Alchemical Substances
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Alchemical Substances
Alchemical studies produced a number of substances, which were later classified as particular chemical compounds or mixtures of compounds. Many of these terms were in common use into the 20th century. Metals and metalloids * Antimony/ – Sb * Bismuth (german: Wismuth) – Bi * Copper/ – associated with Venus. Cu * Gold/ – associated with the Sun. Au * Iron/ – associated with Mars. Fe * Lead/ – associated with Saturn. Pb * Quicksilver/ – associated with Mercury. Hg * Silver/ – associated with the Moon. Ag * Tin/ – associated with Jupiter. Sn Minerals, stones, and pigments * Bluestone – mineral form of copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate, also called blue vitriol. * Borax – sodium borate; was also used to refer to other related minerals. * Cadmia/Tuttia/Tutty – probably zinc carbonate. * Calamine – zinc carbonate. * Calomel/Horn Quicksilver/horn mercury – mercury(I) chloride, a very poisonous purgative formed by subliming a mixture of mercuric chlori ...
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Alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.Principe, Lawrence M. The secrets of alchemy'. University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 9–14. Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical ''magnum opus'' ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with all of the ...
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Copper(II) Sulfate
Copper(II) sulfate, also known as copper sulphate, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It forms hydrates , where ''n'' can range from 1 to 7. The pentahydrate (''n'' = 5), a bright blue crystal, is the most commonly encountered hydrate of copper(II) sulfate. Older names for the pentahydrate include blue vitriol, bluestone, vitriol of copper,Antoine-François de Fourcroy, tr. by Robert Heron (1796) "Elements of Chemistry, and Natural History: To which is Prefixed the Philosophy of Chemistry". J. Murray and others, Edinburgh. Page 348. and Roman vitriol.Oxford University Press,Roman vitriol, Oxford Living Dictionaries. Accessed on 2016-11-13 It exothermically dissolves in water to give the aquo complex , which has octahedral molecular geometry. The structure of the solid pentahydrate reveals a polymeric structure wherein copper is again octahedral but bound to four water ligands. The centers are interconnected by sulfate anions to form chains. Anhydrous copper sulfa ...
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Calcium Oxide
Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, Caustic (substance), caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term "''lime (material), lime''" connotes calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate. By contrast, ''quicklime'' specifically applies to the single chemical compound calcium oxide. Calcium oxide that survives processing without reacting in building products such as cement is called free lime. Quicklime is relatively inexpensive. Both it and a chemical derivative (calcium hydroxide, of which quicklime is the base anhydride) are important commodity chemicals. Preparation Calcium oxide is usually made by the thermal decomposition of materials, such as limestone or seashells, that contain calcium carbonate (CaCO3; mineral calcite) in a lime kiln. This is accomplished by hea ...
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Calx
Calx is a substance formed from an ore or mineral that has been heated. Calx, especially of a metal, is now known as an oxide. According to the obsolete phlogiston theory, the calx was the true elemental substance, having lost its phlogiston in the process of combustion. "Calx" is also sometimes used in older texts on artist's techniques to mean calcium oxide. Etymology Calx is Latin for chalk or limestone, from the Greek χάλιξ (''khaliks'', “pebble”). It is not to be confused with the Latin homonym meaning heelbone (or calcaneus in modern medical Latin), which has an entirely separate derivation. In popular culture * UK electronic music artist Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ... named four of his tracks after differently coloured calxes (gre ...
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Mercury(I) Chloride
Mercury(I) chloride is the chemical compound with the formula Hg2Cl2. Also known as the mineral calomel (a rare mineral) or mercurous chloride, this dense white or yellowish-white, odorless solid is the principal example of a mercury(I) compound. It is a component of reference electrodes in electrochemistry. History The name calomel is thought to come from the Greek ''καλός'' "beautiful", and ''μέλας'' "black"; or ''καλός'' and ''μέλι'' "honey" from its sweet taste. The "black" name (somewhat surprising for a white compound) is probably due to its characteristic disproportionation reaction with ammonia, which gives a spectacular black coloration due to the finely dispersed metallic mercury formed. It is also referred to as the mineral ''horn quicksilver'' or ''horn mercury''. Calomel was taken internally and used as a laxative, for example to treat George III in 1801, and disinfectant, as well as in the treatment of syphilis, until the early 20th century. Unti ...
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Horn Mercury
Mercury(I) chloride is the chemical compound with the formula Hg2Cl2. Also known as the mineral calomel (a rare mineral) or mercurous chloride, this dense white or yellowish-white, odorless solid is the principal example of a mercury(I) compound. It is a component of reference electrodes in electrochemistry. History The name calomel is thought to come from the Greek ''καλός'' "beautiful", and ''μέλας'' "black"; or ''καλός'' and ''μέλι'' "honey" from its sweet taste. The "black" name (somewhat surprising for a white compound) is probably due to its characteristic disproportionation reaction with ammonia, which gives a spectacular black coloration due to the finely dispersed metallic mercury formed. It is also referred to as the mineral ''horn quicksilver'' or ''horn mercury''. Calomel was taken internally and used as a laxative, for example to treat George III in 1801, and disinfectant, as well as in the treatment of syphilis, until the early 20th century. Unti ...
