[Terrapreta] "piss"

[David Yarrow]

thank you michael for the historical cultural perspective.  seems thar's gold in that thar yellow urine.  makes good ammunition, too, ya say?  mskes yer shot hot, does it?  must be why it's so good for soil and plants, too.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Bailes 
  To: Terrapreta 
  Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 1:15 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Pee AKA human urine


  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 (CaCO 3) 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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