Volpierre process notes by Fischer-Lichtenthal and NDC
ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE ALCHEMISTICAL OPUS
Its contents and procedure, describing how to obtain the quinta essentia by the great wet way
By Heinz Fischer-Lichtenthal
In the first part of the Great Work (Opus Magnum) consisting of three parts, any metal carefully dissolved in acid in an artful manner will yield a red juice (menstruum, Blood of the Red Lion.) In such manner a substance will be returned to a certain degree to its, primordial condition (chaos), becoming a useful medium capable of extracting the essential vitality found in all creation and then being able to retain it, i.e., such agens that is superior to inherent atomic power as we understand it presently.
In the second part a 'menstruum universal' (radical solvent, Virgin's Milk, Flying Dragon) can be obtained from the red juice and its residue through gradual and repeated distillation wherein all natural essentials can be dissolved while their inherent characteristics are still retained.
It contains the Flying Mercury in the form of tiny silver colored scales, like salt, which evaporate quickly when separated from the liquid. Furthermore, from part of the distillation of the yellow vinegar a residue is obtained. This residue consists of two powders (volatile salts) which form on the bottom of the glass container, in the shape of eliptical particles laying next to each other in a north-south direction. One of them is white (hermetical Salt) and the other of a yellowish color (hermetical Sulphur.)
The final result is obtained only in the third part when all three mentioned salts are fixed. This is the 'cementation'. By joining (cohobation) of such quinta essentia which does not dissolve them, the final tincture will give to it the desired character and becomes the Great Tincture. The latter is identical with the Philosopher's Stone.
Begin by mixing one part powdered antimony trisulphide and six parts iron filings in a five litre (5,000 ml), wide necked, glass bottle with ground joint and stopper. Evenly cover the bottom by not more than 3/4 cm.
Next, three pourings on the antimony and iron filings must take place consisting of 3 ml of hydrochloric acid and 2 ml of sulphuric acid every 24 hours.
Immediately a strong reaction caused by fuming gases makes it imperative that the container be closed very tightly. No antimony particles must be found between the ground stopper and the flask opening. It is best to moisten the stopper with sulphuric acid. Fasten the stopper with some string using two cork stoppers, one on each side, to tighten the string.
Each time some acid has been poured over the mixture place the glass container in a sandbath at a temperature of 370 - 380C. Let the bottle slowly cool before adding more acid. After the bottle has cooled carefully pour in both acids very gradually and stopper at once. The glass stopper may be removed by inserting strong string tightly between the stopper and the neck of the bottle, then with a uniform jerk on both sides of the stopper, lift it out. Fast work is essential; none of the fumes must escape. Close the bottle very tightly each time after more acid is added.
Beginning with the fourth pouring there is a change of proportion when adding more acid. It is now 6ml. hydrochloric acid and 41/2 ml. sulphuric acid which is to be repeated every fourth day. This schedule must be adhered to no matter what the contents of the container shows. The temperature must be kept'the same as before, except for the short period when more acid is added. Should little lumps show or the substance have a tendency to stick too tightly into a solid mass, use a glass stirring rod and carefully break it up. Be careful not to break the bottom of the retort. Should the glass show a crack a new vessel must be used and the work started anew.
The change of color is as follows:
Dark gray, slight sparkle
pitch black to blue-black
dark gray
light gray
dark brown
light brown
very light gray, almost white
a bluish white
gray, like ice
pure white
glowing green
olive-green
yellowish green
Then a dark floating ring, 2cm. thick, ascending, getting heavier and darker, (blue-black) enters the mass, which has risen from the bottom to a height of 15 or 16 cm. The color changes from dark blue to light blue, deep, dark blue, now giving off a radiance. Blood red lines begin to rise from the bottom on the side of the vessel. When after circulating for three or four months the rising red juice has reached the top of the mass, the process has reached its sign of development and is concluded.
This juice or tincture can be carefully poured off in any desired quantity. From now on the acids may be added in the same order as before, but in ten to thirty fold quantities or even more, depending on the available space in the container. The mass will dissolve at once.
This solution is kept in special glass bottles for later use. When not enough containers are available only as much as is needed should be dissolved for the work at hand. It is surprising how much acid is necessary to completely dissolve the contents in the glass container.
When shaking the glass container the juice has to show a green lustre. An additional brown coloration shows that the liquid up to this stage has become useless.
The red juice is a natural separation from the Original Chaos. It contains the main element, the 'carrier of light' (Phosphorus-the inner light-fire that burns, but does not consume itself) which manifests in all four elements. Chaos or prima materia is the beginning of matter as we know it. Strength is increased when the corpora is reduced. By too high a heat the fine penetrating fumes (Spirit) would evaporate.
The preliminaries are the beginning of the work and these should be commenced if possible during a fortunate trine such as Mercury trine Jupiter, or trine Venus, or trine the Sun, or a trine with a well aspected Mars.
As much as eighty litres, approximately twenty gallons of the menstruum, has been obtained out of a five litre bottle, approximately one gallon and a quarter.
---
A 250ml. retort is filled three quarters full of Dragon's Blood. Begin the distillation with a small flame and have in readiness three Erlenmeyer 50ml. flasks. Each liquid will be collected separately. Using a low flame, first, the yellow vinegar (Hydrochloric acid) comes over, thereafter the phlegm which is entirely worthless and can be thrown away.
When nothing more comes over by the small flame, fine threads, rising from the bottom to the top, shows on the side of the retort and announces that the sulphuric acid is about to distill over. The receptacle is changed again and the heat is raised. Toward the end the bellows or more oxygen will have to be used to distill the rest of the sulphuric acid. The retort can be glowing red during the last proecdure. Then let the retort cool and break it.
Remove the remains from the broken retort, grind in a mortar and submit for three weeks in a dish to the moist air, preferably in a cellar away from any light. It is hygroscopic and becomes slimy and finally thick like honey. Place this in a 100ml. retort using a small funnel and glass rod. The neck of the retort must be washed down with the 'Air-water' to be certain that the neck is absolutely clean.
[NDC: At this point the retort can be broken and the contents ground to a powder, but this is not necessary. If the retort is simply left open and placed outside during the time of moring dew every day for a few weeks, it will absorb the water and become fluid.]
Distillation is started with a low flame. Steam will form,, condensing in the neck, and will flow out. When the water has distilled out the steam gets more dense, like fumes, and the distillation must be stopped. Let the retort cool, then break it. Remove the contents and grind in a mortar. Place the contents from the mortar in an evaporating dish, and pour the yellow vinegar over it. There is no danger in this. Then carefully pour the sulphuric acid slowly through a funnel. Take care as it may splash.
The two acids combined turn to red and make a loud noise while doing so. Once again we have the product with which we began. The first part of our work is completed when the red liquid is poured through a funnel into a 250ml. retort and provision made for a repetition of the same process.
---
The described procedure must be repeated four to six times until the Flying Dragon appears. This can occur during the fifth, sixth, or seventh distillation. One must be especially careful, because our Phoenix can rise suddenly, boiling to the top and flowing out. Quick and efficient changing of the receiving flask is important for this separation.
After Luna has left us, distillation is continued under the same temperature until next the phlegm-like water distills completely over. Continuing the distillation by a lower heat than formerly used, the sulphuric acid comes over.
[NDC: It will appear suddenly as a white cloud of smoke and the receiver flask must be changed quickly to catch the cloud when it condenses into a white solvent. This event takes place right after the hydrochloric acid is distilled. Then after the Philosophical Mercury has distilled, the receiver must be changed again because the useless phelgm water will begin to distill. The sulfuric acid then comes over but now such a strong heat is not required to distill it.]
In the remaining water in the retort a peculiar residue forms on the bottom. Next to each other, but separated from each other, a yellow and white salt will appear in an eliptical north-south formation. Both are volatile and can only be kept in their own water. The same applies to the silver-like scales noticed in the residue.
In case too much moisture has been distilled off the salts and the liquid is not sufficient to cover the bottom of the vessel, some of the distillate must be returned. Without this liquid the volatile Salt and Sulphur would evaporate within twenty-four hours, but in the absence of light it would take longer.
It is recommended during the distillation either to extend the neck of the retort with a glass tube for better cooling, or to use a water cooled condenser. To use the remaining recovered Sulphur again is not recommended!
[NDC: The Philosophical Mercury along with it's silver particles are poured into a flask with the Salt and Sulfur and the flask is stoppered tightly. It's digested on low heat until the 3 substances become one solid red stone which has a distinct sparkle or twinkle unlike anything else, which signifies this being the true Philosopher's Stone.
The strength and power of the Stone can be multiplied until the Stone can no longer be kept in a glass and will penetarte it, turning it into a material as hard as steel but as clear as glass. Using a quartz container or hard glass (Pyrex, Bomex, or Kimax borsilicate glass) higher potencies can be obtained. To multiply the stone, place it in a flask then add just enough Philosophical Mercury to dissolve it entirely, the seal the flask and digest it on gently heat until it again becomes a solid mass.]
---
Formerly the work was conducted solely with natural ingredients. Acids used by the old Masters with their specific characteristics are now hard to obtain or unknown today.
From a chemical point of view we consider hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid and nitric acid. The latter we can do without for some of the procedures. Hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acid useable for the work described was produced by the Chemical Industry in Europe as little as a few decades ago in a so-called Lead Chamber Process. Raw materials used were native sodium nitrate from the Alsace in France, native Vitriol (copper sulphate) from the mines in the Harz Mountains, or Hungary, etc., and red arsenic-sulphur
from Sicily. Common yellow sulphur was found to be useless for producing acid to be used alchemistically.
[NDC: The acids used in this process must be of natural origin and made using the lead chamber process. The sulphuric acid can be made from native copper sulphate (VITRIOL), common yellow sulfur will not work, and the hydrochloric from natural salts sources. If preparing the tincture from gold instead of antimony, nitric acid will be required along with hydrochloric acid and the sulfuric acid is still used. Natural sodium nitrate is used to make the nitric acid.]
On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs
http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
Ever had the feeling that your job might be made up? That the world would keep on turning if you weren’t doing that thing you do 9-5? David Graeber explored the phenomenon of bullshit jobs for our recent summer issue – everyone who’s employed should read carefully…
On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.
In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century’s end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Great Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour work week. There’s every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn’t happen. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. In order to achieve this, jobs have had to be created that are, effectively, pointless. Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed. The moral and spiritual damage that comes from this situation is profound. It is a scar across our collective soul. Yet virtually no one talks about it.
Ever had the feeling that your job might be made up? That the world would keep on turning if you weren’t doing that thing you do 9-5? David Graeber explored the phenomenon of bullshit jobs for our recent summer issue – everyone who’s employed should read carefully…
On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.
In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century’s end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Great Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour work week. There’s every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn’t happen. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. In order to achieve this, jobs have had to be created that are, effectively, pointless. Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed. The moral and spiritual damage that comes from this situation is profound. It is a scar across our collective soul. Yet virtually no one talks about it.
Why did Keynes’ promised utopia – still being eagerly awaited in the
‘60s – never materialise? The standard line today is that he didn’t
figure in the massive increase in consumerism. Given the choice between
less hours and more toys and pleasures, we’ve collectively chosen the
latter. This presents a nice morality tale, but even a moment’s
reflection shows it can’t really be true. Yes, we have witnessed the
creation of an endless variety of new jobs and industries since the
‘20s, but very few have anything to do with the production and
distribution of sushi, iPhones, or fancy sneakers.
So what are these new jobs, precisely? A recent report comparing employment in the US between 1910 and 2000 gives us a clear picture (and I note, one pretty much exactly echoed in the UK). Over the course of the last century, the number of workers employed as domestic servants, in industry, and in the farm sector has collapsed dramatically. At the same time, “professional, managerial, clerical, sales, and service workers” tripled, growing “from one-quarter to three-quarters of total employment.” In other words, productive jobs have, just as predicted, been largely automated away (even if you count industrial workers globally, including the toiling masses in India and China, such workers are still not nearly so large a percentage of the world population as they used to be).
