[Pg 573] It is desirable here to enquire into the nature of the substances given by all of the old mineralogists under the Latinized Greek terms chalcitis, misy, sory, and melanteria. The first mention of these minerals is in Dioscorides, who (V., 75-77) says: "The best chalcitis is like copper. It is friable, not stony, and is intersected by long brilliant veins.... Misy is obtained from Cyprus; it should have the appearance of gold, be hard, and when pulverised it should have the colour of gold and sparkle like stars. It has the same properties as chalcitis.... The best is from Egypt.... One kind of melanteria congeals like salt in the entries to copper mines. The other kind is earthy and appears on the surface of the aforesaid mines. It is found in the mines of Cilicia and other regions. The best has the colour of sulphur, is smooth, pure, homogenous, and upon contact with water immediately becomes black.... Those who consider sory to be the same as melanteria, err greatly. Sory is a species of its own, though it is not dissimilar. The smell of sory is oppressive and provokes nausea. It is found in Egypt and in other regions, as Libya, Spain, and Cyprus. The best is from Egypt, and when broken is black, porous, greasy, and astringent." Pliny (XXXIV., 29-31) says:—"That is called chalcitis from which, as well as itself copper (?) is extracted by heat. It differs from cadmia in that this is obtained from rocks near the surface, while that is taken from rocks below the surface. Also chalcitis is immediately friable, being naturally so soft as to appear like compressed wool. There is also this other distinction; chalcitis contains three other substances, copper, misy, and sory. Of each of these we shall speak in their appropriate places. It contains elongated copper veins. The most approved kind is of the colour of honey; it is streaked with fine sinuous veins and is friable and not stony. It is considered most valuable when fresh.... The sory of Egypt is the most esteemed, being much superior to that of Cyprus, Spain, and Africa; although some prefer the sory from Cyprus for affections of the eyes. But from whatever nation it comes, the best is that which has the strongest odour, and which, when ground up, becomes greasy, black, and spongy. It is a substance so unpleasant to the stomach that some persons are nauseated by its smell. Some say that misy is made by the burning of stones in trenches, its fine yellow powder being mixed with the ashes of pine-wood. The truth is, as I said above, that though obtained from the stone, it is already made and in solid masses, which require force to detach them. The best comes from the works of Cyprus, its characteristics being that when broken it sparkles like gold, and when ground it presents a sandy appearance, but on the contrary, if heated, it is similar to chalcitis. Misy is used in refining gold...."
Agricola's views on the subject appear in De Natura Fossilium. He says (p. 212):—"The cupriferous pyrites (pyrites aerosus) called chalcitis is the mother and cause of sory—which is likewise known as mine vitriol (atramentum metallicum)—and melanteria. These in turn yield vitriol and such related things. This may be seen especially at Goslar, where the nodular lumps of dark grey colour are called vitriol stone (lapis atramenti). In the centre of them is found greyish pyrites, almost dissolved, the size of a walnut. It is enclosed on all sides, sometimes by sory, sometimes by melanteria. From them start little veinlets of greenish vitriol which spread all over it, presenting somewhat the appearance of hairs extending in all directions and cohering together.... There are five species of this solidified juice, melanteria, sory, chalcitis, misy, and vitriol. Sometimes many are found in one place, sometimes all of them, for one originates from the other. From pyrites, which is, as one might say, the root of all these juices, originates the above-mentioned sory and melanteria. From sory, chalcitis, and melanteria originate the various kinds of vitriol.... Sory, melanteria, chalcitis, and misy are always native; vitriol alone is either native or artificial. From them vitriol effloresces white, and sometimes green or blue. Misy effloresces not only from sory, melanteria, and chalcitis, but also from all the vitriols, artificial as well as natural.... Sory and melanteria differ somewhat from the others, but they are of the same colours, grey and black; but chalcitis is red and copper-coloured; misy is yellow or gold-coloured. All these native varieties have the odour of lightning (brimstone), but sory is the most powerful. The feathery vitriol is soft and fine and hair-like, and melanteria has the appearance of wool and it has a similarity to salt; all these are rare and light; sory, chalcitis, and misy have the following relations. Sory because of its density has the hardness of stone, although its texture is very coarse. Misy has a very fine texture. Chalcitis is between the two; because of its roughness and strong odour it differs from melanteria, although they do not differ in colour. The vitriols, whether natural or artificial, are hard and dense ... as regarding shape, sory, chalcitis, misy, and melanteria are nodular, but sory is occasionally porous, which is peculiar to it. [Pg 574]Misy when it effloresces in no great quantity from the others is like a kind of pollen, otherwise it is nodular. Melanteria sometimes resembles wool, sometimes salt."
