. De re metallica. Metallurgy; Mineral industries. HOOK XII. 559. —^^^^^=—^ A—Nile. B—Nitrum-pits, such as I conjecture them to be.' verted into nitrum. Just as the sea, in flowing of its own will over the soil of this same Egypt, is changed into salt, so also the Nile, when it overflows in the dog days, is converted into nitrum when it flows into the nitrum pits. The solution from which nitrum' is produced is obtained from fresh water percolating through nitrous earth, in the same manner as lye is made from fresh water percolating through ashes of oak or hard oak. Both solutions are taken out
. De re metallica. Metallurgy; Mineral industries. HOOK XII. 559. —^^^^^=—^ A—Nile. B—Nitrum-pits, such as I conjecture them to be.' verted into nitrum. Just as the sea, in flowing of its own will over the soil of this same Egypt, is changed into salt, so also the Nile, when it overflows in the dog days, is converted into nitrum when it flows into the nitrum pits. The solution from which nitrum' is produced is obtained from fresh water percolating through nitrous earth, in the same manner as lye is made from fresh water percolating through ashes of oak or hard oak. Both solutions are taken out of vats and poured into rectangular copper caldrons, and are boiled until at last they condense into nitrum. in the volcanoes in Italy, it also may have been included in the nitrum mentioned. Nitrum was in the main exported from Eg3'pt, but Theophrastus mentions its production from wood-ash, and Pliny very rightly states that burned lees of wine (argol) had the nature of nitrum. Many of the ancient writers understood that it was rendered more caustic by burning, and still more so by treatment with Hme. According to Beckmann (Hist, of Inven- tions II., p. 488), the form of the word natron was first introduced into Europe by two travellers in Egypt, Peter Ballon and Prosper Alpinus, about 1550. The word was intro- duced into mineralogy by Linnaeus in 1736. In the first instance natron was applied to 'This wondrous illustration of soda-making from Nile water is no doubt founded upon Pliny (xxxi.,46). " It is made in almost the same manner as salt, except that sea-water " is put'into salt pans, whereas in the nitrous pans it is water of the Nile ; these, with the " subsidence of the Nile during the forty days, are impregnated with ;. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original wo
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