Doggo solved these problems very nicely—by avoiding them.
“What do you need sulphuric add for?” he wrote.
“Merely to use in making hydrochloric acid,” wrote the earth-man in reply.
“And that?”
“To use in making sal ammoniac for my batteries.”
“Do you need nitric acid for anything except the manufacture of sulphuric?”
“No.”
“Then,” Doggo suggested, “let us make our sal ammoniac directly from its elements. We shall build a series of about twenty vertical cast-iron retorts, as soon as you have smelted your iron. These we shall fill with damp salt, pressed into blocks and dried. We shall heat these retorts with charcoal fires, and through them we shall pass then, air, and the sulphur fumes of your ore-roasting.
“After about fifteen days we shall daily cut out the first retort, dump out the soda which has formed in it, refill it, and place it at the farther end of the series. The liquid, which condenses at the end of the series, will be diluted hydrochloric acid. By passing the fumes of roast animal-refuse through it we shall convert it into sal ammoniac solution.”
Accordingly, the quicker they started their foundry operations, the better.