Prepared by The Food Club’s Technical Department

Ordinary common salt has had a long and influential role in world history. From the dawn of civilisation, salt has been a key factor in economic, religious, social and political development. In every part of the world, salt has been the subject of superstition, folklore, warfare, used as currency, for preserving food and curing the sick. Rulers going back at least as far as the Chinese emperor Yu in 2200 BC have tried to control and tax it. Salt taxes helped finance empires throughout Europe and Asia, but also inspired a lively black market, smuggling rings, riots and even revolutions. Mahatma Gandhi used his historic "salt march" to Dandi in his political efforts to free India from British rule.

 

Only about five percent of the world's annual salt production ends up as seasoning at the dinner table. The vast majority, however is used in numerous commercial applications like manufacturing pulp and paper, setting dyes in textiles and fabric and producing soaps and detergents.

 

The word 'salt' apparently originates from the name of the town Es-Salt close to the Dead Sea. The salt mine on Dürrnberg Mountain near Hallein is one of the oldest centres of alpine salt production in the world. From the days of the Celts to the Salzburg Archbishops this salt brought them prosperity and was referred to as "White Gold".

All salts come from the sea which contains an estimated four-and-a-half million cubic miles of it. The oceans, which once covered the earth, have left a rich supply of salt beds and underground deposits and Kansas could supply the entire world's salt needs for the next 250,000 years

There are two basic methods for removing salt from the ground. Room-and-pillar mining and solution mining. In the former shafts are sunk into the ground and miners break up the rock salt with drills. This creates large rooms which are separated by pillars of salt to support the roof. In solution mining a well is drilled into the ground and water is pumped into hole. The water is then extracted and the brine evaporated in vacuum pans to form solid salt. The Romans collected saturated brine from natural springs in Cheshire but they evaporated it in open pans over a fire. This method of production continued in Cheshire through to the latter end of the 19^th Century.