Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
I this Day had the Honour of your Very oblidging Letter of The 3d. Instant and I most Joyfully Congratulate you Sir upon the Wrap’d Progress the manufacturng of Salt petre is Now making in this Colony. Within These four Days there has been Received into the Colony Store here at Watertown Between 3 & 4 Tons of Good Salt petre all made in a few of the Neighbouring Towns Round about here Since the Spring Came on, and I have great Reason to Judge that by the first of June there will be an Hundred tons Delivered To the Committee for purchasing that article in this Colony.
The Process of making Salt petre Which I Published by order of Assembly Proves unaversally Successful, and Will admit of No Essential Vareations—all the Improvements I have been able (from Expirence) to make upon that Process Since its publication are these (Viz) 1st. as the Quantity of Nitre Contained in Earths under old Buildings is Very Varius—the Rule for proportioning the alkaline Lie to the Nitre Lie there Laid Down is Very uncertain—and I know of No Rule to Determine those proportions but What Will Require Some Skill and Experience to put them in practise (viz) as the Nitre is an Acid and the other an alkali they must be mixed in Such proportion as to form a Neutral which is known 1st. by Pouring in the alkaline Lie by Degrees as Long as it occations any fomentation or turbidness in the mixture. 2dly. untill you find a Taste in the mixture Quite Different from that of Either of the Lies While Sepperate from Each other, for as the Nitrius acid and Vegitable Alkali When thus mixed Entirely Destroy Each Other they at the Same time Acquire a Soft Neutral Taste Quite Different from What Either of them had before. 3dly. and Luckily for the Young Manufacturer You may Continue Pouring alkaline Lie Into your Nitre Lie untill You perceive the Mixture to taste (Just perceptably) of the alkaline Lie for altho this will Give a Little over proportion of the alkaline Salts yet it will Not in the Least Injure your Saltpetre Except that your Cristals on their first Shooting Will Not Look So White and Clean but this is Easily Cured in Clarifying— besides Sir Another Vast advantage Arises from having plenty of alkaline Salts (viz) it attracts Or by Some means precippitates to the bottom of your Tubs in your Several Setlings all the Marine Salts that your 193Liquor may Contain and at the Same time (as I find to a Demonstration) An Overplus of alkaline Salts Does not in the Least Injure the Saltpetre Exept in Collouring the Cristals as above.
I always find (When I Draw my Liquor from the Setling tub into the Coolers to Set for Cristalizing) a Quanty of Salts at the bottom of my Setling tub Which Some times appears to be Chiefly Common or Marine Salt and Sometimes that and Alkaline Salt mixed together but I have Never found the Least appearance of Marine Salt in any of the Saltpetre Which myself or others have made in this way. This Sir is the best answer I am able to Give Respecting Marine Salts.
Governer Cook1 of Rhode Island Seeing my Saltpetre Report published in the Publick papers the Last Winter Wrote a Letter to our Assembly by way of Caution Informing them that he had Conversed With Several Ingenious Persons Who Informed him that Saltpetre made in that way Would Partake So much of the alkaline Salts as Not only to Occation a Snaping in Deflagration but Greatly Deminish the Strength of the Explosion (I was not then at Court) this So Allarmed the assembly that a motion was made Immediately to Send to all parts of the Colony Requiring them to Desist from making any more Saltpetre agreable to those Directions. However an nother Motion was Soon made (Viz) that as there was a Quantity of Saltpetre then in the Store made in this way by a Variety of persons a Committee be appointed to Examine the Same Which they Did throughly and found none but What Deflagrated Clean Smooth & Smart Without the Least Crack or Snaping which fully Sattisfied the Court.
I would only add Sir that the two Lies Do not always kindly Sepperate and Settle Clear in the Setling tub When mixed together Coald. In that Case the Liquor must be Diped out and have time to Settle after it is partly Boiled. Again if the Mothers are Constantly mixed with the Next boiling While the Liquor is Setling in the tub for a Long Course it Will occation the Liquor to Grow black and thick—as often as this Happens the Mothers must be Run through a filtering tub of Devd. ashes which will Effectually Cure that Difficulty.
And Now My Dear Sir I am Warranted to Say (& that With the Greatest pleasure) that the Process of making Saltpetre from Earth Undr old Buildings is Rendered Simple Easy and Successful and I have no Doubt there is in America a Sufficiency of these Earths to make a thousand tons.
194As to preparing Saltpetre plantations Nothing of that has yet been Done In this Colony. So much attention there is paid to the present mode of making that article as to Divert the minds of the assembly from the other method. I Shall Exert myself to have that attended to in Season if Possible, my Heart Soul Body Strength and Mind have been Devoted to this Matter for twelvemonths past.
Excuse Dear Sir the Incorrectness of this Letter. I am Nesessitated to Write it in Great haste. A Continuation of the Honor of your Correspondence will greatly oblidge him Whose hearty wish and prayer is that you may Soon See the Salvation of your Country Compleated that you may Long Live & Enjoy in peace the fruits of your present patriotick Exertions and that you may finally Possess those mantions of Immortal Bliss Which alone must Reward Such Exalted Virtue and Bennevolence as yours. I am Dear Sir Your oblidged friend & Humble Servant,
My most Respectful Comps. to the Worthy Delegates from this Colony & all others of my Acquaintance.
Nicholas Cooke (1717–1782), a Newport merchant, served as governor of Rhode Island from 1775 to 1778 (Raimo, Biographical Directory of American Colonial and Revolutionary Governors, 403).
To the honorable the Council and House of Representatives of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, The Congress at their last session Considering the importance to American Liberty that all necessarys of life & defence should be produced by the inhabitants of the united Colonies, among other things directed an enquiry to be made of the most practicable method of making salt: as I have the honour to be of that Committee I applied some attention to it, and having mett with a learned treatise of Dr. Brownrigg on the subject1 I extracted the practical part of it, & adding a few observations I caused it to be inserted in the Pensylvania Magazine2 195& a number of Copies to be detached, & have sent them to all the Colonies as far as Georgia: and I now do my Self the honour to inclose some of them to your Consideration to be disposed of as in your wisdom may seem best.
I can but think there are many parts of our Colony where these works may be profitably erected, in the southern parts more especially.
It must afford great happiness to every Lover of the American united Colonies to defeat the cruel designs of their Enemies in any respect, & it will gratify me to have attempted it, tho unfortunately it should not succeed.
Hoping success to this & every undertaking to promote the welfare of our Colony I Subscribe my Self your Honours most Obedient Servant,3
William Brownrigg (1711–1800), The Art of Making Common Salt, as Now Practiced in Most Parts of the World: With Several Improvements Proposed in that Art, for the Use of the British Dominions (London, 1748).
Pennsylvania Magazine: or American Monthly Museum, March 1776, p. 128–133.
The following alternative ending to this letter was excised in a draft copy at the MHS: “Hoping the supreme Ruler will ere long establish us in the possession of that Liberty Civil and religious for which our wise and pious forefathers began a new Settlement in this Wilderness I Subscribe with great Respect yr. Honours most Obedient hble. Servt.”
The Massachusetts Council received and read this letter, accompanied by 12 pamphlets, on Apr. 26, 1776. It resolved to encourage the manufacture of salt in the seaport towns as well as to print and send 150 pamphlets to those towns (Journal of the House of Representatives, 51, pt. 3:188–189, 194–195).