The Importance of Salt

The Importance of Salt Free Online Research Papers The importance of salt throughout history Almost no place on earth is without salt, though this was not clear until revealed by modern geology, in the twentieth century. Until then, salt was desperately searched for, traded for, and fought over. For millennia salt represented wealth. Soldiers and sometimes workers were paid in salt; it was a substance so valuable it served as currency. Salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes, helped with the preservation of food, has helped in the development of both chemistry and geology, is seen as a symbol in religion, and has been associated with love. Today, after thousands of years of, coveting, fighting over, hoarding, taxing, and searching for salt, it appears picturesque, and slightly foolish. Salt became one of the first international commodities of trade, its production was one of the first industries, and in return, the first state monopoly. Europeans are a very good example of how salt aided in the preservation of food, and therefore allowed foods to be traded. In the ninth century, the Basques had a well-established whaling business, and were visited by an intruder, the Vikings. The Vikings did not have a central location like Genoa or Venice, and their northern home provided them with little to trade. If they had had a source of salt, they would have been able to trade salted meats like the Celts, or salted fish like the Phoenicians. Without salt, meat and fish were too perishable to trade. Although the Vikings were superb ship builders, mariners, and traders, it didn’t matter. Without salt, all the Vikings had to trade were tools made from walrus tusk and reindeer antler. Up until about the twentieth century, all valuable food depended upon whether it could be preserved by salt or not. They knew all sorts of facts and tricks about salt curing. For example, Europeans found that fat resists salt and slows the rate at which salt impregnates fish. Also, oily fish, after salting, must be pressed tightly in barrels to be preserved, whereas cod can be simply laid in salt, and that fatty fish cannot be exposed to air in curing, because the fat will become rancid. In the ninth century, the Basques discovered an extremely profitable item, the Atlantic cod. Once they started salting it, the market became enormous. The entire formerly Roman world ate salt fish, which is what made this fish great for trading. It preserved unusually well, and after one or more days of soaking in fresh water, it was whiter, leaner, and better, than the Mediterranean species that had been used before. Cod, being a fatless fish, air-dried and salt-cured, and stiff as planks of wood, c ould be stacked on wagons and hauled over roads, even in warm Mediterranean climates. Without salt that would have never been possible, and the trading market grew immensely because of it. The Vikings also found ways to trade salt cod, and even began establishing drying stations for the cod in Iceland, to produce the export. All of the fishing nations of northern Europe wanted to participate in the new, rapidly growing, extremely profitable salt cod market. Because of how popular the market was, like now with supply and demand, the more the people wanted it, the more they would make. In order for the Europeans to make more, they needed quicker and more efficient ways of supplying salt. Through geology and chemistry, Europeans began to recognize that the natural solar evaporation of seawater was the most cost-effective way to produce salt. The Bay of Bourgneuf soon became the leading salt center, because its climate suited the new discovery of solar evaporated salt. The bay also had the advantage of being located on the increasingly important Atlantic coast and was connected to a river that could carry the salt inland. Guerande on the north side of the mouth of Loire River, Bourgneuf on the southern side, and the island of Noirmoutier facing them, became major sea salt-producing areas. Just like that, sal t could influence and secure a city, because for the time being that’s where the highest demand of salt was. While this market was booming, the Basques continued to sail out with their enormous amounts of salt, and return with them stacked high with cod. They dominated the fast-growing salt cod market. Everyone knew of this market: but besides the Basques, fisherman of the British Isles, Scandinavia, Holland, Brittany, and the French Atlantic, also caught cod in the middle ages. Salt is mainly recognized for preserving food, but it was used for many other things, like to cure leather, clean chimneys, for soldering pipes, and glaze pottery. Salt was used also as a medicine for a wide variety of complaints, from toothaches, to upset stomachs, to ‘heaviness of the mind.’ Still, the salt cod market was the main reason the need for sea salt increased enormously. Sea salt was believed to be the only salt suitable for cuing fish, but there were other salts out there. French bay salt was gray, black or even green. The better salts were the Northern salts made from boiling peat, and the southern salts that were far whiter, which meant purer. Salt was so valuable, it could shape society, and was separated by classes. A higher class household used bay salt for curing, but would use the more costly, Northern and Southern white salt for the table. Middle-class homes bought the inexpensive bay salt, dissolved it into brine, and boiled the brine over a fire un til it was more suitable for serving. The British used the cheaper bay salt for their armies. To them, salt was regarded as of strategic importance because salt cod became one of the main rations of the British navy. A standard procedure to prepare for war was to obtain a large quantity of salt and start salting fish and meat. The provisions necessary to withstand a long siege were herring, eels, bream, and cod, all salted. Throughout history, even before salt was so valuable, and such a huge product in trade, people realized the importance of it. Romans called a man in love salax, in a salted state. In Pyrenees, bridal couples went to the church with salt in their left pockets to guard against impotence. In Germany the bride’s shoes were sprinkled with salt. ‘A French folktale relates the story of a princess who declares to her father, â€Å"I love you like salt,† and he, angered by the slight, banishes her from the kingdom. Only later when he is denied salt does he realize its value and therefore the depth of his daughter’s love.’ Salt is so common, so easy to obtain, and so inexpensive that we have forgotten that from the beginning of civilization until about 100 years ago, salt was one of the most sought- after commodities in human history. Religion has been shaped around salt too. Salt was to the ancient Hebrews, and still is to modern Jews, the symbol of the eter nal nature of god’s covenant, with Israel. In the Torah, the book of numbers it written in â€Å"it is a covenant of salt forever before the lord.† On Friday nights Jews dipped the Sabbath bread in salt. In Judaism bread is a symbol of food, which is a gift from god and dipping the bread in salt preserves it – keeps the agreement between god and his people. All over the world, from food to religion, to armies, salt has had an impact on it. The incentive of salt cod profits, combined with the improved solar evaporation, greatly improved sea salt production, especially in Europe. This increase in salt made more fish available, and made them available longer. Instead of fisherman having to rush to the market before their fish rotted, they could now stay out for days salting their catch. They caught more, and were able to keep it fresher longer. The salt intake in Europeans, although most of it was consumed in the eating of fish, grew from forty grams per day in the sixteenth century, to seventy grams a day in the eighteenth century. ‘Salt, the only rock we eat, has made a glittering, often surprising contribution to the history of humankind.’ Research Papers on The Importance of SaltDefinition of Export QuotasCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionTwilight of the UAWGenetic EngineeringMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaPETSTEL analysis of India19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of Self

Nannie Doss, Serial Killer Profile and Biography

Nannie Doss, Serial Killer Profile and Biography Nannie Doss was a serial killer who earned the monikers The Giggling Nanny,† The Giggling Granny, and The Jolly Black Widow after going on a killing spree that began in the 1920s and ended in 1954. Doss was easy to entertain. Her favorite pastimes included reading romance novels and poisoning members of her family to death. Childhood Years Nannie Doss was born Nancy Hazle on Nov. 4, 1905, in Blue Mountain, Alabama, to James and Lou Hazle. Much of Doss childhood was spent avoiding the wrath of her father who ruled the family with an abusive iron fist. If they were needed to work on the farm, James Hazle gave little thought to pulling the children out of school. With education being a low priority in the Hazle family, there were no objections when Nannie decided to leave school for good after completing the sixth grade. Head Injury When Nannie was 7 years old, she was on a train that suddenly stopped, causing her to fall forward and hit her head. After the incident, she suffered for years with migraine headaches, blackouts, and depression. Teenage Years From early on James Hazle refused to allow his daughters to do anything to enhance their appearance. Pretty dresses and makeup were not allowed nor were friendships with boys. It was not until Doss got her first job in 1921 that she had any real social interaction with the opposite sex. At the age of 16, instead of attending school and worrying about prom night, Doss was working in a linen factory and spending her spare time with her head buried in her favorite pastime, reading romance magazines, especially the lonely hearts club section. The One Who Got Away: Charley Braggs While working at the factory Doss met Charley Braggs who worked at the same factory and took care of his unmarried mother. The two began dating and within five months they were married and Doss moved in with Braggs and his mother. If what she hoped by marrying was to escape the oppressive environment she grew up in, she must have been disappointed. Her mother-in-law turned out to be extremely controlling and manipulative. Motherhood The Braggs had their first child in 1923 and three more followed over the next three years. Doss life had become a prison of raising children, taking care of her demanding mother-in-law, and putting up with Charley who was an abusive, adulterous drunk. To cope, she began drinking at night and managed to get out to local bars for her own adulterous fun. Their marriage was doomed. The Death of Two Children and a Mother-In-Law In 1927, soon after the birth of their fourth child, the Braggs two middle children died by what doctors labeled as food poisoning. Suspecting that Doss had poisoned the children, Braggs took off with the oldest child, Melvina, but oddly enough left the newborn, Florine, and his mother behind. Not long after he left his mother died. Doss remained in the Bragg home until a year later when her husband returned with Melvina and his new girlfriend. The two divorced and Doss left with her two daughters and moved back to her parents home. Charley Braggs ended up being the only husband that Nannie did not poison to death. Husband #2 - Frank Harrelson Alone again, Doss returned to her childhood passions  of reading romance magazines and the lonely hearts column, only this time she began corresponding with some of the men who advertised there. It was through the classified column that she met her second husband, Robert Harrelson. Doss, 24, and Harrelson, 23, met and married and the couple, along with Melvina and Florine, lived together in