But rather than allowing a massive reduction of working hours to free the world’s population to pursue their own projects, pleasures, visions, and ideas, we have seen the ballooning not even so much of the “service” sector as of the administrative sector, up to and including the creation of whole new industries like financial services or telemarketing, or the unprecedented expansion of sectors like corporate law, academic and health administration, human resources, and public relations. And these numbers do not even reflect on all those people whose job is to provide administrative, technical, or security support for these industries, or for that matter the whole host of ancillary industries (dog-washers, all-night pizza deliverymen) that only exist because everyone else is spending so much of their time working in all the other ones.
These are what I propose to call “bullshit jobs.”
It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen. Sure, in the old inefficient socialist states like the Soviet Union, where employment was considered both a right and a sacred duty, the system made up as many jobs as they had to (this is why in Soviet department stores it took three clerks to sell a piece of meat). But, of course, this is the sort of very problem market competition is supposed to fix. According to economic theory, at least, the last thing a profit-seeking firm is going to do is shell out money to workers they don’t really need to employ. Still, somehow, it happens.
While corporations may engage in ruthless downsizing, the layoffs and speed-ups invariably fall on that class of people who are actually making, moving, fixing and maintaining things; through some strange alchemy no one can quite explain, the number of salaried paper-pushers ultimately seems to expand, and more and more employees find themselves, not unlike Soviet workers actually, working 40 or even 50 hour weeks on paper, but effectively working 15 hours just as Keynes predicted, since the rest of their time is spent organizing or attending motivational seminars, updating their facebook profiles or downloading TV box-sets.
The answer clearly isn’t economic: it’s moral and political. The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger (think of what started to happen when this even began to be approximated in the ‘60s). And, on the other hand, the feeling that work is a moral value in itself, and that anyone not willing to submit themselves to some kind of intense work discipline for most of their waking hours deserves nothing, is extraordinarily convenient for them.
Once, when contemplating the apparently endless growth of administrative responsibilities in British academic departments, I came up with one possible vision of hell. Hell is a collection of individuals who are spending the bulk of their time working on a task they don’t like and are not especially good at. Say they were hired because they were excellent cabinet-makers, and then discover they are expected to spend a great deal of their time frying fish. Neither does the task really need to be done – at least, there’s only a very limited number of fish that need to be fried. Yet somehow, they all become so obsessed with resentment at the thought that some of their co-workers might be spending more time making cabinets, and not doing their fair share of the fish-frying responsibilities, that before long there’s endless piles of useless badly cooked fish piling up all over the workshop and it’s all that anyone really does.
I think this is actually a pretty accurate description of the moral dynamics of our own economy.
Now, I realise any such argument is going to run into immediate objections: “who are you to say what jobs are really ‘necessary’? What’s necessary anyway? You’re an anthropology professor, what’s the ‘need’ for that?” (And indeed a lot of tabloid readers would take the existence of my job as the very definition of wasteful social expenditure.) And on one level, this is obviously true. There can be no objective measure of social value.
I would not presume to tell someone who is convinced they are making a meaningful contribution to the world that, really, they are not. But what about those people who are themselves convinced their jobs are meaningless? Not long ago I got back in touch with a school friend who I hadn’t seen since I was 12. I was amazed to discover that in the interim, he had become first a poet, then the front man in an indie rock band. I’d heard some of his songs on the radio having no idea the singer was someone I actually knew. He was obviously brilliant, innovative, and his work had unquestionably brightened and improved the lives of people all over the world. Yet, after a couple of unsuccessful albums, he’d lost his contract, and plagued with debts and a newborn daughter, ended up, as he put it, “taking the default choice of so many directionless folk: law school.” Now he’s a corporate lawyer working in a prominent New York firm. He was the first to admit that his job was utterly meaningless, contributed nothing to the world, and, in his own estimation, should not really exist.
There’s a lot of questions one could ask here, starting with, what does it say about our society that it seems to generate an extremely limited demand for talented poet-musicians, but an apparently infinite demand for specialists in corporate law? (Answer: if 1% of the population controls most of the disposable wealth, what we call “the market” reflects what they think is useful or important, not anybody else.) But even more, it shows that most people in these jobs are ultimately aware of it. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever met a corporate lawyer who didn’t think their job was bullshit. The same goes for almost all the new industries outlined above. There is a whole class of salaried professionals that, should you meet them at parties and admit that you do something that might be considered interesting (an anthropologist, for example), will want to avoid even discussing their line of work entirely. Give them a few drinks, and they will launch into tirades about how pointless and stupid their job really is.
This is a profound psychological violence here. How can one even begin to speak of dignity in labour when one secretly feels one’s job should not exist? How can it not create a sense of deep rage and resentment. Yet it is the peculiar genius of our society that its rulers have figured out a way, as in the case of the fish-fryers, to ensure that rage is directed precisely against those who actually do get to do meaningful work. For instance: in our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective measure is hard to find, but one easy way to get a sense is to ask: what would happen were this entire class of people to simply disappear? Say what you like about nurses, garbage collectors, or mechanics, it’s obvious that were they to vanish in a puff of smoke, the results would be immediate and catastrophic. A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It’s not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish. (Many suspect it might markedly improve.) Yet apart from a handful of well-touted exceptions (doctors), the rule holds surprisingly well.
Even more perverse, there seems to be a broad sense that this is the way things should be. This is one of the secret strengths of right-wing populism. You can see it when tabloids whip up resentment against tube workers for paralysing London during contract disputes: the very fact that tube workers can paralyse London shows that their work is actually necessary, but this seems to be precisely what annoys people. It’s even clearer in the US, where Republicans have had remarkable success mobilizing resentment against school teachers, or auto workers (and not, significantly, against the school administrators or auto industry managers who actually cause the problems) for their supposedly bloated wages and benefits. It’s as if they are being told “but you get to teach children! Or make cars! You get to have real jobs! And on top of that you have the nerve to also expect middle-class pensions and health care?”
If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorised stratum of the, universally reviled, unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc) – and particularly its financial avatars – but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has clear and undeniable social value. Clearly, the system was never consciously designed. It emerged from almost a century of trial and error. But it is the only explanation for why, despite our technological capacities, we are not all working 3-4 hour days.
David Graeber is a Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. His most recent book, The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement, is published by Spiegel & Grau.
So what are these new jobs, precisely? A recent report comparing employment in the US between 1910 and 2000 gives us a clear picture (and I note, one pretty much exactly echoed in the UK). Over the course of the last century, the number of workers employed as domestic servants, in industry, and in the farm sector has collapsed dramatically. At the same time, “professional, managerial, clerical, sales, and service workers” tripled, growing “from one-quarter to three-quarters of total employment.” In other words, productive jobs have, just as predicted, been largely automated away (even if you count industrial workers globally, including the toiling masses in India and China, such workers are still not nearly so large a percentage of the world population as they used to be).
But rather than allowing a massive reduction of working hours to free the world’s population to pursue their own projects, pleasures, visions, and ideas, we have seen the ballooning not even so much of the “service” sector as of the administrative sector, up to and including the creation of whole new industries like financial services or telemarketing, or the unprecedented expansion of sectors like corporate law, academic and health administration, human resources, and public relations. And these numbers do not even reflect on all those people whose job is to provide administrative, technical, or security support for these industries, or for that matter the whole host of ancillary industries (dog-washers, all-night pizza deliverymen) that only exist because everyone else is spending so much of their time working in all the other ones.
These are what I propose to call “bullshit jobs.”
It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen. Sure, in the old inefficient socialist states like the Soviet Union, where employment was considered both a right and a sacred duty, the system made up as many jobs as they had to (this is why in Soviet department stores it took three clerks to sell a piece of meat). But, of course, this is the sort of very problem market competition is supposed to fix. According to economic theory, at least, the last thing a profit-seeking firm is going to do is shell out money to workers they don’t really need to employ. Still, somehow, it happens.
While corporations may engage in ruthless downsizing, the layoffs and speed-ups invariably fall on that class of people who are actually making, moving, fixing and maintaining things; through some strange alchemy no one can quite explain, the number of salaried paper-pushers ultimately seems to expand, and more and more employees find themselves, not unlike Soviet workers actually, working 40 or even 50 hour weeks on paper, but effectively working 15 hours just as Keynes predicted, since the rest of their time is spent organizing or attending motivational seminars, updating their facebook profiles or downloading TV box-sets.
The answer clearly isn’t economic: it’s moral and political. The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger (think of what started to happen when this even began to be approximated in the ‘60s). And, on the other hand, the feeling that work is a moral value in itself, and that anyone not willing to submit themselves to some kind of intense work discipline for most of their waking hours deserves nothing, is extraordinarily convenient for them.
Once, when contemplating the apparently endless growth of administrative responsibilities in British academic departments, I came up with one possible vision of hell. Hell is a collection of individuals who are spending the bulk of their time working on a task they don’t like and are not especially good at. Say they were hired because they were excellent cabinet-makers, and then discover they are expected to spend a great deal of their time frying fish. Neither does the task really need to be done – at least, there’s only a very limited number of fish that need to be fried. Yet somehow, they all become so obsessed with resentment at the thought that some of their co-workers might be spending more time making cabinets, and not doing their fair share of the fish-frying responsibilities, that before long there’s endless piles of useless badly cooked fish piling up all over the workshop and it’s all that anyone really does.
I think this is actually a pretty accurate description of the moral dynamics of our own economy.
Now, I realise any such argument is going to run into immediate objections: “who are you to say what jobs are really ‘necessary’? What’s necessary anyway? You’re an anthropology professor, what’s the ‘need’ for that?” (And indeed a lot of tabloid readers would take the existence of my job as the very definition of wasteful social expenditure.) And on one level, this is obviously true. There can be no objective measure of social value.
I would not presume to tell someone who is convinced they are making a meaningful contribution to the world that, really, they are not. But what about those people who are themselves convinced their jobs are meaningless? Not long ago I got back in touch with a school friend who I hadn’t seen since I was 12. I was amazed to discover that in the interim, he had become first a poet, then the front man in an indie rock band. I’d heard some of his songs on the radio having no idea the singer was someone I actually knew. He was obviously brilliant, innovative, and his work had unquestionably brightened and improved the lives of people all over the world. Yet, after a couple of unsuccessful albums, he’d lost his contract, and plagued with debts and a newborn daughter, ended up, as he put it, “taking the default choice of so many directionless folk: law school.” Now he’s a corporate lawyer working in a prominent New York firm. He was the first to admit that his job was utterly meaningless, contributed nothing to the world, and, in his own estimation, should not really exist.
There’s a lot of questions one could ask here, starting with, what does it say about our society that it seems to generate an extremely limited demand for talented poet-musicians, but an apparently infinite demand for specialists in corporate law? (Answer: if 1% of the population controls most of the disposable wealth, what we call “the market” reflects what they think is useful or important, not anybody else.) But even more, it shows that most people in these jobs are ultimately aware of it. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever met a corporate lawyer who didn’t think their job was bullshit. The same goes for almost all the new industries outlined above. There is a whole class of salaried professionals that, should you meet them at parties and admit that you do something that might be considered interesting (an anthropologist, for example), will want to avoid even discussing their line of work entirely. Give them a few drinks, and they will launch into tirades about how pointless and stupid their job really is.
This is a profound psychological violence here. How can one even begin to speak of dignity in labour when one secretly feels one’s job should not exist? How can it not create a sense of deep rage and resentment. Yet it is the peculiar genius of our society that its rulers have figured out a way, as in the case of the fish-fryers, to ensure that rage is directed precisely against those who actually do get to do meaningful work. For instance: in our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one’s work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective measure is hard to find, but one easy way to get a sense is to ask: what would happen were this entire class of people to simply disappear? Say what you like about nurses, garbage collectors, or mechanics, it’s obvious that were they to vanish in a puff of smoke, the results would be immediate and catastrophic. A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It’s not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish. (Many suspect it might markedly improve.) Yet apart from a handful of well-touted exceptions (doctors), the rule holds surprisingly well.
Even more perverse, there seems to be a broad sense that this is the way things should be. This is one of the secret strengths of right-wing populism. You can see it when tabloids whip up resentment against tube workers for paralysing London during contract disputes: the very fact that tube workers can paralyse London shows that their work is actually necessary, but this seems to be precisely what annoys people. It’s even clearer in the US, where Republicans have had remarkable success mobilizing resentment against school teachers, or auto workers (and not, significantly, against the school administrators or auto industry managers who actually cause the problems) for their supposedly bloated wages and benefits. It’s as if they are being told “but you get to teach children! Or make cars! You get to have real jobs! And on top of that you have the nerve to also expect middle-class pensions and health care?”
