The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber

by Johann Rudolf Glauber

The use of the white acid spirit of salt nitre.

The heavy and corrosive spirit of salt nitre is not much used in Physick, though it be found almost in all Apothecaries shops, and there is kept for such use, as above hath been mentioned of the spirit of vitriol, viz. to make their conserves, and cooling-drinks tast sowrish. Also it is used by some in the colick, but it is too great a corrosive, and too gross to be used for that purpose; and although its corrosiveness may be mitigated in some measure, by adding of water thereto, yet in goodness and vertue it is not comparable at all to the volatile spirit, but is as far different from it, as black from white, and therefore the other is fittest to be used in Physick; but this in dealing with metals and minerals, for to reduce them into vitriols, calxes, flores, and crocus.

Aqua Regis.

If you dissolve common salt (which hath been decrepitated first) in this acid spirit of salt nitre, & rectifie it by a glass retort in sand by a good strong fire, it will be so strong, that it is able to dissolve gold, and all other metals and minerals, except silver and sulphur; and several metals may by the means thereof be separated much better than by that Aqua regia which hath been made by adding of Salt Armoniack. But if you rectifie it with lapis calaminaris or Zinck, it will be stronger yet, so as to be able to dissolve all metals and Minerals (silver and sulphur excepted) whereby in the handling of Metals, much more may be effected, than with common spirit of salt nitre or Aqua fortis, as hereafter shall be taught: and first in the preparing of gold.

The Preparation of Aurum Fulminans, or Aurum Tonitruans.

Take of fine granulated or laminated gold (whither it be refined by Antimony or Aqua fortis) as much as you please: put it in a little Glass body, and pour four or five times as much of Aqua regis upon it, set it stopt with a Paper in a gourd in warm sand; and the Aqua regis within the space of one or two hours will dissolve the gold quite into a yellow water: but if it have not done so, it is a sign that either the water was not strong enough, or that there was too little of it for to dissolve it. Then pour the solution from the gold, which is not dissolved yet, into another glass, and pour more of fresh Aqua Regia upon the gold: set it again to dissolve in warm sand or ashes, and the remaining gold will likewise be dissolved by it, and then there will remain no more, but a little white calx, which is nothing else but silver, which could not be dissolved by the Aqua Regia (for the Aqua Regia, whether it be made after the common way with salt Armoniack, or else with common salt, doth not dissolve silver) so in like manner common Aqua fortis, or spirit of salt nitre dissolveth no gold; but all other metals are dissolved as well by strong Aqua fortis as by Aqua Regia. And therefore you must be careful to take such gold as is not mixed with Copper, else your work would be spoiled: for if there were any Copper mixed with it, then that likewise would be dissolved and precipitated together with the gold; and it would be a hindrance to the kindling or fulminating thereof: but if you can get no gold, that is without Copper, then take Ducats or Rose-nobles, which ought to have no Addition of Copper, but only of a little Silver, which doth not hurt, because that it cannot be dissolved by the Aqua Regia, but remaineth in the bottom in a white powder. Make those Ducats or Rose-nobles red hot, and afterward bend them and make them up in Rolls, and throw them into the Aqua Regia for to dissolve. All the gold being turned into a yellow water, and poured off, pour into it by drops a pure oyl made of the Salt of Tartar, per deliquium, and the gold will be precipitated by the contrary liquor of Salt of Tartar into a brown yellow powder, and the solution will be clear. But you must take heed, to pour no more oyl of Tartar into it than is needful for the precipitation of the gold; else part of the precipitated gold would be dissolved again, and so cause your loss. The gold being well precipitated, pour off the clear water from the gold calx by inclination, and pour upon it warm rain or other sweet water, stir it together with a clean stick of wood, and set it in a warm place, until the gold is settled, so that the water standeth clear upon it again; then pour it off, and pour on other fresh water, and let it extract the saltness out of the gold calx: and this pouring off, and then pouring on of fresh water again, must be reiterated so often, until no sharpness or saltness more be perceived in the water that hath been poured off: Then set the edulcorated gold into the Sun or another warm place for to dry. But you must take heed that it have no greater heat than the heat of the Sun is in May or June, else it would kindle or take fire, and (especially if there be much of it) give such a thunderclap, that the hearing of those that stand by, would be much endangered thereby, and therefore I advice you to beware, and cautious in the handling of it, lest you run the hazard both of your gold and of your health by your over-sight.

