CHAP. VI. Doth teach the Composition of the Cement for the Sol.

TAke, in the name of God, of the finest Gold that you can get, one ounce; and melt with it the reddest Venus and fairest that you can get, one ounce: and when these two be well molten together, cast them into an Ingot; and when it is cold, beat it into thin Plates, no thicker then a Crown, and with a pair of Goldsmiths sheers cut them in pieces of the bigness of a Royal of Plate, and put them into strong red Wine-vinegar, twenty four hours long: then take old Tiles that have lain a long time in the Sun, and make them into subtil Powder, and sift them through a hairen sieve: then take common Salt that is once dissolved, distilled by Filter, and once well-glowed in the fire, and beaten into a Powder, and passed through a sieve: then take Romane Vitriol, and rubefie it as I shall shew thee hereafter: then take good red-wine-vi∣negar, distilled in a stillatory of Glass: and in that Vinegar, you shall dissolve your Vitriol: then distil it by Filter, very cleer: then set it on warm Ashes to congeal or dry, that the Water may vapor away, and you shall finde your Vi∣triol to rest very fair in the bottom: then take a new earthen Pot or Pan, and put your Vitriol therein, and set it on a cool fire, and stir it well Page  118 with a stick, and so it shall rubefie, and wax red as blood; then let it cool, and make it into Powder, and pass it through a Sieve: and in the same Water, you shall take Spanish Green, or Verdigreece, and dissolve it in distilled Vinegar: then vapor it, and dry it: then glow it in the fire, doing all things as the Vitriol aforesaid: then take as much Salt Armoniack, and dissolve it in red-wine-vinegar that is not distilled: then take of all these substances of Powder alike much, and sprinkle lightly over with the Vinegar, wherein the Salt Armoniack is dissolved; and let there be as much of the Salt Armoniack dis∣solved, as there is of any of the other parts: then take a melting-Pot, and lay in the bot∣tom of your Pot a good Ground of your Ce∣ment, and of your Sol-Venus Plates upon the Cement; so that the Plates do not touch one another: then put more of your Cement-pow∣der upon it, and so Stratum super Stratum, till that the Pot be full: let the uppermost lain be Cement.

Then take a Tile-stone, and make a Cover just for the mouth of the Pot, making a little hole in the Cover, or else the Salt Armoniack will break your Pot, or blow up the Cover: and when you have made this vent-hole, lute it fast together: and when your Lutement is dry, set it into your winde-Oven, and first give it a small fire two hours long, the next two hours more stronger; and thus still augment your fire, till that you see the Pot be glowing red; and so let it stand in the heat twenty four hours long: then let your O∣ven Page  119 cool; and take it out, and open your Pot, and you shall finde your Plates augmented in colour.

The first, my Son, if you will make this work in the Reverber Oven, so make your fire: the first half hour, small fire of coals; and the other time, of dry wood, that may be without smoke; and work in the high Ovens a yard from the ground: and in this manner you must cement your Gold seven times, every time new Pots, and new fresh Powder or Cement, every time melt∣ing your Sol with new Venus, and beating in Plates as aforesaid; for in every Cement your Venus shall be consumed, and in the Sol no more shall remain of the Venus, but the Tincture and Colour; and your Sol shall keep alwayes his first weight, but his colour shall be so high, that none shall judge it to be Sol; and you shall under∣stand, that if there were so much Luna, being made without sound, and augmented in weight, melted with the said Sol, it would seem to be fine Sol. But I counsel thee not to do it; for in divers meltings, it will lose its colour, and come white as afore, because your fixed Elixir, or me∣dium, is not put to it: therefore I counsel thee not to do it; for in the end it will shame his Master; and peradventure bring him in perill of his life, if he should sell it for fine Sol. There∣fore look well to thy self, and see that thou use no falshood.