White Wonder (1958)

greater life, then it was called the fifth element. Its story is as old as the story of life on Earth. It has played a vital role in man's history, his religion, his customs. It has influenced the founding of cities and nations, shaped the fate of empires. The ancient Greeks worshipped it no less than the sun. And Plato called it a substance dear to the gods. In order to safeguard it, the Romans constructed one of the greatest military roads of all time. The lack of it brought disaster to Napoleon's legions in the historic retreat from Moscow, and thousands died. It played an important role in the war between the states. It is blood. According to mythology, the sky god struck fire into the heavens. A spark from the blaze fell here into the sea, creating the fifth element. Geologists tell us it found its way here, deposited by an This is the white wonder, the element of the ancients. And this is how we know it best. This is salt. This pile of salt weighs 200 lbs, approximately the amount you will require to meet your everyday needs in a single year. Incredible? Yes, if you think of salt only for the table and cooking. Actually, only 3% about 6 lbs is used on your food. That's all. About 6 lbs per person each year. Where then does the rest of it go? It touches every part of our lives in many ways you've never thought about. How then does it serve us? The rest supplies the growing demands of American industrial and agricultural life. Modern industry, our modern way of life could not exist without it. A noted scientist has said, "Give a chemist coal, water, lime, sulfur, cellulose, and salt, and he can perform nearly all the modern miracles in chemistry." To the chemist, salt is sodium chloride. With ordinary chemical processing, 13 vital chemicals are obtained. With electrolysis, salt can be broken down into its two elements, sodium and chlorine, and another 21 chemicals can be derived. Today, salt enters into almost 14,000 different uses. Let's look at a few. In the clothing you wear, salt is used in textile bleaches and dyestuffs. In medicines. In cosmetics. In nylons. In leather. In plastics. Newspapers. In matches. Ceramic glazes. Tobacco. In photography. Salt helps purify that water. Makes possible the glass from which you drink. Salt is used in paints and lacquers. In tires. Gasoline. In alloys and bath solutions to obtain lighter and stronger metals. On land. And in the sky. In munitions for the defense of America. Salt is in that smoke screen. And here, too. Salt in tablet form helps these troops avoid heat exhaustion and prostration. Salt. How commonplace it seems. And yet, these tiny white grains represent a fundamental necessity of our existence. Nature made it abundant. But making it available is something else again. It takes time and skill. There are three methods of obtaining this vital mineral. First, let's examine the oldest. Solar evaporation. It's often described as a farming operation. And it begins in the spring. You take salt water and direct it toward great concentrating ponds. Where time, wind, sunshine, and careful controls take care of the rest. Impurities like calcium sulfate precipitate and settle out. The brine becomes more and more concentrated. And when test show the brine has reached proper density, it is pumped into garden ponds. Month after month under constant supervision, it crystallizes, builds up. Then comes the harvest. On it goes to the washing shed and further processing. Salt for table use for example, must be re-brined and evaporated in vacuum pans. Other grades, after drying, screening and packing, may eventually find their way into atomic energy. Or here. Where salt plays an important part in the agricultural life of America, too. Not only for its own essential properties, but as the logical carrier for vital trace elements. Iodine, copper, cobalt, manganese, iron, zinc and other minerals which may have been leached from the soil, hence are lacking from pasturage and grains. Minute amounts of those trace minerals are added here in these salt blocks and salt bricks. And in loose salt, the color indicating which minerals have been added to replace local deficiencies. And because salt is required daily, it's the ideal medium by which to assure that farm animals get their full quota of trace minerals regularly. Poultry has an unusually heavy demand for manganese and other minerals for purposes of early growth and egg production. Here again, the necessary minerals are best introduced through salt mixed with feed. Trace mineralized salts resulting in stronger, healthier animals, more and better foods for the table, assuring the farmer of a higher return from every feed dollar. The importance of salt to our nation's food supply is well illustrated here. There is salt for baking. A well-stocked cupboard, wouldn't you say? But, take away those products that require salt, and let's see what