If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorised stratum of the, universally reviled, unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc) – and particularly its financial avatars – but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has clear and undeniable social value. Clearly, the system was never consciously designed. It emerged from almost a century of trial and error. But it is the only explanation for why, despite our technological capacities, we are not all working 3-4 hour days.
David Graeber is a Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. His most recent book, The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement, is published by Spiegel & Grau.
Hydrides and Anhydrides
Hydrides and Anhydrides
C. Warren Hunt
1119 Sydenham Road SW
CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA T2T 0T5
Tel. (403)-244-3341, Fax (403) 244-2834
E-mail: archeanc@telusplanet.net
Hydrogen being 90% or more of all matter in the Universe, must have been abundantly present in the formation of the early earth. The consensus among scientists has been that most primordial hydrogen was expelled as the earth accreted. New evidence challenges the consensus raises questions as to the validity of other long-held geological concepts.
The new evidence involves the behavior of hydrogen nucleii, which at pressures characteristic of mantle depths have shed their electrons and inject themselves inside the first electron rings of metal atoms. Thus sequestered within the earth, hydrogen may comprise as much as 30-40 percent of total earth mass today.
Hydrogen penetration into metals was demonstrated by Vladimir N. Larin, a geologist, whose project over the last 34 years has been research in the USSR and FSU on sources of natural hydrogen. Three major effects result from the phenomenon: (1) transmutation, (2) densification, and (3) fluidization.
The following diagram from Larin’s laboratory illustrates the mass that is added to transmuted potassium by hydrogen gas at pressure. The lower curve shows a 2.75% increase in density for the metal alone, rising from ~0.87 to ~2.4 g/cm3 and pressure up to ~30 Gpa. The upper curve shows a 4.25% increase in density of the metal in a hydrogen atmosphere, from ~0.87 to ~3.7 g/cm3 with the same pressure increase. Note the four distinct stages. The stages ascending are:
From this data it is easily shown that the excess core and mantle density above that of the crust can be attributed to injected hydrogen, and the density differences between inner core, outer core, and lower mantle can be treated as phase effects. In this scenario the idea of an iron core is superfluous.
V.N. Larin demonstrated the fluidity of titanium hydride for this writer by setting a ruby in plasticized titanium intermetal. Under reduced pressure the hydrogen bled off, allowing the metal to recrystallize and leave the ruby set firmly in metallic titanium.
The potassium and titanium behaviors are not unique. All elements but noble gases form hydrides, some readily, others not so readily. Thus, a mixture of non-metal hydrides and fluidic intermetals that comprised the interior of the primordial earth should undergo fractionation and coalescense of components on the basis of mobility and density differences.
Non-metal hydrides, H2O, NH3, H2S, CH4, that were present during accretion of the earth would have been the first to go. Expelled, they accumulated as atmosphere and hydrosphere. Solar wind bombardment and dissociation of non-metal hydrides allowed hydrogen to escape into space. This left residual oxygen and nitrogen to build up in the atmosphere, which then enabled a transformation in the biosphere. Replacement of the early Archean biota of hydrogen-tolerant prokaryotes by oxygen-tolerant eukaryotes in the late Archean is clear evidence of the conversion of the atmosphere at that time.
Intermetal hydride plumes would follow. Coalescing on the bases of differential fluidity and density, viscous intermetal plumes rise buoyantly through the mantle, perhaps lubricated by hydrides of the earth’s third most abundant element, the transition element, silicon. Rising into regimes of reduced pressure the intermetals dissociate or oxidize, creating crust in the forms of rock-forming minerals and metal ores.
The hydrides of silicon, the silanes (SiH4, Si2H6, Si3H8, Si4H10, etc.) are of special interest. Gases at standard conditions, they react vigorously with water, producing quartz, volcanic ash, and rock-forming minerals, depending on depth, pressure and the admixture of other metal hydrides. The high mobility of silane explains the mode of transfer of silicon from the interior to the oxidic crust. Crust then is the residue after silane and intermetal oxidation and release of hydrogen, which eventually escapes into space.
Carbon, the sister element of silicon, is a lesser component of earth makeup, but probably is prominent in the form of carbides in the interior. Its primary hydride form, methane (CH4), although energy-laden like silane, behaves quite differently in three important contrasting ways. First, it does not react with water; second, its combustion products are only gases; and third, it enables the biosphere.
Where silane is stalled in the crust by reacting with water, methane and hydrogen released by its partial oxidation proceed upward in fracture pathways. Methane and hydrogen seep into deep, shield mines and through porous members of sedimentary series. Both are major constituents of fluid inclusions in sub-oceanic basalts as well as in shield granites. Their migration is differentially impeded due to their different molecular sizes. Methane may be trapped temporarily, while hydrogen escapes. Both enter the atmosphere worldwide on a large scale.
Thus the hydridic earth image comprises a mobile inner geosphere of highly-reduced, dense, intermetals and carbides, an outer geosphere of oxidic rock that has accumulated incrementally through geological time, and a transient liquid-gas envelope. The image implies a core that is neither iron nor very hot, because the heat source for endogeny is primarily not primordial heat but the chemical energy released in the upper mantle and lower crust, near the crust-mantle boundary by hydride oxidation.
Hydrocarbons other than methane are partially oxidized carbon forms, and thus unlikely to occur in any form but methane in the earth’s interior where extreme reducing conditions prevail. When methane rises to outer crust levels from the interior, its chemical energy is available to metabolize bacteria and archaea that live there in total darkness at elevated temperatures. They get that energy by stripping hydrogen from the methane and oxidizing it metabolically.
When bacteria and archaea strip hydrogen from methane, they create “anhydrides” of methane, CH3, CH2, etc. Two CH3s combine to make C2H6, ethane; two CH3s and one CH2 make C3H8, propane, etc. The process is known on the surface, where outcrops of petroliferous strata sometimes are sealed by bacterially produced tar seals behind which live oil has accumulated. In this case, bacteria have stripped hydrogen from live oil, rendering it immobile. Anhydride theory merely extrapolates the process backward to explain stripping of methane, the lowest carbon numbered hydrocarbon. Petroleum can be interpreted as degenerated methane, a product of the biosphere. Petroleum produced by bacterial stripping of methane is, a mixture of anhydrides of methane, an organic product produced from inorganic methane.
Coal and oil shales are also anhydride products. In peat and kerogen-rich shales, partially oxidized carbon is present that has lost electrons and thus carries positive charges. By contrast, the carbon in methane that effuses from the highly reduced earth interior has acquired electrons and is negatively charged. Opposite charges cause capture of effusing methane by peat and kerogen. Once captured, methane is stripped progressively of its hydrogen by bacteria and archaea that naturally occur in the peat and kerogen.
The terminal anhydride, pure carbon, the main component of the purest coals and asphaltites, and protein molecules (porphyrins and others) that are found in petroleum and coal are molecular residues of organic origin. The fact that coal and oil shales have more carbon and hydrogen than their peat and fossil predecessors is clear evidence that fossils cannot fully explain their origins. These high carbon and hydrogen contents of oil shales and coals require abiogenic additions, whereas organic molecules require organic provenance. Methane and petroleum found in coal seams and organic shales should be seen as evidence of methane capture, not methane generation.
The topology of petroleum occurrence is a further defeat for the argument in favour of either an exclusively organic or exclusively abiogenic origin for petroleum. If oil were either rising from primordial sources in the earth’s interior or created in “oil windows” by catagenesis, the more mobile fractions would escape from the depths and be found more abundantly near the surface and less mobile fractions, low gravity oils, would be present at depth. Exactly the opposite is the norm. Methane gas, the most mobile hydrocarbon, is more abundant with depth, worldwide; and tars, the least mobile, are most abundant at and near the surface.
Working backwards through the above points, we can say that:
C. Warren Hunt
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E-mail: archeanc@telusplanet.net
Hydrogen being 90% or more of all matter in the Universe, must have been abundantly present in the formation of the early earth. The consensus among scientists has been that most primordial hydrogen was expelled as the earth accreted. New evidence challenges the consensus raises questions as to the validity of other long-held geological concepts.
The new evidence involves the behavior of hydrogen nucleii, which at pressures characteristic of mantle depths have shed their electrons and inject themselves inside the first electron rings of metal atoms. Thus sequestered within the earth, hydrogen may comprise as much as 30-40 percent of total earth mass today.
Hydrogen penetration into metals was demonstrated by Vladimir N. Larin, a geologist, whose project over the last 34 years has been research in the USSR and FSU on sources of natural hydrogen. Three major effects result from the phenomenon: (1) transmutation, (2) densification, and (3) fluidization.
The following diagram from Larin’s laboratory illustrates the mass that is added to transmuted potassium by hydrogen gas at pressure. The lower curve shows a 2.75% increase in density for the metal alone, rising from ~0.87 to ~2.4 g/cm3 and pressure up to ~30 Gpa. The upper curve shows a 4.25% increase in density of the metal in a hydrogen atmosphere, from ~0.87 to ~3.7 g/cm3 with the same pressure increase. Note the four distinct stages. The stages ascending are:
- COVALENT ADSORPTION of H by K metal with DENSIFICATION from ~0,87 to ~1.65 g/cm3, nearly doubling the density without any pressure increase. The metal “sucks up” hydrogen.
- INTRA-LATTICE ADSORPTION of H by K metal with DENSIFICATION from ~1.65 to ~2.0 g/cm3 with pressure rising from zero to 5 Gpa; hydrogen retains its electron.
- INTRA-LATTICE OCCLUSION of H by K metal with DENSIFICATION from ~2.0 to ~2.35 g/cm3 without further pressure increase; hydrogen sheds its electron.
- IONIC HYDRIDE where H nucleus penetrates the potassium atomic electron shell, thus effecting metal DENSIFICATION from ~2.35 to ~3.7 g/cm3 with a pressure increase from 5 Gpa to ~30 Gpa. Addition of mass to an atomic core is by definition transmutation. Thus, this stage transmutes potassium to intermetal.
From this data it is easily shown that the excess core and mantle density above that of the crust can be attributed to injected hydrogen, and the density differences between inner core, outer core, and lower mantle can be treated as phase effects. In this scenario the idea of an iron core is superfluous.
V.N. Larin demonstrated the fluidity of titanium hydride for this writer by setting a ruby in plasticized titanium intermetal. Under reduced pressure the hydrogen bled off, allowing the metal to recrystallize and leave the ruby set firmly in metallic titanium.
The potassium and titanium behaviors are not unique. All elements but noble gases form hydrides, some readily, others not so readily. Thus, a mixture of non-metal hydrides and fluidic intermetals that comprised the interior of the primordial earth should undergo fractionation and coalescense of components on the basis of mobility and density differences.
Non-metal hydrides, H2O, NH3, H2S, CH4, that were present during accretion of the earth would have been the first to go. Expelled, they accumulated as atmosphere and hydrosphere. Solar wind bombardment and dissociation of non-metal hydrides allowed hydrogen to escape into space. This left residual oxygen and nitrogen to build up in the atmosphere, which then enabled a transformation in the biosphere. Replacement of the early Archean biota of hydrogen-tolerant prokaryotes by oxygen-tolerant eukaryotes in the late Archean is clear evidence of the conversion of the atmosphere at that time.
Intermetal hydride plumes would follow. Coalescing on the bases of differential fluidity and density, viscous intermetal plumes rise buoyantly through the mantle, perhaps lubricated by hydrides of the earth’s third most abundant element, the transition element, silicon. Rising into regimes of reduced pressure the intermetals dissociate or oxidize, creating crust in the forms of rock-forming minerals and metal ores.
The hydrides of silicon, the silanes (SiH4, Si2H6, Si3H8, Si4H10, etc.) are of special interest. Gases at standard conditions, they react vigorously with water, producing quartz, volcanic ash, and rock-forming minerals, depending on depth, pressure and the admixture of other metal hydrides. The high mobility of silane explains the mode of transfer of silicon from the interior to the oxidic crust. Crust then is the residue after silane and intermetal oxidation and release of hydrogen, which eventually escapes into space.
