sand [ I

Cemented gravel . 2

Red clay . .

Red clay (hard)

The bottom of this well is nearly fifty feet below the surface of the sea. At 134 feet a cedar log was encountered in a state of perfect preservation. This is not only a deep but an ancient valley. The fact of finding timber in this deposit goes to show that a large part of the excavation has been filled since the general emergence of the sea, and that a large part of the alluvium has been taken by the present water courses into the valley. This timber and the many other specimens encountered from time to time by the drills, were probably brought into the lake by some of its tributaries. However this may be, the marl and clay which lie above the timber have been deposited by the waters of the lake .*

Mr. Spencer supposes that the fact that it has now a level bottom surrounded by steep banks of marl, clay and sand, is only to be accounted for by a sub- sidence of a large part of the bottom, and that such subsidence is caused by the gradual dissolving of salt that lies under it. It is certain that water hold-

ing in solution earthy matter, never deposits it in the form we now find the bottom of this lake.

Convenience has thus far caused all the drilling for salt water to be made around the lake, and the lesson taught by every experiment has been that there is no strong salt water to be found out of the alluvium in the valley. And the thicker the allu- vium the better the prospect for strong water.

We take the following extract from the Report of Dr. F. E. Englehardt, Chemist for the Onondaga Salt Springs, made in 1877 :

" The natural sources of all salt supplies are either rock salt, salt springs, salt lakes, or finally, the ocean. At Syracuse we have derived all our salt since 1797 from salt wells, amounting up to the present time to 250,000,000 bushels ; to which we must add at least 50,000,000 for loss incurred in the various manufacturing processes by leakage, making a grand total of 300,000,000. The number of wells sunk from time to time to produce this large amount cannot be less than 200, at an expense of at least $750,000. The question therefore naturally arises, and it is a most important one, in regard to our salt industry, from whence does this large amount of salt come, which would cover over a surface of 120,000,000 square feet one foot high with solid salt ? It certainly was not stored up in the ancient valley of erosion, below our feet, in the form of brine. Therefore it must occur in the solid form as a bed of rock salt. Up to date very few attempts have been made to ascertain the actual source of our brine. The first was made in 1838, when the State sank a well at Salina 600 feet deep, of which the Superintendent in his report for 1839 says : ' Passing through the immense mass of red and blue shales and the limestone (Niagara) below, it terminated in the protean group (Clinton.) What- ever may be its source it is well observed by the learned geologist of this district, in his last annual report, that it is only to be sought in a southern direction from which all the waters naturally flow.' The Salt Company of Onondaga sank, in 1867, a well at Liverpool 715 feet deep, which, according to Prof. Goessman, passed through 82 feet of alluvium, 279 feet of red and green shales, 33 feet of calcari- ous shales, 106 feet of limestone formation, and finally 215 feet of various veins of shales. These are the only two attempts ever made to solve this question."

Dr. Englehardt then considers the opinions of geologists entitled to the greatest weight, on ac- count of their scientific acquirements, in reference to the question touching the source of the Onon- daga salt, and finds them generally agreeing that the supply is derived from a mass of fossil or rock salt, situated under the hills to the south of the lake basin, and asks : " Would it not, therefore, be more economical on the part of the State to have this subject thoroughly examined by the State Geologist, and if found correct, dig a test well for

* Hon. George Geddes, Report, 1859.

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the purpose of either finding the salt rock, or at least saturated brine, thus avoiding the necessity of sinking new wells year after year, in proportion as the older ones become useless ?

Our salt works with an abundance of saturated brine, could produce at least 15,000,000 bushels of salt, which would in less than ten years return to the State in duty all the expense incurred in such an undertaking. Our salt industry would revive ; we could then successfully enter our old markets and compete with our rivals."

CHAPTER XII.

SALT SPRINGS CONTINUED-PROCESS OF MANU- FACTURL - CONSTRUCTION OF THE WELLS - PUMP WORKS - SOLAR SALT - DAIRY SALT- TABLE SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF SALT MADE SINCE 1797.

T HE salt works of Onondaga are divided into four districts, viz : Syracuse, Salina, Liver- pool and Geddes. The amount of salt inspected in each and the aggregate amounts for the year 1876 are shown in the following table :

I'laces.

S lar.

Fine.

Solar ground.

I inc ground.

Aggregate bushels.

Syravu c ..

223,299

45 -. 462

384,3 7

2,9-8

1,065,046

Salina. ...

323,859 1,684,915

70,560

2,086,634

Liverpool ..

153,503

315,773

396,154

870,495

Geddes .

