Something Special To Be Thankful For This Thanksgiving

by Kilgore Trout

Staff Writer

November 22, 2010

Thanksgiving is upon us once again. The one day each year we set aside to take time to remember those people and things that mean so much to us. This year I propose that we all take a moment to give thanks for one special thing that we often overlook, but if absent would create quite a void in our daily lives. This year let us all give thanks for Baking Soda!

Also known as Sodium bicarbonate, with the formula NaHCO3 , baking soda is quite possibly the most versatile chemical compound known to man. A rather simple compound, one carbon atom double bonded to one oxygen atom, single bonded to an oxygen/hydrogen pair, and single bonded to another negatively charged oxygen atom with a positive charged sodium atom hovering around it. Such a simple compound with so many uses. What other substance do we use in both baking bread and cleaning our toilets? In whitening our teeth and deodorizing our refrigerators? In treating heartburn and fattening cattle? In washing our clothes and extinguishing our grease fires? Indeed, this is one quite remarkable chemical.

Baking soda was first used by the ancient Egyptians as a cleaning agent. It has been used in its natural form for thousands of years, but not until the late 19th century was the compound isolated and mass-produced. In 1894 Chicago chemist Don Sikorski isolated sodium bicarbonate from natron, its natural form, and studied the compound. Sikorski, who was known for his remarkably white teeth, was to baking soda what George Washington Carver was to the peanut. He devised dozens of uses for the versatile powder, including some that have fallen out of fashion since his time. His most controversial theory was that baking soda could revive the recently deceased. Unfortunately for Sikorski his theory did not pan out, and when the dozens of corpses were discovered he was tried and convicted for murder, which was quite rare in Chicago at that time, the conviction, not the murder. After his conviction, his many patents were bought for peanuts by the Arm & Hammer Corporation, which has since become synonymous with the commercial production and sale of baking soda and products containing baking soda.

Sikorski’s ultimate disgrace is likely the reason he has been forgotten by historians and chemists alike, but his story does have a connection to the history of Cooper. Sikorski’s grandson, hoping to escape the shame brought upon by his grandfather, emigrated to Cooper in 1920, and found work as (what else!) a cooper. Sikorski’s descendants live in Cooper to this day, and no doubt there’s a box of baking soda in their fridge or pantry.

So while you’re buttering that biscuit at Thanksgiving dinner, or taking that antacid after your meal, or smothering that grease fire in the kitchen, take a moment to give thanks for baking soda, quite possibly the most important white powder in the world, besides cocaine of course. Baking soda is more loyal than a friend, more reliable than a loved one, lasts longer than your average pet, and has probably bailed you out of more trouble than any cranberry or yam. Yet it is happy to remain in the shadows, as a mere ingredient. This Thanksgiving let us save the seat of honor at our dinner table for that irreplaceable little yellow box of life, the baking soda.