Book V, chapters 3–5: Alchemy and the transformation of metals

CHAP. III.

Of Brass; and how to transform it into a worthier Mettal.

WE will now alledge certain experiments concerning Brass; which though they are but slight and trivial, yet we will not omit to speak of them, because we would fain satisfie the humour of those, who have a great desire to read of and be acquainted with such matters. And here we are to speak of such things as are good to stain the bodies of Mettals with some other colour then naturally they are endued withal. Yet I must needs confess that these are but fained and counterfeit colourings, such as will not last and stick by their bodies for ever; neither yet are they able to abide any trial, but as soon as ever they come to the touchstone, they may easily be discerned to be but counterfeits. Howbeit, as they are not greatly to be desired, because they are but deceivable, yet notwithstanding they are not utterly to be rejected as things of no value. And because there are very few Books extant which Treat of any Argument of like kind as this is, but they are full of such experiments and sleights as here offer themselves to be handled by us (for they are very common things, and in every mans mouth) therefore we will in this place speak onely of those things which are easily to be gotten, and yet carry with them a very goodly shew, insomuch that the best and sharpest censure may be deluded and mistaken by the beautiful gloss that is cast upon them; and it may gravel the quickest and skilfullest judgement, to define upon the suddain whether they are true or counterfeit. Yet let them be esteemed no better then they deserve. But this you must know, that as slight and trivial as they are, yet they require the handling of a very skilful Artificer: and whosoever thou art that goest about to practice these experiments, if thou be not a skilful and well experienced workman thy self, be sure to take the advice and counsel of those that are very good Artists in this kind; for otherwise thou wi[…]t certainly miscarry in them, and be defeated of thy purpose. The chief and especial things which are of force to endue Brass with a whiter colour, are these: Arsenick or Oker; that kind of quick-silver which is sublimated, as the Alchymists call it; the scum or froth of silver, which is called by the Greeks Lithargvron; the Marchasi[…]e or fire-stone; the Lees of wine; that kind of Salt which is found in Africk under the sand, when the Moon is at the full; which is commonly called Salt Ammoniack; the common and ordinary Salt which the Arabians call by the name of Al-hali; Salt-peter, and lastly Alome. If you extract the liquor out of any of these, or out of all these, and when it is dissolved, put your Brass, being red hot, into it to be quenched, your Brass will become white: Or else, if you melt your Brass, and assoon as it is molten, put it into such liquor, your Brass will become white: Or else, if you draw forth into very small and thin plates, and pown those bodies we now speak of, into small powder, and then cast both the brass that is to be coloured, and the bodies that must colour it, into a melting or casting vessel, and there temper them together to a good med[…]ev, and keep them a great while in the fire, that it may be thoroughly me[…]ted, the brass will become white. Or else, if you melt your brass, and then cast upon it some of that colouring in small lumps, (for if you cast it in powder and dust, it is a doubt that the force and rage of the fire will utterly consume it, so that it shall not be able to infect or Pain the mettal) but if you cast good store of such colouring upon the molten brass, it will endue your brass with a strange and wonderful whiteness, insomuch that it will seem to be very silver indeed. But that you may learn the better, how to work such experiments, and beside, that you may by occasion of those things which are here set down, learn how to compound and work other matters, we will now set forth unto you certain examples, how we may make

Brass to counterfeit Silver;

for when once you are trained up a little in the practice of these matters, then they will sink more easily into your understanding, then by all your reading they can do: therefore as we have spoken of such things as will do this seat, so also we will reach you how to work artificially. Take an earthen pot, and set it upon the fire with very hot coals heaped round about it; put lead into it, and when you see that your lead is molten by the force of the fire, take the third part of so much silver as there was lead, and pown it into small powder, and pu[…] it to the lead into the pot; but you must sprinkle it in onely by little and little, that it may be scorched, and even burned as it were by the heat of the fire, and may float like as it were oyle on the top and surface of the lead; and some of it may be so wasted by the vehemency of the heat, that it vanish away into the smoak. Then let them rest a while, so long as there be any remainders of the coa[…]s left. After you have so done, break the vessel into pieces, and take away the scum and dross of the mettal; and whereas there will stand on the top of the mettal a certain oyle as it were, or a kind of gelly, you must take that, and bray it in a morter, and cast it into a vessel by little and little where there is brass melted; and though the brass be three times so mu[…]h in weight as that gelly is, yet the gelly will endue all that brass with a white silver colour; Nay, if there be more then three times so much melted brass put into that metal, it will make it all like unto silver. But if you would have your brass endued with a perfect white colour, and not discernable from silver, you must melt some silver and some brass together, and then throw them into the fire, and so take them out again after some short time; for the longer you suffer them in the fire, the worse will your experiment succeed. Which is a matter most worthy to be observed in these cases: for if your work continue any longer in the fire then need requires, it will fade in colour, and the violence of the fire will countermand the operation and effect of your skil and labour in tempering the mettals together, and so the brass will recover his former colour in his first estate. Wherefore let your mettals be kept in the fire as little while as you can, that you may make your brass the whiter, and in colour most like unto silver: howbeit, though you have made it never so white, yet in time it will wax blackish and dim again; for the Arsnick that is naturally incorporated into the brasse, will alwayes strive to restore it to the former du[…]kish and dim colour which it is by nature endued withal. We will now also teach you another way how to make

