Читать книгу Modern Alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone - Wilfried B. Holzapfel - Страница 11

When Helen had arrived and taken a seat, Marie showed Helen the image. “I followed your lead and did some web surfing about alchemy,” Marie began. “I found myself more drawn to the exoteric aspects of the subject, of course. Take a look at this picture. I couldn’t help thinking about it as I passed through the cafeteria line.” Marie showed Helen an image from the collection that she had downloaded earlier.

The two friends had a good laugh as they glanced back at the serving tables in the cafeteria.

“So what all is going on in this picture?” Helen asked.

“From what I read, the ancient alchemists were able to carry out the basic chemical processes that we used back in my regular high school chemistry course. For instance, you can image that they would have used this apparatus for boiling and evaporation, maybe even distillation,” Marie pointed to the collection of equipment the foreground of the drawing. We know that, as part of their search for the “elixir of life,” the ancients prepared many alcoholic liquids. Some of those have evolved into the fine cordial liqueurs that are still available today. So they must have understood condensation. Obviously, they knew about melting and freezing, at least for materials that are solids at room temperature – metals, for instance.”

“I guess I never thought of hot metal as ‘freezing’ when it transitioned from a glowing hot liquid back to a solid. Do you suppose that the ancients were aware of sublimation and deposition?” Helen was secretly proud of herself for recalling the other two common phase transitions for matter that she had memorized for her high school advanced chemistry course.

Only about half of the members of Helen’s chemistry class had known the term that scientists use to describe what happens when a solid changes directly to a gas without first becoming a liquid. The teacher had explained that although Alexander Fleming had discovered the medicinal benefits of penicillin in 1928, the antibiotic only became widely available after other researchers had figured out how to produce it in large quantities and to “freeze dry” Fleming’s liquid slurry into a solid that persisted in that form at room temperature. The teacher had mused that Fleming, as a Scotsman, should have known about freeze drying, or sublimation, from childhood. After all, the teacher explained, every Scottish housewife had hung her wash out to dry, even on days when the air temperature never got above the freezing point of water. The sheets first became stiff from the frozen water, but later were dry enough to bring inside because the frozen water had sublimed into the cold Scottish air.

Of course both students were well aware that the process of deposition, or depositing individual atoms from a gas onto a cold substrate, is key to the manufacture of all the transistors and solid-state lasers that lie at the very heart of the myriad of electronic devices that practically define the life of the average teenager these days.

“I guess if the alchemists lived north of the Alps, they would have known about sublimation according to your teacher, but it seems unlikely that any of them would have understood deposition,” Marie responded.

The students examined the image carefully looking for examples of crushing, mixing, filtering or burning or any other procedure that they might have encountered in their chemistry lab, if not in their own kitchen at home.

“I read where the ancient alchemists used special symbols to refer to the materials they were using as well as the processes that they applied to the materials,” Marie explained to Helen. “That was partly because all their prior knowledge had been recorded in Greek, Latin or Arabic or had been borrowed from some Indian or Oriental language. But it was also to preserve the mystical quality of their craft. Since they did not yet have a way to measure temperature, they also had symbols for instructions involving such things as hot water, weak glow, weak flame or hot embers.

“To be sure, these processes enjoyed a long history and tradition throughout the middle ages,” Marie continued. “The metal-workers and forgers of the Bronze Age had mastered the technique of recovering copper from natural ores and alloying the copper with tin to make bronze. During the Iron Age these artisans were able to extract iron from various ores and had developed special techniques with secret rules for forging swords with well-tempered blades. Some of those blades have survived and are a source of wonder even today. Since they had no patent registration to protect their knowledge, the ancient metal workers were careful not to write down their rules and procedures in places where others could steal them. As a result, even the same forger did not always get the expected result. Thus, to have the work result in the desired goal, one had to call upon the gods or, in the worst case, may also have had to enter into a pact with the devil.”

“And thus we return to the esoteric side of alchemy,” Helen concluded. “I recall a quote somewhere in the references that I was reading where one 18th century philosopher posed the question: When the Philosophers speak of gold and silver, from which they extract their matter, are we to suppose that they refer to the vulgar gold and silver? The answer was: By no means; vulgar silver and gold are dead, while those of the Philosophers are full of life. This is just another example how the two paths of alchemy were constantly intertwined.”

“I have to concede that,” Marie acknowledged. “From what I read, the knowledge of the European alchemists came primarily from what the Europeans considered to be the pagan world of the Orient with foreign idols and heretical beliefs. The ancient Egyptians were early to develop a highly sophisticated art for smelting ores and refining the metal they recovered. Their art was guarded by the priests in the temples. Bronze and iron objects were often covered with gold. You may recall the task of Archimedes, who was asked to determine if a gold crown was solid gold or a cheaper metal that had been plated with gold. The early metal-workers also invented new, harder golden alloys. All these procedures were considered to be alchemy. At that time, mercury played a major role in metal-working because this liquid metal exhibited such unusual properties. It seemed somehow to be a combination of water and metal.”

“But isn’t mercury still considered to be a special metal today?” Helen asked.

“Yes, that's right,” Marie agreed. “But with the few metals known at the time of the alchemists, it played an especially important role. As was customary at the time, the newly discovered substances were often named after gods and their properties were compared to divine qualities. The properties of mercury were compared to the qualities of the god Mercury. Those of gold were compared to the sun, the Sun God, or with Jupiter, the supreme God. Silver was matched to Luna, the moon, who is considered to be sweet and feminine in the southern countries. The less refined copper was compared to Venus, iron to Mars, tin and lead to Jupiter and Saturn, and so on.

“If one wanted to write down a particular procedure for the preparation of a specific alloy, it was advantageous to use abbreviations in these recipes and to encrypt them using the old mystical symbols.¹ These special characters were understood only by the Adepts, the initiated practitioners of their art. They often deliberately used misleading names. Take a look at this image.” Marie went to the next image on her smart phone (Figure 3).

“There is more to show you, but I have to go now. I have a lot of homework that I put off yesterday to study for the physics test. Let’s meet by the library again tomorrow for another stroll down Faculty Row. We can see what the professor has been up to. Maybe we will even find him at work on his sculpture. I’m actually excited about taking him up on his invitation to visit him on campus.”

“Good, so am I. See you tomorrow,” Helen said as she gathered things and headed off to the tray-return belt.