John Tucker Alchemy GCSE key words Alchemy is the study of eternal life, salvation, Gold Distillation and the answers to the ultimate questions Gold was a key material in alchemy. Its colour Scientific method about life, the universe and everything. It suggested the Sun, and its complete resistance to Acids corrosion marked it out as something special. Gold Corrosion flourished for more than 1500 years until, in was the only metal that could not be dissolved away the late 1600s, the beginnings of modern, by ordinary acids. It even resisted concentrated nitric scientific chemistry edged it aside. But what acid. Thus, acids could be used to distinguish between real gold and a mere yellow alloy such as brass. was alchemy and who were the alchemists? Gold also had symbolic significance as the metal of kings, princes and emperors because it represented We still use the ne of the aims of the alchemists was to their nobility — their supposed immunity from the expression ‘the acid discover and use the magical Philosopher’s baser concerns of the common people. Alchemists OStone, which was supposed to change thought that turning the base metal lead into the test’ to mean an especially critical test of worthless metals into gold. The alchemists thought noble metal gold was simply a matter of dissolving genuineness. that this was possible because they believed that every away the unwanted qualities and nourishing the ‘seed’ substance was a combination of the four elements: of gold. Like all metals, gold was thought to be earth, air, fire and water. somehow born from Mother Earth. This process was believed to be like the normal plant cycle of life and ‘The Alchymist, In Search of the death followed by regeneration. Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, The ideas behind alchemy and prays for the successful Conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the The complex ideas underlying alchemy were a mixture Ancient Chymical Astrologers’.This famous of detailed practical knowledge and ancient religious painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, from and mystical beliefs, as well as the thoughts of Greek 1771, almost certainly portrays Henning philosophers. Brandt, a German alchemist of the The planets played an important part in this, and mid-seventeenth century many substances, especially metals, had astrological links (see Table 1). Unsurprisingly, the Sun repre- sented gold, and the Moon silver. According to alchemical theory these two metals also represented complementary opposite ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ characteristics, like the ‘Yang’ and ‘Yin’ of Taoism, which are linked to day and night, Sun and Moon and so on. Box 1 Henning Brandt Henning Brandt was a German alchemist of the mid-seventeenth century. Brandt discovered phosphorus accidentally, about 100 years before y r a Joseph Wright’s famous picture of him was r b i L painted. It seems that he had an idea that gold and t r A n the yellow colour of urine were connected in some a m e mysterious way. g d i r While heating the solid residues he had got from B / K U evaporating several buckets of stale urine with , y r e l powdered charcoal he found that phosphorus, l a G glowing and burning, distilled from the flask. He t r A d believed that he was on the threshold of discovering n a the Philosopher’s Stone. He wasn’t, of course, and m u e s eventually he sold the recipe, which he had kept u M y secret for some years, to cover his debts. b r e D 8 Catalyst Left: Two early sixteenth-century alchemists standing behind alchemical apparatus designed to distil liquids Mercury, a liquid metal, was named ‘hydrargyrum’, ‘water- silver’; hence the symbol Hg. Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, wrote his play The Alchemist in 1610. Its plot involved fake alchemists. o t o F p o T Practical chemists essences they produced might be oils, perfumes, or Robert Boyle and Isaac Alchemists were the chemists of their time. They used liquids with medicinal properties known as elixirs. Newton were the same methods of extraction and purification as One such liquid was alcohol, which was thought to be alchemists as well as you will have encountered in the laboratory: filtration, in some way a spirit. Hence the modern use of the scientists. distillation and crystallisation, for example. Like you, word ‘spirits’ to indicate a drink with a high alcohol they heated and mixed substances to see what would content, like whisky or brandy. happen. They used acids and alkalis, dissolved things Alchemists invented furnaces for heating mixtures in water, and ground solids up into powders to make strongly and melting metals, and the water bath, or them react more efficiently. Their pieces of