Salt - Essence Of Life (1979)

[Music] there are places in this world remote isolated places where the passage of years has had little impact where certain activities have gone on practically unaltered for centuries Beyond memory there are places in this world where men labor under a merciless Sun tearing a lifegiving substance from a reluctant unforgiving [Music] Earth the substance they sweat and strain after is one their ancestors sought in much the same [Music] way there are places in this world where desert Caravans still move slowly gracefully over the trails established in Antiquity transporting what Caravans have always [Music] transported What They Carried was one of the first items of Commerce often it was traded for gold great cities grew up along its trade routes battles have been fought over it it has been used for money and in some places it was nearly as precious as gold yet it is not rare rather it is as abundant as the sea around [Music] us salort what is the mystery of this unique mineral what magic does it possess that it has had such a profound and lasting impact on human history the answers are everywhere but we begin here with the oceans from which in some dim shrouded past life first emerged Majestic powerful surging constantly Restless they alone are the source the motherload for every grain of salt found on earth once the Seas covered vast areas of land but with time they receded to their present [Music] boundaries Avery Island Louisiana unspoiled seemingly Untouched by time a sanctuary for wildlife it is one of the places where the oceans left behind a fantastic Legacy a testimony to their primeval movements an almost inexhaustible supply of [Music] salt 1,000 ft beneath this tranquil Beauty there throbs a half lit Subterranean world the world of the Deep Mind where men and machines draw salt from the bowels of the earth digging out long buried deposits Left Behind eons after the ocean waters evaporated into history [Music] a [Music] [Music] [Music] once strong men worked slowly laboring with pcks and shovels today the precise use of explosives has made these hand tools Obsolete and created huge underground galleries carved out of [Music] salt and the machines looking very much like children's toys begin the job of collecting it here thousands of tons of rock salt a day [Music] [Applause] [Music] today there are still places where salt is harvested as it was over 3500 years [Music] ago sun and wind evaporate seawater trapped in Shallow ponds leaving behind and a residue of salt salt to be gathered either by strong men or by the awesome products of 20th century technology San Francisco Bay between September and December where once an Indian tribe took salt from mud flats and marshes specially designed Harvesters tear up a 6in crust of salt that crust is the result of a long process in which sea water is moved from pond to Pond its level of salinity increasing as evaporation takes place it may take 5 years for the salt to crystallize and then like any other crop it is ready to be harvested harvested at the astounding rate of 20,000 tons a day by every standard this is an enormous operation an operation whose production facilities spread out over 26,000 [Music] Acres the work goes on 24 hours a day the salt is placed into miniature railroad cars which carry it to a wash house there using saturated brine sea water and fresh water the salt is cleaned and impurities removed clearly modern technology is at work here but solar evaporation remains essentially a natural process relying on maximum Sunshine minimum rain and ample wind to produce mountains of salt mountains of pure salt that can rise at the peak of the Harvest 100 ft into the [Music] air if solar evaporation needs sunlight and deep mining needs explosives brine Wells need only fresh water a pipe is driven into the salt deposit far below the surface water pumped down to dissolve the salt and the dissolved salt is brought back to the surface in the form of brine then at the surface the process of transforming that brine to Salt begins it's called the vacuum pan method developed in the 1880s it all takes place within a series of huge cone-shaped evaporators or pans into which the brine is forced heated until crystals form then dried until All That Remains is salt [Music] [Music] no matter where salt comes from or how it is obtained quality control never ceases standards are high and strict for each step in the manufacturing process until those standards are met then and only then is it ready to be packaged [Music] la [Music] m [Music] the flow never stops a pure white stream continually being loaded into waiting trucks trains and barges moving salt from one place to another has always preoccupied man early traders used Rivers Caravans carried it across deserts and over mountains one of the oldest Roman highways the via salaria the salt Road was built expressly to carry salt to Rome from Works along the Mediterranean Sea Time Has Changed only technique all over the United States and Canada salt has moved efficiently quickly L daily from where it is produced and processed to where it is needed needed to play a