Ashes to Potashes: Pearl Ash & Expansion

Ashes to Potashes: Pearl Ash & Expansion

Pot Ashes and Pearl Ashes - also known as Potash - is another term for potassium carbonate, especially from wood ashes.  This potassium or potassium compound being often employed in agriculture or industrially and was often used as a leavening agent in breads before the creation of baking powder.
   Samuel Hopkins was granted U.S. Patent No. X1 in July of 1790 for his process to manufacture Potash.  This substance was America’s first industrial chemical. It is an impure form of potassium carbonate mixed with other potassium salts. Until the 1860s it was solely     derived from the ashes of hardwood trees and other plants. Potash was a leading industrial alkali from       antiquity until the close of the nineteenth century, when it was finally abandoned for most uses in favor of soda (sodium carbonate). It was essential for making soap and glass, dyeing fabrics, baking, and making saltpeter for gunpowder. Today it is principal ingredient in fertilizers.   In the late 18th and early 19th-century, its production provided settlers a way to make badly needed cash and credit as they cleared their wooded acreage for crops. To make full use of their new land, excess wood, including stumps, needed to be removed. The  easiest way to accomplish this was to burn any wood not  needed for heat, cooking or building. Ashes from hardwood trees were used to produce lye (potassium hydroxide), which was in turn used to make soap or boiled down to produce potash.
   Hardwood could generate ashes at the rate of about 60 to 100 bushels per acre.  In the decade following the granting of Hopkin’s patent, ashes could be sold for about $3.25 to $6.25 per acre* in rural New York State - nearly the same amount as hiring a laborer to clear the same area.

   The refined potash was in an increasing demand in Europe.  They sought the compound for use in the   production of glass and ceramic goods. American    hardwoods, besides being more abundant, are said to have provided a higher yield and quality potash than  European wood. In some parts, potash receipts became a common form of currency. Some settlers found potash production to be quite lucrative.  After about 1820, New York replaced New England as the most important source; by 1840 the center was in Ohio.  Unfortunately, this approach to generating fast cash increased the pace of deforestation, adversely affecting the wildlife and ecosystems of those areas.   Today “potash” is most commonly mined where it was deposited by sea water in ancient inland oceans. After the water evaporated, the potassium salts crystallized into beds of potash ore. Often those deposits are a   naturally occurring mixture of potassium chloride and sodium chloride, more commonly known as table salt. In processing plants, the potassium chloride is separated from the mixture to produce potassium fertilizer. Other potassium salts can be separated by various methods, resulting in potassium sulfate and potassium-magnesium sulfate.  Today, Canada is the largest producer of this form of “potash.”
   The ancient uses of this compound still exist and in some cases those have evolved to where it is used in aluminum recycling, to produce potassium hydroxide, in metal electroplating, oil-well drilling fluid, snow and ice melting, steel heat-treating, in medicines and treatments, and water softening. Many other potassic chemicals are derived such as those for soap manufacturing, animal feed supplements, cement, fire extinguishers, food products, photographic chemicals, and textiles. These non-fertilizer uses have accounted for about 15% of annual potash consumption in the United States.

 

*roughly $65 to $125 in today’s value

**This article was originally published in the Winter 2019 Friends of Schoharie Crossing Newsletter.

The Passage of Time - Call for Photographs!

A CALL FOR ART IS OUT!

"The Passage of Time: Images of Schoharie Crossing" is the theme for our 2019 Art Exhibit inside the Enders House at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site.

We are putting out this call for photo submissions.  Please check out the informational flyer we have provided in these images and to find out the entry details, follow the link or click below:

2019 Friends Membership Appeal

It is that time of year again and we are looking for renewed memberships as well as some new names and faces!

Come join the Friends of Schoharie Crossing!  Your support and efforts provide a great deal of help to the site in providing wonderful programs, events, opportunities and more!  Your work and your dollars help to provide lasting memories for all visitors to the site!

2019 will be a banner year for the site. The *new* Pathway to Empire exhibit has been opened and there are several wonderful projects happening around the site to really elevate its status.  The remains of the Schoharie Creek Aqueduct are on the Preservation League of NYS Seven to Save List and we are adding some amazing new programs to our event calendar.  In addition to all of this, the site continues with their annual favorites such as Canal Days, the Not Just for Kids Storytelling series, Putman Porch Music, and Wildlife Wednesdays.  Your contribution and membership helps to support these programs - as just about everything that occurs at the site is offered FREE to the public.  

Please print this out, complete it and mail the top portion to us at:

The Friends of Schoharie Crossing

PO Box 140

Fort Hunter, NY 12069

USA

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Take a look back at our 2018 Newsletters by clicking HERE!

A Year in Review

Greetings everyone!

We have compiled the Friends of Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site 2018 Newsletters for your reading enjoyment! These quarterly publications are meant to share information about special projects or programs occurring at the site as well as report on anything that may impact the site or the narrative that they provide regarding the history of the Mohawk Valley, the Erie Canal, and the colonial era Fort Hunter and Mohawk Village that once stood at the confluence of the Schoharie Creek and Mohawk River.  

Please enjoy and please share with your friends and family.  Leave comments below.   -Thank You!

WINTER 2018 Friends of Schoharie Crossing Newsletter:

SPRING 2018 Friends of Schoharie Crossing Newsletter:

SUMMER 2018 Friends of Schoharie Crossing Newsletter:

AUTUMN 2018 Friends of Schoharie Crossing Newsletter:

Want to become a member? Find out more by clicking HERE <>

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