651,115

278,611

96.517

344,259

1,300,502

1,353.841 3,736,-61

954,838

34",237

5.392,677

The strength of the brine in the four districts, including the old and new wells, from 1865 to 1876 inclusive, is shown as follows, except for 1868, of which there appears to be no record :

Date

Syracuic.

Salina.

Liverpool.

Average.

186;

66.17

66.47

60.65

Geddes. 65.17

64.86

1 866.

65.90

65.81

58.34

65.90

63 98

1867

6.4.44

64.35

63.95

64.27

1869

60.98

60.36

59.02

Go.88

1870

59.49

58.94

59 34

59 22

1871

63.00

62.35

63.82

62.88

1872.

65.10

66.00

66 20

65.82

1873.

63.43

65 43

67.52

65.45

1874

63.80

66.15

67.15

65.81

1875

63.88

66.38

66.38 67.70

69.50 69 33

66.54

1876

66.75

67.70

68.15

The process of manufacturing salt by artificial heat has changed very little except in its methods and appliances ; the principle, that of evaporation under the power of heat, remaining the same. The first " salt works " was Comfort Tyler's fifteen gallon kettle suspended upon a pole across two crotched stakes ; then came the four kettle " block," then the ten kettle, and so on, up to twenty and forty kettles.

Finally, Hon. Thomas Spencer

erected a block containing one hundred and eight kettles. This, however, was thought to be too extensive for the most advantageous and economical manufacture, and usually the preference has been given to blocks of about fifty or sixty kettles. The kettles are mostly of the capacity of one hundred and twenty gallons, in form a half sphere, diameter four feet, made of cast iron and weighing from six hundred to one thousand pounds. These are sus- pended in two contiguous rows on brick walls, with a suitable furnace or fire bed at one end and the chim- ney at the other. The whole is covered with a suit- able building, with bins extending the entire length on both sides, to store the salt in and protect it from the weather until it is ready to be packed in barrels for market. The law requires it to lic in the bins fourteen days before it is considered sufficiently dry for packing.

Wood has been heretofore chiefly used for fuel, but now the principal fuel is coal. A cord of the best hard wood and a ton either of anthracite or bituminous coal will produce about the same amount, that is, fifty bushels of salt, the evaporation being eight pounds of brine to one pound of coal. A block consisting of fifty kettles will require about five tons of coal every twenty-four hours and will therefore produce about two hundred and fifty bushels of salt daily. The cost of such a block with its appendages, is from five to six thousand dollars.

There is, or should be, attached to cach block three cisterns, each of sufficient capacity to hold as much brine as may be required for two days' usc. This is necessary for the purpose of affording suffi- cient time to precipitate the impurities by chemical agents before it shall be supplied to the kettles. Caustic lime was at one time used for the purpose of cleansing the brine from a portion of its impu- ritics, but it was used in such quantities in many instances by the operatives that it produced an impurity more injurious to the salt than that which it expelled, and its use had to be prohibited. Alum is now generally used in the place of lime.

The simplest method for testing the impurities in salt, is to take pure water and saturate it with the salt to be tested, which for any given quantity of salt will require twice and half its weight of water, stir till the salt is fully dissolved. If the salt is combined with impurities, the solution will at first have a milky appearance, but after remaining at rest a few hours, the impurities will settle to the bottom of the vessel ; if the salt is pure, the solution will be transparent, and there will be no sediment.

SALT is a solid that melts at a bright red heat

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

and passes off without being decomposed. It is without odor ; color white or transparent. It crys- talizes in cubes from its solution in water, and when formed by rapid but quiet evaporation from the sur- face, it forms hopper-shaped crystals. Hot and saturated solutions, when cooled, frequently give long, slender, square prisms. Formed in hot solu- tions, agitated by boiling, the crystals are very small and broken into irregular shapes. When rosin, soap, butter, or any oily substance is added to the brine, it will not form crystals, but by evaporation deposit the salt in exceedingly fine grains. Salt usually attracts moisture from the air, but when pure this attraction is very slight.

The process of manufacture consists in removing the water by evaporation, and at the same time get- ting rid of the impurities held in solution. In the boiled salt this is accomplished by first precipitating the oxide of iron in the cisterns connected with the works. Unless this oxide is removed, the salt will have a reddish color. The alum used for its pre- cipitation improves the grain of the salt, making it finer and causing it to drain well. The sulphate of lime is precipitated as the point of saturation is approached, by pans placed in the bottoms of the kettles into which it falls and is lifted out during the boiling of the water. The bitterings, as they are called, which are thus removed, are almost pure gypsum.

