Natural magick by John Baptista Porta, a Neapolitane ; in twenty books ... wherein are set forth all the riches and delights of the natural sciences.

THE FIFTH BOOK OF Natural Magick: Which treateth of Alchymy; shewing how Metals may be altered and transformed, one into another. (Book 5)

THE PROEME.

WE are now come (according to that order which we proposed unto our selves in the be∣ginning) to those experiments which are commonly called by the name of Alchymy matters, wherein not onely a great part of the world is much conversant, but also every one is very desirous to be a practitioner in them, and doth thirst after them with an unquench∣able lust. Wherefore we are constrained to speak something concerning this Subject the rather, because many rude and unskilful men, being drawn on, partly by the hope of gain, which they looked for by it, and partly by the pleasure and delight which they did take in it, have bestowed themselves in these experiments to the great slander both of the Art it self, and also of the professors thereof; so that now adays, a man cannot handle it without the scorn and obloquy of the world, because of the disgrace and contempt, which those idiots have brought upon it. For whilst they, being altogether ignorant of the Principles of these things, have labored to make sophistical and counterseit gold, they have utterly miscarri∣ed in their endeavours, and wasted all their substance, and quite undone themselves, and so were deluded by that vain hope of Gold, which set them on work. Demetrius Phalere∣us said very well of these men, That which they should have gotten, saith he, they did not get, & that which they had in their own possession, they lost; and so, whereas they hoped to work a metamorphosis or alteration in the Metals, the alteration and change hath lighted heavily upon themselves, in respect of their own estate: and when they have thus overthrown them∣selves, they have no other comfort left them but onely this, to broach many lies and coun∣terfeit devices, whereby they may likewise deceive others, and draw them into the very same lurches which themselves have before fallen into. And surely the desire partly of the Art it self, and partly of the great gain which many men hoped after by the same, hath filled the world with so many Books, and such an infinite number of lies, that there is scarce any other matter in the like request; so that it was very well done of Dioclesian the Emperour, and it was high time for him so to do, to establish a Decree, that all such lying Books that were written concerning that matter, should be cast into the fire and burnt to ashes. Thus was an excellent good Art discredited and disgraced by reason that they abu∣sed it; which falls out also in many other better things then this is. The Art of it self is not to be fet at nought, but rather to be embraced and much to be sought after; especially by such as apply their minds to Philosophy, and to the searching out of the secrecies of Nature: for they shall find in it many things which they will wonder at, and such as are exceeding necessary for the use of men: and when they shall behold the experience of many kinds of trans∣mutations and sundry effects, it will be no small delight unto them; and besides, it will shew them the way to profounder and worthier matters, such as the best and soundest Philosophers have not been ashamed to search into, and to handle in their writings. I do not here pro∣mise any golden mountains, as they say, nor yet that Philosophers stone, which the world hath so great an opinion of, and hath been bragged of in many ages, and happily attained unto by some; neither yet do I promise here that golden liquor, whereof if any man do drink, it is supposed that it will make him to be immortal; but it is a meer dream, for seeing that the world it self is variable and subject to alteration, therefore it cannot be but that whatsoever the world yields, should likewise be subject to destruction; so that to promise or to under∣take

any such matters as these are, it were but rashness and meer foolis••ness. Put the things which we purpose to discourse of and to deliver, are these which here••fter follow; and I would request the Readers to take them in good part, and to conte••t themselves ••ith these; lest if they attempt to proceed to further experiments herein, they prove themselves as foolish and as mad as those which we have spoken of before. These things which here you shall find, I my self have seen, and proved by experience, and therefore I am the bolder to set them abroach to the view of the whole world.

CHAP. I.

Of Tin, and how it may be converted into a more excellent Mettal.

TInne doth counterfeit and resemble Silver; and there is great amity and agreement betwixt these two Mettals in respect of their colour. The Nature and the colour of Tinne is such, that it will whiten all other Mettals; but it makes them brickle and easie to be knapt in sunder: onely Lead is free from this power of Tinne: but he that can skilfully make a medley of this Met∣tal with others, may thereby attain to many pretty secrecies. Wherefore, we will endeavor to counterfeit Silver as ne••r as we can: A matter which may be easily effected, if we can tell how to abolish and utterly destroy those imperfections which are found in Tinne, whereby it is to be discerned from Siver. The imperfections are these: First, it is wont to make a crea∣king noise, and crasheth more then Silver doth: Secondly, it doth not ring so plea∣santly as Silver, but hath a duller sound: Thirdly, it is of a more pale and wanne co∣lour: And lastly, it is more soft and tender; for if it be put into the fire, it is not first red hot before it be melted, as Silver will be; but it clings fast to the fire, and is soon overcome and molten by the heat thereof. These are the qualities that are observed to be in Tinne; not the essential properties of the Nature thereof, but one∣ly accidental qualities, and therefore they may be more easily expelled out of their subject. Let us see therefore how we may rid away these extrinsecal accidents: and first,

How to remedy the softness of Tin, and the creaking noise that it makes.

