Random potassium trivia: Pot ash manufacturing was an extremely important industry in many countries worldwide from the 1400s-1800s, and potash a highly valuab

Random potassium trivia: Pot ash manufacturing was an extremely important industry in many countries worldwide from the 1400s-1800s, and potash a highly valuable trade commodity. Mainly for it's use in agriculture as a fertilizer because potassium is an essential plant nutrient. Potash was originally made from wood ashes by soaking the ashes in liquid and drying it out, leaving an alkali potash residue. Nowadays it is mined deep underground by circulating liquid into the deposits, then evaporated in surface-level industrial ponds. The first U.S. patent of any kind was issued in 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for an improvement "in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process". The patent was signed by President George Washington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash