Making Epsom Salts the Dummies Way

Anybody remember "transactional analysis"? The self-help system went into all this "what you said, what I heard, what you thought you said, what I think I heard..." stuff in an effort to improve communications. We call that "listening" these days, but whatever. Anyway, today we have some anonymous person asking Healthfully.com "How to Make Epsom Salt,"¹ and a freelancer thinking someone wanted to make a powder of MgSO₄(H₂O)_x where, in reality, it's a safe bet that the OQ wanted to know how to make an Epsom salt bath. But Enzo Silvestri wasn't having any of that...

Silvestri went straight to Wikipedia, where he learned that the powder sold commercially as Epsom salt is (hydrated) magnesium sulfate, a mineral known as epsomite. That gave Enzo an idea, so he cobbled together an introduction:

"Most bath salts can be quite expensive, though, and if you make a habit of taking mineral baths they can be prohibitively costly. Instead, save some money and make your own Epsom salts."

Next he faked a reference for his "recipe"; a reference that was only a page of suggestions on how to use Epsom salts in your bath. Finally, he told his readers "how to make Epsom salt," which he said was easy:

1. Buy some magnesium sulphate
2. Boil water
3. Mix the magnesium sulfate [make up your mind, Enzo: "sulfate" or "sulphate"?] with the boiled water in a "1:2 ratio" 
4. Let the solution evaporate
5. Collect the Epsom salt crystals.

Silvestri even cunningly suggests using some food coloring to make your crystals of Epsom salt pretty. Of course, Enzo did promise that you would "save money" – it's right there in his introduction. Well would you? Probably not. Magnesium sulfate is difficult to find, but right now you can buy 500 grams (that's about 17 ounces) of magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (USP) for $176 (plus shipping). On the other hand, you can buy a pound of magnesium sulfate sold as Epsom salt for less than two dollars at your local BigBox store.

Oh, yeah, Enzo, you're gonna save you some money! Dumbass of the Day is too good an award for you!

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   http://ehow.com/how_5098892_make-epsom-salt.html

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