A compendious body of chymistry, which will serve as a guide and introduction both for understanding the authors which have treated of the theory of this science in general: and for making the way plain and easie to perform, according to art and method, all operations, which teach the practise of this art, upon animals, vegetables, and minerals, without losing any of the essential vertues contained in them. By N. le Fèbure apothecary in ordinary, and chymical distiller to the King of France, and at present to his Majesty of Great-Britain.

CHAP. IV. Of the Diversity of all sorts of Furnaces.

IT doth not suffice, that the Artist be provided with Fire and Vessels, he must have also his Furnaces to regulate and govern his heat, and put his Vessels in that degree of Fire, which he shall judge most fitting and convenient for the matter in them contained. Furnaces are Instruments destinated to those Operations, that are performed by the help of Fire, that heat may be as it were kept in awe and bridled, to submit it self to the judgement, skill, and intention of the Artist. They have several names given them, according to the several Operations to which they are appropriated: For, they are either fixt and immovable, or moveable and to be transported. We will only

speak here of the Unmoveable, since they are the most usefull kinde for Chymical Operations; leaving the other to the in∣vention and fancy of those whom their curiosity leads to this noble Art. The matter of Furnaces is threefold; Bricks, Clay, and Iron-work; their form is according to their use.

Every Furnace must consist of four necessary parts, of what∣soever form they be, which are; First, the Hearth or Ash-room, with its hole or mouth, to take away the Ashes falling from the Coals. Secondly, the Grate which receives and keeps up the Coals. Thirdly, the Chafing-dish or Focus with its dore to throw the Coals upon the Grate; wherein are the Registers, whereby the degrees of heat of the kindled Coals are ruled and moderated. Finally, the Shop or Laboratory, which must con∣tain the Vessels and matter upon which the work is intended. These are the general heads upon which the matter and con∣struction of Furnaces is grounded; it followeth now, we should say something of their use, and the description of their parts.

We begin by the Furnace commonly called an ATHANOR, which signifies a Furnace in Arabick, and hath this name given it by excellency, (the figure called by Orators Antonomasia) because this Furnace is not only the most usefull of all others, to perform at the same time several Operations; but also because it saves Coals, easeth the care and assiduity of the Artist, and yields a heat easie to be regulated. The Athanor is consisting of four parts: The first is the Turret, containing the Coals: The second, a Balneum Maris: The third, an Ash: The fourth, a Sand-fur∣nace. The Turret is to have four or five foot in height, 1 ½ foot square in the outside, and ten inches of empty space or diameter in the inside. It requires an Ash room, with its dore for com∣municating the Air, and taking away the Ashes, and a dore above the Grate, to cleanse it, and take away the earth and little stones which are sometimes mingled with the Coals, and would stop the Grate, and hinder the passage of Air, and consequently ex∣tinguish the Fire. This Turret also must have three open places, each half a foot high, and three inches broad in the three other sides of the Furnace above the Grate, that the heat may by that passage be communicated to the Balneum Maris, Ash and Sand-Furnaces, which must be Contiguous to this Turret, and each

of these must also have their Ash-hole, Grate, and Dore, to be (if occasion requires) employed severally by themselves with∣out the Turret: These holes must be shut up, with Iron Plates, that are to rise and fall, according to the degrees of fire to be given, to either of these Furnaces. To stop the top of the Turret, there may be fitted a round or square brass Kettle, which may be usefull for several Operations, but specially digestions: This Kettle or Cauldron shall be fitted, and joyn between two Iron bands, the one of which shall be even with the inside of the Turret-top, and the other with the outside, the space between these two being filled with Ashes to hinder the expiration of heat by the said top; and thus the fire shall be forced to drive its heat to the sides, drawn in by the Registers fitted to each of the three Furnaces. And so much shall suffice to give a short explanation of the structure and use of the Athanor: for as con∣cerning the form and figure of it, the ingenuous Artist is left to his own liberty.

There is also a Distillatory Furnace requisite in Chymical Ope∣rations, to which the Copper body, or Vesica, is fastened for the distilling of Aqua Vitae or Spirits of Wine, and for other hot Spirits, which are extracted by the help of fermentation; also for the extraction of distilled Oyls, improperly called Essen∣ces, and after you have covered the said body with its head, you must joyn to it a Fat or Barrell, with a strait or crooked Pipe (called commonly a Worm) passing through the same, and receiving the vapours droven by the Fire, which are con∣densed into Liquor in the Pipe, by the cold of Water where∣with the Fat is to be filled.

