Salt Pans

Salt works were generally characterised by a threefold division, which gave them an unmistakable imprint on the landscape.

On the foreshore were "bucket pots" or reserviors, in which the sea water was stored at high tides; these had a dual function, in that there was some degree of concentration through evaporation. Also much of the heavier extraneous matter sank to the bottom. Water was transferred to the "bucket pots" by several different methods, including the "bucket-in-hand" system. This required a man to swim out from the shore to get a bucket of water that was believed to be "stronger". This was supplanted by the "bucket and wand", whereby a circular dyke, low enough to let the sea lap over at high tide, was built around some hollow place among the rocks, then a long pole, the wand, with a bucket attached was used to transfer the waters to the pans.

In the year 1810, Hugh Francis Cadell, made a number of changes in the salt pans. Prior to 1810, the pans were rectangular, being 14 feet long, 7 feet wide and about 1% feet deep. They were called "sole-pans", because they were built on pillars and fired from the ground. After this date, they were enlarged to 18 feet long and 9 feet wide, but remained 18 inches deep. An added refinement was a furnance, or "bander", beneath them, hence the name "bander pans".

The Force Pump

The "bucket-and-wand" system was now also thrown aside, and the force pump, with its latest improvements, was introduced.

To obtain the pure white sparkling crystals of salt, teams of men, women and children, under the supervision of the salt master, worked huge wooden pumps to raise thousands of gallons 'of sea water into enormous pans. This unpromising raw material, for it contained numerous small inhabitants, including eels, flounders and crabs with other less wholesome impurities, was mixed after 1825 with imported rock salt. After a long boiling the concentrated liquor was purified in the following manner.

Purifing the Salt

A barrel of putrid clotted blood from the local slaughter-house was kept in the building and some of this, was mixed with dirty salt sweepings. This was slowly poured into the pan where the water immediately changed colour from a seething white liquid to a brown bubbling scum: The albumen in the blood; which had coagulated and risen to the surface carrying all the impurities with it, was then skimmed off, leaving the boiling brine as clear as crystal and devoid of suspended matter.

The concentrated liquor contained in solution, a certain proportion of sulphate of-lime, or creech, which being less soluble than sodium chlorate, or common salt was next removed. This was done by means of creech cogs, or shallow, square iron vessels, with thick bottoms, placed in a row, along the coolest end of the pan. These formed calm pools, amid the seething brine, and as the creech began to separate out as a fine precipitate, it settled in the still waters of the clogs and was easily lifted out and thrown away. The salt then began to crystallise in the saturated solution and was drawn to one side with rakes, then shovelled out, leaving behind a little "bittern", containing the small residium of still more soluble ingredients of sea water, such as salt of iodine, bromine and magnesia. This "bittern" was put into barrels and sold in its fluid state.

Sunday Salt

Production at the salt pans continued day and night, the orange glow from the fires acting as a beacon for sailors out in the Forth. Often the salt masters would not halt productions, even for repairs to the pans. Instead, wooden planks were laid on the bottom of the pan, and the men crawled out over them to carry out the necessary work. While down below stairs the fires still crackled ready to start evaporating more water immediately the repairs were complete.

Only on Sundays, did the work stop and the pans were allowed to cool gradually. The salt then slowly crystallised in tabular form, very thin plates about a half an inch broad. The Sunday Salt, as it was called was sometimes used for the table but it was not really convenient for sprinkling on food.

Salt and other Industries

In addition to the market for table salt and preserving salt, the following industries used salt in a lesser or greater degree, white leather, soap, sal ammoniac, glauber salt, fossil alkali and glass manufacture. The manufacture of earthenware also used considerable quantities of salt for glazing.

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Cover - Preface - Contents- Glossary - Acknowledgements - Photographs & Illustrations