![]() The product will be more abundant if the soil contains vegetable and animal matter. After the removal of the deposit, it will begin to show traces of the new supply at the end of two months.Ĭommon salt, whatever its source, has the property of producing saltpeter when it is spread over the ground in a covered place that is exposed to the air. A good soil, properly treated, becomes freshly charged with a full quantity of the salt in a period of three years. Where it is left undisturbed, the salt forms only on the surface. ![]() The more the soil is stirred, the more it will produce saltepeter. It is required in addition that the earth should be spaded often, for the sake of a free circulation of the air, which, as it penetrates, develops the nitrous principles. It is necessary, however, that the soil should be covered against rain, which would dissolve and carry off the saltpeter as fast as formed and also that the place should be supplied with free air, in order that the salt may condense and take shape. It is possible to increase the quantity of saltpeter produced naturally in the soil, by soaking it with liquids derived from the putrefaction of animal and vegetable substances. The resulting spirits are in no way derived from the air itself, but the action of the air is absolutely necessary for the development of the spirits from the juice, and no artificial means can secure the result, apart from this operation by the air. There is an analogy in connection with the fermentation of the juice of grapes. This is not because it contains the salt in itself, but because it develops saltpeter by a sort of fermentation which it excites in certain materials, thus deriving it from the latent principle of niter therein contained. The air is the principal agent in the formation of the salt. Old walls formed of materials that have resisted the action of fire, such as plaster and lime, also contain large quantities of saltpeter. ![]() This salt forms on the surface of the ground, in caves, cellars, stables, and other covered places, impregnated with vegetable and animal substances, to which the air has access. ![]() These properties are to crystallize in needles, to excite a sensation of freshness when touched by the tongue, and to decompose from contact with a burning phlogistic, to which its acid unites with a report. From this acid are derived those properties which distinguish saltpeter from any other salt. Saltpeter is a salt from which may be drawn by analysis a fixed alkali similar to the salt itself, and also a volatile acid, which forms the principal constituent. ![]()
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