would remain. Man has invented a host of seasonings. Ketchup, mustard, chili sauce, Tabasco, mayonnaise, French dressing, Thousand Island, many others. Each requires its quota of salt. Salt for peanuts, for potato chips, for pretzels, and candy. Salt for cereal, flour, olives, pickles, jams and jellies. Baby food, spaghetti, macaroni, noodles. Salt for Rover's biscuits, and salt for food canning. Salt for dairy products. And since poultry and livestock need their quota of salt regularly, salt for the fisheries, salt for the meat packers. Salt goes into the making of plastics and aluminum foil, too. Paper cartons, glass. And since it entered into the manufacture of the refrigerator itself, salt for refrigeration, making it possible for us to obtain fresh meats, vegetables, and fruits all year round. Salt enters into many household uses, too. Simple, time-saving uses. A thin paste of salt and salad oil removes marks on furniture made by hot dishes. When enamel turns yellow, a solution of salt and turpentine rubbed on restores whiteness. A paste of salt and vinegar may be used to clean tarnished brass and copper. Sprinkling salt on carpets and rugs not only helps destroy moths, but brightens the colors as it cleans. Clothes pins will not stick to clothes in cold weather if they are soaked in brine for a few hours. Rough spots on an iron disappear like magic when the iron is rubbed back and forth over dry salt. To clean grease from the bottom of an oven, salt is poured over soiled spots while heat is still on. When grease is dry, salt is removed with a stiff brush. Ordinary table salt may be used as a decorative aid, too, in arranging artificial flowers. First, salt is poured into the vase, then cold water. When the salt dries, it solidifies and holds the flowers in a permanent arrangement. Hard water often times means hardship for people who have to use it. Years ago, grandmother caught dark rainwater in a barrel. Used it for special household purposes because it was relatively soft. And so was the water she obtained from the cistern. But this water was hard. It came from the well, and that made all the difference. As rainwater falls toward Earth, it picks up some carbon minerals and other impurities that turn it to a dark color when collected in grandmother's rain barrel, for example. However, it is still soft water. But what happens to this soft rainwater when it reaches the Earth? It seeps through the ground or runs off into streams and rivers. And in doing so, picks up calcium, magnesium, and perhaps iron and manganese. Earth minerals that make it hard. These minerals tend to solidify under heat and form a scale on any vessel containing water, be it in the tea kettle or in the steam boiler of a modern factory. This scale decreases the efficiency of the boiler and must be removed or prevented. When used for laundering or other washing purposes, hard water develops a scum known as hard water curd. Makes washing more difficult, requires more soap. Though hardness of water varies in in regions of our country, a large portion of the United States has hard water, as you can see. The darker areas indicating harder water. Again, we are indebted to salt for helping us change hard water to soft. In the home, in the factory, salt is the key to our soft water supply. Salt pellets in this appliance help turn hard water to soft, making washing easier, faster, more economical. Soft water is also vital to many industries. And salt makes it possible to provide the tremendous quantities needed at the lowest possible cost. How fortunate we would be if salt were everywhere close at hand on the surface of the earth. But, it isn't. So, man must search, find it elsewhere, in some cases, deep in the earth. Here, 700 ft underground, you are literally surrounded by salt. The pillars, the ceiling, the floor, all solid salt. From thick beds like this, from great salt domes, you can mine it as you would mine coal. But, it is always clean and comfortable down here. And the temperature all year round is like that of a clear October day. Giant pillars support the roof of the mined out area. These, for example, are approximately 80 by 100 ft. The mining operation begins. And the face of the salt wall is drilled for dynamite charges. The undercutting machine now moves in, cuts a gap across the bottom of the section that is to be mined. Blasting powder is now tamped into the drilled holes and prepared for firing. Some run of the mine salt is sent directly to industrial users with no refinement. For other uses, it must go through further processing steps. Some simple, some complex, before it is ready to be shipped to serve America in a multitude of ways. For instance, in winter, snow is great for sledding and skiing, but if workers, trucks, and shoppers are snowbound, the economic loss can run into millions of dollars per minute. Not to mention the toll in human suffering if