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

...thin that the glass, notwithstanding that it? was transparent. From this, I knew it to be the shadow of a noble experiment original: expt. I also put 6 grains original: gr of the second residue original: caput mort.; literally "dead head," the solid remains left after distillation on a glass into a red heat, and it did not flow and melt like the former, but only grew soft and fumed away; yet it left two grains of fixed matter after it had finished fuming.

The last summer, I had dissolved antimony original symbol: ♁ in about four times as much nitric acid original symbol: 🜔; aqua fortis with sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜹. By the frequent pouring on original: affusion of fresh solvent original: menstruum and too long and hot digestion, most of the solution was precipitated into a white, fatty, clammy slime. This I dried, and one part of it (to the best of my memory) I had sublimed with two? parts of sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜹. The sublimate the solid substance collected after being vaporized and cooled rose with great difficulty. There was about three-quarters of an ounce, or 360 grains, of purely white sublimate and consequently about 80 or 90 grains of antimony original symbol: ♁, assuming two-thirds or three-quarters of the precipitate was carried up. I poured water onto this, and a white precipitate fell which, when washed clean original: edulcorated and dried, weighed 80 grains.

January 22: I dissolved original: resolved 480 grains of antimony original symbol: ♁ that had been once acted upon by nitric acid original symbol: 🜔 and sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜹. [The mixture used] 480 grains of sal ammoniac, 480 grains of nitric acid, and 960 grains of water. When the moisture original: humidity was boiled away, the matter remained black at the bottom. Upon increasing the heat, a salt arose as easily as sal ammoniac arises, and the residue original: caput mort remained white and seemed to have been in a state of fusion molten or melted during the sublimation.

The sublimate weighed 400 grains and had a metallic, acidic taste original: vitriolick. The residue original: caput mort was hard and weighed 132 grains. I placed it in a fire shovel over the fire, and it fumed a little, and then it weighed 120 grains. Thus, about 160 grains were carried up vaporized. The sublimate was pure white but would not melt original: flow on a hot iron. It seemed to have much of the same volatility as sal ammoniac original symbol: 🜹, for I laid some of each on a piece of glass and, holding the glass over a candle, they both flew away at the same temperature and time. With the salt of copper original symbol: ♀, it produced a little—but very little—bubbling original: ebullition. Perhaps the watery spirit original: aqueous spt do? which causes a strong bubbling stayed behind in the residue, or else was not released from the other spirit.