Carbon, the sister element of silicon, is a lesser component of earth makeup, but probably is prominent in the form of carbides in the interior. Its primary hydride form, methane (CH4), although energy-laden like silane, behaves quite differently in three important contrasting ways. First, it does not react with water; second, its combustion products are only gases; and third, it enables the biosphere.
Where silane is stalled in the crust by reacting with water, methane and hydrogen released by its partial oxidation proceed upward in fracture pathways. Methane and hydrogen seep into deep, shield mines and through porous members of sedimentary series. Both are major constituents of fluid inclusions in sub-oceanic basalts as well as in shield granites. Their migration is differentially impeded due to their different molecular sizes. Methane may be trapped temporarily, while hydrogen escapes. Both enter the atmosphere worldwide on a large scale.
Thus the hydridic earth image comprises a mobile inner geosphere of highly-reduced, dense, intermetals and carbides, an outer geosphere of oxidic rock that has accumulated incrementally through geological time, and a transient liquid-gas envelope. The image implies a core that is neither iron nor very hot, because the heat source for endogeny is primarily not primordial heat but the chemical energy released in the upper mantle and lower crust, near the crust-mantle boundary by hydride oxidation.
Hydrocarbons other than methane are partially oxidized carbon forms, and thus unlikely to occur in any form but methane in the earth’s interior where extreme reducing conditions prevail. When methane rises to outer crust levels from the interior, its chemical energy is available to metabolize bacteria and archaea that live there in total darkness at elevated temperatures. They get that energy by stripping hydrogen from the methane and oxidizing it metabolically.
When bacteria and archaea strip hydrogen from methane, they create “anhydrides” of methane, CH3, CH2, etc. Two CH3s combine to make C2H6, ethane; two CH3s and one CH2 make C3H8, propane, etc. The process is known on the surface, where outcrops of petroliferous strata sometimes are sealed by bacterially produced tar seals behind which live oil has accumulated. In this case, bacteria have stripped hydrogen from live oil, rendering it immobile. Anhydride theory merely extrapolates the process backward to explain stripping of methane, the lowest carbon numbered hydrocarbon. Petroleum can be interpreted as degenerated methane, a product of the biosphere. Petroleum produced by bacterial stripping of methane is, a mixture of anhydrides of methane, an organic product produced from inorganic methane.
Coal and oil shales are also anhydride products. In peat and kerogen-rich shales, partially oxidized carbon is present that has lost electrons and thus carries positive charges. By contrast, the carbon in methane that effuses from the highly reduced earth interior has acquired electrons and is negatively charged. Opposite charges cause capture of effusing methane by peat and kerogen. Once captured, methane is stripped progressively of its hydrogen by bacteria and archaea that naturally occur in the peat and kerogen.
The terminal anhydride, pure carbon, the main component of the purest coals and asphaltites, and protein molecules (porphyrins and others) that are found in petroleum and coal are molecular residues of organic origin. The fact that coal and oil shales have more carbon and hydrogen than their peat and fossil predecessors is clear evidence that fossils cannot fully explain their origins. These high carbon and hydrogen contents of oil shales and coals require abiogenic additions, whereas organic molecules require organic provenance. Methane and petroleum found in coal seams and organic shales should be seen as evidence of methane capture, not methane generation.
The topology of petroleum occurrence is a further defeat for the argument in favour of either an exclusively organic or exclusively abiogenic origin for petroleum. If oil were either rising from primordial sources in the earth’s interior or created in “oil windows” by catagenesis, the more mobile fractions would escape from the depths and be found more abundantly near the surface and less mobile fractions, low gravity oils, would be present at depth. Exactly the opposite is the norm. Methane gas, the most mobile hydrocarbon, is more abundant with depth, worldwide; and tars, the least mobile, are most abundant at and near the surface.
Working backwards through the above points, we can say that:
- Topologies of hydrocarbon occurrences indicate that methane effuses from the interior, not petroleum; that
- Topologies of hydrocarbon occurrences indicate that low-gravity oil is not generated at depth in oil windows; that
- Methane beneficiates fossiliferous shales and peat deposits, creating oil shales and coal. Oil shales and coal do not generate methane; methane generates oil shales and coal; that
- Bacteria and archaea in the outer crust strip hydrogen from methane progressively through condensates, high gravity oil, and low gravity oil, to bitumens; that
- Hydrides of silicon and carbon along with intermetals rise into crustal levels where dissociation and oxidation liberate the heat of endogeny and deposit rock-forming minerals, and metal deposits, leaving only methane and hydrogen to effuse into the atmosphere; that
- Nonmetal hydrides escaping from the interior of the primordial earth created a reducing atmosphere that was changed over to oxygen-rich by the loss of hydrogen to space; and that
- The discovery that hydrogen nuclei under pressure penetrate atomic shells of metals, transmuting the metals to intermetals, densifying them, and fluidizing them, creates an entirely new geological picture of the earth’s interior, of endogeny, and of the mode by which the crust was created.
ISIS reports on transmutation
Fleishmann and Pons packed deuterium into a palladium lattice by electrolysis of heavy water. The palladium electrode absorbed a lot of deuterium and the nuclei fused together, generating energy far in excess (about 1 000 fold) of any ordinary electrochemical reactions.
The SPAWAR researchers deposited palladium and deuterium together onto an electrode and speeded up the fusion process with an external electric field (parallel to the electrode surface).
The Fleishman-Pons reactor is a simple electrolytic cell [] In the electrolytic cell, palladium (Pd) was the cathode and platinum the anode. The electrolyte solution contained lithium salts dissolved either in light or heavy water. When electric current is passed through the electrolyte, the water splits into hydrogen/deuterium at the cathode and oxygen at the anode. Pd is used because it absorbs hydrogen/deuterium avidly, thus bringing the atoms close together in its lattice (regularly spaced arrangement of atoms in the solid state).
Blank experiments gave a slightly negative rate of heat generation, on account of heat loss due to evaporation and so on. By contrast, the electrolysis of heavy water resulted in a positive excess rate of heat generation, this rate increasing markedly with current density I, at least as a function of I2, reaching 100 Watt cm-3 at about 1A cm-2.
Prolonged polarization of the palladium electrode in heavy water also resulted in bursts of high rates of heat generation, with the output energy exceeding the input by factors of 40 or more during these bursts.
The excess heat generated tended to go up exponentially with the current. There was a steady rate that appeared to increase slowly with time, with bursts of very high rates superimposed on the slowly increasing steady state. The bursts occurred at unpredictable times and were of unpredictable duration. Following such bursts, the excess heat production returned to a baseline, which could be higher than that prior to the initiation of the burst.
The heat produced was so great that the electrolytic cells were frequently driven to boiling point, when the rate of heat production just became extremely large. It was not possible to make a quantitative estimate of the heat as the cells and instrumentation were unsuitable for making estimates under those conditions. Also, Fleishman and Pons adopted a policy of discontinuing the experiments (or at least reducing the current density) whenever the water started to boil. At such times, the palladium electrode also started to dissolve, which generated still more heat. They decided to avoid such conditions for fear of uncontrollable energy releases. These bursts of rapid increases of temperature were accompanied by marked increases in the rate of tritium production, suggesting that the nuclear reaction(s) occurring were different from those in the steady state.
[]The research team led by Stanislaw Spzak and Pamela Mosier-Boss at SPAWAR used a modified procedure in which palladium and deuterium were deposited together on a cathode consisting of a thin metal film [6]. In 1995, they first found indications of nuclear activity when the electrolytic cell emitted X-rays with a broad energy distribution, and occasionally with well identifiable peaks. Tritium was detected sporadically and often at low rates. Nevertheless, there were active periods that persisted for days, with tritium produced at approximately 6 x 103 atoms/s.
Ten years later in 2005, they obtained further evidence of nuclear activity: heat generation, hot spots, mini-explosions, radiation, and tritium production; more importantly, they discovered that by placing the electrolytic cell in an external electrostatic field, the reaction(s) could be much speeded up, and new elements produced, among them Al, Si, and Mg []
Under normal conditions when the cell operation is controlled by the cell current and temperature, the nuclear products consisted of X- and g-rays, tritium, and excess heat. However, when the operating cell was placed in an external electric field, the reaction products included the formation of “new elements” as well as the emission of charged particles such as p+ (protons) and a2+ (alpha particles consisting of two protons and two neutrons).
When H2O was substituted for D2O, neither excess heat nor helium-4 was generated.
Instead of a solid palladium cathode, Arata and Zhang used powdered palladium, or palladium black, which greatly increased the absorption surface area for deuterium. The palladium black was placed inside a container kept under a vacuum at constant temperature for 2-3 days before deuterium or hydrogen gas was injected at a constant low flow rate until the powdered palladium was fully saturated with the deuterium/hydrogen.
Using palladium black with extremely small particle size (15 to 40 nm), a high fusion rate was obtained, amounting to >1015 4He2 atoms in the closed inner space of the cathode. In contrast, no 4He2 (or excess heat) was ever generated when hydrogen was used instead of deuterium, or when bulk palladium was used.
Arata and Zhang also developed other materials that better absorbed H2/D2. In one experiment, Pd particles of 5 nm were embedded inside a matrix of ZrO2. ZrO2 on its own does not absorb H2 or D2, but ZrO2-Pd easily absorbed about 3 D atoms per host Pd atom. Arata and Zhang proposed that the D atoms absorbed are effectively solidified as an ultrahigh density deuterium lump inside each octahedral space within the unit cell of the Pd host lattice. These “pycnodeuterium” (heavy deuterium) are dispersed to form a metallic deuterium lattice with body-centred cuboctahedron structure
[]The minimum requirement for transmutation is a metal hydride film or membrane loaded up with hydrogen or deuterium to a high level, and kept in constant flux. Electrode materials have ranged from carbon, nickel, to uranium. The metal hydride can be loaded by electrolysis of water or heavy water using a thin film of the metal as cathode; or else deuterium gas can be made to diffuse through the metal membrane by injecting the gas on one side and evacuating from the other side. But a wide variety of experimental conditions have been used to trigger or speed up the reactions, including surface plasma electrolysis, plasma discharge, laser initiation and external electric or magnetic fields.
The most commonly reported elements are calcium, copper, zinc and iron. They were found in more than 20 different experiments. Forty percent of the least frequently observed elements were rare earths from the lanthanide group: lutetium, terbium praseodymium, europium, samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, holmium, neodymium and ytterbium.
Yasuhiro Iwamura and colleagues at Mitsubishi’s Advanced Technology Research Center and colleagues have taken another approach to nuclear transmutation by concentrating on the direct transmutation of one element into another.
They used D2 gas permeation through a sandwich of thin alternating layers of palladium (Pd) and CaO sitting on a bottom layer of bulk Pd. Permeation of deuterium is forced through the layers by exposing the top of the sandwich with a thin Pd film to D2 gas while the bottom is maintained under vacuum. On the D2 gas side, dissociative absorption causes the D2 molecules to separate into D atoms, which diffuse though the sandwich towards the vacuum side, where they emerge from the Pd metal, combine and are released as D2 gas. The element to be transmuted is deposited on the top Pd film of the Pd/CaO sandwich by electrolytic loading from a salt solution. Cesium (Cs), barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) have been transmuted in this way. The analysis of elements was done in situ, without removing or disturbing the sandwich, using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) directed at the topside of the sandwich.
The role of the CaO layer was revealed in an experiment in which Cs was transmuted to Pr. In all three samples with the normal Pd/CaO sandwich, Pr was found as the end product, but not in an experiment without a CaO layer; nor in two experiments in which the CaO layer was replaced by MgO. The CaO layer appeared to increase the deuterium density 10-fold compared to palladium alone. The layer also has a very negative free energy, so that the transition metal Pd serves as a source of interface electrons to screen the positive charges of the deuterons from one another, thereby facilitating fusion and transmutation. It is thought that fusion may have occurred between deuterons to form helium, 4He2, which then further fuses with the heavier nuclei to give the end product.
The SPAWAR researchers deposited palladium and deuterium together onto an electrode and speeded up the fusion process with an external electric field (parallel to the electrode surface).
