1. "Ashes"
Posted by haulover on Jun-3rd-03 at 12:29 PM
Let's revisit the handleless hatchet in the cellar that was covered with ashes. don't ashes contain lye, an important ingredient in soap or cleansers? could this have anything to do with why no trace of blood was found on the thing? has anybody ever thought about this?
I don't know of what ashes are made.
Carbon?
Wouldn't those plain-living cops know about furnace ashes and their composition?
What happened to the sledgehammer theory? I liked it but figured it would make too much noise. (It certainly would have made a *chip* of something, wouldn't it?)
i don't know. i just can't escape the oddity of that image. an blade different from the other contents in that it has been rubbed with ashes, or dipped in ashes while wet. of course i've even speculated that cunning lizzie created this oddity as a ruse, while she did something else with the real thing.
isn't soap essentially fat and ashes?
i wasn't even sure the sledgehammar would work -- or what else might be in the barn that would destroy an axe. or how long it would take. it would be funny though if she picked up a piece of a shattered hatchet and took it back in the house and laid it right under their noses -- or fixed a screen with it.
That would be an IRONY!
Wood ashes can be used to make soft soap w/ fat. But the Borden cellar must have had coal ashes. They are poisonous to plants; even too much wood ashes too. Ash is what is left after the carbon is burnt. "Ash" is a generic term in chemistry. IMO
...
Those w/ Trial transcript may find all they wish to know from the Doctor's testimony. Or maybe specialized textbooks. Ash may actually preserve blood spots, maybe?
(Message last edited Jun-4th-03 3:36 PM.)
i'm still looking for info. i don't know if it's just wood ash, but ashes are definitely a component of soap. did it appear that the bordens "saved" ashes? i just thought it another interesting coincidence that while that axe needed a good cleaning, ashes is known to figure in cleanser.
this could be completely off the wall, i realize. but it's the first brand new idea i've had about the case in a while. other than the possibility of destroying an axe blade.
i don't guess we have a chemist onboard?
Here you go, Haulover. Heres a site you can go to to learn everything you ever wanted to know about early American soap making, it involved wood ash and fat originally.
http://www.alcasoft.com/soapfact/historycontent.html
And here is a site that gives current day uses for coal ashes:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/2003/4/ASHES.EER.html
And, from what I can find, coal ash was used in "hatching runs" for the hens to cleanse themselves in, from this site:
http://www.victorianlondon.org/cassells/cassells-14.htm Thats about all I could find out for use of coal ash in Victorian times.