Talk:Niter

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Merge?

No, this is a mineral article while potassium nitrate is an article about the chemical compound. Vsmith 23:05, 26 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, they are differnt, so they should not me merged thechezman14 17:27, 4 October 2006 (GMT +12)

Furthermore, about half this article is devoted to potassium nitrate produced artificially, rather than the mineral form, produced naturally in certain environments. This article should restrict itself to the natural mineral, and all the material on the history and technology of producing saltpeter should be moved to the article on potassium nitrate. --Kent G. Budge (talk) 05:08, 4 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Poe Reference?

Yeah, I'll have to read it again, but I'm pretty sure Poe wasn't referring to any kind of toxicity of nitre when he mentioned it the "The Cask of Amontillado". If I remember correctly, Fortunado was already suffering from some kind of illness before ever entering the main character's vaults (plus he was probably drunk at the time). The main character repeatedly points out all the nitre, but he was using it to show how damp the place was, since Fortunado was sick (probably with a fever or a cold or something). The main character (Montresor?) actually uses some more alchohol to incapacitate Fortunado, before walling him up within the vault. Avatarian86

I agree. He just pointed out the nitre to show how damp the cave was. I don't see how it would kill Fortunado anyway. Potassium Nitrite is a mild irritant, but it does not seem particularly toxic, and Fortunado never ate it.67.85.254.111 20:11, 29 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Which is odd, since (as the article points out) nitre normally only exists in arid environments, so a damp cave really shouldn't have any. So Poe's "nitre" must be something else. Note too that H. P. Lovecraft uses "nitre" in a similar context in "The Statement of Randolph Carter": "...the top of a flight of stone steps, dripping with some detestable ichor of the inner earth, and bordered by moist walls encrusted with nitre."

If there's water containing dissolved salts seeping constantly but slowly through the walls, the salts could easily be deposited as a crust on the walls as the water evaporated into the room. As for the bit about niter only existing in arid environments, my guess is that it's not that niter can't exist except in arid places, it's that it only has an opportunity to build up over time in places where it won't be washed away by rainfall--which would be true of a damp cellar too, not just of deserts. 206.208.105.129 (talk) 18:49, 14 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's more likely that Poe and Lovecraft simply didn't know what they were talking about. To set the tone of the story, they liked the image of a damp environment and they liked niter-crusted walls, so they slotted both together like literary Lego-bricks. There are no bluebirds in Dover either.

There is nitre as a naturally occurring mineral, which because of its solubility is found only in very dry environments, and nitre as a substance manufactured from decomposing organic matter -- typically animal or human urine. The latter would have been associate with damp, toxic environments.--Kent G. Budge (talk) 15:16, 18 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Satanic MacGuyver

I read the article and thought it was vandalized due to absurdity of the plotline description. Maybe adjust the tone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.235.32.67 (talk) 07:41, 18 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Literary references?

Neither of these literary references have to do with the history of nitre. If nobody objects I'll delete them. We could move them to a separate section but there must surely be more appropriate literary references than a short story by Poe where nitre is invoked only to help set the scene and a novel from the 1980s. I'm not sure that a mineral needs a literary references section, anyway. Eshafto (talk) 16:06, 20 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like you are correct, so I went ahead and removed them. I am not really opposed to having some sort of literature section, but it should contain pieces that are notable to niter. - 2/0 (cont.) 18:17, 20 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Merge of Nitrary

Is it felt that it would make sense to merge Nitrary into this article, at least until it has enough references and covers enough material to be split into two distinct articles? AdventurousSquirrel (talk) 07:43, 22 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I take it back - it makes sense to me now to have two separate articles; merger proposal tag removed. AdventurousSquirrel (talk) 23:21, 22 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Food

I'm pretty sure niter / saltpetre has been used as a food additive since ancient times.

Niter vs. Potassium Nitrate

There is continuing confusion about the scope of this article. This article is about niter, the mineral form of potassium nitrate. It does not help that "saltpeter" redirects here; I think that should be changed to a redirect to potassium nitrate. Most saltpeter used, e.g., in gunpowder, was manufacture artificially by composting various kinds of nitrate-rich organic matter rather than mined as the mineral form (though the latter was not insignificant, of course.) --Kent G. Budge (talk) 15:18, 10 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]