Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Sunday for Monday
A six parter today.
On July 31, 1790, George Washington (President), Thomas Jefferson (Secretary of State), and Edmund Randolph (Attorney General) signed a document. What was it?
Who was the person to receive the document?
What did their action have to do with the number 19?
What was the link between what happened and Ethan Allen of Vermont?
What did it have to do with the 18th century term �black gold�?
How did bat guano figure in?
Re: Sunday for Monday
Possibly something to do with a large chemical company once (and maybe still) based in Delaware? Also sulfur and charcoal.
Fred
Under clear skies in Eastern Missouri
Re: What was it? = 1st of XXXXXX
Thinking of burning wood, here. Thanks for the question
Frederick definitely
knows the product. He also figured out the bat guano link. The Documet, Ethan Allen and 19. May still be up for association.
Dale gets star for the
document. He pretty can name the item. The rest is hint "filler".
Monday answer
Congrats to the two winners.
The signers gave patent number 1 to Samuel Hopkins, Pittsford, Vermont, for his improved method to make pot ash and pearl ash (pearl ash is a more pure form). He took burned ashes and reburned them and made a better product. He also �recycled� ashes to improve the next batch, thereby making it much purer owing to the firing and refiring. To get a license to use his furnace one had to pay $50 or a half ton of potash, AND $150 more, or a ton of potash over five years. (This was the first issued patent, but not the first patent. That's because the government issued 9,957 patents before starting a numbering system. If counting those, U.S. Patent No. 1 went to John Ruggles of Maine for a traction wheel for steam locomotives. Ruggles happened to be chairman of the Senate Committee on Patents.
Number 19 was a clue to find Potassium on the Periodic Chart of Elements and the name was derived from Potash. Highly alkali it can burn skin. By the way Al qalyah is an Arabic word meaning plant ashes. Also Al qaliy (calcined ashes).
Ethan Allen is associated today with furniture stores but in real life he, with his brothers, owned an iron works and made the thick walled kettles to make potash (potassium carbonate).
Black gold was the name given to potash as it was a highly sought after commodity. It was used for making soap (used especially to wash wool before being woven), dyeing fabric, baking, gunpowder, china, and fertilizer. It depended on the hardwood forests of the Northeast that were being cleared for homes and the ashes of the timber in the slash and burn used by the pioneers paid for many of the other items required to build and set up a home. Forty pounds of (very light in weight) potash fetched $4 (nearly $100 today), and the trees were �endless�. Potash was the vehicle that paid the taxes on property, and bushels of it were accepted at country stores for merchandise from tools to clothes and food. This bartering and cash alternative set all sorts of precedents for U.S. industry.
Bat guano was a source for Nitrogen and the Dupont�s made a nice living in Delaware as the nation�s chemist using it and potash to make gunpowder.
Eventually the forests gave out and the rest of the world found other sources. Germany, Poland, Russia, France are all players in the world economy