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Saltpeter Mine Ruins in Mammoth Cave. The process involved burial of excrements (human or animal) in the fields prepared for that purpose beside the nitraries, watering them and waiting until the leaching process did its job; after a certain time, operators gathered the saltpeter that "came out" to the ground surface by efflorescence.
This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile) [4] [5] to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate. The mineral form is also known as nitratine, nitratite or soda niter. Sodium nitrate is a white deliquescent solid very soluble in water.
The use of Nitratine or Chilean Saltpeter once an important source of nitrates for fertilizer and other chemical uses including gunpowder and fireworks.. The commencement of the export of nitrates to the Europe and the US in the 1830s marked the most important milestone in the history of the nitrate industry and brought consequences for the economies of the three countries sharing the Atacama ...
Companies were mining saltpeter in the region by the early 1800s. When Charles Darwin visited during his voyage on the HMS Beagle in 1835, he dismissed the Chilean version of saltpeter. "This ...
In 1913 Santa Laura halted its production until the Shanks extraction process was introduced, which enhanced productivity. However the economic model collapsed during the Great Depression of 1929 because of the development of the synthesis of ammonia by the Germans Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch , which led to the industrial production of fertilizers.
Aqua fortis /spirit of nitre – nitric acid, formed by 2 parts saltpetre in 1 part (pure) oil of vitriol (sulfuric acid). (Historically, this process could not have been used, as 98% oil of vitriol was not available.) Aqua ragia /spirit of turpentine/oil of turpentine/gum turpentine – turpentine, formed by the distillation of pine tree resin.
The Act establishing the Nitre and Mining Bureau by the Confederate Congress stated: "That said bureau shall consist of one lieutenant colonel as superintendent, three majors as assistant superintendents, six captains and ten lieutenants, in which shall be included the officers of the present nitre corps, who shall have the same pay and allowances prescribed for officers of cavalry of the same ...
Kingston Saltpeter Cave is the largest cave in Bartow County, Georgia, United States. It was formerly used as a source of saltpeter , the critical oxidizing component of gunpowder , by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865).