Brass to counterfeit Silver;

and this is a more excellent and notable experiment then the former. Take six ounces of the Lees of wine, eight ounces of Cristal Arsnick, half an ounce of quick-silver that hath been sublimated, two ounces of Salt-peeter, one ounce and an half of glass; beat all these together in a morter, and see that they be broken into the smallest powder and dust that may be. After this, take three pounds of Copper, that which is commonly called Banda Mediolanensis; this you must have to be drawn out into small thin and slender plates; and when you have thu[…] prepared your mettals and ingredients, you must take of that powder, and sprinkle it into an earthen pot by little and little, and withal put into the same pot your slender plates of Copper; and these things you must do by course, first putting in some of your powder, and then some of your Copper, and afterward some powder again, and afterward some of your little plates again, and so by turns one after another, till the pot be brim-full: then set a cover upon your pot, and plaister it all over singularly well with good stiffe morter that is tempered with chopped straw; then binde it round about with bands and clamps of iron; and truss it up very hard and stiffe together, and then cover it over again with such morter as before. Afterward let the pot be made hot with a great fire round about it. The manner of the heating of your pot must be this; set the pot in a Centre as it were, that the fire may lye as it were in the circumference round about it, to the distance of one foot from the Centre; a little after this, move you fire neerer to the pot, that there may not be above the distance of half a foot betwixt them; then within a while lay the fire a little neerer, and so by little and little let the fire be brought close to the pot, yea and let the pot be covered all over with hot burning coals, within the space of one hour, and so let it stand hidden in the fire for the space of six whole hours together. And after the six hours, you must not take away the coals, but let them go out and die of themselves, and let the pot so stand under them until it be stark cold: and when it is thoroughly cold, break it into pieces, and there you shall find your little thin plates so brittle, that if you do but touch them somewhat hard with your fingers, they will soon be crumbled into dust. When you have taken them out of the pot, you must afterward put them into some casting vessel that is very hard, and durable; and there within half an hour it will be melted: then put into it some of your powder by little and little, till all of it be molten together; then cast it all forth into some hollow place, into some form or mould, that it may run along into rods; and the metal will be as brittle and as easie to be broken into small crumbs, as any Ice can be. After all this, you must melt two pounds of brass; but you must first purifie it and cleanse it a little, by casting upon it some broken glass, and Lees of wine, and Salt-ammoniack, and Salt-peeter, every one of them by turns, and by little and little. When you have thus cleansed it, you must put unto it one pound of that metal which you made of the Copper and powder before spoken of; and you must still sprinkle upon the[…] some of that powder; and after all this, you must take half so much of the best silver that may be gotten, and melt it amongst the metals before spoken of and cast them all toge[…]her into some hollow place like a mould, and so you shall obtain your purpose. But that the surface and the utmost out-sides of the metal may appear whi[…]e, you must throw it into the fire, that it may be burning hot, and then take it forth, and cast it into that water wherein the Lees of wine and ordinary salt have been liquefied and dissolved; and there let it boil for a certain time, and so shall you make it very white, and moreover so pliant and so easie to be framed and wrought to any fashion, that you may draw it thorough any little hole, yea even thorough the eye of a needle. Furthermore, this is not to be omitted nor buried in silence, for it is a matter of great use, and special force in the colouring of metals, that they be inwardly cleansed and purged of their dross, that they may be thoroughly washed and rid of all such scum and […]ffals, as are incident unto them; for being thus handled, they will be more serviceable and operative for all experiments. As for example; let brass be molten, and then quenched in vineger, and then reduced into powder with salt, so that the more gross and infectious parts thereof be extracted from it; and let it be so handled oftentimes, till there be nothing of its natural uncleanness remaining within it, and so shall it receive a deeper dye, and be changed into a more lively colour. Let the vessel wherein you melt your metals to prepare and make them fit for your turn, be bored thorough in the bottom with sundry holes, that the metal being melted may strain thorough, but the dross, and scum, and offals of it may be left behind, that there may be nothing but pure metal to be used in your experiments: for the less drosse and offals that your metal have, they are so much the more serviceable for your use in working. Let this therefore be a general rule alwayes to be remembred and observed, that your metals be throughly purged and rid from their dross as much as may possibly be, before ever you entertain any of them into your service for these intendments. There is yet also another way whereby we may bring to pass that

