US Patent: 1,273,208
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| Salt manufacture
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Patentee:
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| Charles L. Weil (exact or similar names) - Port Huron, MI |
| Manufacturer: |
| Not known to have been produced |
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Patent Dates:
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| Applied: |
Nov. 03, 1917 |
| Granted: |
Jul. 23, 1918 |
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Jeff Joslin
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Description: |
| Improvements to the manufacture of sale by the evaporation of brine, and specifically to what is known as the Alberg process of making salt. The Alberger process involves a circulating volume of brine that is heated at certain points of the loop and then permitted to evaporate at other points, as described in this inventor's patent 1,141,999. The improvements involve the use of pressure to raise the boiling point of brine, filters to remove gypsum and other impurities (gypsum precipitating out at 135 degrees Celsius which is above the boiling point of brine at standard pressure). After the filtering step the pressure is dropped so the brine flash-boils. The remaining brine the goes to an evaporating pan until it returns to room temperature, by which time much of the salt has precipitated out. The remaining brine is then mixed with fresh brine and brought to the start of the cycle. The resulting salt is flaky and variations in this process allow the range of grain size to be controlled which is an advantage as the mix of grain sizes desired tends to vary with the seasons. This process is expensive compared to processes that produce the more common cubic-crystal salt but for some applications it is highly desirable. The Port Huron / St. Clair area was, and remains, a center of salt production due to the region's 400-million-year-old salt deposits a couple of thousand feet underground. Based in St. Clair, Michigan, Cargill Salt Co. is the world's only remaining producer of Alberger process salt. |
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