The sum and substance, therefore, appears to be that misy is a yellowish material, possibly ochre, and sory a blackish stone, both impregnated with vitriol. Chalcitis is a partially decomposed pyrites; and melanteria is no doubt native vitriol. From this last term comes the modern melanterite, native hydrous ferrous sulphate. Dana (System of Mineralogy, p. 964) considers misy to be in part copiapite—basic ferric sulphate—but any such part would not come under Agricola's objection to it as a source of vitriol. The disabilities of this and chalcitis may, however, be due to their copper content.
[Pg 578][12] Agricola (De Nat. Fos., 221) says:—"There is a species of artificial sulphur made from sulphur and iron hammer-scales, melted together and poured into moulds. This, because it heals scabs of horses, is generally called caballinum." It is difficult to believe such a combination was other than iron sulphide, but it is equally difficult to understand how it was serviceable for this purpose.
[13] Inasmuch as pyrites is discussed in the next paragraph, the material of the first distillation appears to be native sulphur. Until the receiving pots became heated above the melting point of the sulphur, the product would be "flowers of sulphur," and not the wax-like [Pg 579]product. The equipment described for pyrites in the next paragraph would be obviously useful only for coarse material.
But little can be said on the history of sulphur; it is mentioned often enough in the Bible and also by Homer (Od. XXII., 481). The Greeks apparently knew how to refine it, although neither Dioscorides nor Pliny specifically describes such an operation. Agricola says (De Nat. Fos., 220): "Sulphur is of two kinds; the mineral, which the Latins call vivum, and the Greeks apyron, which means 'not exposed to the fire' (ignem non expertum) as rightly interpreted by Celsius; and the artificial, called by the Greeks pepyromenon, that is, 'exposed to the fire.'" In [Book X.], the expression sulfur ignem non expertum frequently appears, no doubt in Agricola's mind for native sulphur, although it is quite possible that the Greek distinction was between "flowers" of sulphur and the "wax-like" variety.
[Pg 581][14] The substances referred to under the names bitumen, asphalt, maltha, naphtha, petroleum, rock-oil, etc., have been known and used from most ancient times, and much of our modern nomenclature is of actual Greek and Roman ancestry. These peoples distinguished three related substances,—the Greek asphaltos and Roman bitumen for the hard material,—Greek pissasphaltos and Roman maltha for the viscous, pitchy variety—and occasionally the Greek naphtha and Roman naphtha for petroleum proper, although it is often enough referred to as liquid bitumen or liquid asphaltos. The term petroleum apparently first appears in Agricola's De Natura Fossilium (p. 222), where he says the "oil of bitumen ... now [Pg 582]called petroleum." Bitumen was used by the Egyptians for embalming from pre-historic times, i.e., prior to 5000 B.C., the term "mummy" arising from the Persian word for bitumen, mumiai. It is mentioned in the tribute from Babylonia to Thotmes III., who lived about 1500 B.C. (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians I., p. 397). The Egyptians, however, did not need to go further afield than the Sinai Peninsula for abundant supplies. Bitumen is often cited as the real meaning of the "slime" mentioned in Genesis (XI., 3; XIV., 10), and used in building the Tower of Babel. There is no particular reason for this assumption, except the general association of Babel, Babylon, and Bitumen. However, the Hebrew word sift for pitch or bitumen does occur as the cement used for Moses's bulrush cradle (Exodus II., 3), and Moses is generally accounted about 1300 B.C. Other attempts to connect Biblical reference to petroleum and bitumen revolve around Job XXIX., 6, Deut. XXXII., 13, Maccabees II., I, 18, Matthew V., 13, but all require an unnecessary strain on the imagination.
