An ounce of salt could once be traded for an ounce of gold. Now, the idea is laughable, with the cost of gold reaching over $2,000 per ounce while 26 ounces of salt is valued at just $1. How did gold ...

Pick up a salt shaker and really look at it. It seems pretty boring now, a table staple that gets sprinkled on fries or lost in the back of a kitchen cabinet. For most of human history, though, salt ...

Salt shakers were invented in 1858 by John Mason, the guy who invented the screw-top Mason jar. He made little screw-top jars to keep salt in at the table and keep it from caking from the humidity.