Caveman Chemistry Book 1

Caveman Chemistry
Book 1
Experiments
01-14
Book 1 - Page 1 of 193 Pages

Prologue
Bottom: Peter Quince!
Quince: What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
Bottom: There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that will never
please. First, Pyramus must draw his sword to kill himself; which the ladies
cannot abide. How answer you that?
Snout: By'r lakin, a parlous fear.
Starvling: I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.
Bottom: Not a whit! I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue, and
let the prologue seem to say we will do no harm with our swords, and that
Pyramus is not kill'd indeed; and for the more better assurance, tell them that I
Pyramus am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver. This will put them out of
fear.
Quince: Well; we will have such a prologue, and let it be written in eight and
six.
— William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, ca. 1596 AD [1]

1.
Bottom: No; make it half; let it be written in four and three.
Snout: Will not the readers be confused by the fictions?
Starvling: I fear it, I promise you.
Bottom: Masters, you ought to consider with yourselves: to bring in—God shield us!—a
fiction among facts, is a most dreadful thing and there is no room for equivocation; we
ought to look to it.
Snout: Therefore another prologue should probably tell each fact from each fiction.
Bottom: Nay, you must clearly distinguish the one from the other, giving each fiction a
typographical symbol of some kind. And the author himself must speak the facts without
embellishment or subterfuge of any kind and tell the reader plainly which ones are the
facts.
Quince: With such an inspiration, all is well. Come, sit down, every mother's son, and
rehearse your parts; and so every one according to his cue.
Notes
[1] Reference [24], Act III, Scene 1.

2.
There are three kinds of people in the world. The first kind believe what they see; they
prefer to experience life as it unfolds, holding pre-conceived expectations in check until
observations make all things plain. If you belong to this tribe, a Prologue or preface might
spoil some of the fun of figuring things out for yourself. I advise you to skip it altogether
and proceed without delay to Chapter 1. The second kind see what they believe; they
prefer to experience life with structure, pre-conceived expectations providing a plane
from which to make observations. If this is your family, I wrote this Prologue to provide
such a vantage point. The third kind don't believe that seeing is worth the effort; they
have skipped the Prologue already, presuming that it is merely the conventional place for
the author to thank his cronies for their invaluable support. If you are of this ilk, I need
say nothing to you at all.
I teach chemistry at Hampden-Sydney College, a small liberal-arts college in central

Virginia. The students here, by and large, do not come equipped with insatiable curiosity
about my discipline and experience has convinced me that the profession of professing
has more to do with motivation than with explanation; a student who is not curious will
resist even the most valiant attempts at compulsory education; conversely, inquiring
minds want to know. A great deal of my time, then, has been spent devising tricks,
gimmicks, schemes and plots for leading stubborn horses to water, knowing full well that
I can't make them think.
One day as I scuttled across campus, I overheard a tour guide gushing over the Federalist
architecture; "If these walls could speak, what stories they would tell." They teach them
to say things like that, you know. The phrase brought to mind a lyric from an old song;
"If you could read my mind Love, what a tale my thoughts would tell." You know the
one. I noticed myself humming it on the way to the post office. "Just like a paperback
novel," it continued as I attempted to concentrate on my grading. "I never thought I could
act this way, and I've got to say that I just don't get it." The tune wouldn't let go. It's
probably playing in your head too, by now. "And I will never be set free…" as long as
there's this song inside of me. It had begun to mutate. It ended up, "If I could read my
own mind, what a tale this song would tell."
That song began life as a simple phrase in the head of Gordon Lightfoot. The phrase
combined with others to form lyrics. The lyrics enchanted family members, friends and
record executives and eventually came to possess millions of radio listeners. And our
heads are full of such things: songs, stories, plays, instructions. From the Gettysburg
Address to the recipe for the perfect martini, from one mind to another traveling through
time, if only they could speak…

Look into your own mind and grab the first recognizable bit of such thought-stuff you
come across. Where did you get it? Where did the person you got it from, get it? Who
was the first person to get it, or, to be more precise, to be got by it? Wouldn't it be
interesting if the thought itself could tell you its story? Wouldn't that be an interesting
premise for a book? "And you would read that book again…" unless the idea's just too
hard to take.

3.
The actors are at hand; and by their show,
You shall know all, that you are like to know.
— A Midsummer Night's Dream[1]
You are probably wondering what the little symbol at the beginning of this sentence
means. I will tell you. The book, as you will no doubt recall from the first section of this
Prologue, is written in four and three. Four spirits, Fire, Earth, Air and Water narrate the
chapters, which could get confusing were it not for the presence of these symbols
intended to identify which spirit is speaking at any particular point. When the water spirit
speaks, for example, the text will begin with the alchemical symbol for water: The
astute reader will instantly surmise that since this paragraph began with the water symbol
it is, in fact, narrated by the spirit, Water. In other words, I am that part of Doctor Dunn's
mental inventory having to do with watery things, those things having come to him from
parents and teachers, and their parents and teachers in a long and steady stream back
through history and into pre-history where we find the very first watery thought. Moving
forward, this first watery thought passed from the first person who had it to the second
person, where it accumulated new watery bits like a watery snowball until at last it
dribbled, bit by bit, into the Doctor's mind. And yours, I might add. It is my job to
provide a first-hand account of some of the major events in the watery quadrant of the
history of chemical technology.
Well, that was clear as mud. I'm afraid that Water tends to run at the faucet
sometimes, so if you want a firm foundation for understanding this book, you're better off
listening to Earth. This book is about digging stuff out of the ground and making it into
other, more valuable stuff. There are twenty-eight chapters and at least seven of them will
teach you something useful. Each chapter starts with a section explaining how that
particular chapter's stuff got invented. Then there's a section telling you what you need to
know about why the stuff is the way it is. Each chapter wraps up with a section showing
you how to make the stuff that the chapter's about. If you're not interested in making
stuff, it'd be a waste of time for you to read this book because you're not going to get
anything out of it if you're not willing to get your hands earthy.
If Water and Earth haven't convinced you that the Author is off his nut, I'm afraid
there's not much I can do to help. I'm supposed to represent the element, air, in case you
haven't figured it out. I know it's confusing, but there we are. The Author wanted to write
an unusual book, an interesting book, a book that would entertain as well as instruct, but
I'm sorry to say that unusual is as far as he got. It takes most readers until Chapter 5 even
to figure out that the book has characters, like actors in a play.

To keep potential readers from chucking his masterpiece in with their empty pop bottles
and pizza boxes, the Author has written this Prologue as a "device to make all well," but
for that to work they would have to actually get through the Prologue without drifting off
into a midsummer's daydream.
Let them slumber; this book is not for the lazy or the timid. It is a book of secrets to
be carefully tended like an eternal flame, not casually browsed like a four-year-old
fishing magazine in a dentist's office. Everyone who lays hands on it and often tries it out
will think that a kind of key is contained in it. For just as access to the contents of locked
houses is impossible without a key, so also, without this commentary all that appears in
the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistos will give the reader a feeling of exclusion
and darkness. The text is composed in four and three; Fire, Earth, Air, and Water;
Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt. In this way was the book created. From this there will be
amazing applications, for this is the pattern.
Truly, without deceit. Certainly and absolutely. That which is Above

corresponds to that which is Below and that which is Below corresponds to
that which is Above in the accomplishment of the miracle of One Thing.
And just as all things come from One, so all things follow from this One Thing,
in the same way.
Its father is the Sun; its mother is the Moon. The wind has carried it in its belly.
Its nourishment is the Earth.
It is the father of every completed thing in the Whole World. Its strength is
intact if it is turned towards the Earth. Separate the Earth by Fire, the fine
from the gross, gently and with great skill.
It rises from the Earth to Heaven and descends again to the Earth, and receives
power from Above and from Below. Thus thou wilt have the glory of the Whole
World. All obscurity shall be clear to thee.
This is the strong power of all powers for it overcomes everything fine and
penetrates everything solid. In this way was the World created. From this there
will be amazing applications, for this is the pattern.
Therefore am I called Hermes Trismegistos, having the three parts of wisdom

of the Whole World.
Herein have I completely explained the Operation of the Sun.

— The Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistos

Right. I'm afraid you'll have to put up with a bit of pseudo-alchemical techno-babble
in the course of this book. The Author might simply have described the nature of the
elements, but for the more flamboyant elements of his nature.

