Neptune's Gift: A History of Common Salt

Common salt--a substance seemingly too ordinary to think about, yet it is the oldest of our raw materials and the basis of some of our newest inventions. Mythology and folklore abound in stories and proverbs about salt. It has been a source of revenue to governments from ancient China to ancien regime France to the United States. The search for this commodity ushered in the age of petroleum fuels.

In the first comprehensive history of salt, Robert P. Multhauf deals with its production, uses, and role in the development of modern society. Today, only about two percent of the salt produced is for human and animal consumption. Ten times as much is used in the winter salting of roads, and about half of today's enormous production is used in the chemical industries, for the production, among other things, of herbicides, pesticides, and other environment-threatening materials.

Robert P. Multhauf has been associated with the Smithsonian Institution for over two decades. Among the positions he has held are director of the Smithsonian's Museum of History and Technology, president of the Society for the History of Technology, and editor of Isis. He is the author of The Origins of Chemistry.