But the determination to bring the art of salt-making to “greater perfection” was not abandoned, although, as Dr. William Brownrigg admitted, the success achieved by Thomas Lowndes was thought by some people “to supersede the necessity of any further attempts for improving or extending our salt manufacture.” Brownrigg commended Lowndes’s method and testified to the purity and strength of his salt which had been exhibited before the College of Physicians, but he maintained that by other methods a purer and stronger salt might be made at a less expense. In point of fact, Dr. Brownrigg’s objection to the Lowndes’ method was that it was applied only to salt made from brine, or a solution of English rock-salt often prepared with impure water, and that the salt so produced, in his opinion, was inferior to marine salt. Brownrigg, only half realizing Lowndes’s intention, would appear to have grasped the fact that his process aimed at economy of fuel combined with uniformity in the degree and distribution of heat, but he does not seem to have appreciated the value of the improvement anticipated therefrom. It must by this time have become evident to scientific investigators and practical salt-men that the solution of the problems of economical manufacture and increased output lay in the application and regulation of heat. Christopher Chrysel, of Leipsic, after fourteen years of “great industry, much pains, and cost” spent in the practice and study of salt-making in Cheshire, published the result of his labours in 1787. Chrysel claimed that by his method “with the least Fire and Coal the most Salt can be made and the greatest Profit received such as in no other way can possibly happen,” but curiously enough the improvement for which he obtained a Royal Patent, was primarily based upon a more advantageous arrangement of the brine pans, while the improvement effected in the furnace was treated as a matter of only subsidiary importance. Chrysel demonstrated his method at Bye Flat, near Northwich, in Cheshire, in June, 1776. The experiment was carried out in the presence of witnesses, the same pan was used in testing both the old and the new methods, the same two salt-boilers were employed in conducting both operations, and the amounts of fuel consumed and salt produced were carefully weighed and attested. The results were recorded in the following report furnished by the Liverpool Agent of Mr. Richard Kent’s salt-works at Bye Flat-- [Illustration: A SALT STORE-SHED] “In three ‘firings’ of 2 Furnaces under a salt pan set up on the old plan ten years ago and constantly worked till the present time--24 feet long: 15 feet broad and 12 inches deep--filled with Brine three times in a half week, and boiled down each time in 24 hours and the salt drawn out there was burnt 5½ tons of Coal and made 7 tons 31 bushels, or 155½ cwts. of salt.