Fire is the main culprit, but Earth and Water have their moments, as well. "The text is
composed in four and three." The Author might have simply said that the book has four
characters and each chapter has three sections. If you ask me, this book should have
rested on the periodic table, not on the Emerald Tablet.
The periodic table is fine, as far as it goes, but it says nothing of the Operation of the
Sun.
Transmutation, that is. Black gold, Texas tea. The Emerald Tablet's not so much
about literally changing lead into gold, of course, but more about changing useless stuff
into useful stuff.
I believe it is more of an allegory about life and death, mortality and immortality,
about coming into being and kicking the bucket. This book will follow that pattern,
tracing the advance of chemical technology from a stone-age trickle to the babbling
brooks of the Bronze Age to the stately rivers of the Iron Age to the confluence of
tributaries in the Middle Ages to the polluted canals of the Industrial Revolution. But I
am getting ahead of myself.
Indeed you are. The first chapter belongs to me.
Notes
[1] Reference [24], Act V, Scene 1.

Table of Contents
Book 1
Prologue
1. Lucifer (Charcoal)
2. Unktomi (Silicates)
3. Hammurabi (Units)
4. Samson (Mead)
5. Athanor (Ceramics)
6. Venus (Textiles)
7. Adam (Metathesis?Reactions)
8. Job (Alkali)
9. Vulcan (Metals)
10. Vitruvius (Lime)
11. Pliny (Redox?Reactions)
12. Marie (Dyes)
13. Theophilus (Glass)
14. Ts'ai Lun (Paper)
Book 2
15. al-Razi (Stoichiometry)
16. Adelard (Alcohol)
17. Tzu-Chhun (Gunpowder)
18. Spot and Roebuck (Acid)
19. Bath (Soap)
20. Leblanc (Soda)
21. Volta (Batteries)
22. Perkin (Aniline?Dyes)
23. Eastman (Photography)
24. Solvay (Ammonia)
25. Dow (Electrochemicals)
26. Bayer (Pharmaceuticals)
27. Badische (Fertilizers)
28. DuPont (Plastics)
Epilogue
A. Back Cover
B. The Laboratory Notebook
C. Measuring and Mixing
D. Supplies and Suppliers
E. Atomic Weights
Inspirations
Bibliography
Glossary
Index

List of Tables
Book 1
1-1. Formulae for Some Common Substances
3-1. Common Unit Factors
5-1. Three Temperature Scales
7-1. Common Cations and Anions
7-2. Aqueous Solubility of Inorganic Compounds
8-1. Combustion Products of Beech Wood
8-2. Solubility of Alkali Sulfates and Carbonates
9-1. Metals and Their Ores
Book 2
19-1. Saponification Values for Common Oils and Fats
List of Equations
Book 1
1-1. The Combustion of Cellulose
4-1. Aerobic and Anaerobic Fermentation of Glucose
5-1. The Calcination of Kaolinite
6-1. From Air to Glucose to Cellulose
6-2. Condensation of a Protein from Glycine
8-1. Reactions of Potassium Carbonate with Water
9-1. Smelting of Oxide and Carbonate Ores
9-2. Roasting of Sulfide Ores
10-1. From Gypsum to Plaster and Back Again
10-2. From Lime Back to Limestone
12-1. From Indogotin to Leucoindigotin
12-2. From Urea to Ammonia
12-3. From Leucoindigotin to Indigotin
Book 2
16-1. Reactions of Ethanol and Acetic Acid
17-1. Skeleton Equations for Two Gunpowder Mixtures
18-1. Acid Properties of Carbon Dioxide
18-2. Properties of Sulfurous Acid
18-3. Properties of Sulfuric Acid
18-4. Two More Mineral Acids
19-1. Saponification
21-1. Four Electrochemical Reactions
24-1. Reactions Involving Carbon Dioxide
24-2. Reactions Involving Ammonia
26-1. From Aniline to Acetanilide
28-1. The Condensation of an Ester

Chapter 1. Lucifer (Charcoal)
Call me Lucifer, for I am the bringer of light. No angel was I born, nor devil
neither. Nay, as animal I came into the world, and so I will acknowledge both
horns and tail. My sin, if it must be called that, was not pride, but curiosity.
Alas! The world has forgotten my story, amalgamated me with a host of
unfashionable gods until I am beyond recognition.
Beasts among beasts, we lived and died in fear. Fear of the darkness which
harbors terrors unseen. Fear of the cold which lulls us to sleep everlasting.
Fear of the tooth and the claw which hound us both in wakes and in dreams.
My child, would ye be one with Nature? Ye have only to sit still while she
devours thee.
They say that it is evil, an indiscriminate destroyer of all in its path. They say
that its proper abode is the pit. They say that he who would be its master must,
little by little, inevitably become its slave. They say that to consort with it is to
risk the utter annihilation of the whole world. And yet, from a timid brute, it
has crowned the master of all Nature.
In a wasteland of its own making did I find it starving and gasping. The
destroyer of worlds reduced to a silent gray infant. With my own breath did I
restore its complexion until the murky dusk gave way to the gentle dawn. With
my own heart did I incubate and nurture it until the savage winter gave way to
an early spring. With my own hand did I feed it until at last its forked tongue
licked at my fingers and, for the first time in my life, I was not afraid. My child,
can ye feel the warmth of its gentle touch? Beware its teeth, lest it bite thee.
Old and tired am I now and can care for the infant no longer. Who will feed it
when I am gone? Who will guide it with wisdom? Who will protect it from its
enemies? Who will tame its terrible wrath? My child, have ye the will to bring
the light into the world? Cherish these tools for the day that ye find need of
them.

1.1.
It all began with a spark. A rather unremarkable animal roamed the African savanna
that scorching summer day. Slower than a lion, smaller than an elephant, weaker than a
gorilla, dumber than a hyena, she[1] survived the same as anyone else, by finding enough
to eat until being eaten in her turn. If she were a little faster, a little bigger, a little
stronger, a little smarter, or just plain lucky, she might live long enough to beget children
to take their turn at the cyclical feast. And so it might have continued for another day,
another year, another eternity, were it not for the spark.
A spark, dry wood, a stiff breeze, and in the blink of an eye the world went crazy as it
had done before and would do again. Animals rushed to and fro, the air took on a peculiar
smell, the earth glowed with sunlight from within and was left black and warm. A bounty
remained for scavengers who braved the heat, for food was everywhere, not running, not
fighting, not resisting, just lying there for the taking. This was her lucky day! The meat
was so warm, so tender, so tasty, salted by the ashes, and seasoned by the charcoal. Many
flocked to the carbonaceous cornucopia and the party continued long into the night. And
just as the stars appeared in the black heavens, so did they litter the blackened earth. This
spectacle had presented itself to countless generations, but on this day it was truly seen
for the very first time.
How did this unremarkable animal differ from her father and mother, her uncles and
aunts? They recalled similar episodes from seasons past. The old ones even used to boast
about how much better the wildfires were when they were children. But our hero turned
her attention from the abundant delicacies to the stars that lay smoldering on the ground.
She poked at one with a stick, as she would a termite mound, and it produced a child—a
star on a stick! She waved it about, and it glowed brighter and brighter. That was the
moment I was born.
Before you can proceed with the Work, you need to understand exactly who I am. It
is, perhaps, easier to begin with who I am not; I am not the mortal Dunn, whose name
graces the cover of this book. Neither am I that original fire-maker, dead these half
million years. I am not fire itself. No, I am nothing more and nothing less than an I-dea,
the I-dea of fire, currently living among many other I-deas in the mind of Dunn.
I started as just another I-dea floating around in the primordial soup which was the
unremarkable African's mind. There I bumped into other I-deas: facts, observations,
whims, appetites, notions, questions and answers. As simple I-deas merged into more
complex ones, as weak I-deas were displaced by stronger ones, I came to the realization
that for the first time in my life, I was in control. I did not have to helplessly watch while
my mortal body shivered with cold or cowered in the darkness. I called the shots now.
From just another I-dea I grew into a really good I-dea, a powerful I-dea, an I-dea worth
telling.

