How does a Salt Work work?

Question

I was recently watching the movie Gandhi, and they went to a salt works and protested. I was curious to what a 'salt works' does. I'm assuming it takes the salt out of salt water from the sea. Any answers?

Answer 1

Salt works evaporate and purify salt from some source - not necessarily the ocean, although in Ghandi's case that is in fact where the salt came from.

Learn a little more below:

Answer 2

Actually most salt is made from underground brine which has a higher salt content than sea water. Alternatively it is mined directly. Salzburg in Austria is one place where there were salt mines, thus the name.

Brine is pumped to the surface and fills large shallow dams or ponds. The water evaporates slowly and eventually crystals of salt form. Once the water is mostly gone the salt is scraped up and passes through a drier, then sieved or crushed and sieved to suitable sizes.

Salt can be made from sea water but because the salt content is lower the process takes longer and the product is therefore more expensive.

Making salt is one of the most important and oldest industries in the world. Many towns were based on it including Boston in Massachusetts and Liverpool in England. Often the town name starts with "Sal" or "Hal" in continental Europe or ends with "-wich" in England.

Salt was subjected to taxes in most parts of the world including China, France and India. The British grabbed the monopoly on salt in India and supplied much of India from saltworks in England. This made salt expensive in India, hence Ghandi's protest.

Answer 3

It can be a salt pan, from which salt gets evaporated from sea water, or a salt mine, left from a sea that is no longer there. Salt mines are dangerous to work in and the work is brutally hard since you can get dehydrated rapidly.
I never saw the movie so I can't tell you which one, but likely it's the mine they protested at.

Answer 4

No that's a desalinization plant. I saw the movie, but I don't remember that scene.

I assume they are referring to a strip mine where they mine salt from an open pit, and the workers carry the salt blocks out on their backs - sounds like a Ghandi theme to me.

Here's a link to strip mines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_mining