You must first beat it into small powder, as you shall hereafter be instructed in the manner how to do it; and when you have so done, you must reduce it into one whole body again. And if it do not lose its softness at the first time as you deal so by it, use the same course the second time, and so likewise the third time rather then fail, and by this means you shall at length obtain your purpose: for, by so do∣ing, the Tin will wax so hard, that it will endure the fire till it be red hot, before ever it will melt. By the like practice we may also harden all other soft bodies, to make them red hot before they shall be melted: but the experience hereof is more clear in Tinne then in any other Mettals whatsoever. We may also take away the crea∣king noise of Tinne, if we melt it seven several times, and quench it every time in the urine of children; or else in the Oyl of Wall-nuts: for this is the onely means to expel that quality and imperfection out of it. Thus then we have declared the manner how to extract these accidents from it: but all this while we have not shew∣ed how it may be transformed into Silver: which now we are to speak of, as soon as ever we have shewed the manner

How to bring Tin into Powder,

which we promised to teach. Let your Tinne boil in the fire; and when it is very liquid, pour it forth into a great morter; and when it beginneth to wax cold, and to be congealed together again, you must stir it and turn it round about with a wooden pestle, and let it not stand still in any case; thus shall you cause it be con∣gealed into very small crums as little as dust: and when you have so done, put it in∣to a very fine ranging sieve, and sift out the smallest of it; and that which is left

behinde in your sieve, because it is too great and not broken well enough, you must put it into the fire again, and use the very same course with it to break it into smaller dust, as you used before; for unless it be throughly broken into powder, it is not serviceable, nor fit for your purpose. Having therefore shewed you how to break your Tin into small crums, as also how to expel out of it those imperfections whereby it is most manifestly discerned from Silver; both which things are very ne∣cessary preparatives as it were to the main matter which we have in hand, let us now come to the principal experiment it self, namely

How to alter and transform Tin, that it may become Silver,

You must take an earthen vessel somewhat wide-mouthed; but it must be very strongly and firmly made, that it be throughly able to endure the vehemency of the fire, even to be red hot: Into this vessel put your Tin broken into such small crums as have been spoken of, and therein you must with an iron ladle stirre it up and down continually without ceasing, till it be all on a light fire, and yet none of the Metal to be melted: when you have so done, that you have given it over, and it gathereth together into one body or lump again, you must bestow the very same labour upon it the second time, so long as it may stand in small crums all on a fire for the space of six hours together, without melting. But if some part of the Me∣tal be melted by the vehement heat of the fire, and some other part of it remain not melted, then you must take away that which is melted, and when it is congealed, you must break it into small powder once again, and you must run over your whole labour again with it, even in the same vessel and with the same instrument as before. After this, when you have brought all your Metal to that perfection that it will en∣dure the fire without melting, then you must put it into a glass-fornace where glass is wont to be made, or else into some Oven that is made of purpose to reflex the heat of the fire to the best advantage, and there let it be tormented and applied with a very great fire for the space of three or four days together, until such time as it is made perfectly white as snow: for the smaller that it is broken and beaten into powder, the more perfectly it will take white, and be the fitter for your purpose, and more exactly satisfie your expectation. After all this, you must put it into a vessel that shall be almost full of vinegar, and the vinegar must cover all the Tinne, and swim about three inches above it. There you must distil it, and let the vinegar boil with it so long, till the Tinne hath coloured it, and made it of his own hue, and thickened it into a more gross substance. Then let it stand a while; and when it is throughly settled, pour out that vinegar and put in new, and temper it well with those ashes or crums of Tinne: and this you must do again and again, till all your Tinne be dissolved into the vinegar. If by this often repetition of this labour, you cannot effect such a dissolution, then you must put it once again to the fire in such a fornace, or else into such an Oven as we spake of before, that so it may be reduced into white ashes more exactly and perfectly, whereby it may be the more easily dissolved into vinegar. After this, you must let the vapour of the vinegar be exha∣led, and strained out, and the Tinne that is left behinde must be put into a certain vessel where ashes have been wont to be put, and then melt some fine Lead and put amongst it: and because the Lead that is put in will bear up the Tinne aloft, there∣fore you must make certain little balls or pills compounded of Soap and Lime, or else of Salt-peter and Brimstone, or some other like fat earthy stuff, and cast them in amongst the Lead and Tinne, and they will cause the Tinne to drench it self with∣in the Lead: and by this means, all your Tinne that doth take the Lead, and is incorporated into it by a just proportion and equal temperature, doth become very excellent good Silver. But this is a marvellous hard labour, and not to be atchie∣ved without very great difficulty. You may like wise alter and transform

