SC - period salt

[TG]

The differences between mined salt and salt evaporated from the sea
_might_ have reasons that are not so much chemical in nature but that
have to do with the different techniques involved. Jean-Claude Hocquet,
in his book about the history of salt, gives a vivid picture of the
different techniques to produce salt and of the considerable technical
problems involved. The basic trick is the same: NaCl has a different
saturation-point than the other kinds of salts (the impurities) in the
water. Now, it seems to me, that it was easier to control the
crystalization of the different salts in the process of boiling salt
than in the process of evaporating salt near the sea, where sun and wind
played a major role.

Hocquet says, that in the 15th and the 16th century boiled salt was of
superior quality and that some types of grey and impure sea salt were
boiled afterwards to improve their quality. In addition, he says that
the lothringian salt boilers were able to produce several kinds of
salt, all different in quality and graining, by varying the
parameters of the boiling process.

- -- Jean-Claude Hocquet: Weisses Gold. Das Salz und die Macht in Europa
von 800 bis 1800 [white gold; salt and power in Europe from 800 to
1800]. Stuttgart 1993. -- Includes a bibliography with exactly 500
titles on various aspects of the production, the use and the economics
of salt.

In case you don't read German, stick to the original ("Le sel et
le Pouvoir", Paris 1985) in French ... ;-) I don't know if the book was
translated into English.

Thomas