īesides " Montepellusanus", during the thirteenth century (and beyond) the only supply of saltpeter across Christian Europe (according to "De Alchimia" in 3 manuscripts of Michael Scot, 1180–1236) was "found in Spain in Aragon in a certain mountain near the sea." : 89, 311 Operators then gathered the resulting powder and transported it to be concentrated by ebullition in the boiler plant. The process involved burial of excrements (human or animal) in a field beside the nitraries, watering them and waiting until leaching allowed saltpeter to come to the ground surface by efflorescence. Potassium nitrate is produced in a nitrary. Traditionally, guano was the source used in Laos for the manufacture of gunpowder for Bang Fai rockets. Extraction is accomplished by immersing the guano in water for a day, filtering, and harvesting the crystals in the filtered water. Major natural sources of potassium nitrate were the deposits crystallizing from cave walls and the accumulations of bat guano in caves. Īt least as far back as 1845, nitratite deposits were exploited in Chile and California. The terminology used by al-Rammah indicated the gunpowder he wrote about originated in China. This was used for the manufacture of gunpowder and explosive devices. In this book, al-Rammah describes first the purification of barud (crude saltpeter mineral) by boiling it with minimal water and using only the hot solution, then the use of potassium carbonate (in the form of wood ashes) to remove calcium and magnesium by precipitation of their carbonates from this solution, leaving a solution of purified potassium nitrate, which could then be dried. Saltpeter finds mention in Kautilya's Arthashastra (compiled 300BC - 300AD), which mentions using its poisonous smoke as a weapon of war, although its use for propulsion did not appear until medieval times.Ī purification process for potassium nitrate was outlined in 1270 by the chemist and engineer Hasan al-Rammah of Syria in his book al-Furusiyya wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya ( The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices). In Ancient India, saltpeter manufacturers formed the Nuniya caste. See also: Nitre § Availability From mineral sources It was called "Chinese salt" by the Iranians/Persians or "salt from Chinese salt marshes" ( Persian: نمک شوره چينی namak shūra chīnī). The Arabs called it "Chinese snow" ( Arabic: ثلج الصين thalj al-ṣīn). By the 15th century, Europeans referred to it as saltpetre, specifically Indian saltpetre (sodium nitrate is chile saltpetre) and later as nitrate of potash, as the chemistry of the compound was more fully understood. Thence Old French had niter and Middle English nitre. Hebrew and Egyptian words for it had the consonants n-t-r, indicating likely cognation in the Greek nitron, which was Latinised to nitrum or nitrium. Potassium nitrate, because of its early and global use and production, has many names.
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