Brass should resemble silver,

and this by Arsnick Orpine, which is an effectual means to accomplish this matter: and whereas in tract of time the metal will somewhat recover it self to its own former paleness and dim colour, we will seek to remedy it and prevent it. Take the best Arsnick Orpine that may be gotten, such as yawns and gapes as though it had scales upon it; it must be of a very orient golden colour; you must meddle this Orpine with the dust of brass that hath been filed from it, and put into them some Lees of wine; but they must be each of them of an equal weight and quantity when you drench them together within the liquor, and so shall it bear a continual orient colour, and glister very brightly without ever any fading at all. After this, take you some silver, and dissolve with that kind of water which is called Aqua-fortis, but it must be such as hath in it very little store of moisture; for the most waterish humour that is in it, must be evaporated in some scalding pot or other such vessel, which you must fill up to the brim six or seven several times, with the same water, after the vapours of it have been extracted by the heat of the fire that is under the vessel: when you have thus done, you must mingle your silver that is so dissolved, with the brass filings, and the Arsnick Orpine which we spake of before; and then you must plain it and smooth it all over with the red marble-stone, that the clefts or scales before spoken of, may be closed up; and withal, you must water it by little and little, as it were drop after drop, with the oyle that hath been exprest or extracted out of the Lees of wine, or else out of the firmest Salt-ammoniack that may be had. And when the Sun is gotten up to any strength, that it shews forth it self in very hot gleams, you must bring forth this confection, and let the force of the heat work upon it, even till it be thorough dry: afterward you must supple it with more of the same oyle again, and then let it be dryed up again so long, till that which is remaining do weigh just so much as the silver weighed before it was dissolved Then clos[…] it up in a vessel of glass, and lay it under some dunghil till it be dissolved again, and after the dissolution be gathered together into a Gelly; then cast into it ten or eight pieces of brass, and it will colour them all, that they shall most lively counterfeit silver. But if you desire

To make brass shew it self of a silver colour, by rubbing it betwixt your hands,

as boyes and cozening companions are oftentimes wont to do, that if they do but handle any vessels of brass, they will make them straightways to glitter like Silver, you may use this devise. Take Ammoniack-salt, and Alome, and Salt-peeter, of each of them an equal weight, and mingle them together, and put unto them a small quantity of Silver-dust, that hath been filed off; then set them all to the fire, that they may be thoroughly hot; and when the fume or vapour is exhaled from them, that they have left reaking, make a powder of them; and whatsoever brass you cast that powder upon, if you do withal, either wet it with your own spittle, or else by little and little rub it over with your fingers, you shall find that they will seem to be of a silver colour. But if you would whiten such brass more handsomely and neatly, you must take another course: You must dissolve a little silver with Aqua fortis, and put unto it so much Lees of wine, and as much Ammoniack-salt; let them so lie together till they be about the thickness of the filth that is rubbed off from a mans body after his sweating: then roul it up in some small round balls, and so let them wax dry: when they are dry, if you rub them with your fingers upon any brass or other like metal, and still as you rub them moisten them with a little spittle, you shall make that which you rub upon to be very like unto silver. The very like experiment may be wrought by Quick-silver; for this hath a wonderful force in making any metal to become white. Now, whereas we promised before, to teach you, not onely how to endue brase or such other metal with a silver colour, but also how to preserve and keep the bodies so coloured from returning to their former hiew again, you must beware that these bodies which are endued with such a silver colour, do not take hurt by any sharp or sowre liquor; for either the urine, or vineger, or the juice of limons, or any such tart and sowre liquor, w[…]ll cause this colour soon to fade away, and so discredit your work, and declare the colour of those metals to be false and counterfeit.

CHAP. IV.

Of Iron, and how to transform it into a more worthy metal.

