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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2003  > December  >
Chemistry for Everyone
Some History of Nitrates
Dennis W. Barnum
Department of Chemistry, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207-0751
Cover
December 2003
Vol. 80 No. 12
p. 1393
Abstract
The history of saltpeter is an interesting combination of chemistry, world trade, technology, politics, and warfare. Originally it was obtained from the dirt floors of stables, sheep pens, pigeon houses, caverns, and even peasants' cottages; any place manure and refuse accumulated in soil under dry conditions. When these sources became inadequate to meet demand it was manufactured on saltpeter plantations, located in dry climates, where piles of dirt, limestone, and manure were allowed to stand for three to five years while soil microbes oxidized the nitrogen to nitrate—an example of early bioengineering. Extensive deposits of sodium nitrate were mined in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile from 1830 until the mid 1920s when the mines were displaced by the Haber–Ostwald process.
More Information
*  Citation
 Barnum, Dennis W. J. Chem. Educ. 2003 80 1393.
*  Keywords
 Consumer Chemistry; Geochemistry; History / Philosophy; Inorganic Chemistry; Introductory / High School Chemistry; Public Understanding; Safety / Hazardous Substances
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 October 31, 2003
February 28, 2005
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