1. A pile of firewood (billet-wood) was burned until grey ashes
were formed. The best woods were oak, ash, poplar, hickory, elm,
hazel, and beech. Old hollow trees, if not dead, were especially
desirable.
2. After several pounds of ashes had accumulated, they were leached
(boiling water was percolated through the ashes), resulting in a
very strong alkali solution known as ley or lye.
3. The alkali solution (or ley) was strained through a coarse linen
cloth to keep out any coarse materials (such as small pieces of
half-burnt wood), that might happen to remain in the ashes.
4. The strained ley solution was poured in an iron pan, and
evaporated over a quick fire—almost to dryness.
5. The residue remaining in the bottom of the pan was removed and put
into an iron pot. The pot was put over a strong fire till the matter was
melted. Immediately the melted matter was poured out upon an iron plate,
where it soon cooled and appeared in the form of a solid lump of
potash.
Making Potash at Jamestown—About 1608 Conjectural sketch
To a chemist the somewhat primitive methods described are very obvious ones in making an impure form of potash. The combustion of hardwoods resulted in an ash residue containing the desired potassium carbonate. Some purification was obtained by leaching the ash residue in boiling water and then filtering the "ley" through a coarse linen cloth. The filtered "ley" was evaporated in an iron pot to dryness. The potash resulting was now ready for making soap and glass, as well as for other industrial uses.
PITCH AND TAR
Pitch and tar—used by shipbuilders from time immemorial for caulking and covering seams of vessels—were made at Jamestown as early as 1608. After the second supply ships reached Jamestown in October, 1608, one of the settlers wrote:
No sooner were we landed, but the President dispersed [as] many as were able, some for glasse, others for pitch, tarre, and sope ashes.
A month later trials of pitch and tar were carried to England by Captain Christopher Newport, as reported by Thomas Studley, one of the original planters:
Captaine Newport being dispatched with the tryals of pitch, tarre, glass, frankincense and sope ashes, with that clapbord and wainscot [which] could bee provided ... returned for England.