For those that will operate upon Minerals and Metals, a Furnace of Cementation or trying-Furnace is required, which is no∣thing else but a Round of bricks of one foot diameter in the in∣side, and eight or nine inches high; wherein, after the first row of bricks is set, which by a good Lute and fire-proof, must exact∣ly be joyned and fastened together, a hole must be left for the bellowes: This Furnace may also serve for Copell and Calci∣nation.

A Laboratory cannot be accounted compleat, without a Rever∣beratory Furnace, which is either close or open; the close is that

in which, Aqua Fortis, and spirits of Salts, as Nitre, Vitriol, common Salt, and other things of like nature, may be distilled; the Open, is that which is used for Reverberation and Calcina∣tion, by the help of the flame refracted from the backside to the mouth of the Furnace, drawn in by a gap of half an Inch broad, and of the length of the whole Furnace, left behinde the Iron Plate, which contains the matter to be reverberated; and the same flame so reflected, goes out by another gap of the same dimension, left in the fore-front of the Furnace at the top, im∣mediately under its Cover, which ought to be made flat without any Register, except the same gap left open before.

Finally, to compleat all, the Artist must have his Winde-Fur∣nace, for Mineral and Metallick fusions, Vitrifications, and pre∣paring of Regula's; the Grate thereof must be placed upon a Square born by four Pi••lars only, that the winde and air may have a free admission, and so may be instead of bellowes; the opening between each Pillar of about a foot; and upon this basis, a round Turret of about fifteen inches high, and eight inches diameter in the inside, shall be built; the dore for passage of the Crucibles that are to be put in, must be seven or eight inches broad, and ten inches high: upon this Turret must be ap∣plyed a Cover of an Elliptical figure, or Arch-wise, with a Chan∣nel above bored with a hole of about three inches diameter, upon which another shall be adapted, three or four foot high, that the action of fire may better concentrate about the Crucible, or other Vessels containing the matter to be melted; the mouth of the dore, by which Crucibles are put in, Crucibles must also be stopt, with a dore of good Clay, made of three pieces.

But because Chymical Artists are not still sedentary, and so cannot be furnished, where they have occasion to work, with all sort of Furnaces, I will he••e impart a w••y how to erect one, which may successively be employed in all Operations requisite to this Art; provided the Artist may be furnished with necessary Vessels, and of suitable dimensions to the Furnace, which I will now describe.

Build a Furnace of 1 ½ foot square, make the bottom of the Ash-room with a brick layd flat, and continue to raise the wall with two bricks, and leave the empty place in the middle, with

the dore before of four inches height, which are two bricks; then cover the dore with a brick, and compleat the square with the same height: after this set a Grate consisting of seven Iron barres, of the thicknesse of the thumb, squarely wrought: these barres must be laid upon their edge, that the ashes may the easlier fall thorough, and not suffocate the fire; the distance between each must be of the fore-fingers breadth: and having thus placed them, and fitted their equal distance with Tyles broken, or stones of the same dimension and thickness, and luted all very well together; you must begin to build in a falling wall, leaving only six inches of your Grate open, and lessening every lay of bricks of about three lines, which work is to be continued till you have brought it to be about ten inches high, which space is necessary, as much to contain the Coals, as to leave a play sufficient for the fire; you must leave here a dore also of the same dimension as the Ash-room; this ended, place two Iron∣barres of an inch thick, distant half a foot one from the other, and then eeven the wall either with stone, or some other matter of a fit thicknesse, and then build round three bricks edge wise, that you may have the more room, to put the necessary Vessels for the following Operations.

If you will work with the Balneum Maris, take a Kettle or round Cauldron of an equal diameter with the inside of your Furnace, and of one foot height only, that it may the better be adapted to the Furnace, and the space remaining at the cor∣nes of the square, will be instead of Registers to draw, and enliven or remit the heat, according as there shall be occasion. You must also have another Cauldron, with a good strong bottom of Iron plate, but thinner in the sides, made fit to be adapted to the same Furnace; and this will serve for distillations, and for works that require a heat either of Ashes, Sand, or filings of Iron; and if this Iron Vessel was made of Mettle of a Brest-armour Plate, and forged all of one piece, it would also serve for a Balneum Maris.

And if you will work with a Retort, you may put an Earthen Pot Cover, turned upsidewards, upon the Grate; and fill the hol∣low of it with sand, to be instead of a Lute, and hinder the breaking of the Vessel, and the too quick action of the fire,

upon it and the contained matter; after which you have no more to do, then to cover the top of the Furnace with an Earthen Pan not leaded, and bored with a hole in the middle, that this hole with the other four angles may be instead of a Register to direct the fire.