Tinne into Lead,

An easie matter for any man to effect, by reducing Tinne into ashes or powder often times: for the often burning of it will cause the creaking noise which it is wont to make, to be voided from it, and so to become Lead without any more

ado; especially, if you use a convenient fire, w••en you go about to reduce it into powder.

CHAP. II.

Of Lead, and how it may be converted into another Metal.

THe Antient Writers that have been conversant in the Natures of Metals, are wont to call Tinne by the name of white Lead; and Lead, by the name of black Tinne: insinuating thereby the affinity of the Natures of these two Metals, that they are very like each to another, and therefore may very easily be one of them transformed into the other. It is no hard matter therefore, as to change Tinne into Lead, which we have spoken of in the former Chapter, So also

To change Lead into Tinne.

It may be effected onely by bare washing of it: for if you bath or wash Lead often times, that is, if you often melt it, so that the dull and earthy substance of it be abolished, it will become Tinne very easily: for the same quick-silver, whereby the Lead was first made a subtil and pure substance, before it contract∣ed that soil and earthiness which makes it so heavy, doth still remain in the Lead, as Gebrus hath observed; and this is it which causeth that creaking and gnashing sound, which Tinne is wont to yield, and whereby it is especially dicerned from Lead: so that when the Lead hath lost its own earthy lumpishness, which is ex∣pelled by often melting; and when it is endued with the sound of Tinne, which the quick-silver doth easily work into it, there can be no difference put be∣twixt them, but that the Lead is become Tin. It is also possible to transform

Antimony into Lead:

For, that kind of Antimony which the Alchymists are wont to call by the name of Regulus, if it be oftentimes burned in the fire, and be first throughly boiled, it turneth into Lead. This experiment is observed by Dioscorides, who saith, That if you take Antimony and burn it exceedingly in the fire, it is converted into Lead. Galen sheweth another experiment concerning Lead, namely,

How to procure Lead to become heavier, then of it self it is:

For, whereas he had found by his experience, that Lead hath in it self an aethereal or airy substance, he brings this experiment. Of all the Mettals, saith he, that I have been acquainted with, only Lead is encreased both in bigness and also in weight for, if you lay it up in sellars or such other places of receipt that are under the ground, wherein there is a turbulent and gross foggy air, so that whatsoever is laid up in such rooms shall straightways gather filth and soil, it will be greater and weightier then before it was. Yea, even the very clamps of Lead which have been fastened into carved Images to knit their parts more strongly together, especially those that have been fastened about their feet, have been divers times found to have waxed bigger; and some of those clamps have been seen to swell so much, that whereas in the ma∣king of such Images the leaden plates and pins were made level with the Images themselves, yet afterwards they have been so swoln, as that they have stood forth like hillocks and knobs very unevenly, out of the Christal stones whereof the Images were made. This Lead, is a Mettal that hath in it great store of quick-silver, as may appear by this, because it is a very easie mastery,

To extract Quick-silver out of Lead.

Let your Lead be filed into very small dust, and to every two pounds of L••ad thus beaten into powder, you must put one ounce of Salt-Peter, and one ounce of ordi∣nary common Salt, and one ounce of Antimony. Let all these be well beaten and powned together, and put into a sieve; and when they are well sifted, put them in∣to

a vessel made of glass, and you must fence and plaister the glass round about on the outward side with thick loam tempered with chopt straw, and it must be laid on very fast; and that it may stick upon the vessel the better, your glass must not be smooth, but full of rigoles, as if it were wrested or writhen. When your vessel is thus prepared, you must settle and apply it to a reflexed fire, that is, to a fire made in such a place, as will reflect and beat back the heat of it with great vehemency to the best advantage: and underneath your vessels neck, you must place a large pan, or some other such vessel of great capacity and receipt, which must be half full of cold water: then close up all very fast and sure, and let your fire burn but a little, and give but a small heat for the space of two hours; afterward make it greater, so that the vessel may be throughly heated by it, even to be red hot; then set a blower on work, and let him not leave off to blow for the space of four whole hours together, and you shall see the quick-silver drop down into the vessel that is half full of water, being flighted, as it were, out of the Mettal by the vehement force of the fire. Commonly the quick-silver will stick to the sides of the vessels neck, and therefore you must give the neck of the vessel a little jolt or blow with your hand, that so the quick-silver may fall downward into the water-vessel. By this practice I have ex∣tracted oftentimes out of every pound of Mettal almost an whole ounce of quick-silver; yea, sometimes more then an ounce, when I have been very diligent and laborious in performing the work. Another experiment I have seen, which drew me into great admiration,

