Nitric boiler
Salpetersieder (also Saliterer, Salvaiter or Salpeterer ) is the (historical) designation of a profession that with the introduction of gunpowder large military gained importance because Salpetersieder necessary for producing the powder saltpeter (the Saliter, more potassium nitrate or the raw material of lime ) collected and procured.
In addition, the rebels of the saltpeter riots in the southern Baden region of Hotzenwald are referred to as "saltpeter". The name is derived from the leaders who once practiced the profession. However, this naming came about through history in the early 19th century.
Saltpetre extraction
Wall nitrate was extracted from the ground and from the walls of stables and houses because it was formed there from the lime in the soil and the nitrogenous excrement and urine of animals and people.
To obtain potash nitrate, the soil was dug, potash was added and washed out, whereby calcium carbonate precipitated and remained. A saline solution with potassium nitrate was obtained. This was obtained as a saturated solution by evaporation or boiling . Since potash nitrate dissolves much better in hot water than in cold water compared to many other salts , the desired saltpetre crystallizes first when it cools. By repeating this recrystallization , the desired purity was obtained.
Often the Mauersalpeter was also by scraping of mud walls extracted from mines which of the coulure of urine were used (see composting toilet ).
The scarcity of nitrogen as a resource in the pre-fossil economy meant that saltpeter boiling was a non-sedentary profession. The saltpeterer had to wander through the country from village to village and rummage through the farmers' properties with the authority of the sovereigns . He was allowed to tear up the floors of rooms and chambers, break out pieces of wall, saw off beams and take away the parts containing nitrous. In his hut he boiled the salty earth in a brewing pan with potash and separated the potassium nitrate. This was filled into sacks, delivered to the caretaker, and from there it was sent to the royal seat in collective posts.
Some saltpeter boilers (or saltpeter graves) also won their product in saltpeter gardens, in which, similar to the guano deposits by the sea, the raw materials for the saltpeter, i.e. animal waste etc. as well as lime were piled up. Even mass graves on historical battlefields were later used by saltpeter boilers and can therefore in some cases hardly be examined by archeology .
The profession of nitric salt lost its importance when large natural deposits of sodium nitrate in Chile and guano were discovered on the cliffs of the South Pacific in 1820 .
In the local history museum in Görwihl , an old saltpeter boiler is reproduced.
Saltpetre as a plague
Because of their approach, saltpetre boilers were viewed as a nuisance. For their part, however, they were contractually obliged to deliver a certain minimum amount of saltpetre to the sovereign. There was no way for those affected to protect themselves from the Salitarian, unless one kept him at bay by donating money. Countless complaints about the ruthless action of the Salitans only led to an order in the Electorate of Bavaria in 1798, which brought relief to the nobles and pastors.
See also
- Saltpeter War in present-day Peru from 1879 to 1884
- Saltpeter ride
- Ash burner
literature
- Christian Lebrecht Rösling: About Potash and Saltpeter Siedery. Two treatises in which one finds partly improved, partly completely new plants, and gives instructions for the calculation of the investment costs and the yield . Palm, Erlangen 1806.
- Heinrich Hansjakob : The Saltpeterer, a political-religious sect in the south-eastern Black Forest. Zimmermann, Waldshut 1867.
- Otto Gruber : German farm and arable bourgeois houses. A structural research on the history of the German house. Braun, Karlsruhe 1926; Reprint: Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1981, ISBN 3-8067-0865-7 .
- Günther Haselier: History of the Hotzenwald. Schauenburg, Lahr 1973 DNB 730 096 254 .
- Thomas Lehner (Ed.): The Saltpeterer. "Free people who are not subject to any authority on the Hotzenwald". Wagenbach , Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-8031-2036-5 , 124 pp., Ill., Sheet music examples.
- Emil Müller-Ettikon: The saltpeter. History of a struggle for freedom in the southern Black Forest. Schillinger, Freiburg im Breisgau 1979, ISBN 3-921340-42-X .
- Rudolf Metz: Geological regional studies of the Hotzenwald. With excursions, especially in its old mining areas. Schauenburg, Lahr 1980, ISBN 3-7946-0174-2 .
- AR Williams: The production of saltpetre in the middle ages. In: Ambix. Volume 22, No. 2, 1975, pp. 125-133.
- Jens Soentgen: The blood baptism of the saltpetre: About the pre-industrial production of a power substance. In: Gerhard Ertl, Jens Soentgen: N. Nitrogen - An element writes world history. Munich: oekom 2015, ISBN 978-3-86581-736-5 , pp. 79-100.
- Jens Soentgen: Explosives from the pigsty. Youtube video about the production of saltpetre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxM64N58HVE
Individual evidence
- ^ Association for history, culture and regional studies in Hohenzollern in connection with the Hohenzollern teachers (ed.): Hohenzollern homeland . Quarterly papers for school and home. No. 2 . Gammertingen 1964, p. 28 .
