I remember my nana (grandmother) taken the urine from the chamber pots, and simmering it, in a pail on the stove.

it was then used to wash woolens..

the heat turned the urine into a mild ammonia, and ammonia naturally cleans, and softens the wool. After, the woolens were rinsed in clear cool water, and i don't remember any smell.

Now days, when Ammonia is just an other bottle on the store shelf, we don't think about it.. but in times past, natural products were utilized in other/different ways.

as Simon Winchester pointed out in Professor and Madman, there was in the 1800's, an industry in collecting dog feces, -- Called at the time pure as a source of nitrogen and coloring-- they were used for tanning leather

now that nitrogen can be cheaply extrated from atmosphere, there is no value in pure.

I don't know enough about tanning hides to know why urine was used, but i suspect it was really ammonia that was used. Ammonia made from urine.


my other obsession