Processes, alchemical

Hints on the herbal process. Alchem Lab Bulls, no. 19 (Q2 1964). rhttp //www.spagyria.com/alb.zip1. 

Nitric acid is one of the three major acids of the modem chemical industiy and has been known as a corrosive solvent for metals since alchemical times in the thirteenth centuiy. " " It is now invariably made by the catalytic oxidation of ammonia under conditions which promote the formation of NO rather than the thermodynamically more favoured products N2 or N2O (p. 423). The NO is then further oxidized to NO2 and the gases absorbed in water to yield a concentrated aqueous solution of the acid. The vast scale of production requires the optimization of all the reaction conditions and present-day operations are based on the intricate interaction of fundamental thermodynamics, modem catalyst technology, advanced reactor design, and chemical engineering aspects of process control (see Panel). Production in the USA alone now exceeds 7 million tonnes annually, of which the greater part is used to produce nitrates for fertilizers, explosives and other purposes (see Panel). 

There are 28 folios (56 recto and verso) 33 of the folios are illustrated. There are 11 naturalistic drawings of alchemical equipment (folios 18v—23v). 5 portraits of famous alchemists. 14 other folios are illustrated with large diagrams of alchemical symbols or abstractions of the chemical process. 

Coming." At this time eschatological discourse was co-opted into the service of the esoteric sciences, most especially into alchemical theory in the twelfth century Latin translation of the Turba philosophorum (Arabic original ca. 900 AD). Christian interpolations were added to this text referring to the death and resurrection of the chemicals in apocalyptic terms." The process of distillation in Christian alchemy symbolised death and resurrection, as well as the union of Macrocosm and Microcosm. To the alchemists the death and resurrection of the stone in the manner of a human being was the clearest indication that alchemy was a divine, not a human science. 

MS Florence BibUoteca Nazionale-Centrale II, iii, 27, foHo 25r Circulus diges-tionis. The process of alchemical digestion has been examined in Urszula Szulakowska, The Tree of Aristotle, Ambix, 33 (1986), 53-77 see fig. 8. 

The process here symbolised is probably. . . the chemical reaction between metals and a chemical reagent and the subsequent restoration to a metallic condition... As the artist can see in the landscape graciousness, solemnity, terror, so Zosimos sees the rigour of death and pains of purgation in the turbid seething of the alchemical vessel. ... 

Alchemical processes of distillation and digestion, Johann Daniel Mylius, Philosophia Reformata (Frankfurt Lucas Jennis, 1622). With the permission of the British Library, London. 

Waite, Arthur Edward], A compendium of alchemical processes extracted from the writings of Glauber, Basil Valentine, and other adepts. rhttp //dhost.info/rubaphilos/books/ alch%20compendium.pdfl. 

The Crowning of Nature manuscript depicts the alchemical process in a series of 67 images. Adam Mclean has turned these into an animated sequence, which will run only under the Windows 95, 98 and NT operating systems. This version shows just 6 of the images... 

This is an interesting alchemical text, by Melchior Cibinensis, in which an alchemical process is pictured in the form of the Mass. From Theatrum Chemicum Vol III. 1602"... 

Kelley, Edward], "The stone of the philosophers embracing the First Matter and the dual process for the vegetable and metallic tinctures." In Collectanea chemica, ed. Arthur Edward] [Waite, 55J-120. Edmonds (WA) Alchemical P, 1991. 

Newton, Isaac. "Of natures obvious laws and processes in vegetation." In Alchemical death and resurrection the significance of alchemy in the age of Newton, ed. Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs. Washington Smithsonian Institution Libraries, 1990. 

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