Jan.y 2 d 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 proportion of the profits

which would arise from his inventions. 1 er the extra

profits should defray the extra expences incurred before

he should begin to reap any advantage. 2 d 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. 3 dly 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

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 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 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 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

turning the superabundant water of the solution into Vapour.

If the former should be found by experiment preferable

my idea is to direct 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.