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Horn Quicksilver
Mercury(I) chloride is the chemical compound with the formula Hg2Cl2. Also known as the mineral calomel (a rare mineral) or mercurous chloride, this dense white or yellowish-white, odorless solid is the principal example of a mercury(I) compound. It is a component of reference electrodes in electrochemistry. History The name calomel is thought to come from the Greek ''καλός'' "beautiful", and ''μέλας'' "black"; or ''καλός'' and ''μέλι'' "honey" from its sweet taste. The "black" name (somewhat surprising for a white compound) is probably due to its characteristic disproportionation reaction with ammonia, which gives a spectacular black coloration due to the finely dispersed metallic mercury formed. It is also referred to as the mineral ''horn quicksilver'' or ''horn mercury''. Calomel was taken internally and used as a laxative, for example to treat George III in 1801, and disinfectant, as well as in the treatment of syphilis, until the early 20th century. Unti ...
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Calomel
Calomel is a mercury chloride mineral with formula Hg2Cl2 (see mercury(I) chloride). The name derives from Greek ''kalos'' (beautiful) and ''melas'' (black) because it turns black on reaction with ammonia. This was known to alchemists. Calomel occurs as a secondary mineral which forms as an alteration product in mercury deposits. It occurs with native mercury, amalgam, cinnabar, mercurian tetrahedrite, eglestonite, terlinguaite, montroydite, kleinite, moschelite, kadyrelite, kuzminite, chursinite, kelyanite, calcite, limonite and various clay minerals. The type locality is Moschellandsburg, Alsenz-Obermoschel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. History The substance later known as calomel was first documented in ancient Persia by medical historian Rhazes in year 850. Only a few of the compounds he mentioned could be positively identified as calomel, as not every alchemist disclosed what compounds they used in their drugs. Calomel first entered Western medical literature ...
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Calamine (mineral)
Calamine is a historic name for an ore of zinc. The name ''calamine'' was derived from ''lapis calaminaris'', a Latin corruption of Greek ''cadmia (καδμία)'', the old name for zinc ores in general. The name of the Belgian town of Kelmis, ''La Calamine'' in French, which was home to a zinc mine, comes from this. In the 18th and 19th centuries large ore mines could be found near the German village of Breinigerberg. During the early 19th century it was discovered that what had been thought to be one ore was actually two distinct minerals: * Zinc carbonate Zn C O3 or smithsonite and * Zinc silicate Zn4 Si2O7(O H)2·H2O or hemimorphite. Although chemically and crystallographically quite distinct, the two minerals exhibit similar massive or botryoidal external form and are not readily distinguished without detailed chemical or physical analysis. The first person to separate the minerals was the British chemist and mineralogist James Smithson in 1803. In the mining industry ...
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Zinc Carbonate
Zinc carbonate is the inorganic compound with the formula ZnCO3. It is a white solid that is insoluble in water. It exists in nature as the mineral smithsonite. It is prepared by treating cold solutions of zinc sulfate with potassium bicarbonate. Upon warming, it converts to basic zinc carbonate (Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6). Zinc carbonate adopts the same structure as calcium carbonate. Zinc is octahedral and each carbonate is bonded to six Zn centers such that oxygen atoms are three-coordinate. References Cited sources * zinc carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate g ...
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Tutty
In alchemy, cadmia (Latin for cadmium) is an oxide of zinc (tutty; from ar, توتيا ''tutiya'', via Persian, from Sanskrit तुत्थ ''tuttha'') which collects on the sides of furnaces where copper or brass was smelted, and zinc sublimed. The term is also applied to an ore of cobalt. For the cadmium produced in furnaces, there were five identified kinds: the first called ''botrytis'', as being in the form of a bunch of grapes; the second, ''ostracitis'', as resembling a sea shell; the third, ''placitis'', for resembling a crust; the fourth, ''capnitis''; and the fifth, ''calamitis'', which hung around certain iron rods that were used to stir material in the furnace; being shaken off, the cadmium resembled the figure of a quill, called in the Latin, ''calamus''. The ''cadmia botrytis'' was found in the middle of the furnace; the ostrytis at the bottom; the placitis at the top; and the capnitis at the mouth of the furnace. In pre-modern medicine, cadmium was used as a desi ...
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Cadmia
In alchemy, cadmia (Latin for cadmium) is an oxide of zinc (tutty; from ar, توتيا ''tutiya'', via Persian, from Sanskrit तुत्थ ''tuttha'') which collects on the sides of furnaces where copper or brass was smelted, and zinc sublimed. The term is also applied to an ore of cobalt. For the cadmium produced in furnaces, there were five identified kinds: the first called ''botrytis'', as being in the form of a bunch of grapes; the second, ''ostracitis'', as resembling a sea shell; the third, ''placitis'', for resembling a crust; the fourth, ''capnitis''; and the fifth, ''calamitis'', which hung around certain iron rods that were used to stir material in the furnace; being shaken off, the cadmium resembled the figure of a quill, called in the Latin, ''calamus''. The ''cadmia botrytis'' was found in the middle of the furnace; the ostrytis at the bottom; the placitis at the top; and the capnitis at the mouth of the furnace. In pre-modern medicine, cadmium was used as a desi ...
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