Lead converted into quick-silver:

A counterfeiting practice, which is the chief cause that all the quick-silver almost which is usually to be had, is but bastard stuff, and meerly counterfeit; yet it is bought and sold for currant, by reason of the neer likeness that it hath with the best. Let there be one pound of Lead melted in an earthen vessel, and then put unto it also one pound of that Tinny mettal which is usually called by the name of Marcha∣site: and when they are both melted together, you must stirre them up and down, and temper them to a perfect medley with a wooden ladle: In the mean space you must have four pounds of quick-silver warmed in another vessel standing by, to cast in upon that compounded Mettal; for unless your quick-silver be warm, it will not close nor agree well with your Mettals: then temper your quick-silver and your Mettal together for a while, and presently after cast it into cold water; so shall it not congeal into any hard lump, but flote on the top of the water, and be very quick and lively. The onely blemish it hath, and that which onely may be except∣ed against it, is this, that it is somewhat pale and wan, and not all things so nim∣ble and lively as the true quick-silver is, but is more slow and slimy, drawing as it were a tail after it, as other viscous and slimy things are wont to do. But put it in∣to a vessel of glass, and lay it up for a while; for the longer you keep it, the quicker and nimbler it will be.

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 colour∣ings, 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 re∣jected 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 skilful∣lest 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 A∣frick 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 mol∣ten brass, it will endue your brass with a strange and wonderful whiteness, inso∣much 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 ves∣sel 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 gel∣ly, 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 co∣lour; 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 ef∣fect 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 incor∣porated 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 an∣other 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•• pre∣pared 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 slen∣der 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 pow∣der again, and afterward some of your little plates again, and so by turns one af∣ter 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 with∣in 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 ca∣sting 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 ap∣pear 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 tho∣roughly 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 redu∣ced 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 me∣tals 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 me∣tal 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 me∣tals 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-for∣tis▪ but it must be such as hath in it very little store of moisture; for the most wa∣terish 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 un∣der 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 bo∣dy 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 coun∣terfeit.

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 al∣so 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 unprofi∣table, 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 in∣to 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 affect∣ed▪ 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 subsi∣dence 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 re∣fuse that is in it, and of that poysoned corruption of rust that it is generally infe∣cted withal: for it hath more earthly substance and parts in it then any other me∣tal 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 en∣crease your fire, that it may be so vehement hot as to melt the Iron; for the plai∣ster 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 glit∣tering 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 ta∣ken 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 be∣fore 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 wa∣ter, 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 wa∣ter, 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 sup∣ply 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 congela∣tion 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 Arse∣nick 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 coagu∣lated 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 Sil∣ver▪ 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 co∣agulated, 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 Al∣chymy 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-sil∣ver 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 there∣fore 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 fif∣teen 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.

CHAP. VI.

Of Silver.

I Shall teach how to give silver a tincture that it may shew like to pure gold; and after that, how it may be turned to true gold.

To give Silver a Gold-colour,

Burn burnt brass with stibium, and melted with half silver, it will have the per∣fect colour of gold; and mingle it with gold, it will be the better colour. We boil brass thus: I know not any one that hath taught it: you shall do it after this manner: melt brass in a crucible, with as much stibium: when they are both melted, put in as mu••h stibium as before, and pour it out on a plain Marble-stone, that it may cool there, and be fit to beat into plates. Then shall you make two bricks hol∣low, that the plates may be fitly laid in there: when you have fitted them, let them be closed fast together, and bound with iron bands, and well luted: when they are dried put them in a glass fornace, and let them stand therein a week, to burn ex∣actly, take them out and use them. And

To tincture Silver into gold,

you must do thus: Make first such a tart lye, put quick lime into a pot, whose bot∣tom is full of many small holes, put a piece of wood or tilesheard upon it, then by degrees pour in the powder and hot water, and by the narrow holes at the bottom, let it drain into a clean earthen vessel under it: do this again, to make it exceeding tart. Powder stibium and put into this, that it may evaporate into the thin air; let it boil at an easie fire: for when it boils, the water will be of a purple colour: then strain it into a clean vessel through a linnen cloth; again, pour on the lye on the powders that remain, and let it boil so long at the fire, till the water seems of a bloody colour no more: Then boil the lye that is colour'd, putting fire under, till the water be all exhaled; but the powder that remains being dry, with the oyl of Tartar dried and dissolved, must be cast again upon plates made of equal parts of gold and silver, within an earthen crucible; cover it so long with coles, and renew your work, till it be perfectly like to gold. Also I can make the same

Otherwise.

