BOOK X.

463

The salt which we call sal-artifidosus , 25 is made from a libra each of vitriol,alum, saltpetre, and sulphur not exposed to the fire, and half a libra of sal-ammoniac ; these ingredients when crushed are heated with one part of lye madefrom the ashes used by wool dyers, one part of unslaked lime, and fourparts of beech ashes. The ingredients are boiled in the lye until the wholehas been dissolved. Then it is immediately dried and kept in a hot place,lest it turn into oil; and afterward when crushed, a libra of lead-ash is mixedwith it. With each libra of this powdered compound one and a half undueof the copper is gradually sprinkled into a hot crucible, and it is stirredrapidly and frequently with an iron rod. When the crucible has cooled andbeen broken up, the button of gold is found.

The second method for parting is the following. Two librae of sulphurnot exposed to the fire, and four librae of refined salt are crushed and mixed ;a sixth of a libra and half an unda of this powder is added to a bes of granulesmade of lead, and twice as much copper containing gold; they are heatedtogether in an earthen crucible until they melt. When cooled, the button istaken out and purged of slag. From this button they again make granules,to a third of a libra of which is added half a libra of that powder of which Ihave spoken, and they are placed in alternate layers in the crucible ; it iswell to cover the crucible and to seal it up, and afterward it is heated over agentle fire until the granules melt. Soon afterward, the crucible is taken offthe fire, and when it is cool the button is extracted. From this, when purifiedand again melted down, the third granules are made, to which, if they weigha sixth of a libra, is added one half an unda and a sidlicus of the powder,and they are heated in the same manner, and the button of gold settles at thebottom of the crucible.

The third method is as follows. From time to time small pieces ofsulphur, enveloped in or mixed with wax, are dropped into six librae of themolten copper, and consumed; the sulphur weighs half an unda and asidlicus. Then one and a half sidlici of powdered saltpetre are droppedinto the same copper and likewise consumed ; then again half an unda and asidlicus of sulphur enveloped in wax ; afterward one and a half sidlici oflead-ash enveloped in wax, or of minium made from red-lead. Then imme-diately the copper is taken out, and to the gold button, which is now mixedwith only a little copper, they add stibium to double the amount of the button ;these are heated together until the stibium is driven off ; then the button,together with lead of half the weight of the button, are heated in a cupel.

until it is fit for cupellation with lead, except in one case where the final stage is accomplishedy amalgamation. The lore of the old refiners was much after the order of that of modernc*>o s they treasured and handed down various efficacious recipes, and of those given here

a if f ^ oun d in identical terms in the Probierbuchlein, some editions of which, as men-accum WGre P 0ssibl Y fifty years before De Re Metallica. This knowledge, no doubt,

<snlnVn ed ° Ver experience; but, so far as we are aware, there is no description ofp izing copper for this purpose prior to the publication mentioned.

■i- ari ^ficiosus. The compound given under this name is of quite different in-

° rom tbe stock fluxes given in Book VII under the same term. The method of

p para ion, no doubt, dehydrated this one ; it would, however, be quite effective for itsf ‘tn+v 01 jP. r i 2 ing the copper. There is a compound given in the Probierbuchlein identical

this, and it was probably Agricola’s source of information.