The Third Part of the Prosperity of Germany

Prosperity of Germany

in the space of ten or twelve months, from the stated species with the help of a suitable lye, excellent saltpeter can be prepared without any expenses, except those which the lye of little importance requires. Nor is that work so difficult, since nothing is required beyond that the lye be transferred from one capsule to another a few times. Note: Even other species offer themselves, besides those named above, from which with the help of capsules and the proper lye, saltpeter can be prepared far more quickly and copiously, but I do not consider it necessary to divulge everything. A suitable lye can also be made in another way, in a dry form, namely without the putrefaction that is completed in the capsules, as a means of preparing saltpeter more quickly, but this artifice must also be reserved for friends for a while. Beyond these, by an even more secret and shorter method from such lye, in the space of three hours, excellent saltpeter can be extracted with great profit; I prefer this method of preparing saltpeter to all others, and I have found it to be the most excellent of all. Lye is made in this way. Make for yourself a strong lye from wood ashes, and when you burn useless wood in the forests into ashes, at the same time reduce stones of masonry lime original: "calx muraria" into lime by fire. Then extinguish this lime with water so that it falls into a powder, pour onto it as much as suffices of the wood lye just mentioned, and mix with a wooden spatula, repeating the mixing and agitation very often on the following days, so that the lye