Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1885 — Formation of Salt-Water Ice. [ARTICLE]

Formation of Salt-Water Ice.

Marine ice was formerly regarded as formed of solidified pure water retaining by mechanical adhesion traces of the saline liquid. These traces could be expelled by energetic pressure, when acids and bases would be found in the residue of de location in invariable proportions as in the sea. The question of chemical composition of the ice of the Arctic Ocean is complicated in other ways, but it gains in interest what it loses in simplicity. When saltwater is cooled artificially, a small part escapes solidification. The uncongealed residue is insupportably bitter to the taste, and analysis shows that nearly all the magnesia is concentrated in it. The solid block, if it is homogeneous and is not full of holes, and if previously drained, may furnish a passable drink. The natural ices of the northern seas are frequently moistened with a kind of brine, which sometimes embodies crystals of special character, easy to distinguish from the ice around them. According to Otto Petterssen, the relative proportions of chlorine and magnesia are much stronger in these exudations than the water at the expense of which the ice is formed. The liquid cannot then have been mechanically absorbed. On the other hand, there is a deficiency of sulphates; and the conclusion that sea-water ice retains the sulphates more abundantly is confirmed by analysis. With congelation, a sorting of matters takes place; most of the sulphuric acid passes into the part that solidifies, while magnesia and chlorine prevail in the part that remains liquid.— Popular Science.