And I was told. The original animal told her friend, the friend told his nephew, the
nephew his daughter and the daughter her husband. By the time the original animal died I
had, like the prolific fire itself, found fresh tinder of my own; not grass and twigs, but the
minds of hundreds of mortals. From these humble beginnings I spread across the globe
and through the centuries until at last I came to possess the mind of the mortal Dunn. And
so the telling continues; as fresh mortal eyes scan these pages, I wonder what I will find
on the other side. Will the indigenous I-deas welcome me or will they consider me a
threat? Will they erect fire-walls to protect their delicate habitat or will they stoke the
hearth and celebrate my coming? If there is no home for me there, the mortal will shut its
eyes and put down this book, content to live out its few remaining days in darkness. But
you, my child, have continued to the next sentence and thanks to your hospitality, I have
found a place to temporarily alight on my long journey into the future.
It is fashionable these days to long for a simpler life, one without atom bombs and
toxic waste, one without chemotherapy and smokestacks. But even the most enthusiastic
back-to-nature-ists among us would be loath to leave the inviting warmth of the campfire
for life in the cold, the wet, the dark, and the dangerous habitats from which we emerged.
Even the most radical Luddite would ask for a hut with a fireplace. Yet no culture on the
planet has remained content to keep the home-fire burning while rejecting its gifts:
pottery, metals, glass and many others. No, fire is the original Pandora's Box. This book
is an introduction to that box, how we have opened it little by little, and the skills and
materials we have taken from it.
Notes
[1] No one can know the gender of this first fire-maker. I have chosen a female.

1.2.
As a teenager I once set fire to a field of wheat chaff. I didn't do it maliciously; in fact,
the farmer I was working for that summer paid me to do it. As it was, the field was a fire
hazard but by choosing a time when the wind was at the right speed and from the proper
direction, we could control the course of the fire, eliminating the danger of an accidental
fire and returning nutrients to the soil. But none of that mattered to me—I was awestruck
by the spectacle of the fire itself. Our fascination with fire is something primal,
irresistible, and ancient, passed from one human being to another since the dawn of time.
I call that part of human nature—the part that thrills to a fireworks display, the part that
slouches before a fireplace, the part that insists on dinner by candle light—I call that part
"Lucifer." I have given Lucifer an independent voice in this book, separate and distinct
from my own. Lucifer's pronouncements are preceded by the alchemical symbol for fire,
an upward-pointing triangle reminiscent of a flame. In addition, you will be haunted by
three other spirits, those of Earth, Air, and Water, but for the moment it falls to me, the
twenty-first century chemist, to describe the phenomenon of fire.
Figure 1-1. Aristotle's Elements
Lucifer was alive and well in 350 BC. Driven by curiosity, philosophers engaged in a
lively debate on the nature of the universe; was it made of infinitely many kinds of
substances or just a few? Aristotle summarized the opposing viewpoints:
Anaximenes and Diogenes make air prior to water, and the most primary of the

simple bodies, while Hippasus of Metapontium and Heraclitus of Ephesus say
this of fire, and Empedocles says it of the four elements, (adding a fourth—
earth—to those which have been named); for these, he says, always remain and
do not come to be, except that they come to be more or fewer, being aggregated
into one and segregated out of one.
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, who, though older than Empedocles, was later in

his philosophical activity, says the principles are infinite in number; for he says
almost all the things that are made of parts like themselves, in the manner of
water or fire, are generated and destroyed in this way, only by aggregation and
segregation, and are not in any other sense generated or destroyed, but remain
eternally.[1]
Aristotle divided the world into opposites, noting, for example, that things are either hot
or cold, never both. They are either wet or dry, never both. But a thing can be both hot
and dry or cold and wet. And so fire was assigned dominion over things "hot and dry."
water included all things "cold and wet," earth described anything that was "cold and
dry," and air, anything "hot and wet," as illustrated in Figure 1-1.
Figure 1-2. Lavoisier's Elements
If longevity is a sign of success, the I-dea of "element" must be considered a great one,
having held sway for more than two millennia. And the division into four makes a certain
logical sense, but there was always the temptation to view these elements as
"ingredients." The practical questions asked by crafts people and artisans had less to do
with logic than with logistics. "How much of which ores will produce a ton of copper?"
"What kinds of herbs, and in what proportions, will cure a fever?" "What fertilizers will
yield the best crops?" "Which plant will dye cloth a permanent blue color?" The four
elements are descriptive, not prescriptive. They describe qualities, not quantities. Any

attempt to view them as the literal ingredients of nature is fraught with difficulty. Let us
examine each of these elements in turn, beginning with earth.
Wood, being cold and dry, belongs to the earthy domain. Look at it closely and you will
see that its composition is not uniform; there are dark areas and light areas. The
composition of the wood in the light areas is different from that in the dark areas; it
cannot be a single substance because it is clearly heterogeneous. Most of the matter
encountered in nature is heterogeneous. A handful of earth can be separated into sand and
clay, decayed leaves and insects. The sky is divided into a blue expanse across which
distinct white clouds roam. Water contains algae and fish and scum. Look at most matter
closely enough and you will see non-uniformities and these are the hallmark of
heterogeneous matter. Even blood and milk are heterogeneous when viewed under a
microscope; Blood consists of the colorless plasma and the colored cells, while milk
consists of the colorless whey and various suspended solids and liquids.
Heterogeneous matter can be separated into its constituents by mechanical means, by

sorting, sifting, filtering, or sometimes by just letting it settle. For wood, this would entail
grinding the wood to a powder and separating the white bits from the brown. I might do
this with tweezers and a magnifying glass, or I might find an easier, more ingenious
method (see Chapter 14, for example) for achieving the separation, but in the end, I
would have the white pile and the brown pile, each one uniform in appearance and
composition. I would have rendered the wood homogeneous. Let us call the white pile
cellulose for future reference, and move on from earth to a consideration of air.
Granted, air may have dust or fog in it, but let us filter it until it is clean and dry. No
matter how closely I look at this sample, it is the same everywhere, i.e. its composition is
uniform. There are no light bits and dark bits: it is clearly homogeneous. I may now ask
whether or not this air is an element. This question was explored by Antoine Lavoisier
late in the eighteenth century.[2] Mercury was boiled in air for 12 days, during which
time a red solid formed on the surface of the mercury. At the end of the experiment, 42-
43 cubic inches of the original 50 cubic inches of air remained. This gas extinguished
candles and suffocated animals immersed into it, and he called it nitrogen. The red solid
was collected and, when heated, produced 7-8 cubic inches of gas. Either this was an
amazing coincidence, or this was the same 7-8 cubic inches which went missing from the
original air. This new gas, in contrast to nitrogen, caused candles to burn more brightly
than in normal air, and was breathable by animals. Lavoisier gave it the name oxygen and
concluded that air was not an element, but a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. Today, air is
recognized as a solution of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen,[3] but these percentages are
not fixed. A solution has a uniform but variable composition. Air is still air if it has 18%
or 25% oxygen. Its composition may vary from city to suburb, from mountain to valley,
or from the first to the twenty-first century.
Whereas a solution is described by its percentage composition, which may vary, a pure
substance has a fixed composition. The solution called air can be separated into the
substances nitrogen and oxygen. While there are many methods for separating a solution

into its substances, we will consider three in detail. Recrystallization will be discussed in
Chapter 8, distillation in Chapter 16, and chromatography in Chapter 22.
Earth is heterogeneous; air is a solution; what about water? Filter it so that it is