NOw the order of my proceedings requires, that I should speak somewhat also concerning Iron; for this is a metal which the Wizards of India did highly esteem, as having in it self much goodness, and being of such a temperature, that it may easily be transformed into a more worthy and excellent metal then it self is. Notwithstanding, some there are, which reject this metal as altogether unprofitable, because it is so full of gross earthly substance, and can hardly be melted in the fire, by reason of that firm and setled brimstone which is found in it. But if any man would

Change Iron into Brass,

so that no part of the grosse and earthly substance shall remain in it, he may easily obtain his purpose by Coppresse or Vitriol. It is reported that in the mountain Carpatus an Hill of Pannonia, at a certain Town called Smolinitium, there is a Lake, in which there are three channels full of water: and whatsoever Iron is put into those channels, it is converted into brass: and if the Iron which you cast into them be in small pieces or little clamps, presently they are converted into mud or dirt; but if that mud be baked and hardened in the fire, it will be turned into perfect good brass. But there is an artificial means whereby this also may be affected, and it is to be done on this wise. Take Iron, and put into a casting vessel; and when it is red hot with the vehement heat of the fire, and that it beginneth to melt, you must cast upon it by little and little some sprinkling of quick brimstone: then you must pour it forth, and cast into small rods, and beat it with hammers: it is very brittle, and will easily be broken: then dissolve it with Aqua-fortis, such as is compounded of vitriol and Alome tempered together: set it upon hot cinders till it boil, and be dissolved into vapours, and so quite vanish away; and the subsidence thereof, or the rubbish that remains behind, if it be reduced into one solid body again, will become good brass. If you would

Make Iron to become white,

you may effect it by divers and sundry sleights; yet let this onely device content you in this matter. First, you must cleanse and purge your Iron of that dross and refuse that is in it, and of that poysoned corruption of rust that it is generally infected withal: for it hath more earthly substance and parts in it then any other metal hath, insomuch that if you boil it and purge it never so often, it will still of it self yield some new excrements. To cleanse and purge it this is the best way: Take some small thin plates of Iron, and make them red hot, and then quench them in strong lye and vineger which have been boiled with ordinary Salt and Alome; and this you must use to do with them oftentimes, till they be somewhat whitened: the fragments or scrapings also of Iron, you must pown in a mor[…]er, after they have been steeped in salt; and you must bray them together till the salt be quite changed, so that there be no blackness left in the liquor of it, and till the Iron be cleansed and purged from the dross that is in it. When you have thus prepared your Iron, you must whiten it on this manner: Make a plaister as it were, of quick-silver and lead tempered together; then pown them into powder, and put that powder into an earthen vessel amongst your plates of Iron that you have prepared to be whitened: close up the vessel fast, and plaister it all over with morter, so that there may be no breathing place for any air either to get in or out: then put it into the fire, and there let it stay for one whole day together, and at length encrease your fire, that it may be so vehement hot as to melt the Iron; for the plaister or confection which was made of lead and Quick-silver, will work in the Iron two effects; for first, it will dispose it to melting, that it shall soon be dissolved; and secondly, it will dispose it to whitening, that it shall the sooner receive a glittering colour. After all this, draw forth your Iron into small thin plates again, and proceed the second time in the same course as before, till you find that it hath taken so much whitenesse as your purpose was to endue it withal. In like manner, if you melt it in a vessel that hath holes in the bottom of it, and melt with it lead, and the Marchasi[…]e or fire-stone, and Arsnick, and such other things as we spake of before in our experiments of brass, you may make Iron to become white. If you put amongst it some silver, though it be not much, it will soon resemble the colour of silver: for Iron doth easily suffer it self to be medled with gold or silver; and they may be so thoroughly incorporated into each other, that by all the rules of separation that can be used, you cannot without great labour, and very much ado separate the one of them from the other.

CHAP. V.

Of Quick-silver, and of the effects and operations thereof.

IN the next place it is meet that we speak something concerning Quick-silver, and the manifold operations thereof: wherein we will first set down certain vulgar and common congelations that it makes with other things, because many men do desire to know them; and secondly, we will shew, how it may be dissolved into water, that they which are desirous of such experiments, may be satisfied herein. First therefore we will shew

How Quick-silver may be congealed and curdled as it were with Iron.