The Fleishman-Pons reactor is a simple electrolytic cell [] In the electrolytic cell, palladium (Pd) was the cathode and platinum the anode. The electrolyte solution contained lithium salts dissolved either in light or heavy water. When electric current is passed through the electrolyte, the water splits into hydrogen/deuterium at the cathode and oxygen at the anode. Pd is used because it absorbs hydrogen/deuterium avidly, thus bringing the atoms close together in its lattice (regularly spaced arrangement of atoms in the solid state).
Blank experiments gave a slightly negative rate of heat generation, on account of heat loss due to evaporation and so on. By contrast, the electrolysis of heavy water resulted in a positive excess rate of heat generation, this rate increasing markedly with current density I, at least as a function of I2, reaching 100 Watt cm-3 at about 1A cm-2.
Prolonged polarization of the palladium electrode in heavy water also resulted in bursts of high rates of heat generation, with the output energy exceeding the input by factors of 40 or more during these bursts.
The excess heat generated tended to go up exponentially with the current. There was a steady rate that appeared to increase slowly with time, with bursts of very high rates superimposed on the slowly increasing steady state. The bursts occurred at unpredictable times and were of unpredictable duration. Following such bursts, the excess heat production returned to a baseline, which could be higher than that prior to the initiation of the burst.
The heat produced was so great that the electrolytic cells were frequently driven to boiling point, when the rate of heat production just became extremely large. It was not possible to make a quantitative estimate of the heat as the cells and instrumentation were unsuitable for making estimates under those conditions. Also, Fleishman and Pons adopted a policy of discontinuing the experiments (or at least reducing the current density) whenever the water started to boil. At such times, the palladium electrode also started to dissolve, which generated still more heat. They decided to avoid such conditions for fear of uncontrollable energy releases. These bursts of rapid increases of temperature were accompanied by marked increases in the rate of tritium production, suggesting that the nuclear reaction(s) occurring were different from those in the steady state.
[]The research team led by Stanislaw Spzak and Pamela Mosier-Boss at SPAWAR used a modified procedure in which palladium and deuterium were deposited together on a cathode consisting of a thin metal film [6]. In 1995, they first found indications of nuclear activity when the electrolytic cell emitted X-rays with a broad energy distribution, and occasionally with well identifiable peaks. Tritium was detected sporadically and often at low rates. Nevertheless, there were active periods that persisted for days, with tritium produced at approximately 6 x 103 atoms/s.
Ten years later in 2005, they obtained further evidence of nuclear activity: heat generation, hot spots, mini-explosions, radiation, and tritium production; more importantly, they discovered that by placing the electrolytic cell in an external electrostatic field, the reaction(s) could be much speeded up, and new elements produced, among them Al, Si, and Mg []
Under normal conditions when the cell operation is controlled by the cell current and temperature, the nuclear products consisted of X- and g-rays, tritium, and excess heat. However, when the operating cell was placed in an external electric field, the reaction products included the formation of “new elements” as well as the emission of charged particles such as p+ (protons) and a2+ (alpha particles consisting of two protons and two neutrons).
When H2O was substituted for D2O, neither excess heat nor helium-4 was generated.
Instead of a solid palladium cathode, Arata and Zhang used powdered palladium, or palladium black, which greatly increased the absorption surface area for deuterium. The palladium black was placed inside a container kept under a vacuum at constant temperature for 2-3 days before deuterium or hydrogen gas was injected at a constant low flow rate until the powdered palladium was fully saturated with the deuterium/hydrogen.
Using palladium black with extremely small particle size (15 to 40 nm), a high fusion rate was obtained, amounting to >1015 4He2 atoms in the closed inner space of the cathode. In contrast, no 4He2 (or excess heat) was ever generated when hydrogen was used instead of deuterium, or when bulk palladium was used.
Arata and Zhang also developed other materials that better absorbed H2/D2. In one experiment, Pd particles of 5 nm were embedded inside a matrix of ZrO2. ZrO2 on its own does not absorb H2 or D2, but ZrO2-Pd easily absorbed about 3 D atoms per host Pd atom. Arata and Zhang proposed that the D atoms absorbed are effectively solidified as an ultrahigh density deuterium lump inside each octahedral space within the unit cell of the Pd host lattice. These “pycnodeuterium” (heavy deuterium) are dispersed to form a metallic deuterium lattice with body-centred cuboctahedron structure
[]The minimum requirement for transmutation is a metal hydride film or membrane loaded up with hydrogen or deuterium to a high level, and kept in constant flux. Electrode materials have ranged from carbon, nickel, to uranium. The metal hydride can be loaded by electrolysis of water or heavy water using a thin film of the metal as cathode; or else deuterium gas can be made to diffuse through the metal membrane by injecting the gas on one side and evacuating from the other side. But a wide variety of experimental conditions have been used to trigger or speed up the reactions, including surface plasma electrolysis, plasma discharge, laser initiation and external electric or magnetic fields.
The most commonly reported elements are calcium, copper, zinc and iron. They were found in more than 20 different experiments. Forty percent of the least frequently observed elements were rare earths from the lanthanide group: lutetium, terbium praseodymium, europium, samarium, gadolinium, dysprosium, holmium, neodymium and ytterbium.
Yasuhiro Iwamura and colleagues at Mitsubishi’s Advanced Technology Research Center and colleagues have taken another approach to nuclear transmutation by concentrating on the direct transmutation of one element into another.
They used D2 gas permeation through a sandwich of thin alternating layers of palladium (Pd) and CaO sitting on a bottom layer of bulk Pd. Permeation of deuterium is forced through the layers by exposing the top of the sandwich with a thin Pd film to D2 gas while the bottom is maintained under vacuum. On the D2 gas side, dissociative absorption causes the D2 molecules to separate into D atoms, which diffuse though the sandwich towards the vacuum side, where they emerge from the Pd metal, combine and are released as D2 gas. The element to be transmuted is deposited on the top Pd film of the Pd/CaO sandwich by electrolytic loading from a salt solution. Cesium (Cs), barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) have been transmuted in this way. The analysis of elements was done in situ, without removing or disturbing the sandwich, using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) directed at the topside of the sandwich.
The role of the CaO layer was revealed in an experiment in which Cs was transmuted to Pr. In all three samples with the normal Pd/CaO sandwich, Pr was found as the end product, but not in an experiment without a CaO layer; nor in two experiments in which the CaO layer was replaced by MgO. The CaO layer appeared to increase the deuterium density 10-fold compared to palladium alone. The layer also has a very negative free energy, so that the transition metal Pd serves as a source of interface electrons to screen the positive charges of the deuterons from one another, thereby facilitating fusion and transmutation. It is thought that fusion may have occurred between deuterons to form helium, 4He2, which then further fuses with the heavier nuclei to give the end product.
Stacewicz's Path of the Black Dragon
The Path of the Black Dragon
By Tomas Stacewicz
© Tomas Stacewicz 2010
[...] the dry way uses the vulgar fire (reaches very high temperatures approximating 1000°C); takes days to finish; it concerns Stibnite (Antimony sulphide); it was perpetuated by Basil Valentinus, Cyliani and Fulcanelli.
The amalgams way uses both the vulgar fire from the furnace (Athanor) and glassware; it concerns Stibnite (Antimony sulphide). it was followed by Nicholas Flamel and Eirenaeus Philalethes, and Jean Dubuis.
[...] the wet way uses glassware and a “secret fire” (heat from chemical reactions which reaches temperatures way below 500°C), the process of the wet way is more prolonged and take months
[...]there are several matters used with the wet way, such as the Vitriol (Sulphate salts) and the Red Dragon, or Cinnabar (Mercury sulphide)[...]; the Wet Way of Vitriol was lead by Basil Valentinus and that of Cinnabar by Kamala Jnana and Roger Caro.
This essay mainly concerns with the so-called “Dry Way of Antimony” [...] in the preparation of the Black Dragon it must be subjected to a process of Separatio or Solve. This is done by adding three more matters, namely Mars and a “Double Salt” composed of Tartar [KCO3] and Nitre [KNO3] . The Nitre is an animal salt or saltpetre blended with dew (which naturally contains a nitrate; the Salt of Dew). The traditional Salt of Tartar is sometimes called “potash” or potassium and is a vegetable salt. Together our Nitre and Tartar constitutes our Salt, which is a Double Salt. This is used together with the purified Stibnite during the process of Separation. But before the Separation the Stibnite must be properly prepared to create the “Antimony of the Sages”, which is done through Assation and Purgation.
The initial preparation of the Stibnite is through a process that is described by Canseliet and Solazaref, and by the latter referred to as the “Philosophical Assation”. The reason behind this is that metals taken from the mine or bought in a shop are dead and have to be “reincruded”, i.e. brought back to life. [...].
Next comes a process called the Purgation or simply “Purge”, where the Stibnite is purified of its silica using a refractory clay crucible put into a furnace and through a “distilation per descensum”. The greatest problem with the Purge or Purgation is that the alchemist needs to know exactly the suitable temperature for Stibnite ore purgation, so that the Sulphur isn’t burnt away. This of course requires lots of experience of metallurgy.
[Both] the dry and amalgams paths start off with the same preparation and separation in creation of the so-called “Martial Regulus of Antimony”. We may now proceed with it, having prepared and purified the Stibnite ore through Assation and Purgation for it to become the Antimony of the Sages. The Antimony, being finely grinded, is now placed inside a refractory clay crucible. Next the alchemist puts a quantity of finest and very old Mars, also grinded to a fine powder. [...] the Double Salt, finely grinded, is also to be joined according to specific ratios of quantity, which are partly described in the works of the ancient Masters of the Art, such as Flamel and Philalethes.
The crucible is sealed with a lid and placed inside the furnace. A heat resistant cover, with a chimney hole, is placed onto the opening of the furnace with which to contain the heat. The temperature is now supposed to reach almost 1000°C during the process of Separation of the Martial Regulus from the Antimony. Or to be more specific, the Regulus is separated from the Antimony with the assistance of Mars and the Double Salt. When all reaches the desired temperature and is melted the compound or alloy is then poured into a stainless steel mould with a conical shape.
After cooling the waste material is gently removed from the solidified matter with a hammer. The result is the so called Martial Regulus of Antimony, also called the “Starry Regulus”, or using Fulcanellis own words “Astral Stone”, “Celestial Water”, “Alkehest”, and “First Mercury”. These wastes left after the creation of the Regulus are in Alchemical parlance called the “Caput Mortum” and from this is the Sulphur extracted, which is called “First Adam” by Fulcanelli.
In the last part of the first stage of the Great Work the Martial Regulus or Mercury is to be put through a process of Mercurial Purification. This basically means that the Regulus or Mercury is put into the crucible anew, heated to the melting point when it is again poured into the conical mould to cool off, while Adam melts over the Starry Regulus to create a thin enamelled layer. When cooled it creates a scoria called “our Vitriol”. And this process of Purification is repeated two or three more times to reflect the three days between the crucifixion and resurrection of the Christ. The three nails used in the crucifixion mentioned above echo this process of purification by Mars. Each time this is repeated the Regulus takes a more shining or starry appearance, likened to the Mercury. This is a reference to the glorius body of the Christ after his resurrection, but also to the star that guided the magi (alchemist) at the birth of Jesus. In this purified state the First Mercury has been transformed into the “Philosophical Mercury”. This matter now produced is also called the “mirror of art”, a term understandable by looking at the image of the purified Regulus shining like a mirror.
In each of these Purifications the thin enamelled layer or Vitriol created changes its colour and in the 3rd or 4th Purifications takes the form of a clear substance.
Thus far the Alchemical work upon the Black Dragon or Stibnite is similar in the Dry Way of Fulcanelli and Canseliet, and in the Amalgams Way of Flamel and Philalethes alike. But as the latter now proceed with a wet or humid processes, the path of Fulcanelli, as taught by Canseliet, continues to proceed with the Dry Way using ovens and crucibles. Thus we now proceed with the second part of the Great Work or Coagula, which constitutes the Eagles or Sublimation of the Alchemical Sulphur and Mercury, together with the Green Lion. This process is sometimes also called the preparation of the “Rebis”. The end result of this is the so-called “Remora”. Remora, or “suckerfish”, is a fish that reputedly is very hard to catch and therefore serves as a good metaphor for the difficulty of this process and where most fail in the work. It was mentioned already by Michael Sendivogius.
