SeaDonkey
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Extracting useful compounds from dirt
I know this probably sounds ridiculous but I have a bit of a survivalist mentality and I am constantly thinking about what I would do in a survival
situation where the comforts of the modern world are no longer available. Obviously earth is an abundant substance which if I'm not mistaken is
composed mainly of silicon dioxide. Depending on the type of soil there may be all sorts of different substances present. I'm going to research this
but if anyone has any useful information to share regarding this it'd be greatly appreciated.
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Contrabasso
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EVERYTHING we want comes from the earth with nitrogen and oxygen coming from the atmosphere.
If it's a known element it is natural or made from a natural element. Plants make a huge variety of compounds from food to narcotics to poisons.
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gardenvariety
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"If it's a known element it is natural or made from a natural element. Plants make a huge variety of compounds from food to narcotics to poisons."
That. If you want precursors, plant a garden.
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unionised
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You can get lots of things from dirt; the trick is to find the right sort of dirt. For example if you find the dirt normally referred to as "gold
ore"...
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Wizzard
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Don't forget pitchblende and raw unobtaininite 
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kclo4
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You ought to look up nitre beds -- I believe there are a few German pamphlets around that explain how to make them, and extract potassium nitrate.
This would especially be useful in a survivalist situation I would think - at least more so than say, something like calcium carbonate, which would be
easily obtainable.
Don't forget that potassium carbonate, as well as a lot of other basic (as in, > & pH) compounds can be obtained from ashes.
The real problem is probably finding a container in nature that can be heated high enough to be useful for anything, though, I've seen decent amounts
of clay around in my area but i don't know if it can be heated after it is dried.
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lester
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Im looking at making my own Alumina from kaolin as well as looking for local pipe clay and fire clay sources. That's dirt essentially. I want to
use it for various furnace and kiln projects.
Anyway the Alumina can be extracted from the Alumosilicate try checking patents for extraction methods.
Its only because a 25 kilo bag costs me AUD$125 from a pottery supplier plus freight charges that im considering this and i have a number of projects
im going to do (my nickname should be gunna). I have calcium Aluminate /cement fondue . Add some hydrogen peroxide and manganese oxide and you can
make a lightweight aerated refractory product with high Alumina content. If you use dead burnt kaolin or Alumina the shrinkage rates are minimal and
the refractory temperature tolerance can be improved. And the Alumina can be added to other clays to make it more refractory. Not my ideas of
course just ideas from US4342729 US3944425 US3365273
Ideally id like a process that will use local pipeclay i have in the area instead of local kaolin from a farm store.
And of course Id like the process to not create a lot of waste to dispose of but ideally it creates a item of value like potash or a product with
fertiliser or soil improvement properties.
Refractory materials are a basic requirement for many further technologies. You then have the ability to make kilns and furnaces, molds and apparatus
. Early manufacture of things like sulphuric acid used heavy earthenware retorts as well as reactors, alembics and distillation apparatus made from
clays.
Of course its easier to buy sulfuric acid in a 25litre container today
I still like to possess the knowledge of how it was done and is done today.
The techniques still translate in to the ability to build scientific apparatus like if you were making a large porcelain vacuum rectifier or large
vacuum tubes or electron guns and modern electromechanical devices.
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quicksilver
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The soil in some areas is a significant bio-repository for anthrax. In fact, for simple cultures in many undergraduate-level universities, using a
clean
Petri- dish and agar, projects have often turned up nightmarish materiel in soil samples.
Surface mining & those associated with moving surface water have found as much gold in soil and moving fresh water soil accumulations as
underground.
The same is often reported for diamonds, emerald, & rubies in African mining concerns. Soil is simply an accumulation of the local sand (&
it's associated products) and the biological material that results from a variety of conditions & processes. So one could say with a degree of
confidence that soil has many of the traits of subsurface materiel with the added biological dimension.
[Edited on 8-7-2010 by quicksilver]
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Sedit
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Good place to check out
http://www.soil.org.au/soil_types.htm
Gives a rough idea.
I wul be more interested in a survival stand point in what can be extracted from ones excretements or those of dead plants then directly from the
earth. Sounds nasty but they are both factorys at concentating various substances you would have a hard time getting otherwise.
All in all those if it be directly from the ground itself I would have to say Iron and Clay are far and wide the most useful substances you will get
out of the ground because with them you will have the ability to make tools for better survival. One should focus on Fe extraction more then anything.
Knowledge is useless to useless people...
"I see a lot of patterns in our behavior as a nation that parallel a lot of other historical processes. The fall of Rome, the fall of Germany — the
fall of the ruling country, the people who think they can do whatever they want without anybody else's consent. I've seen this story
before."~Maynard James Keenan
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grndpndr
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I would expect there would be more than adequate scrap iron intially available the ability to work it would be key.Depending on surviving populations
and need iron mining might be redundant for some hundreds of years. The ability to smith that scrap into useable post (whatever)items is the
problem.Darn few good blacksmiths hereabouts or even farmers in the grainbelts able to farm w/o commercial fertilizers,fuel and seed.Unfortunately
that hybrid seeds not much good w/o pesticides,fert, etc.Hey it may seem of track but doesnt it all boil down to chem?FWIW?
Back to the beginning of basic specialization.Depending on the level of expected SHTF scenarios.Blacksmith forging the single blade horse (etc) drawn
plough,barnyard fertilizer,and hopefully seed that hasnt been genetically altered to depend on modern fert,pesticides.Gotta eat.
[Edited on 11-7-2010 by grndpndr]
[Edited on 11-7-2010 by grndpndr]
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hissingnoise
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Consider the soil scientist --- he is like the cow in the verdant field; in every direction he looks, he sees huge quantities of the very stuff that
sustains him!
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Bot0nist
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KNO<sub>3</sub> can be extracted from manurial soil using wood ash(for potassium carbonate I think). A useful purity can be obtained by
recrystallization using ethanol to precipitate out the less soluble salts. Make sure the soil has been protected from direct rainfall.
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hissingnoise
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The inner walls of old housing for livestock will generally have an efflorescence of fairly pure KNO<sub>3</sub> glistening there.
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Bot0nist
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I once found an old collapsed barn in an overgrown pine grove. The barn had collapsed in such a way that the roof (Tin I guess) was suspended about
1/1/2 to 2 feet off the ground. It looked to be at least 50-70 years old, at least. Underneath the roofing was a bunch of dusty soil and decomposed
hay and it all had a fine layer of visible salts on the surface. I used the 55 gal drum method and got a good bit of nitrate salts when I was
finished. I assume the barn had housed horses or livestock, which must have contributed to the large deposits of nitrates.
The finished product worked great in ball milled black powder after a few recrystallizations. I had to increase the proportion of it to obtain
suitable burn speeds though. I attributed this to impurities that I couldn't (with my current know how ) purify it any further.
[Edited on 3-3-2011 by Bot0nist]
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hissingnoise
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In olden times, before Indian saltpeter, farmers were required to build extensive banks of manure interspersed with soil for the production of
KNO<sub>3</sub>.
It was then, as was the cultivation of hemp, strictly compulsory!
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Bot0nist
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Yeah, It was a good business for governments to be in back then. Shit, that is.
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hissingnoise
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Aye, lad! Where there's muck, there's brass!
Where there's guano deposits there's gold . . .
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