How did the discovery and use for ammonia start?

Word and Phrase Origin of Ammonia

This posting is just a quick FYI tidbit that caught my eye.  Oh, you’re going to be shocked when you find out where the idea for ammonia came from.  And if you’ve ever really smelled ammonia, you know how it can overwhelm you enough to feel dizzy. 

From the Henry Holt Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins….

“While camel riders worshipped at the Egyptian temple of the god, Ammon, near Thebes, enterprising men and women extracted urine from the sand where the camel riders were hitched. 

And You Thought Our Bleach Was Stinky!

They later used this urine for bleaching or whitening clothes.  The agent was called, “sal ammoniac,” which translates, salt of Ammon, by the Romans.  When the gas obtained from this salt (NH3) was first extracted in 1782 it was named ammonia.”

I can’t even imagine the smell it also left in the clothing after it was whitened.  Do you wonder if ammonia salts came from this discovery while scooping up sand mixed with camel urine?  

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