What is salt?

Facts about Salt

Place a piece of the soft metal sodium on water.  There is a huge reaction while the surface sizzles and pops.  After the sodium disappears and has therefore formed a compound, you are left with highly poisonous caustic soda.
 
Chlorine is a suffocating yellowy green gas.  The small amounts released by chlorine pellets in our swimming pools, is enough to keep the water germ free. But in bigger concentrations, chlorine is a horror.  Only 0.058 % per volume in the atmosphere is enough to kill a human being within minutes.
 
But bring sodium and chlorine together in the laboratory. This product looks familiar.  Taste it.  Now it is harmless.  When the deadly sodium and chlorine compounded, they formed a mineral which is in daily use in our homes: ordinary salt.  Just as water consists of the gasses Oxygen and Hydrogen, salt consists of a poisonous metal and a poisonous gas.
 
Since time immemorial this salt (sodium chloride) has been man’s most valuable and sought-after edible mineral.  Not only is it vital for the human diet, but also essential in the production of almost all chemical products on the market.