homogeneous; distill it until it is pure. The question remains, "Is it an element, or is it a
combination of other materials?" All of our work in defining a pure substance has been
leading up to this fundamental distinction. The evidence that water is a compound is also
summarized in Elements of Chemistry. First, Lavoisier decomposed water by passing
steam over iron. 100 parts (by weight) of water decomposed into 15 parts of hydrogen
and 85 parts of oxygen. Furthermore, 15 parts of hydrogen combined with 85 parts of
oxygen to produce 100 parts of water. He concluded that pure water is composed of 15%
hydrogen and 85% oxygen. These proportions have been refined over the years as our
ability to weigh gases has improved; water is precisely 11.190% hydrogen and 88.810%
oxygen. Any sufficiently careful experiment will confirm these percentages, and they are
the same for water collected and purified anywhere. Water is never 25% hydrogen or 3%
hydrogen; its composition is fixed and this is what makes it a substance rather than a
solution.
While the composition of water is fixed, it is not robust; after all, Lavoisier had showed
that it can be decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen. A substance is classified as a
compound when it can be decomposed into two or more other substances. Similarly,
cellulose, the white homogeneous solid separated from wood, becomes black when
charred. Careful observations reveal that when cellulose is heated in a closed container, it
decomposes primarily into the substances, charcoal and water. When one substance
decomposes into two, it must be a compound.
With earth, air, and water stripped of their elemental status, one might wonder whether
any substance can resist such analysis. While even fire has not survived as an element,
one of its products, charcoal, has done so. According to Lavoisier, "As charcoal has not
been hitherto decomposed, it must, in the present state of our knowledge, be considered
as a simple substance."[4] Lavoisier's notion of a "simple substance," or element, is thus
provisional; while a compound is a pure substance which has been decomposed, an
element is one which, so far, has resisted all such attempts. Charcoal's composition is
robust. Unlike wood, charcoal can be heated in the absence of oxygen without suffering
further decomposition. That is not to say that charcoal is inert; charcoal burns in the
presence of oxygen to produce a gas with a fixed composition, that is, two substances
combine to make one substance. To show that charcoal is a compound we would have to
turn one substance into two substances. No process has yet been found for doing so and
since the time of Lavoisier, charcoal has been known as the element, carbon, after the
French word for coal.

Table 1-1. Formulae for Some Common Substances
Let us now examine the nature of fire using the combustion of wood in air as an
example. Wood is a heterogeneous material composed chiefly of cellulose; air is a
solution composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen, so let us sharpen our discussion of fire
by considering only the reaction of cellulose with oxygen. The combustion of cellulose
occurs in two stages. When cellulose is heated, it does not burn immediately; it first
releases steam and turns from white to black, that is, it chars, becoming charcoal. It is
this hot charcoal which burns when it comes into contact with oxygen, producing a new
gas, carbon dioxide. The heat released by the combustion causes more cellulose to char,
producing more steam and charcoal. Since cellulose, steam (water), charcoal, oxygen,
and carbon dioxide are all substances, they can be represented by chemical formulae, as
defined in Table 1-1. Reactions involving these substances are represented by the
equations shown in Equation 1-1. An equation is said to be balanced if the amount of
each element is the same on either side of the equal sign. Equation (a) describes the
charring of cellulose and (b) describes the combustion of charcoal. In such equations the
attributes (s), (l) and (g) refer to the states solid, liquid and gas.
Equation 1-1. The Combustion of Cellulose

Figure 1-3. Fire as a Process
The equations of Equation 1-1 correspond to the process schematic of Figure 1-3, and
vice versa. In such a schematic the cellulose reactant enters from the left and moves into
reactor (a), a furnace, where it is charred. The lower circle of the furnace, bearing the
alchemical symbol for fire, represents any source of heat. The middle circle, bearing the
symbol for earth, represents the transformation of the solid cellulose into solid charcoal.
The top circle, bearing the symbol for air, represents the gases produced in the furnace, in
this case water vapor. Because water is a waste product in this reactor, it exits to the top
of the figure, as if it were going up a chimney. The intended product of the reactor,
charcoal, exits to the right. The convention established here is that reactants enter a
reactor from the left, useful products exit to the right, and waste products exit to the top
or bottom of a schematic.
Reactor (b) is a burner, represented by the alchemical symbol for fire. The reactants,
charcoal and oxygen, enter from the left and carbon dioxide goes up the chimney. Taken
together, the two reactors of Figure 1-3 give a pictorial representation of the
corresponding reactions for the combustion of cellulose. Study them carefully, as the
conventions established here will allow us to represent quite complicated chemical
processes using simple figures.

Material Safety
We live in a litigious society. Consequently lawn mowers must carry warnings

that they are not to be used for trimming hedges. Sand destined for the sand-
box must carry a hazardous material warning. In short, manufacturers are
forced to warn consumers of every conceivable danger, no matter how bizarre,
involving their products. Given this atmosphere, I had better tell you that the
projects described in this book require a certain amount of common sense to be
completed safely. A stupid or careless person will, no doubt, be able to find
ingenious ways to hurt himself[5] no matter how many warnings are given.
And, incredibly, far from being embarrassed by his[6] stupidity, he may believe
that someone else should have protected him from his own stupidity. If you
intend to make fire, do I really have to tell you to be careful? Do not make fire
near flammable materials. Do not make fire in small, unventilated places.
Avoid inhaling smoke. If you are stupid, careless, or unwilling to accept
responsibility for your own safety, let me ask you to save us all a lot of trouble
by putting this book away and taking up some safer activity, like sitting quietly
or walking carefully in slow circles.
Research and Development
Before proceeding with your work, you must master the following material:
• Know the meanings of those words from this chapter worthy of

inclusion in the index or glossary.
• Know the alchemical symbols for the four Aristotelian elements.
• Be able to classify materials as solutions, compounds, and elements.
• Know the composition and properties of wood, charcoal, and air.
• Know formulae for cellulose, water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen,
and charcoal.
• Know the equations for the charring of cellulose to produce charcoal
and for the combustion of charcoal.
• Be able to reproduce Figure 1-3 and to explain the process it
symbolizes.
• Be able to explain the nature of I-deas.

Notes
[1] Reference [2] Metaphysica, p. 984a.

[2] Reference [17], pp. 34-35.
[3] The remaining 1% consists of argon, carbon dioxide, and a host of less abundant
gases.
[4] Reference [17], p. 208.
[5] In the case of non-characters of indefinite gender, pronouns have been chosen by
coin toss. An initial coin toss established the convention that "heads" would result in
a female pronoun and vice versa. One toss was allowed for each pronoun and this
toss was never second-guessed. Any suspicions of gender bias should therefore be
attributed to the coin, not to the author. Such pronouns are listed in the index under
He/his and She/her.
[6] When a string of pronouns or adjectives refer to a non-character of indefinite gender,
the first one has been chosen by coin toss and subsequent references made to agree
with it.

1.3.
Few people in the twenty-first century remember how to make fire, to really make fire,
from scratch, as it were. If you are to make the long journey from caveman[1] to chemist,
you must learn this skill, which precedes all others. To make fire you need wood and air,
both of which are easy to come by, but the central problem of fire-starting is getting
enough heat to initiate the combustion of charcoal. The easiest, though least convenient
solution, is to simply wait for a lightning strike as the original Lucifer did. Once people
began making stone tools, it became apparent that certain stones sparked when struck
together, and that if you caught the spark in a flammable material, you could start a fire.
The modern cigarette lighter is the child of this technology. In addition to stone, wood
itself was used for making tools, though it leaves little evidence in the archeological
record. When wood is rubbed together, the friction generates heat, sometimes enough
heat to ignite the wood. The modern friction match is based on this phenomenon. With
the invention of the glass lens in the fifteenth century, fire could be started by focusing
the light of the Sun on a combustible material, a technology that has delighted children
and terrified ants ever since.
Figure 1-4. The Fire Kit
None of the ancient methods of fire-making are easy to learn, and all of the modern
methods are so easy as to be trivial. For this book, I wanted a method which would be