Put the quick-silver into a casting vessel, and put together with it that water, which the Blacksmith hath used to quench his hot Iron in; and put in also among them Ammoniack Salt, and Vitriol, and Verdegrease, twice so much of every one of these, as there was quick-silver: let all these boil together in an exceeding great fire, and still turn them up and down with an Iron slice or ladle; and if at any time the water boil away, you must be sure that you have in a readiness some of the same water through hot to cast into it, that it may supply the waste which the fire hath made, and yet not hinder the boiling; thus will they be congealed all together within the space of six hours. After this, you must take the congealed stuff when it is cold, and binde it up hard with your hands in leather thongs, or linnen cloth, or osiers, that all the juice and moisture that is in it, may be squeesed out of it; then let that which is squeesed and drained out, settle it self, and be congealed once again, till the whole confection be made: then put it into an earthen vessel well washed, and amongst it some spring-water, and take off as neer as you can, all the filth and scum that is upon it and is gone to waste; and in that vessel you must temper and diligently mix together your congealed matter with spring-water, till the whole matter be pure and clear: then lay it abroad in the open air three days and three nights, and the subject which you have wrought upon will wax thick and hard like a shell or a tile-sheard. There is also another congelation to be made with quick-silver,

Congeailng of Quick-silver with balls of Brass,

thus: make two Brass half circles, that that may fasten one within the other, that nothing may exhale: put into them quick-silver, with an equal part of white Arsenick and Tartar well powdred and searced; lute the joynts well without, that nothing may breathe forth, so let them dry, and cover them with coles all over for six hours: then make all red hot, then take it out and open it, and you shall see it all coagulated and to stick in the hollow of the Brass ball; strike it with a hammer, and it will fall off; melt it, and project it, and it will give an excellent colour like to Silver, and it is hard to discern it from Silver. If you will, you may mingle it with three parts of melted Brass, and without Silver; it will be exceeding white, soft and malleable. It is also made another way: Make a great Cup of Silver, red Arsenick and Latin, with a cover that sits close, that nothing may exhale: fill this with quick-silver, and lute the joynts with the white of an Egg, or some Pine-tree-rosin, as it is commonly done: hang this into a pot full of Linseed Oyl, and let it boil twelve hours; take it out, and strain it through a skin or straw; and if any part be not coagulated, do the work again, and make it coagulate. If the vessel do coagulate it slowly, so much as you find it hath lost of its weight of the silver, Arsenick and Alchymy make that good again, for we cannot know by the weight: use it, it is wonderful that the quick-silver will draw to it self out of the vessel, and quick-silver will enter in. Now I shall shew what may be sometimes useful,

To draw water out of Quick-silver.

Make a vessel of potters earth, that will endure the fire, of which crucibles are made six foot long, and of a foot Diameter, glassed within with glass, about a foot broad at the bottom, a finger thick, narrower at the top, bigger at bottom. About the neck let there be a hole as big as ones finger, and a little pipe coming forth, by which you may fitly put in the quick-silver; on the top of the mouth let there be a glass cap, fitted with the pipe, and let it be smeered with clammy clay, and bind it above that it breathe not forth. For this work make a furnace, let it be so large at the top, that it may be fit to receive the bottom of the vessel, a foot broad and deep. You must make the grate the fire is made upon, with that art, that when need is you may draw it back on one side, and the fire may fall beneath. Set therefore the empty vessel into the furnace, and by degrees kindle the fire: Lastly, make the bottom red hot; when you see it to be so, which you may know by the top, you must look through the glass cap; presently by the hole prepared pour in ten or fifteen pounds of quick-silver, and presently with clay cast upon it stop that hole, and take away the grate that the fire may fall to the lower parts, and forthwith quench it with water. Then you shall see that the water of quick-silver will run forth at the nose of the cap, into the receiver under it, about an ounce in quantity: take the vessel from the fire, and pour forth the quick-silver, and do as before, and always one ounce of water will distil forth: keep this for Chymical operation. I found this the best for to smug up women with. This artifice was found to purifie quick-silver. I shall not pass over another art, no less wonderful than profitable for use,

To make quick-silver grow to be a Tree.

Dissolve silver in aqua fortis, what is dissolved evaporate into thin air at the fire, that there may remain at the bottom a thick unctious substance; Then distil fountain-water twice or thrice, and pour it on that thick matter, shaking it well, then let it stand a little, and pour into another glass vessel the most pure water, in which the silver is: adde to the water a pound of quick-silver, in a most transparent crystalline glass that will attract to it that silver, and in the space of a day will there spring up a most beautiful tree from the bottom, and hairy, as made of most fine beards of corn, and it will fill the whole vessel, that the eye can behold nothing more pleasant. The same is made of gold with aqua regia.