According to Canseliet Adamic Red Earth is placed at the bottom of the crucible. Next is placed the Philosophical Mercury, also called Eve in Fucanellian parlance. When the desired temperature is reached the Red Earth will give away its Sulphur, which will rise and blend with the Philosophical Mercury above it, which in turn will start to melt and rise to the surface. These melted parts of the Philosophical Mercury is called the “ocean” in which the blackish fish Remora is suppose to swim. When the melted Mercury blends with the Green Lion it becomes golden and when cooled produce the Remora.
Thus the resultant of the Eagles process will be the fish Remora. Its blackish colour has also given it the name of “Black Crow” according to Fulcanelli. The third and last part of the Great Work concerns Coction or cooking of the Remora with the “Secret Fire”, or Golden Salt. This is the digestion process that supposedly all have failed since the days of Fulcanelli as it constitutes the most difficult phase of the work. This process is supposed to eventually result in the Philosopher’s Stone.
By Tomas Stacewicz
© Tomas Stacewicz 2010
[...] the dry way uses the vulgar fire (reaches very high temperatures approximating 1000°C); takes days to finish; it concerns Stibnite (Antimony sulphide); it was perpetuated by Basil Valentinus, Cyliani and Fulcanelli.
The amalgams way uses both the vulgar fire from the furnace (Athanor) and glassware; it concerns Stibnite (Antimony sulphide). it was followed by Nicholas Flamel and Eirenaeus Philalethes, and Jean Dubuis.
[...] the wet way uses glassware and a “secret fire” (heat from chemical reactions which reaches temperatures way below 500°C), the process of the wet way is more prolonged and take months
[...]there are several matters used with the wet way, such as the Vitriol (Sulphate salts) and the Red Dragon, or Cinnabar (Mercury sulphide)[...]; the Wet Way of Vitriol was lead by Basil Valentinus and that of Cinnabar by Kamala Jnana and Roger Caro.
This essay mainly concerns with the so-called “Dry Way of Antimony” [...] in the preparation of the Black Dragon it must be subjected to a process of Separatio or Solve. This is done by adding three more matters, namely Mars and a “Double Salt” composed of Tartar [KCO3] and Nitre [KNO3] . The Nitre is an animal salt or saltpetre blended with dew (which naturally contains a nitrate; the Salt of Dew). The traditional Salt of Tartar is sometimes called “potash” or potassium and is a vegetable salt. Together our Nitre and Tartar constitutes our Salt, which is a Double Salt. This is used together with the purified Stibnite during the process of Separation. But before the Separation the Stibnite must be properly prepared to create the “Antimony of the Sages”, which is done through Assation and Purgation.
The initial preparation of the Stibnite is through a process that is described by Canseliet and Solazaref, and by the latter referred to as the “Philosophical Assation”. The reason behind this is that metals taken from the mine or bought in a shop are dead and have to be “reincruded”, i.e. brought back to life. [...].
Next comes a process called the Purgation or simply “Purge”, where the Stibnite is purified of its silica using a refractory clay crucible put into a furnace and through a “distilation per descensum”. The greatest problem with the Purge or Purgation is that the alchemist needs to know exactly the suitable temperature for Stibnite ore purgation, so that the Sulphur isn’t burnt away. This of course requires lots of experience of metallurgy.
[Both] the dry and amalgams paths start off with the same preparation and separation in creation of the so-called “Martial Regulus of Antimony”. We may now proceed with it, having prepared and purified the Stibnite ore through Assation and Purgation for it to become the Antimony of the Sages. The Antimony, being finely grinded, is now placed inside a refractory clay crucible. Next the alchemist puts a quantity of finest and very old Mars, also grinded to a fine powder. [...] the Double Salt, finely grinded, is also to be joined according to specific ratios of quantity, which are partly described in the works of the ancient Masters of the Art, such as Flamel and Philalethes.
The crucible is sealed with a lid and placed inside the furnace. A heat resistant cover, with a chimney hole, is placed onto the opening of the furnace with which to contain the heat. The temperature is now supposed to reach almost 1000°C during the process of Separation of the Martial Regulus from the Antimony. Or to be more specific, the Regulus is separated from the Antimony with the assistance of Mars and the Double Salt. When all reaches the desired temperature and is melted the compound or alloy is then poured into a stainless steel mould with a conical shape.
After cooling the waste material is gently removed from the solidified matter with a hammer. The result is the so called Martial Regulus of Antimony, also called the “Starry Regulus”, or using Fulcanellis own words “Astral Stone”, “Celestial Water”, “Alkehest”, and “First Mercury”. These wastes left after the creation of the Regulus are in Alchemical parlance called the “Caput Mortum” and from this is the Sulphur extracted, which is called “First Adam” by Fulcanelli.
In the last part of the first stage of the Great Work the Martial Regulus or Mercury is to be put through a process of Mercurial Purification. This basically means that the Regulus or Mercury is put into the crucible anew, heated to the melting point when it is again poured into the conical mould to cool off, while Adam melts over the Starry Regulus to create a thin enamelled layer. When cooled it creates a scoria called “our Vitriol”. And this process of Purification is repeated two or three more times to reflect the three days between the crucifixion and resurrection of the Christ. The three nails used in the crucifixion mentioned above echo this process of purification by Mars. Each time this is repeated the Regulus takes a more shining or starry appearance, likened to the Mercury. This is a reference to the glorius body of the Christ after his resurrection, but also to the star that guided the magi (alchemist) at the birth of Jesus. In this purified state the First Mercury has been transformed into the “Philosophical Mercury”. This matter now produced is also called the “mirror of art”, a term understandable by looking at the image of the purified Regulus shining like a mirror.
In each of these Purifications the thin enamelled layer or Vitriol created changes its colour and in the 3rd or 4th Purifications takes the form of a clear substance.
Thus far the Alchemical work upon the Black Dragon or Stibnite is similar in the Dry Way of Fulcanelli and Canseliet, and in the Amalgams Way of Flamel and Philalethes alike. But as the latter now proceed with a wet or humid processes, the path of Fulcanelli, as taught by Canseliet, continues to proceed with the Dry Way using ovens and crucibles. Thus we now proceed with the second part of the Great Work or Coagula, which constitutes the Eagles or Sublimation of the Alchemical Sulphur and Mercury, together with the Green Lion. This process is sometimes also called the preparation of the “Rebis”. The end result of this is the so-called “Remora”. Remora, or “suckerfish”, is a fish that reputedly is very hard to catch and therefore serves as a good metaphor for the difficulty of this process and where most fail in the work. It was mentioned already by Michael Sendivogius.
According to Canseliet Adamic Red Earth is placed at the bottom of the crucible. Next is placed the Philosophical Mercury, also called Eve in Fucanellian parlance. When the desired temperature is reached the Red Earth will give away its Sulphur, which will rise and blend with the Philosophical Mercury above it, which in turn will start to melt and rise to the surface. These melted parts of the Philosophical Mercury is called the “ocean” in which the blackish fish Remora is suppose to swim. When the melted Mercury blends with the Green Lion it becomes golden and when cooled produce the Remora.
Thus the resultant of the Eagles process will be the fish Remora. Its blackish colour has also given it the name of “Black Crow” according to Fulcanelli. The third and last part of the Great Work concerns Coction or cooking of the Remora with the “Secret Fire”, or Golden Salt. This is the digestion process that supposedly all have failed since the days of Fulcanelli as it constitutes the most difficult phase of the work. This process is supposed to eventually result in the Philosopher’s Stone.
Philalethes - A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby
A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE CELESTIAL RUBY
by Eirenaeus Philalethes
Thus you see that the stone which is to
be the transformer of metals into gold must be sought in the precious
metals, in which it is enclosed and contained. It is called a stone by
virtue of its fixed nature, and it resists the action of the fire as
successfully as any stone.
In species, it is gold, more pure than the
purest; it is fixed and incombustible like a stone, but its appearance is
that of a very fine powder, impalpable to the touch, fragment as to smell,
in potency a most penetrative spirit, apparently dry, and yet unctuous, and
easily capable of tingeing a plate of metal.
"Thus you see though our stone is made of gold alone, yet it is not common
gold; the latter must be dissolved in our mineral water which does not wet
the hands; this water is mercury, extracted from the red servant, and is
capable of accomplishing our work without any further trouble. It is the
one true natural first substance, to which nothing is added, and from which
nothing is subtracted, except certain superfluities, which however it will
cast off without any aid by its own inherent vital action.
"Consider these signs, that which dissolves is spirit; that which
coagulates is body. A body cannot enter a body so as to cause dissolution,
but a spirit can enter it, attenuate, and clarify it. For every agent has a
tendency to assimilate to itself that which it acts upon, and every natural
effect is conformed to the nature of the efficient; hence water is
necessary if you would extract water from earth.
Our mercury is in fact a pure water,
clean, clear, bright, and resplendent, worthy of all admiration.
"Our stone is produced from one thing, and four mercurial substances, of
which one is mature; the others pure but crude, two of them being extracted
in a wonderful manner from their ore by means of the third. The four are
amalgamated by the intention of a gentle fire, and there subjected to
conction day by day, until all become one by natural, and not manual
conjunction.
"Afterwards the fire being changed, these volatile substances should be
fixed and digested by means of heat which becomes a little more powerful
every day, (i.e., by means of fixed and incombustible sulphur of the same
genus) until the whole compound attains to the same essence, fixity and
colour.
"There are many degrees or phases of this our process, which I may describe
as follows.
The first is calcination. Calcination is the first purgation of
the stone, the drying up of its humours, through its natural heat, which is
stirred into vital action by the eternal heat of water, whereby the
compound is converted into a black powder, which is yet unctuous and
retains its radical humour. This calcination is performed for the purpose
of rendering the substance viscous, spongy, and more especially
penetratable; for gold in itself is highly fixed, and difficult of solution
even in our water, but through this calcination, it becomes soft and white,
and we observe it in its two natures, the fixed and the volatile, which we
liken to two serpents. In order that a full dissolution may be made, there
is need of contrition, that the calcination may afterwards produce a
viscous state, when it will be fit for dissolution.
" When the substances are first mixed, they are at enmity with each other,
by reason of their contrary qualities, for there is the heat and dryness of
the sulphur fiercely contending with the cold .and moisture of the mercury.
They can only be reconciled in a medium which partakes of both natures, and
the medium in which heat and cold are reconciled is dryness which can
co-exist with both. Thus cold and heat are brought to dwell peaceably
together in the dryness of the earth, and the dryness and the moisture in
the coldness of the water.
"Its sufficient cause is the action of the inward heat upon the moisture,
whereby everything that resists it is converted into a very fine powder;
the moving and instrumental cause is the fire contrary to nature, which
being hidden in our solvent water, battles with its moisture, and digests
it into a viscous or unctuous powder.
"Calcination then is the beginning of the work, and without it there can be
neither peaceable commixtion, nor proper union. The first dealbation
reduces the substance to its two principles, sulphur and mercury; the first
of which is fixed, while the other is volatile. They are compared to two
serpents, the fixed substance to a serpent without wings, and the volatile
substance to a serpent with wings. One serpent holds in his mouth the tail
of the other, to show that they are indissolubly conjoined by community of
birth and destiny, and that our art is accomplished by the joint working of
this mercurial sulphur, and sulphureous mercury. Hence the whole compound
is at this stage called 'Rebis', because they are two substances, but only
one essence. They are not really two, but one and the same thing."
Understand then that the alchemist takes four mercurial substances, namely
four metals, as these are all alleged to have mercury as their base, and he
reduces them to their two fundamental principles. In other words, we gather
that most important secret that the end of the first process delivers into
our hands two products made from the chaos or mixture of the four, and
these are named sulphur and mercury. Take good notice now that really we
have only one mass of matter, which may be easily divided into two, the
sulphur and the mercury.
Chapter 2. Sophic Fire
it has often been told that the whole art consists of
first cooking, and later roasting; and this fact appears quite true.