easy enough for most people to master, while preserving some of the challenge of
traditional methods. Flint and steel is not too demanding but it requires steel, which was
unknown in Paleolithic times. The magnifying glass, though entertaining, is also too
recent a development for our purposes. This leaves fire by friction, the method I have
chosen for consideration. One of the most popular tools for making fire by friction is the
bow-drill. Reliable, portable and quick, it has remained my favorite method over the
years, but like learning to ride a bicycle, it requires practice. To facilitate this practice I
have devised "training wheels," as it were, for the bow-drill.
Figure 1-4(L) shows the complete fire kit. A brief overview of its parts and operation will
be given first, with details to follow. The "training wheels" consist of the guide (a) and
supports (b), all cut from standard 2x4 inch[2] lumber. The guide is 9 inches tall and has
two holes drilled at right angles to one another. The vertical hole is 5/8 inches in diameter
and approximately 4 inches deep. The horizontal hole is 1 inch in diameter and goes
completely through the guide. The holes must be drilled so that they intersect one
another, that is, so that you may look down through the vertical hole into the horizontal
one. The four supports are 14 inches long and must be screwed or pegged to the guide
and to one other so that they securely hold the guide upright.
The vertical hole in the guide accommodates the spindle, (c), a 9-inch length of 5/8-inch
diameter hardwood dowel rod. Such rod can be purchased inexpensively at hardware
stores and craft shops. Since the spindle will be gradually consumed, you should have
several of them on hand. The spindle should turn freely; if it sticks, enlarge the vertical
hole with sandpaper until the spindle is free to turn. The top of the spindle will be held by
a block, (d), a piece of wood with a shallow hole large enough to hold the spindle without
binding. To keep from burning through the block, this hole should be drilled large enough
to snugly fit a half-inch copper "endcap," available wherever plumbing supplies are sold.
The inside of this endcap should be lubricated with fat or oil so that downward pressure
may be applied to the spindle as it turns. In addition to the spindle and block, you will
need a bow, (e).
It is not necessary that the bow be either flexible or curved. In fact, a 3-foot length of 5/8-
inch diameter dowel rod will work admirably. Your bow will need a bow-string, for
which a 6-foot length of 1/8-inch diameter nylon cord will serve. The bow needs one hole
at each end large enough to accommodate the nylon cord. The cord is knotted at one end,
passes through both holes in the bow, and is simply wrapped around the bow at the other
end, allowing the tension of the bow-string to be adjusted. The bow-string will be
wrapped around the spindle in such a way that motion of the bow turns the spindle.
Figure 1-4 shows the fire kit in operation. The left foot is placed on the support with the
shin parallel to the guide. The left hand,[3] braced against the knee, grips the lubricated
block and applies downward pressure on the spindle. The bow is held parallel to the
ground with the right hand and as it moves back and forth, the spindle turns freely in the
guide. The lower end of the spindle presses against a piece of wood, the fire-board, which
sits in the 1-inch hole in the guide. It is friction of the spindle against the fire-board which
will produce the heat needed for our fire.

Figure 1-5. Yucca and Mullein
Not just any wood will work for the fire-board; it needs to combine strength,
flammability, and low density. If you choose the wrong wood, your path will be filled
with nothing but frustration. When looking for fire-board materials, low-density wood is
best, as its low thermal conductivity allows heat to build up faster than it can be carried
off. Think balsa, not mahogany. I have found yucca, shown in Figure 1-5(L), to be an
excellent choice, and it is commonly available throughout North America as an
ornamental plant. It can be recognized by its tuft of leaves at the base, its stalks reaching
for the sky, and its fist-shaped fruits. Harvest the stalks in the fall, after the fruits have
fallen. Mullein, shown in Figure 1-5(R), is another wood suitable for the fire-board. Strip
off the leaves and let the stalk dry. Whichever wood you choose, cut it into short lengths
that will fit into the 1-inch hole in the guide.

Figure 1-6. The Bow
Now that the overview is complete, let us look at some details, starting with the bow.
Figure 1-6(L) shows the far end of the bow, where the bow-string is knotted. The bow-
string passes through a hole in the bow and is wrapped once around the spindle in the
direction shown; if the bow-string is wrapped in the wrong direction, it may bind. The
bow-string passes from the spindle through the hole in the near end of the bow. With the
bow at an acute angle to the ground, the bow-string is pulled as tight as possible and then
wrapped around the bow, forming a handle, as shown in Figure 1-6(R). Wrapping the
bow-string rather than knotting it allows its tension to be re-adjusted quickly. When the
bow is brought parallel to the ground the bow-string will come under tension, gripping
the spindle tightly.

Figure 1-7. The Spindle and the Fire-Board
Figure 1-7(L) shows the "business end" of the spindle, the end which contacts the fire-
board. A fresh spindle will be white and its end flat, but as it is used the end will char and
assume a conical shape. Several fire-boards may need to be consumed before this ideal
condition is established. Figure 1-7(R) shows details of the fire-board, with a notch, or
chimney, cut into the end and a hole burned into the top by friction with the spindle. This
particular fire-board has already made a fire and consequently its hole is relatively deep. I
pre-notch my fire-boards and place them into the guide so that the tip of the spindle is
near the vertical chimney. As the spindle burns a hole in the fire-board, charred wood
dust, or punk, spills out of the chimney. It is this hot punk which will give birth to the
ember.

Figure 1-8. A Star Is Born
Figure 1-8 shows the fire-board with its chimney in the guide. As the bow turns the
spindle and pressure is applied with the block, the fire-board will begin to smoke and
punk will spill from the chimney. If the pressure from the block is too light, no smoke
will appear; if it is too heavy, the spindle will burn all the way through the fire-board
before the punk catches fire. Therefore heavy pressure may be applied until smoke
appears and then only enough pressure to maintain a thick, heavy smoke. The optimal
bowing technique is to use long, smooth, steady strokes rather than short, rapid ones.
Two or three strokes per second are quite sufficient. Try to make the pushing stroke with
the same speed and pressure as the pulling stroke. The bow should move parallel to the
ground and alongside your hips, rather than into your stomach. If you manage the block
and bow gently and with great skill, the smoke will become thicker and thicker until the
pile of punk itself begins to smoke. When this happens, stop bowing and blow on the hot
punk; if blowing on it increases the amount of smoke, the punk very likely contains an
ember. Keep blowing until the ember appears, as shown in Figure 1-8(R). A natural
Lucifer may get an ember from the very first fire-board, but most people will go through
two or three of them before achieving success. Once you have learned to make fire with
the guide, you can try doing it au naturale; the guide will have trained you in the proper
technique.

Quality Assurance
There is no room for equivocation. Either you have brought a red-hot

glowing ember into the world or are content to live in darkness. Having
succeeded, you should record your exploits in a notebook. Appendix B
describes a suitable format. Describe your procedure in sufficient detail that
you would be able to use it to reproduce your performance at some later date,
for experimental reproducibility is one of the most important I-deas in science.
Take one of your living embers and burn a hole through a page in your
notebook as an everlasting witness to your achievement.
Notes
[1] Throughout this book I use the word caveman in a gender-neutral sense. I prefer the
ring of caveman and human to caveperson and huperson.
[2] Throughout the book I use both English and metric units, as convenient. Chapter 3
will discuss unit conversions so that people may adapt projects to the materials
available to them.
[3] Left and right may be reversed for left-handed Lucifers.

Chapter 2. Unktomi (Silicates)
There were once upon a time two young men who were very great friends, and
were constantly together. One was a very thoughtful young man, the other very
impulsive, who never stopped to think before he committed an act.
One day these two friends were walking along, telling each other of their
experiences in love making. They ascended a high hill, and on reaching the
top, heard a ticking noise as if small stones or pebbles were being struck
together.
Looking around they discovered a large spider sitting in the midst of a great
many flint arrowheads. The spider was busily engaged making the flint rocks
into arrow heads. They looked at the spider, but he never moved, but continued
hammering away on a piece of flint which he had nearly completed into
another arrowhead.
"Let's hit him," said the thoughtless one. "No," said the other, "he is not
harming any one; in fact, he is doing a great good, as he is making the flint
arrowheads which we use to point our arrows."
"Oh, you are afraid," said the first young man. "He can't harm you. Just watch
me hit him." So saying, he picked up an arrowhead and throwing it at
"Unktomi," hit him on the side. As Unktomi rolled over on his side, got up and
stood looking at them, the young man laughed and said: "Well, let us be going,
as your grandfather, 'Unktomi,' doesn't seem to like our company." They
started down the hill, when suddenly the one who had hit Unktomi took a
severe fit of coughing. He coughed and coughed, and finally small particles of
blood came from his mouth. The blood kept coming thicker and in great
gushes. Finally it came so thick and fast that the man could not get his breath
and fell upon the ground dead.
The thoughtful young man, seeing that his friend was no more, hurried to the
village and reported what had happened. The relatives and friends hurried to
the hill, and sure enough, there lay the thoughtless young man still and cold in
death. They held a council and sent for the chief of the Unktomi tribe. When he
heard what had happened, he told the council that he could do nothing to his
Unktomi, as it had only defended itself.
Said he: "My friends, seeing that your tribe was running short of arrowheads, I
set a great many of my tribe to work making flint arrowheads for you. When my
men are thus engaged they do not wish to be disturbed, and your young man
not only disturbed my man, but grossly insulted him by striking him with one of
the arrowheads which he had worked so hard to make. My man could not sit
and take this insult, so as the young man walked away the Unktomi shot him
with a very tiny arrowhead. This produced a hemorrhage, which caused his

death. So now, my friends, if you will fill and pass the peace pipe, we will part
good friends and my tribe shall always furnish you with plenty of flint
arrowheads." So saying, Unktomi Tanka finished his peace smoke and returned
to his tribe.
Ever after that, when the Indians heard a ticking in the grass, they would go
out of their way to get around the sound, saying, Unktomi is making
arrowheads; we must not disturb him.
Thus it was that Unktomi Tanka (Big Spider) had the respect of this tribe, and
was never after disturbed in his work of making arrowheads.
— Myths and Legends of the Sioux [1]