If I mingle the congealed quick-silver that I speak of with a cap, with a third part of silver, you shall find the silver to be of a golden colour: you shall melt this with the same quantity of gold, and put it into a pot: pour on it very sharp vinegar,

and let it boil a quarter of a day, and the colour will be augmented. Put this to the utmost trial of gold, that is, with common salt, and powder of bricks, yet adding Vi∣triol, and so shall you have refined gold. We can also extract

Gold out of Silver,

And not so little but it will pay your cost, and afford you much gain. The way is thi••: Put the fine filings of Iron into a Crucible that will endure fire, till it grow red hot, and melt: then take artificial Chrysocolla, such as Goldsmiths use to soder with, and red Arsenick, and by degrees strew them in: when you have done this, cast in an equal part of Silver, and let it be exquisitely purged by a strong vessel made of Ashes: all the dregs of the Gold being now removed, cast it into water of separation, and the Gold will fall to the bottom of the vessel, take it: there is nothing of many things that I have found more true, more gainful or, more hard: spare no labour, and do it as you should, lest you lose your labour: or otherwise, let the thin filings of Iron oak for a day in sea-water, let it dry, and let it be red hot in the fire so long in a ••rucible, till it run, then cast in an equal quantity of silver, with half brass, let it be projected into a hollow place: then purge it exactly in an ash vessel: for the Iron being excluded and its dregs, put it into water of separation, and gather what falls to the bottom, and it will be excellent Gold. May be it will be profitable to

Fix Cinnaber.

He that desires it, I think he must do thus, break the Cinnaber into pieces as big as Wall-nuts, and put them into a glass vessel that is of the same bigness, and the pieces must be mingled with thrice the weight of silver, and laid by courses, and the vessel must be luted, and suffer it to dry, or set it in the Sun; then cover it with ashes, and let it boil so long on a gentle fire, till it become of a lead colour and break not, which will not be unless you tend it constantly till you come so far. Then purge it with a double quantity of lead; and when it is purged, if it be put to all tryals, it will stand the stronger, and be more heavy and of more vertue: the more easie fire you use, the better will the business be effected: but so shall we try to re∣pair silver, and revive it when it is spoil'd. Let sublimate quick-silver boil in distil'd vinegar, then mingle quick-silver, and in a glass retort, let the quick-silver evapo∣rate in a hot fire, and fall into the receiver: keep it: If you be skilful, you shall find but little of the weight lost. Others do it with the Regulus of Antimony. But otherwise you shall do it sooner and more gainfully thus: Put the broken pieces of Cinnaber as big as dice, into a long linnen bag, hanging equally from the pot sides; then pour on the sharpest venegar, with alom and tartar, double as much, quick lime four parts, and as much of oaken ashes, as it is usual to be made; or you must make some. Let it boil a whole day, take it out and boil it in oyl, be diligent about it, and let it stay there twenty four hours: take the pieces of Cinnaber out of the oyl, and meer them with the white of an egge beaten, and role it with a third part of the filings of silver: put it into the bottom of a convenient vessel, and lute it well with the best earth, as I said: set it to the fire three days, and at last increase the fire, that it may almost melt and run: take it off, and wash it from its faeces that are left, at the last proof of silver, and bring it to be true and natural. Also it will be pleasant

From fixt Cinnaber to draw out a silver beard.

If you put it into the same vessel, and make a gentle fire under, silver that is pure, not mixed with lead, will become hairy like a wood, that there is nothing more pleasant to behold.

CHAP. VII.

Of Operations necessary for use.

I Thought fit to set down some Operations which are generally thought fit for our works: and if you know them not, you will not easily obtain your de••••re. I have set them down here, that you might not be put to seek them elswhere: First,

To draw forth the life of Tinne.

