Book V, chapters 1–2: Alchemy and the transformation of metals

THE FIFTH BOOK OF Natural Magick: Which treateth of Alchymy; shewing how Metals may be altered and transformed, one into another.

THE PROEME.

WE are now come (according to that order which we proposed unto our selves in the beginning) to those experiments which are commonly called by the name of Alchymy matters, wherein not onely a great part of the world is much conversant, but also every one is very desirous to be a practitioner in them, and doth thirst after them with an unquenchable lust. Wherefore we are constrained to speak something concerning this Subject the rather, because many rude and unskilful men, being drawn on, partly by the hope of gain, which they looked for by it, and partly by the pleasure and delight which they did take in it, have bestowed themselves in these experiments to the great slander both of the Art it self, and also of the professors thereof; so that now adays, a man cannot handle it without the scorn and obloquy of the world, because of the disgrace and contempt, which those idiots have brought upon it. For whilst they, being altogether ignorant of the Principles of these things, have labored to make sophistical and counterseit gold, they have utterly miscarried in their endeavours, and wasted all their substance, and quite undone themselves, and so were deluded by that vain hope of Gold, which set them on work. Demetrius Phalereus said very well of these men, That which they should have gotten, saith he, they did not get, & that which they had in their own possession, they lost; and so, whereas they hoped to work a metamorphosis or alteration in the Metals, the alteration and change hath lighted heavily upon themselves, in respect of their own estate: and when they have thus overthrown themselves, they have no other comfort left them but onely this, to broach many lies and counterfeit devices, whereby they may likewise deceive others, and draw them into the very same lurches which themselves have before fallen into. And surely the desire partly of the Art it self, and partly of the great gain which many men hoped after by the same, hath filled the world with so many Books, and such an infinite number of lies, that there is scarce any other matter in the like request; so that it was very well done of Dioclesian the Emperour, and it was high time for him so to do, to establish a Decree, that all such lying Books that were written concerning that matter, should be cast into the fire and burnt to ashes. Thus was an excellent good Art discredited and disgraced by reason that they abused it; which falls out also in many other better things then this is. The Art of it self is not to be fet at nought, but rather to be embraced and much to be sought after; especially by such as apply their minds to Philosophy, and to the searching out of the secrecies of Nature: for they shall find in it many things which they will wonder at, and such as are exceeding necessary for the use of men: and when they shall behold the experience of many kinds of transmutations and sundry effects, it will be no small delight unto them; and besides, it will shew them the way to profounder and worthier matters, such as the best and soundest Philosophers have not been ashamed to search into, and to handle in their writings. I do not here promise any golden mountains, as they say, nor yet that Philosophers stone, which the world hath so great an opinion of, and hath been bragged of in many ages, and happily attained unto by some; neither yet do I promise here that golden liquor, whereof if any man do drink, it is supposed that it will make him to be immortal; but it is a meer dream, for seeing that the world it self is variable and subject to alteration, therefore it cannot be but that whatsoever the world yields, should likewise be subject to destruction; so that to promise or to undertake any such matters as these are, it were but rashness and meer foolis[…]ness. Put the things which we purpose to discourse of and to deliver, are these which here[…]fter follow; and I would request the Readers to take them in good part, and to conte[…]t themselves […]ith these; lest if they attempt to proceed to further experiments herein, they prove themselves as foolish and as mad as those which we have spoken of before. These things which here you shall find, I my self have seen, and proved by experience, and therefore I am the bolder to set them abroach to the view of the whole world.

CHAP. I.

Of Tin, and how it may be converted into a more excellent Mettal.

TInne doth counterfeit and resemble Silver; and there is great amity and agreement betwixt these two Mettals in respect of their colour. The Nature and the colour of Tinne is such, that it will whiten all other Mettals; but it makes them brickle and easie to be knapt in sunder: onely Lead is free from this power of Tinne: but he that can skilfully make a medley of this Mettal with others, may thereby attain to many pretty secrecies. Wherefore, we will endeavor to counterfeit Silver as ne[…]r as we can: A matter which may be easily effected, if we can tell how to abolish and utterly destroy those imperfections which are found in Tinne, whereby it is to be discerned from Siver. The imperfections are these: First, it is wont to make a creaking noise, and crasheth more then Silver doth: Secondly, it doth not ring so pleasantly as Silver, but hath a duller sound: Thirdly, it is of a more pale and wanne colour: And lastly, it is more soft and tender; for if it be put into the fire, it is not first red hot before it be melted, as Silver will be; but it clings fast to the fire, and is soon overcome and molten by the heat thereof. These are the qualities that are observed to be in Tinne; not the essential properties of the Nature thereof, but onely accidental qualities, and therefore they may be more easily expelled out of their subject. Let us see therefore how we may rid away these extrinsecal accidents: and first,

How to remedy the softness of Tin, and the creaking noise that it makes.

