[Terrapreta] Pee AKA human urine

[Michael Bailes]

What an endlessly fascinating subject.:)

By now Freud would be beginning to wonder about us.
 I wonder what fixation he would call it?

My 2c worth
1) Early Chinese gunpowder makers got their saltpetre from boiling pig
manure & urine and then cooling it to make saltpetre crystals
Apparently licking the mixture checked the crystals for unwanted salt.
Now there is a job that  must rank in the world's worst occupations.
"How was work today dear?".

1a)
In June 1642 the General Court of Massachusetts ordered every town to erect
a shed and "make saltpeter from urine of men, beastes, goates, hennes, hogs
and horses dung.".

2) Until the 1950's pregnancy was diagnosed by injecting urine into mice.
 If the urine contained a pregnancy hormone, the animal would ovulate. (from
hypography)

3) "Where does saltpeter come from naturally ? I read a beatiful piece the
other day that said that one way to make it is to add potassium carbonate
solution (potash) to a compost heap / dung heap and collect the filtrate.

The argument goes that calcium in the heap sequesters the carbonate as
limestone (CaCO3) whilst the soluble nitrates leach out as KNO3 and can be
collected and crystallised."
(Stolen from here
http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=610)
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