2.1.
You ever seen a spider go from one tree to another? Maybe you think she squirts her
silk out her back end and shoots herself across like a kind of rocket or something, but if
that's what you're thinking, you're wrong. No, she hooks a piece of silk to whatever tree
she happens to be on and then lets herself out real gentle on that piece of silk. And the
wind blows that spider away from the tree and she lets out a little more silk and pretty
soon she's like a tiny little kite on the end of a string. And eventually that string is long
enough that it lands on another tree, and she hooks her end of the string to the second
tree. Now, she didn't plan to go to that exact same tree, she just kept letting out silk and
landed wherever the wind happened to take her. Once she's in her new home she looks
around at what's already there and starts webifying the place. And that's how it is with
spiders.
You know Indians never made wheels? They knew about circles, on account of a
tepee leaves a circle on the ground. And they had circles in rock art and sand painting and
weaving and all. And they had sleds for hauling stuff around, but they never connected
the ideas "circle" and "haul." Now maybe you think they were too dumb to use wheels
but they were smart enough to weave cloth and plant corn and fire pottery and all. And
some of them were smart enough to build cities and pyramids. And Indians today are
even smart enough to be doctors and lawyers, so it seems to me that they were smart
enough all along, so don't you go bad-mouthing Indians. No, they just hadn't had time to
make the connection between circles and hauling before white folks showed up and
wheelified the place. And that's how it was with Indians.
Now, way before anybody had travois and sleds, not to mention wheels, like maybe
two million years ago or something, there was a kind of critter who you wouldn't exactly
call an animal, but you wouldn't exactly call him a man either. And one day he was out
wandering around looking for food, on account of that was pretty much all there was to
do in those days. And he was walking along, not paying attention to where he was going
when he stubbed his toe smack into a rock, and it made him so mad, what with the pain
and all, that he picked up that rock and threw it on the ground and it cracked open. And
then he kicked that rock and it cut his toe, which was already sore, and that made him
even madder and he just went whacko on that rock until it was all busted into pieces. And
that's how it was for that critter for a long time.
Then one day he found a wildebeest that the hyenas had killed and they had pretty
much stripped it down to the bone. And it made him mad that the hyenas hadn't left him
nothing, on account of he was real hungry and all. That's when something in his mind
connectified the busted rocks with those bones and he just went whacko on them until
they were all busted into pieces. And you know, there was meat inside! Now you might
call it an accident, or you might call it a coincidence, but I would call it a moment of
inspiration. From then on, whenever he saw something new, something in his mind
would whisper, "Let's go whacko on it and see what happens." That was the inspiration

talking. Whenever something good came of it, that inspiration connectified it with a little
piece of thread and pretty soon his head started to fill up with all kinds of connections
that hadn't been there before that itsy-bitsy inspiration came along.
Years later this same guy was out gathering food with his buddy, and they came
across another pile of bones and the first guy went whacko on it, as usual, and they got
some meat out of those bones. And his buddy saw that and from then on, he started going
whacko on stuff himself to see what would come of it. And it was almost as if something
had passed from the first guy to the second, something that took on a life of its own. You
might say the second guy copied the first guy, or you might say that he just learned
something, but if you ask me that original inspiration went from the first guy to the
second, just like a spider going from one tree to another.
When the inspiration got into the second guy, it started connectifying the place all
over again and pretty soon the second guy's head was full of silk, too. Of course, the
connections were different, on account of the second guy's life experiences were
different, but the two connection-webs turned out similar since they were built by the
same kind of inspiration. You might think there was only one inspiration, but since it
now lived in two different heads, I think it would be better to think there were two
slightly different inspirations, one descended from the other. And so it went, with
inspirations connectifying wherever they happened to be and then, from time to time,
jumping off to new critters until pretty near every critter that could have an inspiration
did have one, or maybe even two or three.
If you think about it, it's almost like there's this whole other level of life going on
inside of biological critters—a happy, arachnophilic life filled with inspirations climbing
up endless metaphorical trees and water spouts. Down comes the rain to wash any
wimpy, panty-waist inspirations out. Out comes the Sun to dry up all the rain and the
surviving inspirations go about their connectifying business again. Just like spiders, when
you think about it.
Now I wouldn't blame you if were thinking "What the heck kind of chemistry book is
this, anyway?" what with Lucifer going on about the immortal fire and spiders making
arrowheads and all. But this book is all about connectifying stuff up and that's what
inspirations do. I've been connectifying earth to stuff for a long time, flying wherever the
wind blew me until I happened to land in the head of the Professor. Whenever I speak my
paragraphs will start out with the alchemical symbol for earth, an upside down triangle
with a bar through it which, if you look at it just right, kinda sorta looks like a funky "E."
My name is Unktomi and now that I've blown your way, maybe I can
the place for you.
Notes
[1] Reference [20].

2.2.
Now, the crystal is the most beautiful, most powerful, and most mysterious thing in
the whole world. Way after the end of the radioactive cockroach civilization, way after
the stars have petered out, crystals will still be around, like gold nuggets in the cosmic
garbage dump. Pure gold. And not just a metaphor for pure, either. No matter whether it's
in a cave or a quarry or a chemical laboratory, a crystal is your best and most visible sign
that you've got a homogeneous chunk of matter with a fixed composition, that you've got
one kind of stuff rather than lots of different kinds of stuff all mixed up together. Put it
another way; you've got yourself a pure substance, either an element or a compound.
Unktomi is right to stress the importance of crystals. The process of crystallization can be
visualized with a simple demonstration. Fill a shallow dish with identical balls; in Figure
2-1 I have used bb's. The balls pile randomly over each other, but if the dish is gently
shaken they begin to arrange themselves into rows, and rows of rows, until a definite
pattern emerges. The rows are aligned at angles of sixty degrees to one another, an angle
characteristic of the way that spheres pack together. Similarly, crystals are formed from
atoms and molecules, with angles between the crystal faces characteristic of the ways that
the atoms and molecules pack together.
Figure 2-1. Order and Chaos
While a mineral is a pure substance with a characteristic crystal shape, a rock contains
more than one kind of mineral. This situation can be modeled by mixing balls of different
sizes in our dish. Because the distance between rows would be different for balls of
different sizes, they can't pack together in rows and rows of rows when the dish is shaken.
Isolated pockets may form which contain, for example, only small balls or only big ones,
and rows may form in these pockets. Similarly, a rock may have no overt crystal
structure, or it may be a heterogeneous mixture of tiny crystals.

There are four basic ways for crystals to form. First, molten rock may cool slowly enough
that its constituent minerals crystallize into igneous rock, just as water (molten ice) may
freeze into ice crystals. You may witness the growth of crystals from molten glass in
Chapter 13. Second, hot aqueous solutions may cool slowly enough for crystals to form.
A familiar example of this is rock candy, made by dissolving sugar in boiling water and
allowing the solution to slowly cool. Third, an aqueous solution may slowly evaporate,
precipitating the least soluble materials first and the most soluble materials last. If you
allow a dish of salt water to evaporate, for example, you may grow crystals of sodium
chloride. Finally, crystals may precipitate from a cooling gas. Familiar examples include
snowflakes and frost. Whether by cooling or evaporation, the slower the process the
larger the crystals which may grow and the greater their purity.
One of the most abundant and beautiful crystals is the mineral quartz, which is composed
of pure silicon dioxide, SiO2, or silica. Quartz has a very characteristic crystal structure,
as shown in Figure 2-2(L). It is important to stress that the faces of this crystal have not
been cut by human hands. No, the crystal grew that way naturally, with flat faces and
sharp angles between them. Any quartz crystal from anywhere in the world will have the
same angles between the faces and the same general shape. Some quartz crystals are big,
some little, some long, some short, but they are all recognizably and unambiguously
quartz. While the purest quartz is clear and transparent, even the tiniest impurity will lend
it color, producing rose quartz, orange citrine, and purple amethyst. Despite their
colorations, these minerals have the characteristic crystal structure of quartz because they
are quartz, albeit with minuscule amounts of materials other than silicon dioxide. Given
enough such impurities, however, quartz becomes translucent rather than transparent and
its crystals grow less regularly. Figure 2-2(R) shows such a less-than-perfect quartz
crystal.

