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tregosmasher t1_irny4iy wrote

Reply to comment by l3lindsite in Why, when you continue to burn ash, do the ashes eventually change from black to white? by genitalwaffles

Lye is sometimes used to mean sodium hydroxide. If you bought lye from a chemical supply warehouse, that’s what you’d expect. Lye can also mean combining ash with water. You have conflated these two types of lye, which is incorrect. Wood ash lye is typically high in potassium hydroxide.

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EdibleBatteries t1_iro9pl0 wrote

Hence why it is named “potassium” and not it’s symbolic kalium. It is found in high amounts in “pot ash”

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EdibleBatteries t1_iro9x3i wrote

Hence why it is named “potassium” and not it’s symbolic kalium. It is found in high amounts in “pot ash”

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alucardou t1_iroydfz wrote

The makers of "fireplace" bring you "potashium" Needed to make pot ash sound scientific, so they just put ium at the end. Brilliant.

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Nixeris t1_irqnp3n wrote

When scientists discovered a metal that could be derrived from the roman alumin recipes, they called it Aluminium.

Found a metal in Magnesia? Call it Magnesium.

In California? Call it Californium.

The element is Blue-gray? Call it Blue-grayium. But make it fancy and use the Latin term for Blue-gray, 'Caesius'. Caesium or cesium.

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Lurker_IV t1_irqlulr wrote

"ium" in the suffix that denotes a material. More than half of the elements end in 'ium'.

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l3lindsite t1_irti3sl wrote

Okay so ignoring the ego tripping below what im gathering is pure lye is a particular chemical potassium hydroxide but wood ash has large amount of it in it so when you dillute it in water you are getting a mix of chemicals with a high concentration of lye within it, tho it isn't entirely pure lye. How could one refine this process.

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