More than magic (Image: De Agostini/G. Dagli Orti/Getty)
Recreating the convoluted preparations of alchemists reveals a world of painstaking chemical experimentation beyond funny robes and pointed hats
鈥淭hen take all the rest of the aforesaid black Feces or black Dragon, and spread them somewhat thin upon a clean Marble, or other fit Stone, and put into the one side thereof a burning Coal, and the Fire will glide through the Feces within half an Hour, and Calcyne them into a Citrine Colour, very glorious to behold.鈥�
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It doesn鈥檛 exactly sound like science, and this extract from , a mid-15th-century text, illustrates alchemy鈥檚 image problem, says , a historian of science at Princeton University. Today we think of the quest to turn base metals into gold as not just misguided but positively mystical. 鈥淲e tend to associate it with robes and funny hats,鈥� she says.
That is a travesty, she thinks. Alchemy goes beyond what we think of as modern chemistry by incorporating elements from natural philosophy, theology and metaphysics, but that doesn鈥檛 mean we should write it off. 鈥淚n every field there are cranks. But a lot of alchemists were very serious and rational about what they did,鈥� says Rampling. 鈥淓ssentially, I am interested in what these scientists thought they were doing.鈥�
Glorious transmutation
Follow some alchemists鈥� instructions carefully, and a lot of what you read begins to make perfect sense 鈥� even if our modern interpretations might be different. Take the 鈥渂lack Feces鈥�. Working at the University of Cambridge in 2012, Rampling followed Ripley鈥檚 convoluted recipe, and saw exactly the glorious transmutation described. 鈥淵ou do get this unpromising black powder igniting and see this beautiful golden colour spreading over the surface,鈥� she says. It鈥檚 just not the gold of alchemists鈥� desire: it is finely ground lead oxidising into yellow lead(II) oxide, or litharge.
Lawrence Principe of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, has made similar discoveries, for example, recreating a 鈥渢ree of gold鈥� described in an alchemical text using a mix of gold and mercury. In his book The Secrets of Alchemy, he argues that modern chemistry owes much to alchemists. Their achievements become all the more remarkable, says Rampling, once you take into account the impurity of some of their starting materials and the lack of basic equipment such as thermometers to monitor reaction temperatures.
Rampling is now getting Princeton science undergraduates to perform alchemical tricks for themselves, in the hope of opening their eyes to different ways of thinking. 鈥淢y hope is that they will be better scientists because they have thought clearly about past science,鈥� she says.
Read more: 鈥�Reliving five eureka moments lost in history鈥�
The Bosome Book of George Ripley
Containing His Philosophical Accurtations in Making the Philosopher鈥檚 Mercury and Elixirs.
鈥淔irst take thirty pounds weight of sericon, or antimony, which will make twenty-one pounds weight of gum, or near thereabouts, if it be well dissolved and the vinegar is very good; and dissolve each pound thereof in a gallon of twice distilled vinegar. When cold again, and, as it standeth in dissolution in a fit glass vessel, stir it about with a clean stick very often every day, the oftener the better; and when it is well molten to the bottom, then filter over the said liquors three several times, which keep close covered, and cast away the f忙ces, for that is superfluous filth which must be removed and entereth not into the work, but is called Terra damnata鈥︹��
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢ore than magic鈥�
