# Potash works

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A **potash works** (German: *Aschenhaus*, *Aschenhütte* or *Potaschhütte*) was a subsidiary operation of a [glassworks](/source/Glassworks) in the [Early Modern Period](/source/Early_Modern_Period). The latter needed [potash](/source/Potash), as well as [quartz](/source/Quartz) and [lime](/source/Calcium_carbonate) as [raw materials](/source/Raw_material) for the manufacture of [glass](/source/Glass). Potash acted as a [flux](/source/Flux_(metallurgy)) in the production process, that is by mixing it with [quartz sand](/source/Quartz_sand) it significantly reduced the [melting point](/source/Melting_point) of the latter. To make potash the glassworks built potash huts or works in the vicinity, in which [wood ash](/source/Wood_ash) and [vegetable ash](/source/Vegetable_ash) was gathered by [ash burners](/source/Ash_burner) and initially washed in water and then vaporized; the whole process being known as [leaching](/source/Leaching_(chemistry)).

Contemporary witness, teacher and local historian, Lukas Grünenwald, recorded the recollections from his youth in [Dernbach](/source/Dernbach_(Pfalz)) in the [Palatinate region](/source/Palatinate_region):[1]

*These [potash huts](/source/Potash_hut) were small, rectangular stone houses with a parlour and kitchen and a wood store above them. In the corner of the kitchen a large, round iron cauldron used for potash boiling stood on the brick stove and a chimney rose from there up to the [gabled roof](/source/Gabled_roof). In the three walls opposite the entrance were small windows. The requisite [wood ash](/source/Wood_ash) was bought in all the villages far and wide and often laboriously carried home in sacks on hand carts and wagons on the then still poor roads. In the hut the ashes were first stored cold in grey [wicker](/source/Wicker) baskets, lined with linen, and stood on top of leaching vats. Water was poured over the ashes and they were thoroughly soaked until they were completely leached. The [mother liquour](/source/Mother_liquour) was then boiled on the stove, until only the valuable, white potash was left. This was sold for a high price to the glassworks.*

— Lukas Grünenwald, 1875

The consumption of wood in the process of making potash was extremely high, which is why the glassworks were frequently established in areas of extensive forest (hence the term [forest glass](/source/Forest_glass)). For example, the documents of the forest glassworks of [Spiegelberg](/source/Spiegelberg) in the [Swabian-Franconian Forest](/source/Swabian-Franconian_Forest), which was in operation from 1705 to 1822, had an annual demand for potash of approximately 800 [centners](/source/Centner). Because one [cubic metre](/source/Cubic_metre) of wood (750 kg) only produced 1 kg of potash, this glassworks thus needed around 40,000 cubic metres of wood per year.

Even today the names of some settlements still recall the former potash works. For example, two hamlets in the municipality of [Mainhardt](/source/Mainhardt), Germany, are called *Aschenhütte*.

## References

1. Helmut Seebach: *Altes Handwerk und Gewerbe in der Pfalz.* Vol. 3: *Pfälzerwald. Waldbauern, Waldarbeiter, Waldprodukte- und Holzwarenhandel, Waldindustrie und Holztransport.* Bachstelz-Verlag, Annweiler-Queichhambach et al., 1994, ISBN 3-924115-13-3, p. 116.

## Literature

- Marianne Hasenmayer: *Die Glashütten im Mainhardter Wald und in den Löwensteiner Bergen.* In: Paul Strähle (ed.): *Naturpark Schwäbisch-Fränkischer Wald.* 4th revised and expanded edition. Theiss, Stuttgart, 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2033-6, pp. 108–128 (*Natur – Heimat – Wandern*).

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