Here’s a riddle. There was a product in the seventeenth century that was universally considered a necessity as important as grain and fuel. Controlling the source of this product was one of the first priorities for many a military campaign, and sometimes even a motivation for starting a war. Improvements to the preparation and uses of this product would have increased population size and would have had a general and noticeable impact on people’s living standards. And this product underwent dramatic changes in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, becoming an obsession for many inventors and industrialists, while seemingly not featuring in many estimates of historical economic output or growth at all.
Very, very good! The contours of European states as a web of salt arbitrage is really cool.
The mechanics of sweat are backwards: the body heats up, dumps heat by turning water into water vapor in the lungs and expels it, runs low on water, then emits salty sweat to compensate.
The physics are: a calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise 1ml of water 1 degree celcius. From -1 C to 0 C of ice is 1 calorie. From 0 C ice to 0 C water is 80 calories. Eighty. From 0 C water to 100 C water is (roughly) 100 calories. From 100 C water to 100 C steam is 540 calories. Five hundred and forty. So, turning water into steam inside the lungs is a very effective technique for dumping heat! And conversely, when steam hits your flesh a little of it condenses and dumps a lot of thermal units in all directions but partially into your flesh, which is why steam burns hurt so much.
You turned a humdrum topic into a fascinating story - had me hooked right from the start! Any author worth his salt can captivate a reader with tales of derring-do, but to do so with a pantry staple? Incredibly talented story telling!
I read Salt last year and thought it was incredibly interesting. My takeaway was that if you look at any specific commodity (or concept or philosophy) narrowly, you can convince people that it's the driving force behind the development of human history. I'm glad the author didn't try to make that case (as in Guns, Germs, and Steel for example), because a broader understanding of history shows many complex and overlapping forces leading to change.
Sorry to come so late to this. I worked in a salt operation (Lake Macleod) for 4 years, and it was an endlessly fascinating process. Love to read this type of history, and going to have to find Part II!
There's a salt mine not too far from where I live. A couple decades back they had a collapse that registered as a small earthquake. It took them a while to get back into production. Consequently, the driving was worse in the winter because the salt put down to keep the roads from getting too slippery was too expensive. Local town budgets for dealing with winter exploded. It was a serious problem.
This is of incomparable depth and insight, a highlight on the platform
Fascinating. I look forward to part 2.
I am going to put a 50ib bag of salt in my emergency supply kit as a tradegood.
I did some water fasts some years ago and salt is absolutely a necessity. One can function without food but not without salt.
Very, very good! The contours of European states as a web of salt arbitrage is really cool.
The mechanics of sweat are backwards: the body heats up, dumps heat by turning water into water vapor in the lungs and expels it, runs low on water, then emits salty sweat to compensate.
The physics are: a calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise 1ml of water 1 degree celcius. From -1 C to 0 C of ice is 1 calorie. From 0 C ice to 0 C water is 80 calories. Eighty. From 0 C water to 100 C water is (roughly) 100 calories. From 100 C water to 100 C steam is 540 calories. Five hundred and forty. So, turning water into steam inside the lungs is a very effective technique for dumping heat! And conversely, when steam hits your flesh a little of it condenses and dumps a lot of thermal units in all directions but partially into your flesh, which is why steam burns hurt so much.
Cheers!
You turned a humdrum topic into a fascinating story - had me hooked right from the start! Any author worth his salt can captivate a reader with tales of derring-do, but to do so with a pantry staple? Incredibly talented story telling!
I read Salt last year and thought it was incredibly interesting. My takeaway was that if you look at any specific commodity (or concept or philosophy) narrowly, you can convince people that it's the driving force behind the development of human history. I'm glad the author didn't try to make that case (as in Guns, Germs, and Steel for example), because a broader understanding of history shows many complex and overlapping forces leading to change.
Sorry to come so late to this. I worked in a salt operation (Lake Macleod) for 4 years, and it was an endlessly fascinating process. Love to read this type of history, and going to have to find Part II!
There's a salt mine not too far from where I live. A couple decades back they had a collapse that registered as a small earthquake. It took them a while to get back into production. Consequently, the driving was worse in the winter because the salt put down to keep the roads from getting too slippery was too expensive. Local town budgets for dealing with winter exploded. It was a serious problem.