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A saltpetre works or nitrary [1] is a place of production of potassium nitrate or saltpetre used primarily for the manufacture of gunpowder. The saltpeter occurs naturally in certain places like the "Caves of Salnitre" ( Collbató ) known since the Neolithic.
In 1872, the Guillermo Wendell Nitrate Extraction Company founded the saltpeter works of Santa Laura, while the region was still a part of Peru. In the same year, James Thomas Humberstone founded the "Peru Nitrate Company", establishing the works of "La Palma". Both works grew quickly, becoming busy towns characterized by English-style buildings.
The saltpeter works at Humberstone and Santa Laura quickly adopted the new technology. Juan Tapia holds a photograph of the former Santa Laura nitrate processing plant in 2005. Ivan Alvarado/Reuters
María Elena saltpetre works. The María Elena nitrate plant is the last nitrate works still in operation in the world. It was initially named Coya Norte, but was renamed María Elena (after his wife Mary Ellen Condon) [1] by its founder Elias Anton Cappelen Smith.
Founded in 1924 by the Lautaro Nitrate Company Ltd., Chacabuco soon fell into ruin as the nitrate mining boom in Chile came to an abrupt halt at the end of the 1930s. Synthetic nitrate had been invented in Germany at the turn of the 20th century and by the 1930s and 40s had severely crippled northern Chile's nitrate industry.
Developed for the extraction of saltpeter, it is a Chilean National Monument and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site designated as Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] History
View of Humberstone, a saltpetre work from the Saltpetre Republic epoch. It was during this context of economic crisis that Chile became involved the costly War of the Pacific (1879–1883) seizing control of mineral-rich provinces of Peru and Bolivia. The notion that Chile entered the war to obtain economical gains has been a topic of debate ...
James Thomas Humberstone (8 July 1850 – 12 June 1939) was an English chemical engineer.In 1872, he founded the Peru Nitrate Company to extract saltpetre in the Tarapacá Province of Peru (now part of the Tarapacá Region of Chile).