Smelling salts have a surprisingly long history, with the oldest references found in writing from the Roman Empire in 77 C.E. Here's a quick tour from their early days to the gym bag.
Ancient roots
Romans: The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder documented a compound known as Hammoniacus sal (later called sal ammoniac) in his first-century encyclopedic work. It is presumed that smelling salts were commonly used in the coliseum, but not for the combatants like you would assume. Spectators were prone to fainting from the gruesome spectacle, and smelling salts were used to revive them. Roman's couldn't just buy Ward Smelling Salts, instead they collected natural ammonium crusts from the Libyan desert, from the volcanic vents around Mt Vesuvius and from animal waste reduction. They then crushed them into a fine powder and added additional perfumes to make the scent more gentle. It's written that they stored the smelling salts in small vials, that were only opened when needed, much like modern bottle style smelling salts.
Alchemists: Additional references to preparations go back to at least the 13th century, when alchemists were already experimenting with ammonia. At this point however they discovered a much different method. Instead of foraging, they used deer antlers. First they would crush or shave the antlers to increase the surface area, then they used extreme heat to dry boil the deer antlers. This process produced an intense liquid ammonia. At roughly 28% concentration, these smelling salts were likely MUCH stronger than the Roman version. This process is also known as "destructive distillation". Ammonia was a handy chemical for many other processes, but we are here to talk about smelling salts, and this ammonia product was continued to be used for the same purpose of reviving people.
Literature: I'm a big reader of classics, and I'll admit it's cool to see smelling salts pop up again and again in classic literature. You can find references to smelling salts in classic works of literature such as works by Charles Dickens, where back then a popular solution named "sal volatile" was used to treat fainting, hysteria and freight in his characters. I've seen it pop up in a few other authors works, I should have kept a list.
A household staple
For much of their history, smelling salts were a common household item, kept on hand as a revival aid. Romans, customers of the alchemists, and modern people reached for them in a pinch. They were a small, familiar object in the medicine cabinet of earlier eras. Today they are still kept in ambulances, hospitals and first aid kits.
The move into sport
It's only relatively recently that smelling salts became strongly associated with athletics, but once athletes discovered them, they became an instant staple. Over the past few decades they've become a common sight in strength sports, hockey, football, and combat sports — passed around benches and platforms as part of pre-effort routines. Smelling salts are most commonly found in high-intensity sports that require shorts bursts of effort. Heavy gym lifts being the most common example.
From vial, to ampule, to bottle
The format has evolved too. Romans and alchemists used vials, but in modern medical times the standard has been the single-use crushable ampule. However more recently, resealable bottle-style salts took over for regular users. They are sharper, more economical, and longer-lasting. Ward builds on that with bottles made specifically for athletes, including the first formulated for cold conditions hockey smelling salt and the refillable Stainless Steel Asylum Bottle.
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