vital role in a surprising a remarkable number of jobs and to touch us all in one way or [Applause] [Music] another in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains near the Tiny Town of West Cliff Colorado Ralph Austin runs a large cattle ranch it's a way of life he's inherited from his bears and beef cattle are what his business is all about the stronger healthier and larger they are the more they will fetch at auction from long experience Ralph Austin knows precisely what salt can do for his cattle salt is a very uh important mineral to the livestock man I mean and all types of livestock it's a mineral that they they don't get unless you supplement feed them particularly in this range country where ground is so dry that it's not sine or anything so they can't get it out of the grasses and stuff and I like to use eyy salt it holds down on foot rot dip there in some forms of citis which is pink [Music] eye from the back of his pickup truck Ralph Austin dispenses the 50lb blocks of salt that are so vital to his cattle Austin uses about a ton and a half a wheat a small part of the nearly 2 million tons of salt fed to cattle each [Music] year because animals instinctively know they must have salt to survive and will never eat more than they need ranchers will use it to ensure and regulate their cattle's intake of other minerals and proteins which help maintain health and steady growth [Music] further salt can be a labor saving device animals will go wherever it is put thus a Rancher by simply changing where assault blocks are placed can ease the job of moving his cattle from pasture to [Music] pasture when Ralph Austin was a boy his father fed rock salt to his cattle in the years since then science has refined and broadened the role salt has to play in livestock nutrition on ranches everywhere there is little doubt about how vital it [Music] is a mountain stream bursting downhill sparkling cold crystal clear but clear as it is there is a good chance that its water is full of impurities that in making content with the Earth the water has picked up minerals that have made it hard in much of Canada and many parts of the United States these invisible minerals cause problems that must be faced daily problems that plague cities like Las Vegas Nevada Las Vegas it has gambling neon signs that turn night into day and the kind of round the-clock excitement that attracts people from all over the world Las Vegas also has hard water but the guests of the giant hotels that dot this city never bathe in it never see its effects or deep within these hotels where guests never go water softeners using the same process found in private homes take incoming hard water and treat it to remove hardness hardness which can destroy a plumbing system salt makes this process work the results of this water softening may not be obvious to guests in plush hotels like Caesar's Palace but without it they would be complaining about dishes and silverware that are spotted laundry that is gray and Porcelain surfaces that are stained without it they would complain that their table so elegantly set does not [Music] Sparkle without it they would complain about soap that won't lather while bathing and of hair that is dull lusterless and unmanageable after shampooing hard water prevalent in countless cities and towns is responsible for these difficulties and many others yet the rain water that feeds rivers and streams is naturally soft where hardness robs this quality salt with its unique properties can help restore it making water soft again just as it was when it started out as rain Henderson Nevada only eight miles from Las Vegas yet a world apart here under rugged mountains the magic of modern chemistry is at work daily using salt in ways undreamed of generations ago quiet rural Henderson is home to a chemical plant that makes chlorine and costic soda both derived from Salt which is turned into a brine solution and put through a complex electrolysis procedure [Music] by far the greatest use for salt is in the production of chemicals of these chlorine which is used to purify drinking water and costic soda are the most widely used these chemicals in turn are used in the production of a whole spectrum of products from soaps to paper from detergents to Plastics from synthetic rubber to Fabrics here at a textile plant in Lancaster South Carolina 78,000 lb of salt a month is used in the dying of fabrics Stu Beasley the plant lab manager understands the history historic connection between textiles and salt salt has been used for 300 years in the dying industry back when you were taking colorance from plants and trees to color Fabrics salt was used then to wet your bath out and get better of yield from these colorant dyes have always been expensive and nowadays salt is even more helpful in getting buty yield from your colors if we didn't use salt we'd have a fabric that would have a a wax papery look appearance melee as we call it in the dying industry man has been harvesting and enjoying the Bounty of the Earth for years uncounted today however these riches more often than not are eaten long after they have been picked long