In the year 1830 the first iron tubes were sunk with a view to procure water from a greater depth. At sixty feet brine was found from twenty-five to thirty per cent. stronger than at the old wells. Very soon many tubes were sunk, and for a long time all the salt water was raised by pumps through these tubes, and then forced up and accumulated in res- ervoirs from which it flows in wooden pipes to the various manufactories. These pumps are driven by water taken from the canal, or in cases where the water power cannot be applied, by steam engines. For many years the State was paid by the bushel for pumping the water, but afterwards all the expen- ses were merged in the one cent a bushel. Several companies at present own private wells and do their own pumping.

The manner of drilling and tubing salt wells has been somewhat as follows : The old tubes used by the State were made of sugar maple logs, in sections of eight feet long, eight inches calibre, and turned in a lathe to a uniform thickness. These sections were cut off square, at the ends, and a recess turned into the timber on the outside to receive a band of iron ten inches wide and one-fourth of an inch thick, which is to rest on and confine the ends

of the two sections when they are joined together. A circular dowel of cast iron, three inches wide is let into the ends of the sections, holding them together firmly, and excluding all water from the joints. In the first place a cast iron tube, three feet in length, is joined to a wooden section. This piece of iron tubing is sharp at the lower end, hay- ing the inside enlarged for a few inches up, leaving the outer diameter fourteen inches, to correspond with that of the wood. These sections are set up perpendicularly, and by a press forced into the soil. When a tube has sunk down far enough for another section to be added, the press is withdrawn and the section put on, and again the press is applied. This process is continued as long as the tube can be sunk without removing the earth that is inside. When this point is reached, which is sometimes sixty or seventy feet below the surface, the drills are intro- duced, and by first cutting the earth fine, a bucket made of iron, with a valve at its lower end, will take hold of and lift the contents of the tube to the surface. When hard material is met, sharp drills are used to cut it up. The shape of the lower section made of cast iron is such that at the very end of the tube its calibre is nearly equal to the outer dimensions, and by using drills which have springs placed on one side of their stems and edges which point outwards from the springs, holes may be cut through rock large enough to allow the tubes to pass. Various tools are called into requisition to reach down and grasp the substances and to over- come the obstacles encountered, which would require drawings for their illustration.

The press that is used is simple : heavy pieces of timber supported by strong posts, connected with a platform through which the tube passes. This platform is loaded with stone, so that it will not lift when the heavy iron screws passing through the beam are turned down on the yoke which presses the tube. The rods to which the drills are attached are made of iron in sections of convenient length connected by screws. These drills are lifted by ropes worked by a steam engine, and let fall by means of a simple device, cutting and crushing by their weight whatever is in their way.

A well thus obtained is connected by wooden tubes with a pump which sucks up the water. Formerly it was pumped directly from the bottom of the well to the distributing reservoir. But the difficulties in the way of having perfectly tight suction pipes were hard to overcome, and the method of " flooding" the pipes allowed the suction to draw in fresh water at every leakage, reducing the strength of the brine. A remedy for this evil

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

was suggested by Mr. Geddes in an elaborate article on the salt interest, published in the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1859. " Now," says Mr. Geddes, "every stroke of the reciprocating, double-acting force and suction pumps has to overcome the inertia of the whole column of water from the bottom of the well to the distributing reservoir. This inertia is so great in long pipes that the pumps produce a vacuum at every stroke, and thus there is an inward pressure of the atmosphere of fifteen pounds to the square inch, which drives air, or when the pipes are flooded, water into every porc and crevice of the pipes. Lifting pumps at the wells, moving slowly, with long strokes, would do away with much of the strain of the machinery, and remedy the present evil."

This suggestion of Mr. Geddes is now pretty generally carried out. Rotary and plunge steam pumps have been placed at most of the wells, by which the brine is lifted to the surface, whence it is drawn through the pipes to the distributing reser- voirs by the pumps stationed at the pump houses. This improvement was inaugurated under the administration of Hon. Vivus W. Smith, first at Salina, and has since been generally adopted throughout the salt works.

Iron tubes for sinking wells are now used in place of wooden ones. They are made in sections of ten or twelve feet in length and screwed together by bolts through sockets at the ends of the sections. The apparatus for sinking them is nearly the same as that formerly employed for wooden tubes.

By an act of the Legislature, embodying a few new provisions, passed April 15, 1859, all the pre- vious laws relating to the manufacture of salt on the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation, were con- solidated and codified. The act of April 25, 1866, made some amendments to the provisions of the act of 1859. relating chiefly to the duties and salaries of subordinate officers and conferring upon the Superintendent the power to administer the oath to his deputies and employees.