Figure 2-2. Quartz
Quartz crystals may grow from the slow cooling of molten rock, from the slow cooling of
hot silica-rich water, or from the evaporation of such a solution. When cooling or
evaporation is too rapid, however, there is no time for large crystals to grow. The rocks
which result contain either very small crystals or no crystals at all and any impurities are
trapped in the resulting rocks. The rapid cooling of molten silicate rock produces
obsidian, a glassy material prized by Unktomis the world over. The rapid cooling or
evaporation of silica-rich water may also produce "cryptocrystalline" silicates, those
without evident crystals. Whereas pure quartz is transparent and colorless, these materials
are opaque, with colors derived from the impurities they contain. Chert, flint, agate,
jaspar, and petrified wood share with obsidian a glassy texture suitable for making stone
tools.
Wind and water gradually reduce silicate rock to rubble and rubble to sand. Sand
accumulates and when it is crushed and compacted by later sediments it becomes
sandstone, a sedimentary rock. When sandstone is compressed and heated, but not to the
point of melting, it may become quartzite, a metamorphic rock. The texture of quartzite
is more granular than obsidian or flint, but it shares the glassy texture common to most all
of the silicates. Quartzite may be used to make stone tools, though it is not valued as
highly as its cryptocrystalline cousins.

Lucifer got one thing right. Folks have gotten out of touch with nature. They don't
know where things come from or how to make anything from scratch or how lucky they
are to have the good things nature gives them. Seems to me, that's just downright
ungrateful. So if you want to learn how to make arrowheads, for example, I can help you
out.
Material Safety
In these early projects, the potential hazards are less chemical than mechanical.
This project will involve making arrowheads from broken glass, which is, of
course, very sharp. Before you begin, you ought to think of all the ways you
might get cut making arrowheads. Losing your eyes wouldn't be good, so you
ought to get some kind of glasses, either prescription glasses, sunglasses, or
safety glasses. If you do get a flake in your eye you ought to go immediately to
the hospital. It's pretty easy to cut your hands open, and so you ought to wear
work gloves and a couple of leather pads would be good for protecting your
shins. But no matter how safe you are, you could still goof and it would be
good to have some band-aids on hand. Above all, you should take
responsibility for your own safety, recognizing that playing with broken glass
can be dangerous. Be as careful as you can and if you mess up, get some help,
preferably medical help, not legal help.
It would be downright foolish to push ahead with making arrowheads if you

didn't know anything about the silicates. So I guess you better study a bit:
• You better know all the words that are important enough to be
indexified and glossarated.
• You better recognize the alchemical symbols for earth, air, fire, and
water.
• You better be able to pick out some silicate rocks and minerals, either
from photographs or samples.
• You better know how impurities affect the properties of the silicates.
• You better know how the silicates are formed in the Earth.
• You better know the formula and chemical name for silica.
• You better know why crystals are important.
• You better know which of the silicates are best for making stone tools.
• You better know what inspirations are and how they work.

2.3.
There are many excellent guides to rocks and minerals, both in print and online.[1] But
there's no real substitute for handling actual rocks and minerals to get a feel for what can
be done with them. For cutting tools, quartz is less than ideal, since quarts crystals are
generally smaller than the tools we would like to make. Large slabs of quartzite are
plentiful, but embedded minerals can cause them to fracture in inopportune places. The
chalcedonies, being non-crystalline, are perfect for making stone tools, but the black gold
of the stone-tool maker is obsidian. If you can find it, you'll have the easiest time learning
how to knap, the term used for making stone tools. Once you are proficient at knapping
obsidian, you can try the other silicates. If you can't find obsidian, try using glass; It looks
and feels like obsidian and is much easier to find.
Figure 2-3. Tools for Knapping Stone
Colored glass, brown or green, is the best glass for beginners, since you can see where the
flakes have come off. Look for a bottle with a thick, smooth, flat bottom.[2] Bottles with
raised designs on the bottom are not as good as those without, since these patterns are
hard to get off. Once you have a bottle, you'll need some tools. First, you really need a
pair of glasses to cover your eyes; as much fun as this is, it's not worth losing an eye.
Prescription glasses or sunglasses are fine, but safety glasses with side shields are the
best. Second, you need a pair of work gloves to protect your hands from cuts, and you
ought to have some band-aids on hand, in case you get careless. Next, provide yourself
with a leather pad, six inches square, for holding the tool in your hands or against your
leg. You will need a tool for spalling, making your initial flake, and for this you can use a
big common nail, six inches long or longer. For a pressure flaker you can use an antler
tine or a three inch length of 3/16 inch welding rod mounted into a wooden handle.
Finally, you can use a screwdriver for making notches in your finished stone tool. Once
you have your tools, you are ready for spalling.

If you were making a tool from a rock, you'd have knock, or spall, a nice big flake, or
tool blank, off of your original piece of stone. If you're spalling from a bottle, your tool
blank will come from the bottom of the bottle. You take the empty bottle, drop your
spalling nail, point down, into the bottle, place your thumb over the mouth of the bottle
and shake it like a can of spray paint. Half the time, you can get the bottom of the bottle
to pop out, forming a nice, round tool blank. There may be some jagged points hanging
off the edge. To get rid of these, hold the tool blank in your gloved hand and whack any
jagged points off, using your spalling nail like a little hammer. When you are finished,
you should have a flat glass disk as a tool blank.
Figure 2-4. Pressure Flaking
Most of your work will consist of pressure flaking. Wrap your tool blank in your leather
pad and hold it in your gloved hand, as shown in Figure 2-4, with your fingers on top.
You can rest your gloved hand on your leg for extra support. Hold your pressure flaker in
your other hand, put the tip on the edge of the tool blank, and press. You don't hit it or
pry it, just press straight into the glass with the pressure flaker, as if you were trying to
shove it right into the glass. A flake will pop right off and you ought to take a moment to
look at the shape of that flake.
The silicates break with what's known as a conchoidal fracture. If you look at a bullet
hole in a piece of glass, you'll see that the entrance side is just big enough for the bullet to
go through, but the exit side is much bigger. In profile, the flake scar, the place where the
flake used to be, is cone-shaped. If the bullet had struck the glass along the edge, only
half the cone would be there because the other half of the cone would be lost in the air.

That's what your flake scars should look like, since you'll always be taking flakes from
the edge of the tool. Now, if you fit that flake back onto your tool blank, you can see how
it came off. The fat, bulbous end is where your pressure flaker was and it tapers out to a
thin, razor-sharp edge. You might think that this razor-sharp edge is where the action is,
but it is so thin that it is easily broken. No, the edge of your tool will be made up of the
flake scars, the places where the flakes used to be. The little point where the bulb of the
flake came off is both sharp and strong, so the edge of your tool will not be easily broken.
Now, those flakes might be long or short, depending on how you hold your tool. If you
hold it at an angle to the tool blank, a little short flake will pop off. This is the kind of
flake you'll be making at first. But as your tool takes shape, you'll want to take off longer
flakes to cover the surface with pretty flake scars. To do this, you push the pressure flaker
straight into the edge of the tool blank and press with all your might. Then, when you're
pressing as hard as you can, just give a little downward flick, as shown in Figure 2-5, and
a long flake will pop off. This is the kind of flake you should be making by the time you
finish your tool.
Figure 2-5. Long and Short Flakes
Figure 2-6. Making the Edge of the Tool
Before you can take off the long flakes, you'll need to set up the edge of the tool. After
taking your first short flake off, say, side A, turn the tool blank over in your hand and
take the second flake off side B, right next door to your first flake. Turn it over again and
take another flake off side A. These will be short flakes, just to set up the edge of your
tool blank. Remember, you're always pushing flakes down, into your palm, not up, into
your eyes. Whatever side you're taking a flake from, that side should be against your
palm. Keep going around the tool blank, taking a flake from one side and then turning
your tool blank over and then taking a flake from the other, until you get back to where

