A potash works (German: Aschenhaus, Aschenhütte or Potaschhütte) was a subsidiary operation of a glassworks in the Early Modern Period. The latter needed potash, as well as quartz and lime as raw materials for the manufacture of glass. Potash acted as a flux in the production process, that is by mixing it with quartz sand it significantly reduced the melting point of the latter. To make potash the glassworks built potash huts or works in the vicinity, in which wood ash and was gathered by ash burners and initially washed in water and then vaporized; the whole process being known as leaching.