You must first beat it into small powder, as you shall hereafter be instructed in the manner how to do it; and when you have so done, you must reduce it into one whole body again. And if it do not lose its softness at the first time as you deal so by it, use the same course the second time, and so likewise the third time rather then fail, and by this means you shall at length obtain your purpose: for, by so doing, the Tin will wax so hard, that it will endure the fire till it be red hot, before ever it will melt. By the like practice we may also harden all other soft bodies, to make them red hot before they shall be melted: but the experience hereof is more clear in Tinne then in any other Mettals whatsoever. We may also take away the creaking noise of Tinne, if we melt it seven several times, and quench it every time in the urine of children; or else in the Oyl of Wall-nuts: for this is the onely means to expel that quality and imperfection out of it. Thus then we have declared the manner how to extract these accidents from it: but all this while we have not shewed how it may be transformed into Silver: which now we are to speak of, as soon as ever we have shewed the manner

How to bring Tin into Powder,

which we promised to teach. Let your Tinne boil in the fire; and when it is very liquid, pour it forth into a great morter; and when it beginneth to wax cold, and to be congealed together again, you must stir it and turn it round about with a wooden pestle, and let it not stand still in any case; thus shall you cause it be congealed into very small crums as little as dust: and when you have so done, put it into a very fine ranging sieve, and sift out the smallest of it; and that which is left behinde in your sieve, because it is too great and not broken well enough, you must put it into the fire again, and use the very same course with it to break it into smaller dust, as you used before; for unless it be throughly broken into powder, it is not serviceable, nor fit for your purpose. Having therefore shewed you how to break your Tin into small crums, as also how to expel out of it those imperfections whereby it is most manifestly discerned from Silver; both which things are very necessary preparatives as it were to the main matter which we have in hand, let us now come to the principal experiment it self, namely

How to alter and transform Tin, that it may become Silver,

You must take an earthen vessel somewhat wide-mouthed; but it must be very strongly and firmly made, that it be throughly able to endure the vehemency of the fire, even to be red hot: Into this vessel put your Tin broken into such small crums as have been spoken of, and therein you must with an iron ladle stirre it up and down continually without ceasing, till it be all on a light fire, and yet none of the Metal to be melted: when you have so done, that you have given it over, and it gathereth together into one body or lump again, you must bestow the very same labour upon it the second time, so long as it may stand in small crums all on a fire for the space of six hours together, without melting. But if some part of the Metal be melted by the vehement heat of the fire, and some other part of it remain not melted, then you must take away that which is melted, and when it is congealed, you must break it into small powder once again, and you must run over your whole labour again with it, even in the same vessel and with the same instrument as before. After this, when you have brought all your Metal to that perfection that it will endure the fire without melting, then you must put it into a glass-fornace where glass is wont to be made, or else into some Oven that is made of purpose to reflex the heat of the fire to the best advantage, and there let it be tormented and applied with a very great fire for the space of three or four days together, until such time as it is made perfectly white as snow: for the smaller that it is broken and beaten into powder, the more perfectly it will take white, and be the fitter for your purpose, and more exactly satisfie your expectation. After all this, you must put it into a vessel that shall be almost full of vinegar, and the vinegar must cover all the Tinne, and swim about three inches above it. There you must distil it, and let the vinegar boil with it so long, till the Tinne hath coloured it, and made it of his own hue, and thickened it into a more gross substance. Then let it stand a while; and when it is throughly settled, pour out that vinegar and put in new, and temper it well with those ashes or crums of Tinne: and this you must do again and again, till all your Tinne be dissolved into the vinegar. If by this often repetition of this labour, you cannot effect such a dissolution, then you must put it once again to the fire in such a fornace, or else into such an Oven as we spake of before, that so it may be reduced into white ashes more exactly and perfectly, whereby it may be the more easily dissolved into vinegar. After this, you must let the vapour of the vinegar be exhaled, and strained out, and the Tinne that is left behinde must be put into a certain vessel where ashes have been wont to be put, and then melt some fine Lead and put amongst it: and because the Lead that is put in will bear up the Tinne aloft, therefore you must make certain little balls or pills compounded of Soap and Lime, or else of Salt-peter and Brimstone, or some other like fat earthy stuff, and cast them in amongst the Lead and Tinne, and they will cause the Tinne to drench it self within the Lead: and by this means, all your Tinne that doth take the Lead, and is incorporated into it by a just proportion and equal temperature, doth become very excellent good Silver. But this is a marvellous hard labour, and not to be atchieved without very great difficulty. You may like wise alter and transform

Tinne into Lead,

An easie matter for any man to effect, by reducing Tinne into ashes or powder often times: for the often burning of it will cause the creaking noise which it is wont to make, to be voided from it, and so to become Lead without any more ado; especially, if you use a convenient fire, w[…]en you go about to reduce it into powder.

CHAP. II.

Of Lead, and how it may be converted into another Metal.

THe Antient Writers that have been conversant in the Natures of Metals, are wont to call Tinne by the name of white Lead; and Lead, by the name of black Tinne: insinuating thereby the affinity of the Natures of these two Metals, that they are very like each to another, and therefore may very easily be one of them transformed into the other. It is no hard matter therefore, as to change Tinne into Lead, which we have spoken of in the former Chapter, So also

To change Lead into Tinne.