after after they have been transported hundreds or thousands of miles to market for many people tomatoes and other vegetables do not come fresh they come either Frozen or in cans without salt it would be difficult for the frozen food or canning industry to exist for salt often added in the form of quickly dissolving tablets acts not only as a taste enhancer but more importantly as a preservative the usefulness of salt with regard to food reaches back to the dawn of civilization when man learned to cure meat fish and poultry with it pickles and olives are cured with salt meat packing requires it as does the making of dairy products like butter and cheese at a cheese Cooperative in Marshfield Wisconsin over 110,000 lb of cheddar cheese is made every day much of it will age for 8 or 9 months yet none of it would be eaten if salt were not added to act as a preservative within a week the cheese would be rancid and soft totally inedible but here again salt is more than a preservative it is added in specific amounts to heighten taste in fact of all the uses man has devised through the years for this mineral one of the most remarkable is using salt as a taste enhancer for salt in just the right proportions has The Marvelous ability to develop to bring to the surface food's natural flavor the Brilliance of fall nowhere is it more striking than in Middlebury Vermont yet for all its colorful Beauty Autumn signals the approach of a special set of problems like most New England towns midbury solves its winter problems in a traditional way at a town meeting Town Manager David Crawford explains the final conclusion of the town meeting was that we should have a balanced use of salt and a reasonable use of salt the town has real problems in that we are a hilly Community our downtown has a real need for safe movement of people and the use of salt meets that need snow is Common Place in Middlebury as it is in many cities and towns across Canada and the northern United States over 100 in Falls here during an average winter [Music] [Applause] the town's officials know that salt which melts snow keeps it plowable and prevents snow and in this case ice from sticking to Pavement surfaces is the best way to clear streets and [Music] roads in the yearly winter battle to provide safety and Mobility on thoroughfares salt in addition to the snow plow is a Frontline weapon now nothing else works as [Music] well other chemicals are too expensive sand and Cinders offer only temporary traction require costly cleanup and cannot melt snow and ice in fact salt offers the only real solution in making roads safe in Winter got okay who's got the end I he's got one in and I got the other one on my knees it has been estimated that salt has some 14,000 uses of these none is more important than its use with regard to human wellbeing that get that side no you get the clear liquid so often being administered intravenously by rescue squads at the scene of an accident is in fact a saline solution for years it has been used in the management of blood loss caused by shock or Hemorrhage let's go quick got it because salt and water make up so much of the blood this solution can briefly restore blood volume and save [Music] lives but its use is not limited to accidents in the Intensive Care units of hospitals everywhere saline Solutions are vitally [Music] important Dr Frank Kella head of critical care at Prince George's General Hospital chevrol Maryland in the Intensive Care Unit we use uh saline Solutions on nearly every patient uh to maintain the normal composition of body electrolytes uh salt is made of sodium and chloride and uh both of those constituents are found in the blood and when patients are totally dependent on intravenous calories and uh fluids we need to maintain the same concentrations in their blood as normal and we do that through the use of Salt Solutions and in the operating room Salt Solutions keep patients from going into shock during their ordeal in fact the simple addition of iodide to table salt has practically eliminated iodine deficiency goerss in the United States and Canada that salt and our Health are so closely intertwined is natural for each of us has about 7 o of it dissolved in our systems it regulates the exchange of water between body cells and their surrounding fluid moving food in and waste out it provides the sodium that is a component of Tears saliva mother's milk and is an essential part of the digestive fluid in our stomachs without salt without the numerous intricate functions it carries out in our bodies we would die I wanted a [Music] girl the miracle of birth after 9 months a child is thrust from the protection of the saline solution of its embryonic sack within this child not yet one minute old as within each of us there flows an internal sea its saltiness reminiscent of the Primeval oceans that mothered all life an eternal reminder of a distant human Heritage the salt constantly produced by the descendants of those oceans is as salt has always been a simple substance taken for granted yet internally externally salt is an absolutely necessary part of our Lives we cannot live without it [Music]