The filings of Tinne must be put into a pot of earth, with equal part of salt-peter, you shall set on the top of this seven, as many other earthen pots with holes bored in them, and stop these holes well with clay: set above this a glass vessel with the mouth downwards, or with an open pipe, with a vessel under it: put fire to it, and you shall hear it make a noise when it is hot: the life flies away in the f••me, and you shall find it in the hollow pots, and in the bottom of the glased vessel compacted to∣gether. If you bore an earthen vessel on the side, you may do it something more easily by degrees, and you shall stop it. So also

From Stibium

we may extract it. Stibium that Druggists call Antimony, is grownd small in hand∣mills, then let a new crucible of earth be made red hot in a cole fire; cast into it pre∣sently by degrees, Stibium, twice as mu••h Tartar, four parts of salt-peter, finely pow∣dred: when the fume riseth, cover it with a cover, lest the fume rising evaporate: then take it off, and cast in more, till all the powder be burnt: then let it stand a little at the fire, take it off and let it cool, and skim off the dregs on the top, and you shall find at the bottom what the Chymists call the Regulus; it is like Lead, and easily changed into it. For saith Dioscorides, should it burn a little more, it turns to Lead. Now I will shew how one may draw a more noble Metal

To the out-side,

As foolish Chymists say, for they think that by their impostures they do draw forth the parts lying in the middle, and that the internal parts are the basest of all; but they erre exceedingly: For they eat onely the outward parts in the superficies, that are the weakest, and a little quick-silver is drawn forth, which I approve not. For they corrode all things that their Medicament enters, the harder parts are left, and are polished and whitened: may be they are perswaded of this by the medals of the Antients, that were within all brass, but outwardly seemed like pure silver; but those were sodered together, and beaten with hammers, and then stamp'd. Yet it is very must to do it as they did, and I think it cannot be done. But the things that polish are these, common Salt, Alom, Vitriol, quick Brimstone, Tartar; and for Gold, onely Verdigrease, and Salt Ammoniack. When you would go about it, you must powder part of them, and put them into a vessel with the metal. The cruci∣ble must be luted with clay, and covered: there must be left but a very small hole for perspiration: then set it in a gentle fire, and let it burn▪ and blow not, lest the metal melt: when the powders are burnt they will sink down, which you shall know by the smoke, then take off the cover and look into them. But men make the Metal red hot, and then when it is hot they drench it in: or otherwise; they put it in vine∣gar till it become well cleansed, and when you have wrapt the work in linnen∣rags, that was well luted, cast it into an earthen vessel of vinegar, and boil it long, take it out and cast it into urine, let it boil in salt and vinegar, till no filth almost rise, and the foul spots of the ingredients be gone; and if you find it not exceed∣ing white, do the same again till you come to perfection: Or else proceed other∣wise by order: Let your work boil in an earthen pot of water, with salt, alom, and tartar: when the whole superficies is grown white, let it alone a while; then let them boil three hours with equal parts of brimstone, salt-peter, and salt, that it may hang in the middle of them, and not touch the sides of the vessel; take it out, and rub it

with sand, till the fume of the sulphur be removed again: let it boil again as at first, and so it will wax white, that it will endure the fire, and not be rejected for coun∣terfeit; you shall find it profitable if you do it well; and you will rejoyce, if you do not abuse it to your own ruine.

CHAP. VIII.

How to make a Metal more weighty.

IT is a question amongst Chymists, and such as are addicted to those studies, how it might be that silver might equal gold in weight, and every metal might exceed its own weight. That may be also made gold, without any detriment to the stamp or engraving, and silver may increase and decreas•• in its weight, if so be it be made into some vessel. I have undertaken here to teach how to do that easily, that others do with great difficulty. Take this rule to do it by, that

The weight of a Golden vessel may increase,

without hurting the mark, if the magnitude do not equal the weight. You shall rub gold with thin silver, with your hands or fingers, until it may d••ink it in, and make up the weight you would have it, sticking on the superficies. Then prepare a strong lixivium of brimstone and quick lime, and cast it with the gold into an earthen pot with a wide mouth: put a small fire u••der, and let them boil so long, till you see that they have gain'd their colour; then take it out, and you shall have it: Or else draw forth of the velks of eggs and the litharge of gold, water with a strong fire, and quench red hot gold in it, and you have it.

Another that is excellent.