apparatus bain-marie (named after a famous female alchemist, may look rather odd, but the alembic (see Figure 1), Mary the Jewess), for gentle heating over a long for example, was basically for distillation. period. They invented pieces of apparatus which were Alchemists did thousands of experiments and then the forerunners of modern laboratory glassware, and recorded their observations. However, the language they discovered many useful chemicals, like the three they used was often deliberately obscure so it is mineral acids. difficult for us to understand. Their desire to get at the essence of things led Vapour condenses Key substances alchemists to distil plant and animal products. The on cool surface discovered or refined by Distillate runs the alchemists include out here glass, the three mineral Table 1 Astrological symbols for metals Liquid runs down acids (hydrochloric, into this channel Substance Planet Symbol nitric and sulphuric), Mixture ‘sal ammoniac’ Gold Sun heated (ammonium chloride), here Copper Venus alcohol, alum, phosphorus and alkalis. Mercury Mercury Iron Mars Heat Figure 1 An alembic September 2006 9 Box 2 The lure of gold Being an alchemist was expensive: there were all those unusual pieces of glassware to be paid for as well as rare, highly priced chemicals from the Orient. To be one, you needed either a wealthy patron or a private income. The famous painting by William Fettes Douglas shows an old man explaining the significance of a flask of gold- coloured liquid to a rich nobleman or merchant. The lure of unlimited quantities of gold allowed conmen to swindle greedy people by a variety of simple tricks. One scam was to coat a small piece of gold in black wax so that it resembled an ordinary metal. During a long ritual, this black lump was put into a crucible in the furnace, along with the last few drops of the all-important elixir. The wax would melt, of course, and burn away, leaving the ‘miraculous’ piece of gold. Such charlatans gave alchemy a bad name; although it did not help matters that genuine alchemists sometimes resorted to similar frauds. y r a r b i L Box 3 Alchemy websites t r A n Look up the following websites to find out more a m e about alchemy: g d i r B http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy / K U www.levity.com/alchemy/index.html , n o d www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/newton/legacy.html n o L , m u e Alchemical secrets s u M Alchemists thought there was a bright and wonderful t r e b l secret at the heart of alchemy. This secret was not to A & be revealed to ordinary people who might not have a i r o t the strength of character or nobility to stop them c i V from abusing that knowledge. Above: ‘The Alchemy was not a science It is worth noting that in the twentieth century Alchemist’ by William many of the scientists who worked on the Los Alamos Fettes Douglas Alchemy was not a science with a rational set of theories tested against the experimental evidence. project were worried about the potential evil uses Alchemists certainly had theories, but they tended to of atomic energy. Today, we are concerned about try to make the experimental facts fit them rather the potential misuses of genetic engineering. The During the Second than the other way round. They made little progress difference is that these are, more or less, openly World War, the top because they stuck to a pre-existing set of theoretical debated and that publication and peer review allow secret Los Alamos ideas and were reluctant to communicate their scientists to share knowledge and keep each other up project built the USA’s findings publicly. These two failings, as we would see to the mark. Thousands of alchemical experiments first atomic bombs. them, were to them the whole point of alchemy. were needlessly repeated time and again. Alchemical authorities Alchemy and chemistry In Britain, it was not Alchemy looked backward to the ideas of ‘author- Was alchemy the beginning of chemistry? Opinions unusual for a clergyman ities’: learned men and women who, it was thought, vary, but although alchemy contributed nothing to to be a secret alchemist. had possessed a knowledge lost long ago. This could the all-important theoretical basis of modern science, Very likely he would only be recovered by devotion to their ideas and it did produce or isolate a number of key substances have inherited wealth and could subcontract attempts to rediscover their ‘secret’. Present-day for the first time. Alchemists also developed practical curates to do his parish expressions like, ‘The secret of successful revision is…’ techniques which are still being used in the twenty- duties, leaving him with hark back to this attitude of mind. By ‘secret’ or ‘art’ first century.