(a) The metals necessary to take in hand
Three are essential; and these are the salt, sulphur and mercury-or the
secret fire, sulphur and mercury. Gold or silver is the sulphur, mercury is
prepared from antimony and iron, or a regulus of these two. The secret fire
might be the name given to the mercury when prepared, or might be a kind of
water which acts as a catalyst. These two names are always purposely mixed
up, that is, one often being named for the other so that mistakes may be
made, but in truth they are two different things. The secret fire which
might be termed the fiery water dissolves the metals; this latter is a salt
nitrate, often termed vinegar, to be found everywhere, easily, and never
valued; yet never mentioned in any alchemical treatise by name. (A natural
product found everywhere and in everything.)
(f) The periods before changes can be expected
These are doubtful, depending upon the correct heat, the proportions used,
and other factors, but most adepts say forty-two days to the black stage,
ninety days to the white stage, and five months to the red stage which
signifies completion. Once the powder is made these times may be reduced to
a few days to make any amount more with the finished product.
by Eirenaeus Philalethes
Thus you see that the stone which is to
be the transformer of metals into gold must be sought in the precious
metals, in which it is enclosed and contained. It is called a stone by
virtue of its fixed nature, and it resists the action of the fire as
successfully as any stone.
In species, it is gold, more pure than the
purest; it is fixed and incombustible like a stone, but its appearance is
that of a very fine powder, impalpable to the touch, fragment as to smell,
in potency a most penetrative spirit, apparently dry, and yet unctuous, and
easily capable of tingeing a plate of metal.
"Thus you see though our stone is made of gold alone, yet it is not common
gold; the latter must be dissolved in our mineral water which does not wet
the hands; this water is mercury, extracted from the red servant, and is
capable of accomplishing our work without any further trouble. It is the
one true natural first substance, to which nothing is added, and from which
nothing is subtracted, except certain superfluities, which however it will
cast off without any aid by its own inherent vital action.
"Consider these signs, that which dissolves is spirit; that which
coagulates is body. A body cannot enter a body so as to cause dissolution,
but a spirit can enter it, attenuate, and clarify it. For every agent has a
tendency to assimilate to itself that which it acts upon, and every natural
effect is conformed to the nature of the efficient; hence water is
necessary if you would extract water from earth.
Our mercury is in fact a pure water,
clean, clear, bright, and resplendent, worthy of all admiration.
"Our stone is produced from one thing, and four mercurial substances, of
which one is mature; the others pure but crude, two of them being extracted
in a wonderful manner from their ore by means of the third. The four are
amalgamated by the intention of a gentle fire, and there subjected to
conction day by day, until all become one by natural, and not manual
conjunction.
"Afterwards the fire being changed, these volatile substances should be
fixed and digested by means of heat which becomes a little more powerful
every day, (i.e., by means of fixed and incombustible sulphur of the same
genus) until the whole compound attains to the same essence, fixity and
colour.
"There are many degrees or phases of this our process, which I may describe
as follows.
The first is calcination. Calcination is the first purgation of
the stone, the drying up of its humours, through its natural heat, which is
stirred into vital action by the eternal heat of water, whereby the
compound is converted into a black powder, which is yet unctuous and
retains its radical humour. This calcination is performed for the purpose
of rendering the substance viscous, spongy, and more especially
penetratable; for gold in itself is highly fixed, and difficult of solution
even in our water, but through this calcination, it becomes soft and white,
and we observe it in its two natures, the fixed and the volatile, which we
liken to two serpents. In order that a full dissolution may be made, there
is need of contrition, that the calcination may afterwards produce a
viscous state, when it will be fit for dissolution.
" When the substances are first mixed, they are at enmity with each other,
by reason of their contrary qualities, for there is the heat and dryness of
the sulphur fiercely contending with the cold .and moisture of the mercury.
They can only be reconciled in a medium which partakes of both natures, and
the medium in which heat and cold are reconciled is dryness which can
co-exist with both. Thus cold and heat are brought to dwell peaceably
together in the dryness of the earth, and the dryness and the moisture in
the coldness of the water.
"Its sufficient cause is the action of the inward heat upon the moisture,
whereby everything that resists it is converted into a very fine powder;
the moving and instrumental cause is the fire contrary to nature, which
being hidden in our solvent water, battles with its moisture, and digests
it into a viscous or unctuous powder.
"Calcination then is the beginning of the work, and without it there can be
neither peaceable commixtion, nor proper union. The first dealbation
reduces the substance to its two principles, sulphur and mercury; the first
of which is fixed, while the other is volatile. They are compared to two
serpents, the fixed substance to a serpent without wings, and the volatile
substance to a serpent with wings. One serpent holds in his mouth the tail
of the other, to show that they are indissolubly conjoined by community of
birth and destiny, and that our art is accomplished by the joint working of
this mercurial sulphur, and sulphureous mercury. Hence the whole compound
is at this stage called 'Rebis', because they are two substances, but only
one essence. They are not really two, but one and the same thing."
Understand then that the alchemist takes four mercurial substances, namely
four metals, as these are all alleged to have mercury as their base, and he
reduces them to their two fundamental principles. In other words, we gather
that most important secret that the end of the first process delivers into
our hands two products made from the chaos or mixture of the four, and
these are named sulphur and mercury. Take good notice now that really we
have only one mass of matter, which may be easily divided into two, the
sulphur and the mercury.
Chapter 2. Sophic Fire
it has often been told that the whole art consists of
first cooking, and later roasting; and this fact appears quite true.
(a) The metals necessary to take in hand
Three are essential; and these are the salt, sulphur and mercury-or the
secret fire, sulphur and mercury. Gold or silver is the sulphur, mercury is
prepared from antimony and iron, or a regulus of these two. The secret fire
might be the name given to the mercury when prepared, or might be a kind of
water which acts as a catalyst. These two names are always purposely mixed
up, that is, one often being named for the other so that mistakes may be
made, but in truth they are two different things. The secret fire which
might be termed the fiery water dissolves the metals; this latter is a salt
nitrate, often termed vinegar, to be found everywhere, easily, and never
valued; yet never mentioned in any alchemical treatise by name. (A natural
product found everywhere and in everything.)
(f) The periods before changes can be expected
These are doubtful, depending upon the correct heat, the proportions used,
and other factors, but most adepts say forty-two days to the black stage,
ninety days to the white stage, and five months to the red stage which
signifies completion. Once the powder is made these times may be reduced to
a few days to make any amount more with the finished product.
Monti - A Brief History of the Atom
A
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ATOM, COLD FUSION AND COLD FISSION
ROBERTO
A.MONTI
Researcher
Istituto TESRE - CNR
SUMMARY
Part I : Between
1913 and 1921, Thomson, Parson, Lewis, Allen and Harkins made up the
essential elements to the definition of the "alpha-extended
model" of the atom. Whereas Thomson, Parson, Lewis and Allen
mainly dealt with the atom structure, Harkins specifically analyzed
the nucleus structure . Even though they were contemporary, these
scientists seem to have ignored their mutual researches ( in fact,
Rutherford can be considered as the cause of the "separation"
between Harkins, in particular, and the other authors ). As a result
the different contributions, given by the above mentioned scientists,
could not merge into a single, coherent model .
Part II : In 1937
Ferrmi designed an artificial neutron generator which he made by
means of a "semi-cold" fusion between heavy ice and
deuterium ions. In 1940 Borghi, apparently unacquainted with
Harkins's ideas, advanced again the hypothesis according to which
the neutron was a particular bound state of the hydrogen atom ; and,
between 1950 and 1955, he designed and made the neutron synthesis,
starting from a cold hydrogen plasma . From 1959 onwards Kevran found
and experimentally reproduced several cold fusion and cold fission
which he defined as "low energy transmutations" . In 1965,
following Kervran's example George Oshawa made a new series of cold
fusions electrochemically and biologically induced . In 1984 Rose and
Jones "rediscovered" cold fission. In 1990 the experimental
reality of cold fusion has been confirmed .
PART I : BRIEF HISTORY OF
THE ATOM
1815 Prout noted
that the weights of the several atoms appeared to be multiples of the
weight of hydrogen, and advanced the hypothesis that all other atoms
are composed of hydrogen atoms (1).
1860 Marignac
supposed the deviations of atomic weights from integral numbers to be
a consequence of the fusion process of hydrogen atoms (1) .
1863
De Chancourtois arranged the elements in a spiral in the order of
their atomic weights, and made the remark : "the properties of
substances are the properties of numbers" (1) .
1869 Mendeleef
built his Periodic Table of the Elements. The properties of the
elements are periodic functions of the atomic number (1) .
1897 J.J.Thomson
discovers that the cathode rays are material particles, charged with
"negative" electricity : the electrons (2) .
1898 W.Wien
identifies a particle which is "positively" charged, with a
mass equal to that of the hydrogen atom, in a beam of ionized gas:
the proton (3) .
1902-1904
Lord Kelvin formulates the first atom model,
which was so strongly supported and developed by J.J. Thomson
that it became known as the "Thomson (first) atom" .
According
to this model, the atom consists of a sphere of uniformly distributed
charge, about one Angstrom in diameter, in which the electrons are
embedded like raisins in a pudding (4), (5) .
1904 Hantaro Nagaoka
hypothesizes that the positive charge is concentrated in the
center of the atom and that electrons form a ring, around such a
nucleus, which is similar to that around Saturn (6).
1905
Albert Einstein formulates the theory of
Relativity. With the gradual "disappearance" of the Ether
the physical space where to place the atom and rebuild its structure
disappears as well. The establishment of the theory of Relativity
compromises the development of a model of the atom consistent with
the experimental evidence, and deviates the "natural course"
of Atomic Mechanics (7).
- J.J.Thomson definitely confirms the discovery of the proton, made by Wien
(8) .
- Ernest Rutherford gathers and develops the observations of Geiger an
Marsden,
two of his young assistants. He concludes that the atom has a
"nucleus"
where
the positive charge is concentrated.
In some way, around it, the electrons are
placed. Being excessively enthusiastic for the results obtained with
the "bombardment method", Rutherford directs Nuclear
Physics towards "high energies" .
Rutherford's model has a fundamental flaw : the
dimensions of the nucleus result to be "very small" (of the
order of 10-12 cm)
on the basis of the hypothesis that "the central charge…may be
supposed to be concentrated at a point", which allows the
erroneous exchange of the word "surface" of the nucleus
with the word "centre" of the nucleus (10) .
His model, moreover, does not answer three
major questions :
- Negative electrons are attracted by the positive nucleus: yet they appear as "distant" from the nucleus. Why don't they fall on it ?
- Electrons are supposed to be distributed and "moving" around the nucleus. Why don't they radiate electromagnetic energy ?
- Nuclear charge is an integer multiple of Wien's "elementary positive charge". How come doesn't the nucleus "explode" because of electrostatic repulsion ? (11).
1913 Niels Bohr
attempts an answer to the unsolved questions . These are his answers
: 1) The atom is a "planetary" system ; centrifugal force
prevents an electron from falling on the nucleus. 2) He simply
postulates that electromagnetic laws are not valid for nuclear
orbits. He then states that as a consequence of "its small
dimensions" the nucleus does not influence "the atom's
ordinary physical and chemical properties which, on the other hand,
depend on external electrons". 3) As far as the third issue is
concerned, he ignored it (12) .
1913 J.J.Thomson
observes that no one has ever demonstrated that electrons are
spherical and that the Coulomb field-at a micro level-has a spherical
symmetry . He builds Thomson's "second" atom : a "rigid"
atom and, consequently, a "theory of valence" (13) .
1915 Bohr's atom is
absolutely incapable of eliminating the fundamental
contradictions with the laws of electromagnetism. Above all, it is
incapable accounting for chemical phenomena (14) .
1915 A.L.Parson
introduces the magnetic field: the electron is not just an electric
charge, but it is also
a small magnet .
Position of electromagnetic stable
equilibrium of electrons in atoms are possible.
In 1911 Kamerlingh onnes even provided
a model of this "magnetic electron": a superconductive
ring where electric flux going into the ring generates a magnetic
field. Both are exceptionally stable.
Moreover Parson observes that the planetary atom
is irremediably inconsistent with chemical and stereochemical
evidence.
But his model has two flaws: 1) He does not
extend the same hypothesis he made about the electron to the proton .
