Alum

Among the many treasures out in the old barn are an assortment of chemical products from the now dissolved Rush & Hebble Co. of Indianapolis.  Here is the wondrously diverse Alum.  Nearly all formulations of alum are double salts bound to hydrated sulfate.  They can contain sodium, ammonium, or even chrome.  The most common commercial form is potassium aluminum sulfate and is known as potash alum or, bizarrely, tawas.  Large potash deposits  throughout Canada, including near tribes of the Odawa (or Ottawa) indigenous Americans, may account for the derivation of  ‘tawas’, but this is largely conjecture.  Tawas City, Michigan derives it’s name not from the Ottawa peoples, but rather Chief O-ta-was from the Saginaw band of Chippewas who were known to camp along the shores of Tawas Bay and has, so far as is known, no connection to potash.