Salt Petre Man - did you know ?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Messages
43,887
Location
'Stralia
Back in highschool law, we were taught about the Salt Petre man in Britain, who was given carte blanche to enter your premises, dig up your floor (well most likely your stables and chicken coops) and extract the urine soaked soil therein to return to his/her Majesty for the production of gunpowder.

The raw product (easily obtained from liquid fertiliser these days, not needing urine, straw and dirt) was in short supply, so these measures were enacted...

1645 British legislation...
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/acts-ordinances-interregnum/pp828-830

Quote:
Power to persons named by Parlt. to dig for Saltpeter in likely places.; Saltpetermen to give satisfaction to Owners for damage.; Persons refusing to allow Saltpeter-men to dig, to be proceeded against.


Interesting reading, as it lays out that they can dig your stuff up...have to fix it, can borrow your transport and recompense you at a fixed rate per mile
 
Collecting "night soil" as it was called was listed as one of "The Worst Jobs In History" on a British tv series recently.

Probably has some connection to the term "Taking the [censored]" as well.

Claud.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Originally Posted By: Claud
Collecting "night soil" as it was called was listed as one of "The Worst Jobs In History" on a British tv series recently.

Probably has some connection to the term "Taking the [censored]" as well.

Claud.


Great post, I always wondered the origin of that phrase.
 
I believe that urine was used in Indigo processing also.
In South Carolina, one of the reasons for a citizens arrest being applicable is still : entering an outhouse with intent to plunder.
 
In Rome urine was collected to wash clothes. Our tolerance for "aromas" has gone weak.
banana2.gif
 
The romans saved their urine for various and sundry purposes too, didn't they? In clay jugs. Maybe for processing animal hides.
 
It was sold in the spice section when I was young - a little sugar for the carbocharger - coolest looking flash for cheap !
 
Originally Posted By: Claud
Collecting "night soil" as it was called was listed as one of "The Worst Jobs In History" on a British tv series recently.


When I was a kid, my grandparent's house (the one that my Mum spent her life in till she moved out) had an outdoor brick loo, with a metal can.

The "Dunny Can Man" would come around every few weeks and take it away, swapping for a fresh one...they just took it to the sewage works, emptied it and washed it out, nothing special...although the guy DID die of a heart attack while emptying a can, and ended up inturd himself.

Mum and her siblings bought Nan and Grandad an inside toilet (well out on the verandah), and a bathroom for their 50th wedding anniversary...to that point, baths were the metal tub filled with water off the fireplace...I think I was around 6 when they got the inside done
 
My mom thought indoor plumbing was decadent. She also told us that we needed to experience a depression so that we would have a better appreciation of how good we had it. I didn't see a dentist until I was fifteen and had three teeth rotted off to the gum line and infected. Yes sir, we really had it good.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow

The "Dunny Can Man" would come around every few weeks and take it away, swapping for a fresh one...they just took it to the sewage works, emptied it and washed it out, nothing special...although the guy DID die of a heart attack while emptying a can, and ended up inturd himself.

Congratulations on the punniest pun I have read in the last ten years, no joke.
 
Not unlike today, where the mineral rights are typically severed from the ownership of the land itself and the owners of those mineral rights can develop them with or without the consent of the property owner.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top