It may be effected onely by bare washing of it: for if you bath or wash Lead often times, that is, if you often melt it, so that the dull and earthy substance of it be abolished, it will become Tinne very easily: for the same quick-silver, whereby the Lead was first made a subtil and pure substance, before it contracted that soil and earthiness which makes it so heavy, doth still remain in the Lead, as Gebrus hath observed; and this is it which causeth that creaking and gnashing sound, which Tinne is wont to yield, and whereby it is especially dicerned from Lead: so that when the Lead hath lost its own earthy lumpishness, which is expelled by often melting; and when it is endued with the sound of Tinne, which the quick-silver doth easily work into it, there can be no difference put betwixt them, but that the Lead is become Tin. It is also possible to transform

Antimony into Lead:

For, that kind of Antimony which the Alchymists are wont to call by the name of Regulus, if it be oftentimes burned in the fire, and be first throughly boiled, it turneth into Lead. This experiment is observed by Dioscorides, who saith, That if you take Antimony and burn it exceedingly in the fire, it is converted into Lead. Galen sheweth another experiment concerning Lead, namely,

How to procure Lead to become heavier, then of it self it is:

For, whereas he had found by his experience, that Lead hath in it self an aethereal or airy substance, he brings this experiment. Of all the Mettals, saith he, that I have been acquainted with, only Lead is encreased both in bigness and also in weight for, if you lay it up in sellars or such other places of receipt that are under the ground, wherein there is a turbulent and gross foggy air, so that whatsoever is laid up in such rooms shall straightways gather filth and soil, it will be greater and weightier then before it was. Yea, even the very clamps of Lead which have been fastened into carved Images to knit their parts more strongly together, especially those that have been fastened about their feet, have been divers times found to have waxed bigger; and some of those clamps have been seen to swell so much, that whereas in the making of such Images the leaden plates and pins were made level with the Images themselves, yet afterwards they have been so swoln, as that they have stood forth like hillocks and knobs very unevenly, out of the Christal stones whereof the Images were made. This Lead, is a Mettal that hath in it great store of quick-silver, as may appear by this, because it is a very easie mastery,

To extract Quick-silver out of Lead.

Let your Lead be filed into very small dust, and to every two pounds of L[…]ad thus beaten into powder, you must put one ounce of Salt-Peter, and one ounce of ordinary common Salt, and one ounce of Antimony. Let all these be well beaten and powned together, and put into a sieve; and when they are well sifted, put them into a vessel made of glass, and you must fence and plaister the glass round about on the outward side with thick loam tempered with chopt straw, and it must be laid on very fast; and that it may stick upon the vessel the better, your glass must not be smooth, but full of rigoles, as if it were wrested or writhen. When your vessel is thus prepared, you must settle and apply it to a reflexed fire, that is, to a fire made in such a place, as will reflect and beat back the heat of it with great vehemency to the best advantage: and underneath your vessels neck, you must place a large pan, or some other such vessel of great capacity and receipt, which must be half full of cold water: then close up all very fast and sure, and let your fire burn but a little, and give but a small heat for the space of two hours; afterward make it greater, so that the vessel may be throughly heated by it, even to be red hot; then set a blower on work, and let him not leave off to blow for the space of four whole hours together, and you shall see the quick-silver drop down into the vessel that is half full of water, being flighted, as it were, out of the Mettal by the vehement force of the fire. Commonly the quick-silver will stick to the sides of the vessels neck, and therefore you must give the neck of the vessel a little jolt or blow with your hand, that so the quick-silver may fall downward into the water-vessel. By this practice I have extracted oftentimes out of every pound of Mettal almost an whole ounce of quick-silver; yea, sometimes more then an ounce, when I have been very diligent and laborious in performing the work. Another experiment I have seen, which drew me into great admiration,

Lead converted into quick-silver:

A counterfeiting practice, which is the chief cause that all the quick-silver almost which is usually to be had, is but bastard stuff, and meerly counterfeit; yet it is bought and sold for currant, by reason of the neer likeness that it hath with the best. Let there be one pound of Lead melted in an earthen vessel, and then put unto it also one pound of that Tinny mettal which is usually called by the name of Marchasite: and when they are both melted together, you must stirre them up and down, and temper them to a perfect medley with a wooden ladle: In the mean space you must have four pounds of quick-silver warmed in another vessel standing by, to cast in upon that compounded Mettal; for unless your quick-silver be warm, it will not close nor agree well with your Mettals: then temper your quick-silver and your Mettal together for a while, and presently after cast it into cold water; so shall it not congeal into any hard lump, but flote on the top of the water, and be very quick and lively. The onely blemish it hath, and that which onely may be excepted against it, is this, that it is somewhat pale and wan, and not all things so nimble and lively as the true quick-silver is, but is more slow and slimy, drawing as it were a tail after it, as other viscous and slimy things are wont to do. But put it into a vessel of glass, and lay it up for a while; for the longer you keep it, the quicker and nimbler it will be.