The Salt Machines in Bad Kösen
In the afternoon we will visit the spectacular water-powered graduation wall in Bad Kösen.
Saline aquifers were also discovered in the neighbouring town of Bad Kösen and from 1730 onwards the extraction of “white gold” became a principal economic basis for the town. A saline-well was sunk and an impressive so-called graduation wall was built. 20 metres high and over 320 metres long, this is a man-made thicket hedge, and was used for increasing the salt concentration of the saline by trickling the saline solution through the hedge successively so that the water evaporated.
To catch the wind the graduation house is built on the hillside. However, the source of power for the pump, the river, lies in the valley. A complex mechanism of lashed wooden struts transfers power from the valley to the hillside. Until 1859 over 5,000,000 kg of salt was extracted in this way per year. It is still in use today as an open-air inhalatorium.