ABSTRACT
‘The only thing that ever gave me any pain was being seen occasionally in my little shop by old school fellows’, a natural sense of humiliation on the part of a sensitive teenager. He pretended not to know them, horrified that they might identify him with the other broken-down entrepreneurs around him. Salt panning, like handloom weaving, was on its way out in Scotland, because the relaxation of import duties was to allow cheap rock salt from Lancashire into the country. Scottish salt was made from sea water; a cumbersome process. The work had to be done on the coast, and near a coal mine for the firing of the pans. The sea water was stored in bucket pots, originally worked by windmills or horsepowered pumps, but by this time usually steam-powered. The Kaleidoscope quickly folded but William philosophically described this as ‘a trial of one’s wings.’.
