Salt
in chemistry, sodium chloride.
In the plural it is applied in a general sense to compounds of a metal and a halogen, as sodium chloride, NaCl; and to compounds formed by the union of an acid and a base, nitrate of silver AgNO3.
In its fuller signification the term suggests a compound which can suffer rapid double decomposition with another soluble substance, as when solutions of chloride of sodium and nitrate of silver are mixed together they at once decompose each other and form chloride of silver and nitrate of sodium. By an extension of meaning the name is sometimes applied to compounds, as chloride of ethyl, acetate of ethyl, and even to fats, as stearin, tristearate of glycerin. Popularly and medicinally the term salts refers to Epsom and Rochelle salts. ape Salt as a commercial product is a very important industry in the United States.
As early as 1620 the Jamestown colonists of Virginia established salt works at Cape Charles. Rock salt is abundant in West Virginia and Louisiana, and salt "licks" and springs are found in nearly all the States and Territories. The springs of southern Illinois were worked by the French and Indians in 1720. The Kentucky salt springs were known and used before 1790.
Salt production in the United States, (1918) 7,238,744 short tons, valued at $26,940,361. The principal salt-producing states are New York, Michigan, Kansas, Ohio and California.