The plentiful occurrence of bitumen throughout Asia Minor, and particularly in the Valley of the Euphrates and in Persia, is the subject of innumerable references by writers from Herodotus (484-424 B.C.) down to the author of the company prospectus of recent months. Herodotus (I., 179) and Diodorus Siculus (I) state that the walls of Babylon were mortared with bitumen—a fact partially corroborated by modern investigation. The following [Pg 583]statement by Herodotus (VI., 119) is probably the source from which Pliny drew the information which Agricola quotes above. In referring to a well at Ardericca, a place about 40 miles from ancient Susa, in Persia, Herodotus says:—"For from the well they get bitumen, salt, and oil, procuring it in the way that I will now describe: they draw with a swipe, and instead of a bucket they make use of the half of a wine-skin; with this the man dips and, after drawing, pours the liquid into a reservoir, wherefrom it passes into another, and there takes three different shapes. The salt and bitumen forthwith collect and harden, while the oil is drawn off into casks. It is called by the Persians rhadinace, is black, and has an unpleasant smell." (Rawlinson's Trans. III., p. 409). The statement from Pliny (XXXI., 39) here referred to by Agricola, reads:—"It (salt) is made from water of wells poured into salt-pans. At Babylon the first condensed is a bituminous liquid like oil which is burned in lamps. When this is taken off, salt is found beneath. In Cappadocia also the water from both wells and springs is poured into salt-pans." When petroleum began to be used as an illuminant it is impossible to say. A passage in Aristotle's De Mirabilibus (127) is often quoted, but in reality it refers only to a burning spring, a phenomenon noted by many writers, but from which to its practical use is not a great step. The first really definite statement as to the use of petroleum as an [Pg 584]illuminant is Strabo's quotation (XVI., 1, 15) from Posidonius: "Asphaltus is found in great abundance in Babylonia. Eratosthenes describes it as follows:—The liquid asphaltus, which is called naphtha, is found in Susa; the dry kind, which can be made solid, in Babylonia. There is a spring of it near the Euphrates.... Others say that the liquid kind is also found in Babylonia.... The liquid kind, called naphtha, is of a singular nature. When it is brought near the fire, the fire catches it.... Posidonius says that there are springs of naphtha in Babylonia, some of which produce white, others black naphtha; the first of these, I mean white naphtha, which attracts flame, is liquid sulphur; the second or black naphtha is liquid asphaltus, and is burnt in lamps instead of oil." (Hamilton's Translation, Vol. III., p. 151). Eratosthenes lived about 200 B.C., and Posidonius about 100 years later. Dioscorides (I., 83), after discussing the usual sources of bitumen says: "It is found in a liquid state in Agrigentum in Sicily, flowing on streams; they use it for lights in lanterns in place of oil. Those who call the Sicilian kind oil are under a delusion, for it is agreed that it is a kind of liquid bitumen." Pliny adds nothing much new to the above quotations, except in regard to these same springs (XXXV., 51) that "The inhabitants collect it on the panicles of reeds, to which it quickly adheres and they use it for burning in lamps instead of oil." Agricola (De Natura Fossilium, Book IV.) classifies petroleum, coal, jet, and obsidian, camphor, and amber as varieties of bitumen, and devotes much space to the refutation of the claims that the last two are of vegetable origin.
[15] Agricola (De Natura Fossilium, p. 215) in discussing substances which originate from copper, gives among them green chrysocolla (as distinguished from borax, etc., see [Note 8 above]), and says: "Native chrysocolla originates in veins and veinlets, and is found mostly by itself like sand, or adhering to metallic substances, and when scraped off from this appears similar to its own sand. Occasionally it is so thin that very little can be scraped off. Or else it occurs in waters which, as I have said, wash these minerals, and afterward it settles as a powder. At Neusohl in the Carpathians, green water flowing from an ancient tunnel wears away this chrysocolla with it. The water is collected in thirty large reservoirs, where it deposits the chrysocolla as a sediment, which they collect every year and sell,"—as a pigment. This description of its occurrence would apply equally well to modern chrysocolla or to malachite. The solution from copper ores would deposit some sort of green incrustation, of carbonates mostly.
[Pg 585][16] The statement in Pliny (XXXVI., 66) to which Agricola refers is as follows: "Then as ingenuity was not content with the mixing of nitrum, they began the addition of lapis [Pg 586]magnes, because of the belief that it attracts liquefied glass as well as iron. In a similar manner many kinds of brilliant stones began to be added to the melting, and then shells and fossil sand. Authors tell us that the glass of India is made of broken crystal, and in consequence nothing can compare with it. Light and dry wood is used for fusing, cyprium (copper?) and nitrum being added, particularly nitrum from Ophir etc."