49. The operation of bleaching linen in the open air is one for which considerable time is necessary; and although it does not require much labour, yet, from the risk of damage and of robbery from long exposure, a mode of shortening the process was highly desirable. The method now practised, although not mechanical, is such a remarkable instance of the application of science to the practical purposes of manufactures, that in mentioning the advantages derived from shortening natural operations, it would have been scarcely pardonable to have omitted all allusion to the beautiful application of chlorine, in combination with lime, to the art of bleaching. 50. Another instance more strictly mechanical occurs in some countries where fuel is expensive, and the heat of the sun is not sufficient to evaporate the water from brine springs. The water is first pumped up to a reservoir, and then allowed to fall in small streams through faggots. Thus it becomes divided; and, presenting a large surface, evaporation is facilitated, and the. brine which is collected in the vessels below the faggots is stronger than that which was pumped up. After thus getting rid of a large part of the water, the remaining portion is driven off by boiling. The success of this process depends on the condition of the atmosphere with respect to moisture. If the air, at the time the brine falls through the faggots, holds in solution as much moisture as it can contain in an invisible state, no more can be absorbed from the salt water, and the labour expended in pumping is entirely wasted. The state of the air, as to dryness, is therefore an important consideration in fixing the time when this operation is to be performed; and an attentive examination of its state, by means of the hygrometer, might be productive of some economy of labour. 51. In some countries, where wood is scarce, the evaporation of salt water is carried on by a large collection of ropes which are stretched perpendicularly. In passing down the ropes, the water deposits the sulphate of lime which it held in solution, and gradually incrusts them, so that in the course of twenty years, when they are nearly rotten, they are still sustained by the surrounding incrustation, thus presenting the appearance of a vast collection of small columns.