Since it is so hard to get potash from the land it has been suggested
that we harvest the sea. The experts of the United States Department of
Agriculture have placed high hopes in the kelp or giant seaweed which
floats in great masses in the Pacific Ocean not far off from the
California coast. This is harvested with ocean reapers run by gasoline
engines and brought in barges to the shore, where it may be dried and
used locally as a fertilizer or burned and the potassium chloride
leached out of the charcoal ashes. But it is hard to handle the bulky,
slimy seaweed cheaply enough to get out of it the small amount of potash
it contains. So efforts are now being made to get more out of the kelp
than the potash. Instead of burning the seaweed it is fermented in vats
producing acetic acid (vinegar). From the resulting liquid can be
obtained lime acetate, potassium chloride, potassium iodide, acetone,
ethyl acetate (used as a solvent for guncotton) and algin, a
gelatin-like gum.
PRODUCTION OF POTASH IN THE UNITED STATES
__________________________________________________________________________
| |
| 1916 | 1917
Source | Tons K_{2}O | Per cent.
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