Potash is potassium carbonate — one of the types of salts known to people since ancient times. The word “potash” is a combination of the German words “pot” and “asche”, which can be translated as “pot ash” or “ash boiled in a pot”. In medieval Europe (Germany, Poland, Holland, England), potash was used to make soap, gunpowder, and glass, including optical and crystal glass. Nowadays, potash is used as an agricultural fertilizer, a food additive, a fire extinguishing agent, a building material, a dye, and a photographic developer.
Wood ash was the first source of potash, and Russia, which has always been rich in forests, ranked first in the world in its production and quality. The Russian manufacture of potash from the ashes of trees and plants was in place since the 15th century. Potash began to be mass-produced by the boyar Boris Morozov in his estates in Nizhny Novgorod, received from Tsar Alexis Romanov. About 6,000 peasants worked at the Morozov potash factories that supplied over 50% of all Russian potash. The town of Sergach became the center of potash production in Russia.
Potash was produced in several stages. Workers burnt firewood into ashes, which were then poured into wooden troughs and mixed with water to obtain lye. The resulting lye was filtered through a layer of straw at the bottom of the trough and then through a chute it went into another large trough. After that, the furnace was filled with dry oak firewood, which was lit and fused with potash lye. Gradually, the contents evaporated the lye, and the potash sediment at the bottom of the furnace was broken into pieces and loaded into barrels. The whole process took about two weeks.
There is also another method: a paste, made from the ashes, was used to coat pine or spruce logs, which were then put into a fire. Potash was obtained from the resulting ash. In any case, potash production was hard work, since the working day could last up to 14 hours. According to the Nizhny Novgorod legend, those who were taken on carts to potash factories were carefully guarded by streltsy (Russian firearm infantry). At present, potash is obtained by a chemical method without deforestation and exhausting physical labor.
Wood ash was the first source of potash, and Russia, which has always been rich in forests, ranked first in the world in its production and quality. The Russian manufacture of potash from the ashes of trees and plants was in place since the 15th century. Potash began to be mass-produced by the boyar Boris Morozov in his estates in Nizhny Novgorod, received from Tsar Alexis Romanov. About 6,000 peasants worked at the Morozov potash factories that supplied over 50% of all Russian potash. The town of Sergach became the center of potash production in Russia.
Potash was produced in several stages. Workers burnt firewood into ashes, which were then poured into wooden troughs and mixed with water to obtain lye. The resulting lye was filtered through a layer of straw at the bottom of the trough and then through a chute it went into another large trough. After that, the furnace was filled with dry oak firewood, which was lit and fused with potash lye. Gradually, the contents evaporated the lye, and the potash sediment at the bottom of the furnace was broken into pieces and loaded into barrels. The whole process took about two weeks.
There is also another method: a paste, made from the ashes, was used to coat pine or spruce logs, which were then put into a fire. Potash was obtained from the resulting ash. In any case, potash production was hard work, since the working day could last up to 14 hours. According to the Nizhny Novgorod legend, those who were taken on carts to potash factories were carefully guarded by streltsy (Russian firearm infantry). At present, potash is obtained by a chemical method without deforestation and exhausting physical labor.
