Antimony, as hath been already said, is a sort of ore consisting of a metalline or reguline part mineralized by Sulphur.
The design of this calcination is, by the action of fire, to dissipate the sulphureous part, which is the most volatile, in order to separate it from the metalline part. It is evidently a real torrefaction; but the operation is very difficult, and requires a good deal of attention; for Antimony very easily melts, while at the same time it is necessary to our success that it do not melt; because when the matter is in fusion the Sulphur requires a much greater degree of heat to carry it off. Now, as Regulus of Antimony itself is very volatile, a good deal of it would be dissipated along with the Sulphur, if it were exposed to the degree of heat necessary to carry off the Sulphur when the mass is melted.
Therefore if it happen that the Antimony begin to melt during the calcination, which is easily perceived by its running into clots, it must be taken off the fire, and the clotted parts be again pulverized; after which the calcination is to be prosecuted with a less degree of heat.
When the Antimony has lost all its brightness, and is become like an earth, it is time to augment the degree of heat, in order to complete the calcination; because the last portions of the Sulphur are the most difficult to raise. Moreover, the inconveniences just mentioned are not now to be apprehended: for, as the great fusibility of the reguline part is owing to the Sulphur, what remains, after you have dissipated the greatest part of the Sulphur, is much less fusible; and, as the redundant Sulphur of the Antimony cannot be driven off, without dissipating at the same time a good deal of the phlogiston necessary to metallize its Regulus, the matter that remains comes much nearer to the nature of a calx, than to that of a metalline substance; and consequently partakes of the nature of all metallic calces, which is to be very fixed.
Antimony may also be calcined by mixing with that mineral an equal quantity of charcoal-dust. As charcoal is incapable of fusion, it prevents the Antimony from clotting, as well as from losing so much of its metallizing phlogiston as it otherwise would: and hence it comes to pass that the calx of Antimony, prepared in this manner, comes nearer to the nature of a Regulus, than that which is prepared without addition.
If you happen to raise the fire too much, in this calcination with charcoal-dust, the calx will be partly reduced to a Regulus, by means of the phlogiston which the charcoal furnishes; and then the Regulus will be dissipated in vapours, especially as this calx, which comes very near the nature of a Regulus, is not so fixed as that prepared without addition. For this reason it always continues to smoke, even when it contains no superfluous Sulphur: and therefore you must not wait till it cease to smoke before you put an end to your calcination; for you will lose a great deal of it in vapours. It is time to stop when the vapours that rise from it, while it is moderately red, do not smell of burning Sulphur.
PROCESS V.
Calx of Antimony reduced to a Regulus.
Mix the calx of Antimony, which you intend to reduce, with an equal quantity of black soap. This mixture will make a thin paste. Put it little by little into a crucible, previously made red-hot amidst live coals. Thus let the soap burn till it cease to emit any oily smoke. Then cover the crucible; make the fire strong enough to melt the matter, and you will hear it effervesce and boil. When this noise is over let the crucible cool, and then break it: you will find in it a beautiful scoria, marked with circles of several colours; and under that a button of Regulus, which is not yet quite pure, and must be purified in the following manner.