Inspired by this quote from the “Retaliatory Tariffs” thread in Politics and Elections:
I’d read about potash in my geography textbooks in fifth grade, but I never got a clear idea of what it IS. I guess about fifty years or so ago, I decided that it was a fancy jargonalicious name for potassium. Please, can someone save me a trip to Wikipedia? I don’t have much appetite for another round of “WIKIPEDIA IS NOT FOR SALE” pledge requests. Not today.
TIA
ETA: Do a good job with this, and next week I might* ask y’all to explain gutta percha to me.
Potash is a mineral, potassium chloride (KCl), that is extremely important for artificial fertilisers. The province of Saskatchewan has some of the leading potash reserves in the world, and mines it for use by the fertiliser industry.
The name apparently comes from early alchemist / proto-chemists who found that some of their experiments left an ash-like substance in their beakers and pots, which was later identified as KCl. They called it “pot ash”.
Canada is one of the major sources of potash for the US fertiliser industry.
It has thus become a potential flashpoint in the ongoing threats by Trump to impose major tariffs on Canada, and possible Canadian retaliations.
Not having access to potash could cause major supply chain issues for US fertiliser companies, and then potentially for US agriculture generally.
(Won’t go farther than that here, just mention this to put it in the current factual context and why it’s in the news.)
ETA: won’t send you to wikipedia, but you may find this short fact sheet by the Government of Canada helpful.
Gutta percha is a high-quality latex from gutta percha trees. I remember first hearing of it about 30 or more years ago in a book about the Pony Express. Something along the lines of ‘The rider put the letters into a gutta percha pouch.’ There were other mentions in the book as well, and I got the impression it was used for waterproofing. I don’t know what it’s used for today.
Not unless you used my class’s geography textbook in 1967. It was another mysterious substance that was a major export of some non-USA country. I did learn that it was used as the outer covering for golf balls.
I thought gutta percha was used to waterproof between the planks of wooden vessels. I didn’t have a clue about potash, I thought it might be what you have to clean out of your bongs from time to time.
Sorry for the total highjack, but I just want to mention that you can go to Preferences → Banners and disable fundraising banners so you’ll never see them again. I think you need to have an account to do this, but having an account has many advantages in terms of configurability, anonymity, etc, especially if you ever edit.
Even that is understating it; without imports of potash, our ability to produce fertilizers for industrial agriculture is severely curtailed. Although the United States is is the ninth largest potash producer, we produce a pittance of what Canada (and Russia, China, and Belarus, collectively the top four producers) mines, and while there are other ways to extract potassium salts from sea water and brine deposits, it is not economically feasible to do at scale and certainly not without building massive industrial plants. Potash is also used in various industrial products.
Gutta-percha was in broad use as a compliant waterproof coating, insulator, medical device material, and for various other uses that today are done with synthetic polymers. It’s most important technological use was to insulate underwater transatlantic cables and in other early electrical insulation applications. It was a major factor in European interest in Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippines in the late 19th and early- to mid-20th century.
As a train fan, I learned about potash, and its uses, from seeing the iconic train cars from the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan moving through the U.S.
Gutta percha was used to make golf balls in the latter half of the 19th century; I’m not sure exactly when it got phased out, but I don’t believe it’s used in golf balls at all today.
That’s exactly what I was going to post, @blondebear
In Moab, UT, Potash Road is a scenic drive along the Colorado River that takes you right to Thelma and Louise Point. That’s where they drove their green 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible off of the cliff at the end of the movie.
Google Maps has the place marked, or it is at DD coordinates ▲ 38.452, -109.734. Punch those numbers into a map (remember the comma and minus sign) and it’ll take you right there.
Along the drive to Thelma and Louise Point from the city of Moab you drive past some potash pools (again, on Potash Road) and they sometimes have some beautiful colors. At some points on that road you are right next to the potash pools.
As I heard it, if you gather brackens (ferns) , put them in a pot, and burn them, the ash left in the pot is potash. It’s good for making soft soap.
Gutta percha is a plastic fried from tree sap. It’s still sold in toothpick sized tapers called “points”. I just got some Gutta percha points on Amazon to play with.
Potash is named from the early process of burning wood in a pot to produce potassium rich ashes. The name of the element potassium is based on its original source, potash.
