Chili saltpetre

• Book ID: 103089928
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1882
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 56 KB
• Volume: 113
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(82)90279-4

✦ Synopsis

Chili Saltpetre.--Nitrate of soda is found in great abundance ]n the desert of Atacama. Under a bed of soil, varying in thickness from 10 to 50 centilnetres (3"937 to 19"685 in.), there is a compact layer of gypsum, under which the salpetre is found in irregular beds, with a thickness sometimes reaching to two metres (6"562 ft.). It is .often mixed with sulphate of soda. It comes from the decomposition ~)f the feldspathic rocks, and, as these rocks form the central part of ~he desert, the supply seems to be almost inexlmustible.--Les alfondes.

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