Cobalt, at last ?

Once the distillation of acetum finished, I have a caput of the Sulfur, of a pale pink. I add to it, once cooled, some Spiritus Vini (S.V pure) for the dulcification.

And ... wow, what a nice thing ! All the caput just melted into the alcool, and gave a kind of bright glittering pink, sparkling of little sequins. Very, very nice, it was like a candy, but alcohol is not yet acting upon it, the Sulfur is precipitated.

 

 

So, I put it to digest for a while, hoping that the S.V will act and extract the soul of the Cobalt.

 

... and yes, it extracted it, a beautiful pink, purple violet in mass ! Cobalt is amazing, beautiful. I can't wait to try the Tincture !

More photos to come.

About Cobalt

Cobalt is a little like copper.

We can see that the pinkish colour of its Sulfur can be perceived in the natural state of the metal.

Coblat oxide is of a black/grey colour.

COBALT : From the German word for goblin  or evil spirit, kobald ("Kobold") and the Greek word for mine, cobalos.

Melting Point: 1768 K (1495°C or 2723°F)

Boiling Point: 3200 K (2927°C or 5301°F)

 

Cobalt was discovered by Georg Brandt, a Swedish chemist, in 1739. Brandt was attempting to prove that the ability of certain minerals to color glass blue was due to an unknown element and not to bismuth, as was commonly believed at the time. Cobalt's primary ores are cobaltite (CoAsS) and erythrite (Co3(AsO4)2). Cobalt is usually recovered as a byproduct of mining and refining nickel, silver, lead, copper and iron.

 Although cobalt is used in electroplating to give objects an attractive surface that resists oxidation, it is more widely used to form alloys. Alnico, an alloy consisting of aluminum, nickel and cobalt is used to make powerful permanent magnets. Stellite alloys, which contain cobalt, chromium and tungsten, are used to make high-speed and high temperature cutting tools and dyes. Cobalt is also used to make alloys for jet engines and gas turbines, magnetic steels and some types of stainless steels.

Cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope of cobalt, is an important source of gamma rays and is used to treat some forms of cancer and as a medical tracer. Cobalt-60 has a half-life of 5.27 years and decays into nickel-60 through beta decay.

Cobalt compounds have been used for centuries to color porcelain, glass, pottery, tile and enamel. Some of these compounds are known as: cobalt blue, ceruleum, new blue, smalt, cobalt yellow and cobalt green. In addition to being used as a dye, cobalt is also important to human nutrition as it is an essential part of vitamin B12.

http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele027.html

Generation of Metals

De Some Alchemical images of old books

This image shows us something clear : You need a salt, a sulfur, and a mercury, plus, a fire (vulcan = common fire, represented by the old man) in order to grow from a common place or root (represented by the tree) all the existing metals.

The general idea is that there is only ONE matter (made of three principles) that once cooked, and made more or less perfect, is coagulated in the veins of the earth, and give birth to metals.

In order to make a metal perfect, you just have to put it back into it's mine.

Maybe a joge on the spade of the gardener (alchemist) "Elaboro"

"Elabor, in latin mean, escaping from a danger, or elapsing from a place, that no one knows what we became."

Elaboratus, mean "made by art, and properly, with care, elaborated."

This is possibly a reference to the "ora et labora".

The Concipio on the tree, mean "to take several things in the same time".

Vulcan pour the saturnian waters upon the roots of the tree in order to nurture it, see the dew also, coming from above.

In the philosophy of alchemy, all metals are made of the same substance, à different degres of maturity. When you cut the root of a plant, or you put the whole plant out of earth, then, it cannot grow anymore, this is the same thing with metals. If you put in the fire a plant, it is destructed, again this is the same thing with metals.

It is not because metals can melt, that they have to be melted !