Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry, 5th ed.

by Pierre Joseph Macquer

Though Arsenic be volatile, yet it requires a pretty strong fire to separate it from the minerals containing it, especially in close vessels; because it adheres very close to earthy and vitrifiable matters. This adhesion is so firm, that, when thus combined, it is capable of bearing a melting heat, and vitrifies with metallic calces, and other fusible matters. On this account it is impossible to extract from Cobalt, or other Arsenical matters, all the Arsenic they contain by working them only in close vessels. If such matters are to be freed from all their Arsenic, you must, after you have extracted all they will yield by distillation, put them into a crucible, and set it uncovered in the midst of a strong fire. Many Arsenical vapours will still rise; and care must be taken to stir the contents of the crucible frequently with an iron rod, to facilitate the discharge of the remaining Arsenic.

It often happens that the Arsenic, obtained from minerals by sublimation, is not very white, but of a lighter or darker grey colour. This is owing to some particles of inflammable matter, from which Arsenical minerals are seldom quite free. A very small quantity of phlogiston is sufficient to deprive much Arsenic of its whiteness, and to give it a grey colour. But when fouled in this manner, it may easily be brought to its due degree of whiteness: it need only be sublimed once more, after mixing it with some substance on which it doth not act; Sea-salt, for instance. If the matters from which Arsenic is extracted contain Sulphur also, as some pyrites do, the Arsenic sublimes with much less heat, than when it is united with earthy matters only; because it combines with the Sulphur, wherewith it hath a great affinity, and the Sulphur serves to separate the Arsenic, by this interposition, from the earth. In consequence hereof, Sulphur may be employed to extract Arsenic out of the earths in which it is fixed. In this case, the Sulphur changes the colour of the Arsenic, which it makes of a lighter or deeper yellow, or even red, in proportion to the quantity there is of it, and to the degree of fire that hath acted on both together.

The consistence of Arsenic is different, according to the degree of heat applied in subliming it. If the Arsenical vapour meet with a cold place, it gathers there in the form of a powder, as the Flowers of Sulphur do: this is the case with that which falls into the receiver in distilling it. But if it be stopped in a hot place, and cannot escape from that heat, it condenses into a heavy, compact, semi-transparent body, having undergone the first degree of fusion.

Yet it cannot be perfectly melted, so as to flow like other fused matters: not that it is refractory; for, on the contrary, the degree of heat in which it begins to melt is very moderate, and it is in its own nature very fit to promote the fusion of refractory matters: but the reason is this; it is necessarily converted into vapours by the degree of heat necessary to fuse it, and these vapours burst the vessels, if they find no vent.

Arsenic made yellow by a mixture of Sulphur, which is also called Orpiment, is reducible to the form of a solid Sublimate with more ease; because it is alloyed with a twentieth, or perhaps a tenth part, of its weight of Sulphur, which renders it more fusible.

Red Arsenic, which contains still more Sulphur, melts also more easily. It then becomes of a transparent red, like a ruby: and hence, when it is in this form, it is called Ruby of Arsenic.

When a combination of Sulphur and Arsenic is wanted, it is better to mingle and distil together such minerals as contain Sulphur and Arsenic, the white and the yellow pyrites, for instance, than to mingle pure Arsenic with pure Sulphur: for the great volatility of these two substances is a hindrance to their uniting; whereas, when combined with other matters, they are capable of sustaining a much greater degree of heat, which favours and promotes their union.

Those who work by the grate do not extract Arsenic out of Cobalt by distillation: they throw the ore mixed promiscuously with wood and charcoal into a great furnace, from whence a flue carries the vapours into a long winding passage, across which beams of wood are fixed at proper distances from each other. The Arsenical vapours being conducted into this passage, adhere both to the sides thereof and to the joists that lye across it. The fuliginous parts of the combustible matters being lighter ascend higher, and go out through a chimney at the farther end of this passage.

The Arsenic sublimed by this method is not white, but of a grey colour; owing to the inflammable matter of the wood and charcoal with which the ore is torrefied.