There is also another way for to edulcorate your precipitated gold, viz. thus, Take it together with the salt liquor, and pour it into a funnel lined with brown Paper laid double, and so let the water run through into a glass vessel, whereupon the funnel doth rest, and pour on other warm water, and let it run through likewise; do this again and again, until that the water come from it as sweet as it was poured on. Then take the Paper with the edulcorated gold calx, out of the funnel, lay it, together with the paper, upon other brown paper lying severally double together, and the dry paper will attract all the moistness out of the gold calx, so that the gold will be dryed the sooner. Which being dry, take it out of the filtering paper, and put it into another that is clean, and so lay it aside, and keep it for use. The salt water that came through by filtering, may be evaporated in a little glass body (standing in sand) to the dryness of the salt, which is to be kept from the air: for it is likewise useful in Physick; because some vertue of the nature of gold is yet hidden in it: though one would not think it, in regard that it is so fair, bright and clear, which for all that may be observed by this, that when you melt it in a clean covered crucible or pot, and pour it afterward into a clean Copper morter or bason (being first made warm) you get a purple-coloured salt, whereof 6, 9, 12, to 24. grains given inwardly, doth cleanse and purge the stomach and bowels, and especially it is useful in feavers and other diseases of the stomach. But in the crucible, out of which the salt hath been poured, you will find an earthy substance, which hath separated it self from the salt, and looketh yellowish; this being taken out and melted in a little crucible by a strong fire, turneth to a yellow glass, which is impregnated with the Tincture of Gold, and doth yield a grain of Silver in every regard like unto common cupellated silver, wherein no gold is found, which is to be admired: because that all Chymists are of opinion, that no Aqua regia can dissolve silver which is true. The question therefore is, from whence or how this silver came into the salt, since no Aqua Regia doth dissolve silver? whereupon some perchance may answer, that it must have been in the oyl of Tartar, in regard that many do believe, that the salts likewise may be turned into metals, which I do not gainsay, but only deny that it could have been done here; for if that silver could have been existent in the Aqua Regia, or salt of Tartar (whereas Aqua Regia cannot bear any) it would have been precipitated together with the gold. But that it was no common silver, but gold which turned to silver after it was deprived of its Tincture, I shall briefly endeavour to prove. For that the salt waters (of Aqua Regia and salt of Tartar) out of which the gold hath been precipitated, is of that nature, before it be coagulated to salt, though it be quite clear and white, that if you put a feather in it, it will be dyed purple within few days, which purple colour comes from the gold, and not from silver, in regard that silver doth dye red or black: and hence it appeareth, that the salt water hath retained something of gold.

Now some body peradventure may ask, if that the said salt water hath retained some gold, how is it then, that in the melting, no gold comes forth, but only silver? To which I answer, that some salts are of that nature, that in the melting, they take from gold its colour and soul; whereof if the gold be truly deprived, it is then no more gold, nor can be such; neither is it silver, but remaineth only a volatile black body, good for nothing, which also proveth much more unfixt than common Lead, not able to endure any force of fire, much less the cupel: But like Mercury or Arsenick vanisheth (or flyeth away) by a small heat. Hence it may be gathered, that the fixedness (or fixity) of gold doth consist in its soul or Tincture, and not in its body, and therefore it is credible, that gold may be anatomized, its best or purer part separated from the grosser (or courser) and so that a Tingent medicine (or Tincture) may be made of it. But whether this be the right way, whereby the universal medicine of the ancient Philosophers (by whose means all metals can be changed or transmuted into gold) is to be attained unto, I will not dispute; yet I believe that peradventure there may be another subject, endued with a far higher Tincture than gold is, which obtained no more from nature, than it doth need it self for its own fixedness. However, we may safely believe, that a true Anima or Tincture of gold, if it be well separated from its impure black body, may be exalted and improved in colour; so that afterwards of an imperfect body a greater quantity, than that was from which it was abstracted, may be improved and brought to the perfection of gold. But waving all this, it is true and certain, that if the gold be deprived of its Tincture, the remaining body can no more be gold; as is demonstrated more at large in my Treatise (de Auro potabili vero) of the true potable Gold: And this I mentioned here onely therefore, that in case the lover of this Art, in his work should meet perchance with such a white grain, he may know, from whence it doth proceed.

I could have forborn to set down the preparation of the fulminating gold, and so save paper and time, in regard that it is described by others: but because I promised in the first part to teach how to make the flores of gold, and that those are to be made out of fulminating (or thundring) gold, I thought it not amiss to describe its preparation, that the lover of this Art need not first have his recourse to another book for to find out the preparation, but by this my book may be furnished with a perfect instruction for the making of the flores of gold, and this is the common way for to make Aurum fulminans, known unto most Chymists; but in regard that easily an error may be committed in it, either by pouring on too much of the liquor of Tartar (especially when it is not pure enough, so that not all the gold doth precipitate, but part of it remaineth in the solution, whereby you would have loss; or else, the gold falling or precipitating into a heavy calx, which doth not fulminate well, and is unfit for to be sublimed into flores.

Therefore I will here set down another and much better way, whereby the gold may be precipitated quite and clean out of the Aqua Regia without the least loss, and so that it cometh to be very light and yellow, and doth fulminate twice as strong as the former, and there is no other difference between this and the former preparation, but only that instead of the oyl of Tartar, you take the spirit of urine, or of salt armoniack for to precipitate the dissolved gold thereby; and the gold (as before said) will be precipitated much purer, than it is done by the liquor of the salt of Tartar, and being precipitated, it is to be edulcorated and dryed, as above in the first preparation hath been taught.