Laist
Werklaist or Laist is the name given to residues of clay minerals in Austrian salt mining, which arise during the leaching of the salt deposit - the Haselgebirge.
Emergence
Due to the unfolding of the Alps , the original sub-parallel stratification of the sediments was lost and a rubble made of anhydrite , clay minerals , sandstone and marl , the so-called Hasel Mountains , formed, cemented by the rock salt . The alpine salt deposits created in this way are leached with the help of water that is brought into cavities - so-called lye works . This process creates an aqueous salt solution, the brine , on the one hand, and the water-insoluble components of the Hasel Mountains sink to the bottom of the liquor on the other. These form a muddy mass there, the Werklaist. After the brine has been drained, the lye is cleaned and the laist is removed from the lye.
use
Mining
Until the middle of the 20th century, the Werklaist was used on the one hand as a sealing material for damming the caustic solution underground, and on the other hand, it was deposited underground or above ground.
Medical application
The dried and finely ground Werklaist also provided the basic material for the mud baths and mud packs that were used in the Bad Ischler Kurmittelhaus . Werklaist is recommended by alternative medicine as a therapy for psoriasis or neurodermatitis .
literature
- Alois Fellner: Miner's manual dictionary for technical terms in the salt mining and brewing industry. Vienna 1999.
- Ferdinand Scheminzky: The natural healing treasures of Bad Ischl, in: Das Heilbad Bad Ischl. Vienna 1955, p. 31.
- Carl von Scheuchenstuel : Idioticon of the Austrian mountain and hut language. Vienna 1856, p. 153.