Wouldn't salt have been really easy to make? (historical)

[Una_Persson]

@Finagle

I’m not doubting your math, but that makes obtaining salt seem pretty easy. A kilogram of salt goes a pretty long way, and 15kg of wood is only an armful or so of wood.

What’s not included is that the effciency of an open fire, or even a cauldron over a dedicated fireplace, as made pre-Industrial Revolution, is frighteningly low. Efficiency varies greatly depending upon conditions, but can be as low as 1-3% (I’d guess a good range for real, dedicated conditions pre-IR is between 5-15%, but I’m on the road and away from my library…) That would change the economics quite a bit.

[CalMeacham]

Our Inorganic Chem teacher in college told us that one reason for the historical importance of the Spanish salt industry in industrial times was that in northern countries you can’t just use the Spanish method of creating saltwater pools and letting them dry up: they’d boil water in copper cauldrons.

The salt obtained that way had a high copper content (chloride is quite good at eating up metals), so when used on fish the fish ended up going green, which in turn made housewives go YUCK. Sun-dried salt didn’t have the copper, so the fishing industry started importing it.

While I don’t have an actual web-based quote, I have seen the saltwater pools. I used to work for the company that currently owns Morton Salt and was quite shocked to find out that they didn’t sun-dry salt but much of it is mined. Mined? Gosh…

I’m confused by this. Morton Salt owns land near the Salt Lake in Utah, and it’s my understanding that they do use the create-a-pool-and-sundry it method (although why isn’t clear – there’s plenty of already-crystallized salt on the GSL. Maybe it’s some restriction on messing with the salt flats). The drying method works fine, and Utah that far north has about the same climate as Masachusetts, which is colder, in general, than England. As long as you get enough sunlight, you ought to be able to sun-dry seawater into salt in much of “Northern” Europe.

[Harmonious_Discord]

On one of the urban explorer sites they had pictures off a salt extraction bore. Under the plant was a hollowed out stone chamber. Two tunnels about 30 inches wide and high were excavated straight out from the chamber. They used some conveyor mechanical digger system.

[R.P.McMurphy]

There is a large salt mine under Detroit.

Detroit Salt Mine

Back in the “good old days” when cars used to rust out in a few years (especially in the Michigan climate), it was always suspected that the auto makers were giving away the salt to the highway department. It was a Detroit “endless cycle” conspiracy.

[Cervaise]

@silenus

Salt by Mark Kurlansky goes into more detail than you can imagine about this. A fascinating read.

I third the recommendation. Everything you could possibly want to know about the subject (unless you’re like a technical expert in the field or something). And really, really well-written, too. Go get it. What are you waiting for?

[Derleth]

@MagicXylophone

I’ve read ever since middle school about how the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, etc. all used salt as a form of currency.

If anyone has a cite for that, show it off here.

[Finagle]

@CalMeacham

Utah that far north has about the same climate as Masachusetts, which is colder, in general, than England.

Climate? Maybe they get the same amount of sunlight, but my impression was that Utah was much, much drier than Massachusetts. Actually, I checked it out and Mass looks like it gets about four times the precipitation of most of Utah. I’m thinking that if you want to dry salt, a desert is a better place to do it than a rainy temperate coast line.

And while England may be warmer that Massachusetts, that’s because of ocean currents. England is far enough north so that solar radiation would be noticeably less most of the year.