If the Artist desires to make use of this Furnace; towards Fusion, Calcination, Cementation, or Reverberation, he may do it also, having taken away the bricks, builded edge-wise on the side-top of the Furnace, as the barres also, to put in his matter more easily and readily.

Thus much we had to say of Furnaces built with Lute and Bricks: there remains only now, to speak something of the Lamp-Furnace, used by the most curious Artists for many Chy∣mical Operations. This Furnace must be made of a good Bolus and well compacted Clay, kneaded and well allayed together, and then well baked, that the heat of the Lamp may not transpire; and to hinder it the better, the Furnace may after baking be rubb'd and anointed within and without, with white of Eggs re∣duced to Liquor by a continual agitation.

This Furnace is to consist of three pieces, making in all 21 inches in height, of an inch thickness, and eight inches diame∣ter in the inside. The first piece, which is the basis of the Furnace, must be eight inches high, with a hole of 4½ diameter below, that by this opening the Lamp may be put in, whose diameter is to consist of three inches, and the depth or con∣cavity of two: it must be round, and covered with an Iron plate, bored in the middle with a sufficient hole to contain a link of 12 threds or more, and with six other holes round about, pro∣portioned in an equal distance from that of the middle. The second piece is to be of seven inches height, and fitted and ad∣apted to the first, having four earthen jets or handles of about an inch long, springing out of the Wall-work, to hold up an Earthen or Brass Vessel of six inches diameter, and four high, to make a Balneum Maris, or a Capsula for ashes or sand, as occasion requires. There must also be in this second piece or part of the Furnace two holes opposite the one to the other, of 1½ inch diameter, fitted with two Glasses of Venice Crystal: these two holes must be made between the height of the fourth

and last inch of the height, to be instead of windows, to disco∣ver thereby the better the various colours, in the Operations and Dissolutions made by the Artist, opposing a lighted Candle to the side you are to look in the Vessel in which the matter is contained, lying interposed. The third piece or part of the Furnace must be six inches high to compleat the total height of 21. made arch∣wise, or hemispherical, and bored on the top with a hole of an inch diameter, receiving several pieces of three lines apiece, growing still narrower till they end in a pyramidal knob which shall close up the last: There must also be four other like holes made between the height of three or four inches, equally distant one from the other: these holes are instead of Registers to the Lamp-Furnace, whose heat is also partly governed by the en∣creasing or relenting, which the approach or removal of the flame in the Lamp doth cause, (whose support must be made with a round piece of Wood, fastened or applyed to a skrew, where∣by it shall be raised or depressed at the will of the Artist,) as also by putting more or less wieks to burn in the Lamps; and augmenting or lessening the number of threds in the wieks, the heat is multiplyed or lessened, according to the nature of the Operations. But he that will proceed with more nicety in obser∣ving the exact degrees of heat, must have recourse to the Ther∣mometer (commonly called A Weather-glasse) wherein the wa∣ter inclosed, doth by its raising and depressing, exactly shew the degrees of heat. The Oyl which is to be imployed for the feeding of this Lamp, may be rectified upon fixt Salts made by Calcination, that they may yield less Soot, and display their action more vigorously, since that rectification takes away their excrementitious humour and superfluity. The wieks must be made of Gold, Alumen plumae, or Amiantho's, which is a Mine∣ral found in the Island of Elba: to which in case of necessity may be substituted the Marrow or soft Cotton found in the middle of Elder, or Reed, very well dried; and this must be changed fresh every 24 hours: for which cause it is necessary to be provided with two Lamps, to succeed one the other, that no intermission may interrupt the action of heat. If you make use of the marrow or heart of Elder, there must be a little sharp piece of Iron, or a Wyer sharpened, fixt and fodded in the bottom of the Lamp,

that may answer the middle hole of the Cover which is to con∣tain the wiek.

The figures of all these several Furnaces are exhibited in the Cut, following this Chapter. We add only two words concer∣ning the Instruments necessary to the managing of the Furnaces, as Pincers and Tongs to take away the Crucibles, a crooked Scraper to cleanse the Grates, an Iron Shovel to take the ashes away: There must also be an Iron Conical and hollow Vessel, well sodded and staunch, for projecting the Regula's, the Model whereof may be taken in the figures of Glass Vessels.