Why was urine considered as liquid gold in the yesteryears? 

One man’s trash is another’s treasure. This holds true quite literally for urine! Wait, what? Yes, you read that right. The urine that we flush out as waste every day was called liquid gold in the yesteryears because of the varied uses it had. The Romans, for example, traded in urine. They would use it for softening leather, removing animal hair, strengthening natural dyes, even brushing teeth and making gunpowder. Weird, isn’t it? 

A liquid gold that serves many industries  
Ever thought about what was used to wash clothes before soap was invented? Surprisingly, it was urine. Urine was mixed with water and used as a detergent for clothing. But why so? This is because urine is rich in ammonia, an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen. It washed away even the worst stains from clothes. Knowing this, laundries would buy barrels of urine for cleaning. In fact, the early Europeans often preferred pee to clean their homes. Bizarre indeed! 

For the same reason, it was also used by the leather industry. Leather is obtained from animal skins. Initially, they are hard. Soaking them in urine would help in removing hair and bits of unwanted flesh from the skin. Infact, gunpowder manufacturers also took advantage of the nitrogen found in pee to make the key ingredient for ballistic firepower.  

Urine was also important in the textile industry for dying fabric as it helped in strengthening and binding dyes on clothes. In fact, a quantity equivalent to the urine steam of 1,000 people for an entire year used to be shipped across England to Yorkshire for dying fabric!  

Weird fact: Romans used the pee to brush their teeth. Arguably, the ammonia bleached their teeth and even removed stains and tartar. Gross, isn’t it? 

How was it collected?  
But how was so much of pee collected together for transport? Vessels to collect urine were placed on streets in ancient Rome. People passing by would relieve themselves in these vessels. After the buckets were full, they were taken to a laundry and used to wash dirty clothes. Pee was also collected from public urinals and sold to laundries.  

The pee is still is use! 
If you thought that all the above is just history, you are wrong. In fact, it has found many more uses in the modern times. Nowadays, it is used in making fertility medicines, organic fertilisers and as a source of renewable energy, among other things. Yes, urine-eating bacteria can create a strong enough current to power a cell phone. Also, stem cells harvested from urine have been re-programmed into neurons and even used to grow human teeth.