You shall bring silver to powder, either with aqua fortis, or calx; the calx is after∣wards washt with water, to wash away the salt, wet a golden vessel or plate with water or spittle, that the quantity of the powder you need may stick on the outward superficies: yet put it not on the edges, for the fraud will be easily discovered by rubbing it on the touch stone. Then powder finely salt one third part, brick as much, vitriol made red two parts: take a brick and make a hole in it as big as the vessel is, in the bottom whereof strew al••m de plume: then again pour on the powder with your work till you have filled the hole, then cover the hole with another brick, and fasten it with an Iron pin, and lute the joynts well with clay: let this dry, and let it stand in a reverberating fire about a quarter of a day; and when it is cold, open it, and you shall find the gold all of a silver colour, and more weighty, without any hurt to the stamp. Now to bring it to its former colour, do thus: Take Verdi rease four parts, Salammoniack two parts, salt-peter a half part, as much brick, alom a fourth part; mingle these with the waters, and wash the vessel with it: then with iron tongs put it upon burning coles, that it may be red hot: take it off, and plunge it in urine, and it will regain the colour. If it shine too much, and you would have it of a lower colour, the remedy is to wet it in urine, and let it stand on a plate red hot to cool. But thus you shall make vitriol very red; put it into a vessel covered with coles, and boil it till it change to a most bright red: take it out and lay it aside, and do not use it for an ill purpose. We may with the fragments of brass

Do this business otherwise:

That shall supply the place of silver, and it shall become too weighty: Or otherwise, melt two parts of brass with silver, then make it into small thin plates; in the mean while make a powder of the dregs of aqua fortis, namely of salt-peter and vitriol, and in a strong melting vessel, put the plate and the powder to augment gold, fill the vessel in a preposterous order. Then lure the mouth of it, and set it in a gentle fire half a day: take it off, always renewing the same till it come to the desired weight. We have taught how to increase the weight, and not hurt the fashion

or stamp. Now I shall shew how without loss in weight, nor yet the stamp being hur••,

Gold and Silver may be diminished:

Some use to do it with aqua fortis, but it makes the work rough with knots and holes; you shall do it therefore thus: Strew powder of brimstone upon the work, and put a candle to it round about, or burn it under your work, by degrees it will con∣sume by burning; strike it with a hammer on the contrary side, and the superficies will fall off, as much in quantity as you please, as you use the brimstone. Now shall I shew how

To separate gold from silver Cups that are gilded:

For it is oft-times a custome for Goldsmiths, to melt the vessels and cast them away, and to make new ones again; not knowing how without great trouble, to part the gold from the silver, and therefore melt both together. To part them, do thus: Take salt Ammoniack, brimstone half a part: powder them ••ne, and anoint the gilded part of the vessel with oyl: then strew on the powder, and take the ves∣sel in a pair of tongs, and put it into the fire: when it is very hot, strike it with an iron, and the powder shaken will fall into the water, in a platter under it, and the vessel will remain unaltered. Also it is done

Another way

with quick-silver: Put quick-silver into an earthen vessel with a very wide mouth, and let it heat so long at the fire, that you can endure the heat of it with your finger, put into it: put the gilt plate of silver into it, and when the quick-silver sticks to the gold, take it out and put it into a Charger, into which the gold, when it is cold, will fall with the quick-silver. Going over this work again, until no more gold appears in the vessel. Then put the gold with the quick-silver that was sha∣ken into the Charger, into a linnen clout, and press it out with your hands, and let the quick-silver fall into some other receiver, the gold will stay behind in the rag; take it and put it into a cole made with a hole in it, blow till it melt, make it into a lump, and boil it in an earthen vessel with a little Stibium, and pour it forth into ano∣ther vessel, that the gold may fall to the bottom, and the Stibium stay atop. But if you will

Part Gold from a vessel of Brass,

wet the vessel in cold water, and set it in the fire: when it is red hot, quench it in cold water; then scrape off the gold with latin wire bound together.

CHAP. IX.

To part Metals without aqua fortis.

BEcause waters are drawn from salts with difficulty, with loss of time and great charges; I shall shew you how to part gold from silver and brass, and silver from brass, without aqua fortis; but by some easie operations, with little cost or loss of time: And first I shall shew how

To part Gold from Silver.

Cast a lump of gold mixt with silver into an earthen vessel, that will hold fire, with the same weight of Antimony, thus: when the vessel is red hot, and the lump is melted, and turned about with the force of the fire; cast a little Stibium in, and in a little time it will melt also; and when you see it, cast in the rest of the Stibium, and cover the vessel with a cover: let the mixture boil, as long as one may repeat the Lords-prayer: take away the vessel with a pair of tongs, and cast it into another iron Pyramidal vessel red hot, called a Crucible, that hath in the bottom of it rams fat; shaking it gently, that the heavier part of gold separated from the silver, may

fall to the bottom: when the vessel is cold it is shaken off, and the part next the bottom will be gold, the upper part silver; and if it be not well parted, refuse not to go over the same work again, but take a less quantity of Stibium. Let therefore the gold be purged again, and let the Stibium be boiled, and there will be always at the bottom a little piece of gold. And as the dregs remain, after the same man∣ner purge them again in the copple, and you shall have your silver, without any loss of the weight, because they are both perfect bodies; but the silver onely will lose a lit∣tle. But would you have your silver to lose less, do thus: adde to two pound and half of Stibium, wine-lees two pounds, and boil them together in an earthen vessel, and the mass will remain in the bottom, which must be also boil'd in a copple; then adding pieces of lead to it, purge it in a copple, wherein the other things being con∣sumed by the fire, the silver onely will remain: but if you do not boil your Stibium in wine-lees, as I said, part of the silver will be lost, and the copple will draw the sil∣ver to it. The same may be done

Another way.