Jacksonville. Once again Doss would find out that she had not married a man with the character of her romance novel men. Quite the opposite. Harrelson turned out to be a drunk and in debt. His favorite pastime was to get into bar fights. But somehow the marriage lasted until Harrelsons death, 16 years later. Doss Becomes a Grandmother, But Not for Long In 1943, Doss oldest daughter, Melvina, had her first child, a son named Robert and then another in 1945. But the second child, a healthy girl, died soon after being born for unexplained reasons. Later Melvina recalled, while she was in and out of consciousness after her difficult delivery, seeing her mother stick a hatpin into the head of the infant, but no proof of the incident was ever found. On July 7, 1945, Doss was taking care of Melvinas son Robert, after she and her daughter had a fight over Doss disapproval of Melvinas new boyfriend. That night, while in Doss care, Robert died of what doctors said was asphyxia from unknown causes. Within a few months, Doss collected $500 on an insurance policy she had taken out  on  the boy. Frank Harrelson Dies On September 15, 1945, Frank Harrelson became ill and died. Doss would later tell the story of Frank coming home drunk and raping her. The next day, acting on revenge, she poured rat poison into his corn whiskey jar, then watched as Harrelson died a painful and miserable death. Husband #3 - Arlie Lanning Figuring it had worked once to snag a husband, Doss returned to the classified ads to find her next true love. It worked and within two days of meeting each other, Doss and Arlie Lanning were married. Just like her late husband, Lanning was an alcoholic, but not a violent one. This time it was Doss who would take off for weeks and sometimes months at a time. In 1950, after two and a half years of marriage, Lanning became ill and died. At the time it was believed that he died of a heart attack brought on by the flu that was going around. He showed all the symptoms - fever, vomiting, stomach pains. With his history of drinking, doctors believed his body simply succumbed to it and an autopsy was not performed. Lannings house was left to his sister and within two months the house burned down before the sister had taken ownership. Doss moved in temporarily with her mother-in-law, but when she received an insurance check to cover the damages of the burned house, she took off. Doss wanted to be with her sister, Dovie, who was dying of cancer. Just before she was set to move to her sisters home, her mother-in-law died in her sleep. Not surprisingly, Dovie soon died too, while in Doss care. Husband #4 - Richard L. Morton This time Doss decided that, instead of limiting her search for a husband through the classified ads, she would try joining a singles club. She joined the Diamond Circle Club which is where she met her fourth husband, Richard L. Morton of Emporia, Kansas. The two married in October 1952 and made their home in Kansas. Unlike her previous husbands, Morton was not an alcoholic, but he did turn out to be adulterous. When Doss learned that her new husband was seeing his old girlfriend on the side, he didnt have long to live. Besides, she already had her sights on a new man from Kansas named Samuel Doss. But before she could take care of Richard, her father died and her mother Louisa came for a visit. Within days her mother was dead after complaining of severe stomach cramps. Husband Morton succumbed to the same fate three months later. Husband #5 - Samuel Doss After the death of Morton, Nannie moved to Oklahoma and soon became Mrs. Samuel Doss. Sam Doss was a Nazarene minister who was dealing with the death of his wife and nine of his children who were killed by a tornado that had engulfed Madison County, Arkansas. Doss was a good and decent man, unlike other men that had been in Nannies life. He was not a drunk, womanizer or a wife abuser. He was instead a decent church-going man who fell head over heels for Nannie. Unfortunately Samuel Doss had one major flaw that would be his demise. He was painfully frugal and boring. He led a regimented life and expected the same of his new bride. No romance novels or love stories on television were permitted and bedtime was at 9:30 p.m. every night. He also kept tight control over the money and gave very little to his new wife. This did not sit right with Nannie, so she returned to Alabama, but soon came back after Samuel agreed to sign her to his checking account. With the couple reunited and Doss having access to the money, she acted the role of the caring doting wife. She convinced Samuel to take out two life insurance policies, leaving her as the only benefactor. Almost before the ink dried, Samuel was in the hospital complaining of stomach problems. He managed to survive almost two weeks and recovered enough to return home. On his first night home from the hospital, Doss served him a nice home cooked meal and hours later Samuel was dead. Samuel Doss doctors were alarmed at his sudden passing and ordered an autopsy. It turned out his organs were full of arsenic and all fingers were pointing at Nannie Doss as the culprit. Police brought Doss in for questioning and she confessed to killing four of her husbands, her mother, her sister Dovie, her grandson Robert and Arlie Lannings mother. 15 Minutes of Fame Despite being a horrific murderer, Doss seemed to enjoy the limelight of her arrest and often joked about her dead husbands and the method she used to kill them, such as the sweet potato pie that she laced with arsenic. Those in the courtroom passing judgment on her failed to see the humor. On May 17, 1955, Doss, who was 50 years old, confessed to murdering Samuel and in return, she was given a life sentence. In 1963, after spending eight years in prison, she died of leukemia in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Prosecutors never pursued charging Doss for any additional murders. Most believe, however, that Nannie Doss might have killed up to 11 people.