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[Sing. of obsolete pot ashes, translation of obsolete Dutch potaschen (from the fact that this substance was originally obtained by leaching wood ashes and evaporating the leach in a pot).]
For more information on potash, visit Britannica.com.
Potash (potassium carbonate) and soda (sodium carbonate) have been used from the dawn of history in bleaching textiles, making glass, and, from about A.D. 500, in making soap. Soda was principally obtained by leaching the ashes of sea plants, and potash from the ashes of land plants. In their uses, potash and soda were largely but not entirely interchangeable. Indeed, before the mid-eighteenth century, people only vaguely differentiated between the two.
With the advent of gunpowder at the end of the Middle Ages, potash found a new use for which soda could not substitute: the manufacture of saltpeter. Thus, the increasing demand for glass, soap, textiles, and gunpowder in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Europe accelerated the decimation of the forests from which producers obtained potash. In 1608 the first settlers in Virginia established a "glass house," and the first cargo to Britain included potash. Britain obtained most of its potash from Russia, but a potash crisis in about 1750 led Parliament to remit the duty and led the Society of Arts of London to offer premiums for the production of potash in America.
Potash-making became a major industry in British North America. Great Britain was always the most important market. The American potash industry followed the woodsman's ax across the country. After about 1820, New York replaced New England as the most important source; by 1840 the center was in Ohio. Potash production was always a by-product industry, following from the need to clear land for agriculture.
By 1850, potash had gained popularity as a fertilizer, but forests available for indiscriminate burning were becoming ever scarcer. Fortunately, deep drilling for common salt at Stassfurt, Germany, revealed strata of potassium salts, and in 1861 production of this mineral potash began. The United States, having decimated its forests, joined most of the rest of the world in dependency on German potash. The dependency still existed when World War I cut off this source of supply. Frantic efforts produced some domestic potash, notably from the complex brines of some western saline lakes. The United States surmounted the wartime urgency, but the shortage directed attention to reports of oil drilling that had brought up potash salts. These clues led to large deposits near Carlsbad, New Mexico. After 1931 a number of mines there supplied about 90 percent of the domestic requirement of potash. Some 95 percent of this production became fertilizer.
Bibliography
Godfrey, Eleanor Smith. The Development of English Glassmaking, 1560–1640. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.
Hall, Bert S. Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
Hoffman, Ronald, et al., eds. The Economy of Early America: The Revolutionary Period, 1763–1790. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988.
McCusker, John J., and Russell R. Menard. The Economy of British America, 1607–1789. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Potassium. The word derives from the early method of leaching potassium from wood ashes and drying it in clay pots—in other words, pot ashes.
Potash (or carbonate of potash) is an impure form of potassium carbonate (K2CO3) mixed with other potassium salts.
Potash has been used since antiquity in the manufacture of glass and soap and as a fertilizer. The name comes from the English words pot and ash, referring to its discovery in the water-soluble fraction of wood ash.
The term has become somewhat ambiguous due to the substitution in fertilizers of cheaper potassium salts, such as potassium chloride (KCl) or potassium oxide (K2O), to which the same common name is now sometimes also applied. In addition, potassium hydroxide (KOH) is commonly called caustic potash, an additional source of confusion.
The element potassium derives its English name from potash. A number of chemical compounds containing potassium use the word potash in their traditional names:
| potash fertilizer | potassium oxide, | K2O |
| caustic potash or potash lye | potassium hydroxide, | KOH |
| carbonate of potash, salts of tartar, or pearlash | potassium carbonate, | K2CO3 |
| chlorate of potash | potassium chlorate, | KClO3 |
| muriate of potash | potassium chloride, | KCl |
| nitrate of potash or saltpeter | potassium nitrate, | KNO3 |
| sulfate of potash | potassium sulfate, | K2SO4 |
Up until the 20th century, potash was one of the most important industrial chemicals in Europe. It was refined from the ashes of broadleaved trees and produced primarily in the forested areas of Europe, Russia, and North America. The first U.S. patent was issued in 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for an improvement "in the making Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process."
Potash production provided late-18th and early-19th century settlers in North America a way to obtain badly needed cash and credit as they cleared their wooded land for crops. To make full use of their land, excess wood, including stumps, needed to be disposed. The easiest way to accomplish this was to burn any wood not needed for fuel or construction. Ashes from hardwood trees could then be used to make lye, which could either be used to make soap or boiled down to produce valuable potash. Hardwood could generate ashes at the rate of 60 to 100 bushels per acre (500 to 900 m³/km²). In 1790, ashes could be sold for $3.25 to $6.25 per acre ($800 to $1500/km²) in rural New York State – nearly the same rate as hiring a laborer to clear the same area.
To create potash, take an open-bottomed barrel, and place it on a stone base with a groove cut into it, which will direct the resulting liquid into another container. Then place a layer of straw at the bottom, covered by a layer of sticks. This filter layer will prevent the ashes from contaminating the solution. Then fill the barrel with wood-ashes and pour water over it. The water will leach out the potash into the receptacle. This product will be of variable quality. Historically, it was measured by seeing how high an egg would float in the solution. The liquid may be boiled away to give a black, impure potash.
If desired, the potash could be further refined by baking in a kiln to produce a less impure form of potassium carbonate, known as pearlash for its pearly white color. This step was commonly performed at a nearby ashery. The refined potash was in increasing demand in Europe for use in the production of glass and ceramic goods. American hardwoods, besides being more abundant, are said to have provided a higher yield of quality potash than European wood. In some parts, potash receipts became a common form of currency. Some settlers found potash production to be quite lucrative, resulting in faster deforestation than farming alone would have caused.
In 2005, Canada was the largest producer of potash with almost one-third world share followed by Russia and Belarus in Soligorsk, reports the British Geological Survey.
Natural potash deposits can also be mined. The world's largest potash producer is the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. Many other areas, however, have the resources for potash production. It should be noted that unlike other producers, Israel's Dead Sea Works and Jordan use solar evaporation pans in the Dead Sea to produce carnallite from which potassium chloride is produced.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
n. - potaske, kaliumkarbonat
Nederlands (Dutch)
kaliumhydroxide, kaliumzout, kalimest
Français (French)
n. - potasse
Deutsch (German)
n. - Pottasche, Kaliumkarbonat
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (χημ.) ποτάσα
Português (Portuguese)
n. - potassa (f) (Quím.)
Русский (Russian)
поташ, углекислый калий
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pottaska
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
碳酸钾, 苛性钾
中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 碳酸鉀, 苛性鉀
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) بوتاس,
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אשלג, אשלגן פחמתי
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Potash". Read more |
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