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Jan.y 2d 1782 O.S.
When the Baron asked me what I thought of the management
& Mechanism in his Saltworks I could not but
tell him that though better could not well be expected
from such as the peasants who are employed in them: yet
that there was room for great improvements, as well
in the chemical process as in every part of the Mechanism.
In answer to this he said much of the peculiar importance
the construction of machines was of in this
part of the country, and of the disadvantage they
laboured under in having no Mechanicians.
That people offered from time to time to act in
that capacity; but without being any way qualified
for it. That England was the country for
mechanics. I told him the reason for that was
the encouragement which people of that profession
met with there from their inventions, That
here such people were not paid by Salaries but
by a proportion of the profits which their improvements
produced. I told him as an example
what I understood to be the terms on which
Bolton of Birmingham gives the use of his improved
Steam Engine, namely that he for a
certain number of years should receive 1/4 part
of the saving in coals. He admired that
mode of payment much, and lamented that
there was no body who would make such offers
here. How much he would wish to find an
ingenious man who could introduce a better
economy in is works on such terms. I told
him that perhaps such a man might be found who
might be induced to come over from England if he could
be assured of the following terms proportion of the profits
which would arise from his inventions. 1er the extra
profits should defray the extra expences incurred before
he should begin to reap any advantage. 2d from that
time for the first year he should receive 1/2 the
extra profit, for 2 following years he should receive 1/4
and the tenth & last year 3/4. 3dly that this same
man might upon the same terms introduce improvements
in the workings of mines or any other works about the country.
He said for his part he should desire nothing better than such
terms and he could almost answer for the other proprietors
being of the same opinion. That he would be very much obliged
to me to find him such a man, and that by the time I should
be come back to Petersbourg he means to set about in earnest the
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fattening his estates and that if such an English man was
to be found he would come himself again to the Falls
so as and spend a year or two and serve him as Interpreter:
not that he speaks English, but he imagines
all the english of any knowledge speak french.
I told him I probably might be able to find him a man;
but did not know whether it would be allowed permitted that
he should leave the country for that purpose. Not but what the
improving a Chemical process on which all the world may
publish what they know, seems to be a very innocent
object for a man to go for to a foreign country.
A man I dare to say may be found, but why not undertake
it myself? to clear by the saltworks only about
50 or 60 thousand pounds in 10 years without any capital
and without the necessity of above one or two years residence
on the spot is no such contemptible object. I have already
pretty well invented all the mechanisms necessary
for the improvement of these works. To be sure the boiling
apparatus itself which indeed is the most important would
require a few experiments. I should not only confine the
heat as much as possible to the boiler; but the vapour
I would make deposit its heat to more solution in another
vessel which would thus be prepared for the boiler. The vapour
having deposited its heat would become distilled water.
This must be caught, more to prevent its getting to the
solution than for its value. Now if air be a current of
air be directed on the surface of the boiling solution it stands
fair into the evaporation by dissolving the water but if it be
cold it would impede the boiling and thus perhaps upon the
whole retard the operation, but if a current of heated air be
found on the surface it would no doubt assist the operation.
The heating of this air would take up a part of the heat produced
by the fuel. Quere whether a part of the heat produced
would to better account by being given to air to be blowed
on the surface and thus assist the sort operation by the property
of the solubility of water in air, or whether it would be better
that all the heat produced should be employed in heating
turning the superabundant water of the solution into Vapour.
If the former should be found by experiment preferable I
my idea is to directing the air from bellows
worked by wind machines on the surface of the boiling solutions
and that this bellows should take the air from the ash hole
of the furnace and other parts of the apparatus where necessarily
some part of the heat flies off.
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Identifier: | JB/539/278/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 539.
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1782-01-2 |
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539 |
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278 |
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001 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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