2) He maintains the "uniformly charged
sphere of the Kelvin or Thomson atom" as a model of the nucleus
(15) .
1915 William D.
Harkins reconstructs the Periodic Table of the Elements, and provides
two models (a spiral one and a helicoidal one). He moves from the
hypothesis that every element's chemical properties essentially
depend on the nucleus structure, which is composed of the sum of
hydrogen and helium nuclei. He resolves the problem of the nucleus
stability by advancing the hypothesis that the hydrogen atom
"captures" its electron and, thus, gives raise to a neutral
particle: the neutron. Electrons which have been captured "cement"
(bind) the protons (16).
1916 G.N. Lewis
works on Thomson's and Parson's ideas and "stops" the atom:
"Bohr, with his electron moving in a fixed orbit, (has) invented
systems containing electrons of which the motion produces no effects
upon external charge . Now this is not only inconsistent with the
accepted laws of electromagnetics but, I may add, is logically
objectionable, for that state of motion which produces no physical
effects wathsoever may better be called a state of rest"
(17).
Lewis builds the theory of valence .
1918 H.S. Allen sees
how the "rigid" atom stands. He lists the remarkable amount
of experimental data in favour of a rigid structure, and he concludes
by observing that: "it will be necessary to revise the
prevailing view as to the small size and pure electrostatic field of
the nucleus", and that: "Bohr's theory as to origin of
series line in spectra may be restated so as to apply it to the ring
electron. The essential points of the quantum theory and of Bohr's
equations may be maintained, even if his atomic model be rejected"
(18) .
1919 J.J. Thomson
introduces magnetism and builds everything anew: series line in
spectra, ect. from the point of view of the rigid atom. But he does
not take into account the contributions of Parson, Lewis, Allen and
Harkins (19) .
1919 E. Rutherford
believes he has disintegrated nitrogen. As a matter of fact, he has
fused a helium nucleus with a nitrogen one, expelling thus a proton .
And, what is worse, he is convinced once and for all of the quality
of the "bombardment method". He hopes for the future that
growing energetic projectiles be available. It is the prelude to the
birth of High Energy Physics (20) .
1920 W. D. Harkins
publishes the first version "alpha extended model" of the
nucleus . But his theory has a fundamental flaw : he places the
"right" neutron and nucleus in the "wrong" atom
of Rutherford and Bohr (21) .
1921 J. J. Thomson
confirms that Bohr's planetary model - as far as atoms with many
electrons are concerned - would become "hopelessly intricate"
(22) .
1921 A. H. Compton
provides experimental evidence in favour of magnetic electron (23) .
1921 W. D. Harkins
further develops the "alpha extended model" of the nucleus
and finally introduces in current terminology the neutron as "sum"
of a proton and an electron (24) .
1921 Crehore points
out that the rigid atom is by now currently used in chemistry, where
it daily proves itself useful. He suggests that the entire field of
chemistry is not a silly thing to be lightheartedly neglected in
order to support Bohr's atom . He observes that those "useful"
results from Bohr's theory can be obtained from other atomic models -
i. e. rigid atom . And he adds that despite what Bohr did it is not
essential to assume things against ordinary laws of electromagnetism
. The rigid atom is based on the laws of electromagnetism : "So
long as there is strict adherence to the Bohr model, an understanding
of phenomena on the basis of electromagnetic theory will remain
difficul, if not impossible… The abandonment of ring of electrons
from an atomic model does not seem to be so revolutionary when viewed
in the light of these facts" (25) .
COUP DE THEATRE
1921 Albert Einstein
receives the Nobel Prize for Physics. He is given the Prize for the
"discovery of the laws of photoelectric effect" . But it
inevitably assumes the "political value" of an
"endorsement" of the theory of Relativity .
1922 Niels Bohr
receives the Nobel Prize for Physics. He is given the Prize for his
studies on "the atoms structure and radiation" .
RELATIVITY AND PLANETARY ATOM BECOME
"OFFICIAL SCIENCE"
On a theoretical level, physicists impose the
planetary atom on chemists.
Chemists "suffer" but, as a matter of
fact, do not give a damn. The theory of valence
is, and continues to
be, that by Lewis and Thomson (26) .
FINAL HOAX
1925 Bohr's atom
has some problems with the anomalous Zeeman effect. Uhlenbeck and
Goudsmit "discover" the magnetic electron . Before
introducing such a "revolutionary concept" they ask for
advice to the least apt person: Niels Bohr . Bohr takes the
opportunity of staging a clever "coup de main", that of
introducing the main argument adopted by Parson and Allen against
planetary atom at the basis of the "new Quantum Mechanics of
Heisenberg" and inside the planetary atom : the magnetic
electron. With a warm letter encouraging the "birth" of
Spin, Bohr gives them his approval (27).
1926 E. Schroedinger
presents his "An undulatory Theory of the Mechanics of Atoms and
Molecules": "The point of view taken here… is rather that
material points consist of, or are nothing but, wave systems"
(28) . Schroedinger does not ask himself what his "wave
systems" are made of. By paraphrasing Einstein, one could say
that "the ether took its revenge and ate matter" (29) .
1928 W. D. Harkins
attempts to produce gold by introducing an electron in a mercury
nucleus, but fails (30) .
1932 J. Chadwick
"discovers" the neutron (31) .
1932 W. D. Harkins
timidly lays claim to the neutron (32).
Heisenberg states that "Harkins's neutron"
(the sum of a proton and electron) is "different" from
"Chadwick's neutron", that is, a "new" particle
which "does not contain" electrons, but "creates"
them at the moment of its decay (33) .
As a matter of fact, as we have seen before,
Harkins placed the right neutron and nucleus in the wrong atom: "his"
neutron cannot be accepted because it is "incompatible with
Bohr's atom an Heisenberg's Quantum Mechanics" .
1935 Thus, it is J.
Chadwick who receives the Nobel Prize for Physics "for the
discovery of the neutron".
THE ATOM IS COMPLETED
PART II : BRIEF HISTORY OF COLD
FUSION AND COLD FISSION
- French revolution. May 8. Lavoisier is beheaded.
Lavoisier
introduced the "galilean method" in chemistry, contributing
to its "scientific foundation". On the basis of his
experiments he could observe that "in all chemical reactions the
same quantity of matter is present before and after the reaction".
Lavoisier consequently hypothesizes that in a chemical reaction
transmutations from one element to another do not occur (34).
- Vaquelin observes what Lavoisier had no occasion to observe: the
transmutation
from one element to another. The experimental method of Vaquelin is
as stringent as Lavoisier's method. But Lavoisier cannot take note of
it (35).
1792
- 1801 On the bases of his experimental
observations Herschel concludes that the sun has a solid, "cold",
nucleus (36).
1815
- 1847 The Restoration "excessively"
rehabilitates Lavoisier: the "intransmutability"
of the chemical elements becomes a dogma
instead of an experimental hypothesis. Alchemy (which, on the other
hand, admits transmutations of the chemical elements) is
"discredited".
However
the experimental results of Vaquelin are too stringent to be denied.
Therefore they are neglected. The last official trace of these
experiments can be found in Regnault's Course
de Chimie (1847). Then they disappear (37).
- Berzelius reports Vogel's experimental evidence for biological transmutations
(38).
- - 1900 Nineteenth century is the century of the steam engine. During its
second
half the sun becomes - contrary to experimental evidence - gaseous
and hot: a big steam engine (39).
- E. Rutherford obtains the fusion of the a helium nucleus with a nitrogen one.
Transmutations
are possible but - in his opinion - only "high energy
transmutations" ("hot" fusion - bombardment method)
(20).
- Nernst, Jeans and others suggest that "since the outflowing heat ( from the Sun
represents
the energy liberated by subatomic processes, the amount can only be
calculated if we know the laws of liberation of subatomic energy,
and any procedure which evades this difficult problem begs the
question". Eddington begs the question (40).
- Georges Ranque discovers the "Ranque Effect", which can offer an
experimental
answer to the problem of the formation and of the internal structure
of
the
sun. But nobody gives it the proper attention it deserves (41).
- While looking for "an artificial generator of neutrons", Enrico Fermi
accomplishes
a "semi cold fusion" between "heavy ice" and
deuterium (heavy hydrogen). But he does not give it enough attention,
as he should (42).
- Seemingly unaware of Harkins's work, Don Carlo Borghi makes the
assumption
again that the neutron is a peculiar "bound state" of the
hydrogen atom. His hypothesis is obviously refused because it
"contradcts Bohr's atom and Heisenberg's Quantum Mechanics".
Borghi does not realize the "danger" of his hypothesis. He
insists and is estranged (43).
1950 - 1955 D. C. Borghi
planned an experiment to synthesize neutrons starting from a cold
hydrogen plasma. Expelled from Milan, he moves to the Vatican. With
the money he is given - under the counter - by De Gasperi, he starts
his experiments in a Roman laboratory. Borghi succeeds where Harkins
failed: "cold" synthesis of the neutron shows that the
neutron really is "the sum of the proton and an electron".
De
Gasperi's death marks the end of Borghi's financial support. He
emigrates to Brazil in order to continue his experiments. In Recife
he founds the Centre for Nuclear Energy (CEN) (44).
- Borghi tries to present his experimental results at the Vienna Convention. But
Amaldi's
action prevents him from having his paper accepted. Estranged once
again, Borghi leaves the scene for good (45).
- C. L. Kervran discovers "low energy transmutations". He regrets the disastrous
effects
induced by the uncritical and univocal adoption of Rutherford's
method in the study on the atom's structure. He concludes that nuclei
are "rigid" structures and composed of "bricks".
He
lists a first series of ascertained low energy transmutations: cold
fusion and cold
fission examples; and provides some models of
"Kervran's atom". But contemporary physicists refuse to
believe in the experimental evidence in front of them because it
would question the interests, by now widely well - established, of
"High Energy Physics".
Kervran
is estranged (46).
- Following Kervran's studies George Oshawa, with some assistants, makes a
vast
number of "cold fusions", biologically and
electrochemically induced. Particularly important is the "cold
fusion" of iron 56, starting from carbon and oxygen; it is
electrochemically obtained with three different methods (47).
- Omero Speri and Piero Zorzi make a system to be used to obtain
"electrochemically
induced nuclear microfusions". The system works for two years
and is regularly patented (48).
- Moving from a model of the sun's internal structure which is radically different
from
the "thermonuclear" one, Renzo Boscoli advances the
hypothesis of a cold fusion experiment based on the "slow
bombardment" of lithium deuteride with neutrons and gamma rays
(49).
- Rose and Jones "discover" a "new kind of natural radioactivity" which is
Experimental
evidence for the alpha extended model of the atom (50).
- P. Armbruster, G. Munzenberg et al. work "on the production of heavy elements by cold fusion" (51).
- H. G. Clerc et al. "rediscover" cold fission (52).
- - 1989 While working at a new model of the atom, R. A. Monti comes to know
Boscoli's,
Kervran's, Speri and Zorzi's, Oshawa's and Borghi's papers. He
applies for a grant with the National Research Council (CNR) to
work on cold fusion. The grant is turned down. And since he is
"unemployed" as an experimentalist he works on History of
Physics and Theoretical Physics: "The criogenic model of nuclear
fusion (1988); "Historico - critical analysis of atom models"
(1988); "Reconstruction of the Periodic Table of the Elements
according to the Alpha - Extended Model of the Atom" (1989).
(53)
March
1989 Fleishmann and Pons realize a cold
fusion experiment which draws great attention. (54)
April
- May 1989 High Energy Physicists start a
huge campaign to "invalidate" cold fusion in front of the
public.
6
July 1989 J. Maddox, Director of "Nature",
believes "it is time to settle once and for all cold fusion as
pure delusion".
March
1990 Salt Lake City, First Annual Conference
on Cold Fusion. A year later researchers are able to publicly
"produce" a mass of experimental results which cover
forever with ridicule the "enemies" of cold fusion. Maddox
pretends nothing happened.
August
1990 Soviet - American Gallium Experiment
(SAGE) confirms that there is no experimental evidence for
Thermonuclear
reactions in the sun. (55)
June
1991 Second Annual Conference on Cold
Fusion, Italy.
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