The Legislature of 1873. passed an act appropriat- ing $20,000 to be expended in sinking new wells, so as to furnish a better quality of water. The Superintendent in pursuance of this law sank in 1875 and 1876, seven wells in the locality which seemed to indicate the strongest water. These are good wells yielding brine of 71 and 72 degrees of the salo- meter. It was hoped that an appropriation would be made to enable the Superintendent to render these wells useful by connecting them with the pump house, and thus supplying the works with improved water, but a bill for that object and for general

repairs was vetoed by the Governor. The Legisla- ture then, at the instance of the Superintendent, appointed a joint committee to visit the salt works and report upon the condition and wants of the salt interest. This committee met in Syracuse on the 17th of February, 18,6, and after a thorough inves- tigation, with a view to recommending such action by the Legislature as might be deemed most advis- able, unanimously reported in favor of a special appropriation to the amount of $23.000, to furnish a new water wheel, and the necessary machinery and fixtures to bring into use the new wells which had been sunk. These wells are now in operation furnishing a superior quality of brine.

Of the 316 blocks on the Reservation, only 106 were in operation during the year 1876, showing that the present capacity for manufacture exceeds 15,000,000 bushels annually. It is no exaggeration to say that this limit may be reached with proper effort on the part of the manufacturers and a wise patronage on the part of the State.

The Salt Manufacturers of Onondaga have in fixtures alone an investment of not less than four millions of dollars, and the business in addition to this, requires a working capital of fully half that sum to carry it on successfully.

SOLAR SALT is the name given to that which is made without the use of artificial heat. A law was passed in 1812, authorizing the Superintendent of the Salt Springs to lay out two acres of land and lease the same, free of duty if he thought proper, to induce an experiment to be made for the produc- tion of salt by solar evaporation. This was prob- ably the first movement in the direction of the solar salt works, but nothing practical seems to have re- sulted therefrom till 1822, when Judge Forman pro- cured the passage of a law authorizing the erection of fixtures and awarding a bounty of three cents per bushel for all salt made by solar evaporation for a given number of years. Judge Forman in com- pany with Isaiah Townsend, Esq, went to New Bedford to investigate the method of manufacturing solar salt from sea water as it was then carried on at Cape Cod. They brought Mr. Stephen Smith, an expert in this kind of manufacture, with them to Syracuse, and he was made the agent of the Onon- daga Company, and Judge Forman of the Syracuse Company, and the two proceeded to erect the necessary fixtures for the manufacture of coarse or solar salt.

At this time the Salina Canal terminated at the south edge of the village of Salina. Judge For- man took Governor DeWitt Clinton to Salina to cx- amine the situation, and to see how the canal might

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

be extended to Onondaga Lake and made available as a water power to drive machinery at the salt works. The following year this plan was carried into successful operation. This grand improvement in the method of elevating brine was made at the expense of the Onondaga and Syracuse Salt Com- panies, under the direction of Judge Forman ; but the fixtures, aqueduct, &c., were afterwards bought by the State.

The structures for the manufacture of solar salt consist of long parallel rows of shallow wooden vats, sixteen or eighteen feet wide and supported by many small posts. The rows of vats are divided into what are called deep rooms, lime rooms, and salt rooms. They are arranged in various ways, as the shape of the ground or the fancy of the owner may dictate. In the works of the Solar Salt Com- pany, the water is drawn directly from a distribut- ing reservoir into the deep rooms which are about a quarter of a mile long. The water runs the whole length of the " string," and is then carried into the next parallel string by wooden pipes. It runs the whole length of this string back to opposite the place where it was introduced ; then again it is sent into another and another of these strings, and having been thus exposed to the sun and wind, in a shed of perhaps ten inches deep and sixteen feet wide, for a whole mile, it has rid itself of its oxide of iron, has increased its strength from 70 to 84 degrees of the salometer, and is ready to be carried into the lime room, where it deposits its sulphate of lime. It is kept running along these rooms in a thinner sheet till the small cubes of salt are seen forming. Saturation is now complete and all the impurities are precipitated that can be. The water thus concentrated and freed from the lime and iron, is drawn into the salting rooms, where pure salt is rapidly deposited, having a coarse crystalization in the form of hoppers and cubes. There yet remains in the brine after the salt is re- moved impurities more soluble than the salt, viz : the deliquescent chlorides. About one-third of all the vats are required for precipitating the im- purities. The whole field is expected to yield fifty bushels to the cover of sixteen or eighteen feet. The word " cover" is derived from the moveable roofs which in fair weather are shoved off on lateral ways to allow the sun to reach the water. These covers have been adopted as the standard of meas- ure, and in speaking of a salt field, it is said to have so many covers. Space is required for the covers when off the vats and also for roads between the strings to cart away the salt. An acre of land re- quires sixty covers, costing about $30 each. Thus

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History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 11

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 840

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840