Grand Est Nature, culture and fertilizer in Alsace In 1904, potassium deposits were discovered in French Alsace. Potassium, or potash, is one of the most essential nutrients for plants, together with nitrogen and phosphorus. That is why potash was brought out en masse to make fertilizer.
Six blast furnaces you can visit today In the early nineteenth century, the industrial revolution swept across continental Europe and one steelworks after another rose from the ground. Europe had hundreds of blast furnaces, but since the mid-twentieth century, Europe's steel industry has been slowly going downhill.