| Collection |
Marlborough Province - down the decades from early days |
| Photographer |
Brayshaw, Norman Henry |
| Description |
A black and white photograph showing a pick-up unit at work in the Salt Works about 1960.
Information as typed by Norm Brayshaw: "The type of pick up unit in use at present ..... Too heavy for good use. This was designed about 1959 but was not put into service until 1960."
Copied by Norm Brayshaw in 1961 from a photograph supplied by Mr. S.E. West, Salt Works, Ward. Includes three negatives (one of which was never printed by Norm).
A scan of this photograph will be used in the Changing European History Gallery 3 display in commemoration of the Marlborough Provincial 150th anniversary on 1 November 2009.
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Caption December 2009:
Harvesting solar salt from Lake Grassmere. By 1960, this type of harvester came into service, and has continued to be used, with some modifications.
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SOLAR SALT FROM LAKE GRASSMERE
Christchurch innovator-industrialist George Skellerup launched this wartime project in 1943. It took at least five years to prepare the pond, and get things running.
The locality was ideal, with a flat site by the sea, a shallow lake, only 585 mm of rain, plenty of sun, and dry evaporating winds.
Manufacturing salt at Lake Grassmere is a process of concentrating the salt content of seawater by evaporation, then harvesting the crystallised salt.
The salt forms crystals on the bottom of these ponds over the summer. In March, when the salt is ready for harvest, the remaining brine is pumped from the crystallisation ponds back into the sea. Before draining, the ponds are a bright pink-red, from the brine shrimps present.
|
| Year Range from |
1960 |
| Year range to |
1961 |
| Object ID |
2009.067.0075 |
| Object Name |
Photograph |
| People |
West, S.E.
Skellerup, George |
| Place |
Ward/Grassmere |
| Title |
Pick-up unit at Salt Works about 1960 |
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