Dictionary:
pot·ash (pŏt'ăsh')  |
[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).]
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For more information on potash, visit Britannica.com.
| US History Encyclopedia: Potash |
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.
| Gardener's Dictionary: potash |
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.
| Wikipedia: Potash |
Potash is the common name given to potassium carbonate and various mined and manufactured salts that contain the element potassium in water-soluble form.[1]
Potash has been used since antiquity in the manufacture of glass, soap, and soil fertilizer. Potash is important for agriculture because it improves water retention, yield, nutrient value, taste, colour, texture and disease resistance of food crops. It has wide application to fruit and vegetables, rice, wheat and other grains, sugar, corn, soybeans, palm oil and cotton, all of which benefit from the nutrient’s quality enhancing properties.[2]
The name derives from the old method of making potassium carbonate by leaching wood ashes and evaporating the solutions collected in large iron pots, leaving a white residue called "pot ash". Later, "potash" became the term widely applied to naturally occurring potassium salts and the commercial product derived from them.[3]
To further confuse the terminology, potash imports/exports etc. are reported in 'K2O' equivalent, although fertilizer never contains potassium oxide, per se, because potassium oxide is caustic and so highly reactive that it must be stored under kerosene, as with metallic potassium.
The following table lists a number of potassium compounds which use the word potash in their traditional names:
| Common name | Chemical name | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Permanganate of potash | potassium permanganate | KMnO4 |
Contents |
Since the 14th century, potash was widely produced by Ethiopia. It was their number one export up until the 20th century; however after the Ethiopian War against Kenya it became irrelevant. Potash was one of the most important industrial chemicals in Canada. 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."[4]
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.
During the Civil Rights era in the United States, Caustic Potash was often used as a weapon by African Americans. It was typically used on other African Americans accused of consorting with the whites, or being an "Uncle Tom"... The bleaching action of the lye would burn the skin and remove pigment, leaving the victim white after the burns healed. Availability of Caustic Potash to the general public was heavily curtailed in the 1970s, as a result of increasing instances of its use in this manner.[citation needed]
Potash along with hartshorn was also used as a baking aid similar to baking soda in old German baked goods such as Lebkuchen (ginger bread).
In 2005, Canada was the largest producer of potash with almost one-fourth of the world share followed by Russia and Belarus in Soligorsk, reports the British Geological Survey. The most significant reserve of Canada's potash is located in the province of Saskatchewan and controlled by the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.[5][6]
Unlike other producers, Israel's Dead Sea Works and Jordan's Arab Potash Company 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)
| Translations: Potash |
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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Copyrights:
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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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| US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. 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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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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