Saltpeter
Saltpeter is a mixture of potassium nitrate (KNO3) and sodium nitrate (NaNO3). It occurs naturally in large areas of South America, mainly in the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia and in the north of Chile, and in the region of El Pedernoso with thicknesses of up to 3.6 meters. It appears associated with deposits of sodium chloride (NaCl), gypsum, other salts and sand, and forms a group called caliche.
It is mainly used in the manufacture of acids (nitric and sulfuric) and potassium nitrate. In addition, it is an oxidizing agent and is used in agriculture as a nitrogenous fertilizer that can replace urea due to its high nitrogen content.
Other uses are in medicine and in the manufacture of gunpowder, dynamite, and other explosives, pyrotechnics, glass, matches, gases, sodium salts, pigments, food preservatives, and pottery glaze, among others.
History
A legend tells that it happened when two indigenous people from the area made a bonfire, and the earth, which contained saltpeter, began to burn. When the priest of Camiña found out, and carrying holy water, he collected some samples and recognized that they contained potassium nitrate. Another part of the samples was in the patio of the priest's house, and later he observed that the plants developed extraordinarily.
The nitrate boom took place in the mid-19th century and lost economic importance after the development and production of synthetic nitrate, at the end of the First World War. Economies like the Chilean one, mainly based on the exploitation of this mineral, were strongly affected.
There was a nitrate monopoly; that is to say, in different stages Bolivia, Chile and Peru became the only producers. In Bolivia and Peru, from the 1830s to 1884, and then in Chile, from 1884 until its decline in the 1920s. Saltpeter exploitation of the old Bolivian coast was always in the hands of Chilean capital; in the Peruvian stage, in the hands of national companies and, in the 1870s, in the hands of the Peruvian State; in the Chilean stage, in the hands of companies created with English capital, mainly, and, to a lesser extent, German and American.
In 1971, the already decadent nitrate industry was nationalized and its exploitation was assumed by the Chemical and Mining Society of Chile (Soquimich), which would later be privatized; It is currently practically the only company dedicated to this, and it does so mainly through the solar evaporation system, created at the end of the 1940s by the American engineer Edgar Stanley Freed, who came to be considered "as the man who in the world had the most complete knowledge of the physical and chemical characteristics of caliche."
Sodium nitrate is no longer in as much demand as it used to be. Its exploitation is marginal and it is no longer economically profitable. Despite the above, the production processes left an invaluable historical and cultural heritage. The nitrate offices, located in the Atacama desert, reflected the means and the form of exploitation that marked generations of Chileans, Bolivians and Peruvians. The facilities of the Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Offices were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005.
Two facts involve nitrate in the history of Bolivia, Chile and Peru. The first is the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) between Chile, on the one hand, and Bolivia and Peru, on the other. It had its origins in commercial problems around the exploitation of this resource. By winning the war, Chile was awarded the rich provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta, which concentrate almost all of the nitrate deposits on the planet.[citation required] The second event is related with the complex labor conditions of the nitrate workers, which in 1907 culminated in a great national strike and the massacre of thousands of strikers in the so-called massacre of the Santa María de Iquique School. In this area of Chile, large labor movements were born led by anarchist and communist leaders, such as Luis Emilio Recabarren, founder of the Partido Obrero Socialista de Chile, which became the Communist Party of Chile.[citation required]
Other uses of the term
In some countries, the name saltpeter refers to the deposits of marine particles that travel through the air and have the property of being fixed on the surfaces of all constructions near coastal areas. It should be noted that this substance is capable of causing damage to paints and metals, especially those with a chrome surface. Likewise, it exacerbates burns caused by the sun's ultraviolet rays.
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