Sun Without Clothing or Thirty Experiments to Extract the Purple from Gold

Royal water original: "Aqua regis," a potent mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, so named because it can dissolve the "noble" metal gold. would dissolve it; then, having drawn it off through an alembic The "helm" or top part of a distilling apparatus. and applied a fairly strong fire until everything glowed, the gold rose up entirely in its physical form, and nothing could be accomplished with it. I did, however, once encounter the following, which I wish to set down here as the

First Experiment

By the order and instruction of my patrons at that time, I was required to dissolve gold in spirit of salt spirit of salt original: "Spiritu Salis," known today as hydrochloric acid.. The gold, however, consisted of the thinnest leaves, such as one buys from goldbeaters and otherwise uses for gilding. From this solution (after it had previously been digested A process of slow, gentle heating used to encourage chemical reactions. for nearly eight days in gentle heat), I drew off the spirit of salt quite mildly through a retort. A dark yellow calx calx A powder or friable substance produced by roasting or dissolving a metal; in modern terms, a metal oxide or chloride. remained behind; however, it was very easy to reduce back into a solid body, and it did not fulminate To explode. In alchemy, "aurum fulminans" or fulminating gold was a known explosive compound; the author is noting this powder was stable.. I edulcorated From the Latin "dulcis" (sweet); the process of washing a precipitate with water to remove salts or acids. this calx in the best possible way, then calcined it with flowers of sulfur original: "floribus sulphuris," a fine powder produced by the sublimation of sulfur., and it yielded a beautiful gold-purple. I was amazed at how the goldsmiths used it, after they had first ground it very finely and mixed it with three parts of beautiful white Venetian glass-talc Likely a reference to a specific type of flux or clear glass base used in Venetian enameling to carry the gold pigment.. In order to investigate this further, we spared no effort and poured fresh spirit of salt upon it, drawing it off again after previous digestion, yet never to dryness; and this work we repeated for...