Pharaohs

As a beverage ethanol had been prepared and used long ago by the Egyptian pharaohs (2,3). Some iadication of the antiquity of the knowledge of ethyl alcohol is the fact that Noah is beheved to have built a vineyard ia which he grew grapes that he fermented iato a type of alcohoHc beverage (4). 

Cold-hammering was used in the late Stone Age to produce plates of gold for ornamental purposes, and this metal has always been synonymous with beauty, wealth and power. Considerable quantities were accumulated by ancient peoples. The coffin of Tutankhamun (a minor Pharaoh who was only 18 when he died) contained no less than 112 kg of gold, and the legendary Aztec and Inca hoards in Mexico and Peru were a major reason for the Spanish conquests of Central and South America in the early sixteenth century. Today, the greatest hoard of gold is the 30000 tonnes of bullion (i.e. bars) lying in the vaults of the US Federal Reserve Bank... 

Pellets of the dry powder, when ignited in air, form snakelike tubes of spongy ash of unknown composition — the so-called Pharaoh s serpents . 

Pharaoschlange, /. Pharaoh s serpent. Pharmako-log, m. pharmacologist, -logie, /. pharmacology,... 

Mercury (Mercuric) Sulfocyanate (Mercuric thiocyanate, Mercuric rhodamide). Hg(SCN)2, mw 316.77, white powd mp (decompn), poisonous si sol in w (0.07g/100g at 25°), sol in ale and in NH3 NH4 salts. Can be prepd by pptn of Hg nitrate with Amm sulfocyanate and subsequent soln in a large quant of hot w, followed by crystn. Used in prepn of Pharaoh s Serpent and other fireworks (Ref 4)... 

An alternative strategy for (1) would have been to reconnect both substituents into a ring to ensure their ais arrangement. This strategy was used in syntheses of the antibiotic methylenomycin (4) and the trail pheromone of pharaoh s ant, faranal (5). 

Fig. 1. Hieroglyph from the tomb of pharaoh Menes showing the sting ofa kheb wasp or hornet (Arenberg etal. [1]). 

The coffin of Tutankhamun contained over 100 kg of gold. Tutankhamun was only a minor pharaoh, who died at age 18. 

Freke, Timothy and Peter Gandy. The Hermetica the lost wisdom of the Pharaohs. London Judy Piatkus Publishers, 1997 reprint, New York J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1999. 160p. ISBN 0-87477-950-2... 

Hermes Trismegistus.The Hermetica the lost wisdom of the pharaohs / Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. Edited by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy. London Piatkus, 1998. 158, [2] p. 

It is a moderately endothermic and thermally unstable compound of high MW (AHy (s) +200.8 kJ/mol, 0.63 kJ/g). A large batch of the damp salt became overheated in a faulty steam drying oven, and decomposed vigorously, producing an enormous Pharaoh s serpent . 

Mori reported an improved synthesis of (3S,4P,6 ,10Z)-faranal (37), the trail pheromone of the Pharaoh s ant (Monomorium pharaonis) [84]. As summarized in Scheme 55, the key-reaction was the coupling of iododiene A with iodide E. The geometrically pure A was prepared by the zirconocene-mediated carbo-alumination reaction, and E was prepared from B by the asymmetric cleavage of its epoxy ring to give C (77% ee), which could be purified via its crystalline 3,5-dinitrobenzoate D. 

The queen is usually reproductively dominant within the colony and uses chemical cues as both primer and releaser pheromones to suppress the production or fecundity of other sexuals, inhibit reproduction by worker castes, modulate reproductive behaviors (e.g., inhibit swarming and orient swarms), attract males, regulate worker tasks and worker ontogeny, and produce host repellents in slave-making species. Considering the importance of queen semiochemicals in social hymenoptera, few queen pheromones have been chemically identified. The queens of most social hymenopteran colonies are attractive to workers, allowing them to be properly tended as well as to facilitate the dissemination of other pheromone cues. However, the retinue pheromone has been chemically identified in very few species. In the 1980s, queen pheromone components were identified in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta [91,92], and in the Pharaoh s ant, Monomoriumpharaonis [93]. 

Also, they did not share the same basic design function. The Egyptian pyramids were private tombs meant to separate the pharaoh s remains from the mainstream of society and protect him for eternity, while the pyramids of Mesoamerica were primarily public temples of ritual and celebration. 

It has been doubted, indeed, whether Pharaoh-nechoh could have received instruction from the Almighty, but this was not, in fact, an unprecedented circumstance, or inconsistent with the Divine economy, for God frequently seems to have communicated his will to persons and nations whose interests were implicated with those of his peculiar people. Not to mention earlier cases, in the history of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses the king of Assyria, in the time of Hezekiah, from. his success against Israel and the Jews, seems to have conceived that he had derived assistance from God, for he said,... 

Pharaoh-nechoh, on his return after his victory, appears to have been desirous of revenging the opposition that he had received from Josiah and for that purpose made use of the dissensions which pro-... 

That these monuments of antiquity were commemorative of parts of the history of Pharaoh-nechoh, the son of Psammetichus, there cannot be a shadow of doubt. That many of the representations also have a direct reference to the particular expedition which Pharaoh-nechoh made against the Assyrians or Babylonians, is equally certain. In the prosecution of this enterprise he was led up to Judea, and was encountered by Josiah—prosecuted his war against the Assyrians, and recovered Car-chemish. On his return, he deposed Je-hoahaz, or Shallum, the son of Josiah, and carried him bound as a captive into Egypt. 

Mr. Belzoni availed himself of Dr. Young s mode of discovering the hieroglyphics, and has clearly detailed and made out the names of Pharaoh-nechoh and Psammathis in the paintings. 

Drying, usually by physical methods, is one of the most common unit operations in both laboratory or industrial scale process chemistry, and since heating is usually employed to remove volatiles, thermally unstable materials may decompose if overheated. As a light-hearted example, when a faulty oven thermostat led to overheating of mercuric thiocyanate, a monstrous Pharaoh s serpent resulted. Drying moist cadmium propionate in an electric oven led to explosive ignition of the diethyl ketone vapour produced as an unforeseen by-product. Drying 3,5-dinitro-2-toluamide had more serious consequences. 

Chamomile, Matricaria recutita L., is generally known as a weed - a weed with cnrative power. A medicinal plant, with a history going back to the time of Egyptian pharaohs, is nsed in phytotherapy today and nneqnivocally will be used tomorrow. 

---