doctors, ambulances, police, and fire equipment were to be immobilized. Salt, with its fast-melting characteristics, is the most effective and economical material to clear thoroughfares. As shown in this simplified demonstration, its action penetrates and quickly perforates ice and snow and loosens the bond at the surface of the pavement. Leaves roads open and safe. In fact, all year round, salt plays a prominent part in serving the rolling wheels of commerce, industry, and agriculture. For instance, in the building of roadways, it serves in a number of soil stabilization and uses. Let's see just how. The soil in each of these containers is exactly the same with one exception. Salt has been added to this one. Salt binds the soil. Furnishes an excellent sub-base for concrete and asphalt highways and city streets. Produces better, harder, longer-lasting rural roads at less cost per taxpayer dollar. Now, you begin to understand why methods and machines are constantly being improved and extended to keep pace with the constantly increasing demand for more and more of this vital commodity. The third method developed for salt recovery is drilling. By a stretch of the imagination, you might describe this hydraulic process as mining by pipeline. More than half of our total salt supply is produced by this method. Fresh water is pumped through pipes into the well, and the resulting saturated brine is then forced up, creating a high-quality product that finds its way to your tables and into many other uses. The brine pumped up from the well goes into these large settling tanks. Chemicals remove impurities. The purified brine moves on into airtight evaporators called vacuum pans. Salt crystals form, sink to the bottom of the cone. A rotary dryer takes the wet salt and reduces the moisture to less than 1%. Last moisture is removed in this great kiln, where the salt is tumbled and baked. After cooling, dry salt emerges, moves on its way to be screened and graded. Different sizes for different uses. As it goes through a series of screenings so that the crystals of different sizes can go into their proper bins, let's follow the salt you're most familiar with, the perfect crystalline cubes of pure table salt. Here are the uniform crystals for table salt. Each salt cube is given a coating to make certain it will be free-flowing, so that when it rains, it pours. A seemingly simple operation this, but how important it is to produce iodized salt. A minute amount of an iodide ingredient is added to prevent simple goiter. To protect the free-running qualities, to assist in preventing the loss of iodine, each can is made up of several plies of paper with an asphalt impregnation between. In addition, the label has been lacquered so that it too will form a moisture barrier. Here in this modern research laboratory, the first in history devoted to that simple substance salt, skilled technicians are looking to the future, constantly seeking new uses of salt to benefit mankind. Salt, from tiny soft water pellets to 100-lb bags, made in a hundred different kinds and grades, serving agriculture, serving the rolling wheels of transportation, the food industry, salt for canning, salt for the fisheries, salt for the meat packers, salt for home meat curing, and for many household uses. Salt, the pure white crystals of sodium chloride, serving the wonderful world of chemistry. Without this essential mineral, such vital and useful products as these would not be possible. Synthetic rubber, plastics, textile bleaches and dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, paints and varnishes, insecticides, fire extinguishing fluids, glass, salt, strategic material vital to our national defense. A compound of sodium and lead, for example, becomes part of the tetraethyl lead so important to high octane aviation gasoline. Sodium from salt helps obtain lighter, stronger metals. Gears of military machinery undergo terrific strain. These gears are case hardened in a bath solution of sodium cyanide to give them the necessary toughness. Salt in explosives. Salt essential in munitions. In the peaceful use of atomic energy for power. For our future defense in the coming space age. Salt serving America. And her need for it has more than doubled since World War II due largely to the tremendous growth of our chemical industry. But salt has kept pace with our changing needs, and it always will. If you want a dash of salt for your food, if you want carloads, as an individual or as a community or as one of the 60 major industries depending on this vital mineral. No matter where you are, rest assured that you can have exactly what you want, when and where you need it. Salt from the solar ponds. Salt from the wells. Salt from the mines. No matter where you live, where you work, there will be salt, often unseen, unrecognized, but there to serve you and yours with the indispensable crystals of life.