Notes of experiments in chemistry and alchemy (MS Add.3973)

[I sublimed it] again and it left 37 grains in the bottom, from which scarcely anything was carried up—or rather, something was left behind. For the antimony original: ♁, the alchemical symbol for antimony, if well dried, would perhaps have weighed less than 37 grains. The residue original: caput mortuum; literally "dead head," the solid dregs left after distillation or sublimation did not flow melt at all on a red-hot iron, nor did it hardly even smoke. When placed on the iron in the fire for a long time until it was thoroughly red-hot, it came out again with its original shape and seemed not much altered in either weight or color. So much had the spirit of iron original: spt of ♂; iron was alchemically associated with the planet Mars. This "spirit" likely refers to an acidic vapor or essence derived from the metal. hardened and fixed made non-volatile or solid the antimony original: ♁.

Since the sublimate a purified solid substance gathered from vapor after heating I used in these experiments was old, I made some new using crude iron original: ♂. This was dirtier than the previous batch and had much red dusty sulfur original: sulphur; likely a reference to a sulfurous compound or byproduct adhering to the top of the glass, which made me suspect the previous batch was not made with crude iron, but by iron original: ♂ that had already been acted upon by tin original: ♃; tin was alchemically associated with the planet Jupiter. Of this, I sublimed 50 grains from 50 grains, 60 grains from 40 grains of the filings, 120 grains from 60 grains, and 180 grains from 60 grains.

The first left a residue original: caput mortuum of about 40 or 42 grains, which was not fusible able to be melted on a red-hot iron, nor did it yield much smoke. The second was fusible on a red-hot iron, but not as fusible as that of the former sublimate where I had put 160 grains of sublimate to 100 grains of iron. The third and fourth left a noticeable scum on the iron. The third and fourth were about as fusible as the previously mentioned batch and, in a manner, just as volatile easily evaporated. The fourth left 48 grains of residue original: caput mortuum.

The residues original: caput mortuums of these were hardly as sweet as the former. I believe the proportion here of two to one may be best to use. I laid 6 grains of the third residue original: caput mortuum (where the proportion of two to one was used) on a glass and placed the glass in a red-hot fire—a heat high enough to distill oil of sulfur original: oyle of 🜍; an archaic name for concentrated sulfuric acid—and it all fumed away in about an eighth of an hour, except for a thin skin which could hardly weigh a quarter of a grain and which was so thin...