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

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...I had need of; I dissolved this in royal water royal water original: "aqua regis." A potent mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, so named because it is one of the few substances that can dissolve the "king of metals," gold. and a small separating flask separating flask original: "Scheidkölblein." A small, long-necked glass vessel used by alchemists for dissolving and separating substances.. After I was now determined to wash it out, and had poured a fair quantity of fresh water into it, I swirled it around well. At that time, I had no other vessel for emptying it but a tin hand-basin tin hand-basin original: "zienernes Handbecken." This detail is crucial; the reaction between the gold solution and the tin of the basin accidentally created "Purple of Cassius," a famous pigment., which usually always let the water run through into another vessel, but this time, in a wondrous way, it was blocked so that nothing could get out. Thus, [the solution] remained inside. I went to the table for a meal, and after finishing my meal, when I wanted to wash myself in my room, I saw and became aware that the basin was quite beautifully red. I could not imagine what it was until I finally learned of it, and I will discuss it further below; however, I wish for this to be held as

The 5th Experiment

Finally, Dr. Cassius Dr. Cassius Andreas Cassius (c. 1605–1673) was a physician and chemist. He is credited with the discovery of the "Purple of Cassius," a purple pigment formed by the reaction of gold salts with tin compounds. set me upon another path, as I will consider more fully below. But I—because I was still constantly "boiling away" original: "fortsudelte." A self-deprecating term for his early, perhaps messy or unrefined, chemical experiments. at that time and knew no other way to proceed—came upon these thoughts: since the spirit of salt spirit of salt original: "spiritus salis," known today as hydrochloric acid. dissolves the gold somewhat when it has previously been made into fulminating gold fulminating gold original: "auro fulminante," a highly unstable and explosive gold compound., perhaps the spirit of salt is too violent; and I then tried...

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