Take three ounces of brimstone, powder them, and mingle them with one ounce of common oyl, and set them to the fire in a glazed dish of earth: let the fire be first gentle, then augment it, till it run, and seem to run over: take it from the fire, and let it cool, then cast it into sharp vinegar, so the oyl will swim above the vinegar, the brimstone will fall down to the bottom; cast away the vinegar, and let the brim∣stone boil in strong vinegar, and you shall see the vinegar coloured: you shall strain the vinegar through a wisp into a glased vessel, to which adde more brimstone, boil it again, and again strain out the lye into the vessel: doing this so oft, till the Lixivium comes forth muddy, or of a black colour. Let the Lixivium settle one night: again strain it through a wisp, and you shall find the brimstone almost white at the bottom of the vessel: adde that to what you had before, and set it again to boil with three parts as much distilled vinegar, till the vinegar all evaporate and dry the brimstone: take heed it burn not: when it is dry, put it again into distilled vinegar, working the same way so often, until putting a little of it upon a red hot plate of iron, it will melt without flame or smoke. Then cast it on a lump of gold and silver, and the gold will sink to the bottom presently, but the silver will remain on the top. For if brimstone be boil'd in a Lixivium so strong, that it will bear an egg, until it will not smoke, and will melt on a fire-cole: if it be projected on a mass of gold and silver mingled, when they are melted, it will part the gold from the sil∣ver. Also there is an ingenious and admirable way

To part silver from brass

with certain powders. The best are those are made of powdred lead, half so much quick brimstone, and arsenick, and common salt double as much, salt-peter one half; powder those fine each by themselves, then mingle them. Take the mixt me∣tal, with half so much more of the powder, and in a vessel that will endure fire, strew it in by turns, and set the vessel fil'd at a strong fire, till all melt; take it out and cast it into another vessel, that is broad atop, narrow at bottom, and hot, as we said, and smeered with ram or sowes grease clarified: let it cool, for you shall find the silver at the bottom, and the brass on the top: part one from the other with an iron rasp, or file: if you will, you may purge your silver again in a copple. But the silver must be made into thin plates, that when it is strewed interchangeably with the powders, they may come at it on all sides: then cover the vessel with its cover, and lute it well. But the salt must be decrepitated that it leap not out, and the brimstone prepared and fixed. But we may thus

Part gold from brass:

Make salt of these things that follow, namely, Vitriol, Alom, Salt-peter, quick Brim∣stone, of each a pound, Salt-ammoniack half a pound. Powder them all, and boil them in a lye made of ashes, one part, as much quick lime, four parts of beech-ashes: melt them at the fire, and decant them, and boil them till the Lixivium be gone; then

dry it, and keep it in a place not moist, lest it melt; and mingle with it one pound of powder of lead, and strew on of this powder six ounces for every pound of brass made not in a melting vessel, and let them be shaken, and stirred vehemently with an iron thing to stir it with: when the vessel is cold, break it, you shall find a lump of gold in the bottom. Do the rest as I said.

CHAP. X.

A compendious way to part gold or silver from other Metals with aqua fortis.

WE shall teach thus compendiously to part gold from silver, and silver from other metals; and it is no small gain to be got by it, if a man well understood what I write: for I have known some by this art that have got great wealth. For example, take a mixture of brass and silver, dissolve it in common aqua fortis: when it is con∣sumed, cast fountain-water into it, to remove the sharpness of the water, and that it can no more corrode the metal. Put the water into a great mouthed earthen ves∣sel, and plunge plates of brass therein; for the silver will stick to them like a cloud, the brass is best in the water: put the water into a glass retort with a large belly, and make a soft fire under, and the fountain-water will distil forth by degrees. When you know that the whole quantity of fountain-water is distilled out, or the belly of the retort looks of a yellow colour, and the sent of the salts pierceth your nostrils: take away the receiver, and put another that is empty to it, and lure it well that no∣thing break forth. Augment the fire, and you shall draw off your aqua fortis as strong as before, and the brass will be at the bottom of the retort: The aqua fortis will be as good as it was, and you may use it oft-times.