The vats are also provided with false bottoms, outlet cocks, steam pipes and so forth.
Both fixed and rotating vats are employed, the chlorination proceeding more rapidly in the latter case; rotating barrels are sometimes used.
For open pools and dams Schenck substitutes large wooden vats under cover, into which the flax is tightly packed in an upright position.
The ores, having been broken and ground, generally in tube mills, until they pass a 150 to 200-mesh sieve, are transferred to the leaching vats, which are constructed of wood, iron or masonry; steel vats, coated inside and out with pitch, of circular section and holding up to woo tons, have come into use.
In spite of all precautions a certain quantity of impurities is always formed, but this should be kept down as much as possible by strictly watching the temperature in the vats and by taking care that the black-ash in the wet state is never exposed to the air.