you started. The edge will now be serpentine, like a snake, with one point on side A, the
next on side B, and so on, as shown in Figure 2-6. This edge is sharp and serrated, like a
steak knife, so don't cut yourself.
Now, the bottom of the bottle was probably concave on the outside and convex on the
inside. Stone tools are usually bi-facial; both sides are worked until the tool is lens-
shaped in cross section. Whether you are using a stone or a bottle, the two sides of your
tool blank are probably not symmetrical. To get your tool into a lens-shape, you need to
take long flakes off the concave side and short flakes off the convex side. Now, it would
be a lot easier to take long flakes off the convex side and short flakes off the concave
side, but that would make the convex side even more convex. Your goal on this second
round of flakes is to get as close to a lens shape as you can, as in Figure 2-7.
Figure 2-7. Getting a Lens-Shape
Now, this is probably the hardest part to learn. Imagine a line down the center of the edge
of your tool, the center line. You'll notice that you can only take flakes from below this
center line. The best thing to do is to look for a point from a previous flake scar which is
below the center line and use this point as a platform, a place to put your pressure flaker,
for taking off another flake. Each flake you take off makes a platform for a flake on the
other side of the tool. For example, if you take a flake off of side A, it makes a point on
side B. You can use this point as a platform to take a flake off of side B, and that makes
another point on side A. But if you have a point on side B and you try to use it as a
platform for a flake off of side A, you're trying to remove so much glass at once that
you'll have a hard time getting the flake to come off at all. So it becomes like a chess
game, where you're thinking a couple of moves ahead. You want to take a nice long flake
off of Side A, but there's no good platform there. Just take a little short flake from the
same place, but on Side B, and that will set up a nice platform on Side A. It's really not so
hard, once you get the hang of it.

Figure 2-8. Platforms are Always Below the Center Line
Figure 2-9. From Beer Bottle to Arrow Head
If you just keep going around in circles, your tool will wind up being a circle. So at this
point you want to start looking for where the tip is going to be and where the base is
going to be. That way, you can take more flakes off here and fewer flakes off there to get
your tool into the shape that you want it to have. By now, you should be taking long
flakes off of both sides, the longer the better. Those flake scars will travel all the way
across the face of the tool, until none of the original surface, the cortex, is left. If you
want to make some notches, you can use your notching tool, the one shaped like a
screwdriver. You use it the same as your pressure flaker, except that instead of taking a
flake next door to the one before it, you take it off of the same place: a flake from side A,
and then a flake from side B in the same place. The shape of the notcher lets you make
long, narrow notches, as opposed to the semi-circular flakes removed by the pressure
flaker.

That sounds pretty good to me. If you were stuck on a desert island or something, you
wouldn't have to starve. You could make your own arrowheads, spear points, knives, or
what-have-you. You might not have glasses, gloves, and band-aids, so if that ever
happens, you should be real careful. And if you're ever walking along through the grass
and you hear a little ticking noise, like little stones hitting together, you might just spend
a little time thinking about old Unktomi, so I don't go extinct.
Quality Assurance
How do you know your arrowhead is good enough? It should have a bi-facial,
serrated edge and its surface should be completely covered with flake scars. If
you were a Paleolithic teenager, you shouldn't be embarrassed to show it to
your father. Write up your procedure in your notebook, as described in
Appendix B, and include a photograph of your arrowhead.
Notes
[1] See, for example, Reference [85].

[2] This project was inspired by Reference [87].

Chapter 3. Hammurabi (Units)
When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunaki, and Bel, the lord of heaven and
earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling
son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him
great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it
great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations
are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by
name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the
rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so
that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-
headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being
of mankind. …
Code of Laws
1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it,
then he that ensnared him shall be put to death. …
59. If any man, without the knowledge of the owner of a garden, fell a tree in a
garden he shall pay half a mina in money. …
121. If any one store corn in another man's house he shall pay him storage at
the rate of one gur for every five ka of corn per year. …
228. If a builder build a house for some one and complete it, he shall give him
a fee of two shekels in money for each sar of surface. …
234. If a shipbuilder build a boat of sixty gur for a man, he shall pay him a fee
of two shekels in money. …
239. If a man hire a sailor, he shall pay him six gur of corn per year. …
241. If any one impresses an ox for forced labor, he shall pay one-third of a
mina in money. …
257. If any one hire a field laborer, he shall pay him eight gur of corn per year.
…
273. If any one hire a day laborer, he shall pay him from the New Year until
the fifth month (April to August, when days are long and the work hard) six
gerahs in money per day; from the sixth month to the end of the year he shall
give him five gerahs per day. …

277. If any one hire a ship of sixty gur, he shall pay one-sixth of a shekel in
money as its hire per day. …
282. If a slave say to his master: "You are not my master," if they convict him
his master shall cut off his ear.
The Epilogue
Laws of justice which Hammurabi, the wise king, established. A righteous law,
and pious statute did he teach the land. Hammurabi, the protecting king am I. I
have not withdrawn myself from the men, whom Bel gave to me, the rule over
whom Marduk gave to me, I was not negligent, but I made them a peaceful
abiding-place. …
— The Code of Hammurabi, ca. 1750 BC [1]

3.1.
I don't believe it! An ancient fire demon channeling bits of wisdom through a
chemistry professor? An inspirational arachnid filling up people's heads with cobwebs?
And now I guess I'm supposed to be the veritable Ruler of Babylon come back from the
dead to enlighten the multitude. What's next, Bible codes?
Look, you need to take all of this mumbo jumbo with a great big grain of
metaphorical salt, if you ask me. Since Fire and Earth have given you such a whopping
great load of cock and bull, I suppose that I had better try to air things out, as it were. To
begin with, I'm not a demon, spirit, hob-goblin, ghost, wraith, or bogeyman of any kind.
I'm not going to eat your brain, I don't speak proto-Indo-European or any other ancient
tongue for that matter, and I can't remember what happened yesterday, let alone 3,750 of
years ago. You're reading a book, for the love of Mike; I'm just a fictional character in it.
Cogito etse non sum. Lucifer and Unktomi are also figments of the Author's imagination.
The only difference is, he hasn't let them in on that little secret.
The concept for this book started out well enough. The Author began thinking about
the notions in his head, recipes, song fragments, advertising jingles, stories, and
instructions. He thought about where he got those notions, from friends and family and
teachers. He thought about those people getting notions from their friends and family and
teachers. Ultimately, he reasoned, there had to be the first person to get any particular
notion and it seemed to him that the notion itself had a life of its own. After all, any time
a notion passes from one person to another, it's as if the original notion has replicated
itself. Some notions are better replicators than others and so there's a struggle for survival
among competing notions just as there is among organisms. The Author looked inside his
own head a little too closely and what he found was a seething ferment of thought-
creatures.
The Author didn't invent the notion of these thought-creatures, of course; he got it
from a book, The Selfish Gene[2] by biologist Richard Dawkins. In his book Dawkins
promotes the concept that anything which exhibits the properties of fidelity, fecundity,
and longevity is subject to the laws of natural selection. A replicator which exhibits
fidelity is able to make exact, or nearly exact copies of itself. A high-fidelity replicator
which exhibits fecundity is able to make many such copies and a fecund, high-fidelity
replicator which exhibits longevity will give rise to significant populations which may
compete with other replicators for survival. Most of Dawkins' book applies this theory to
genes, but at the end of his book he applies the same theory to the aforementioned
thought-creatures, dubbed memes to evoke genetic analogies.
These memes do not replicate biochemically; they replicate by imitation. When one
creature is capable of imitating the behavior of another, the entity which passes from one
to another is defined as a meme. Dawkins envisioned simple tunes, gestures, postures,

and utterances as examples of entities which can be transmitted from one to another by
imitation. Only some of these tunes, gestures, postures, and utterances will succeed in
being imitated and so there are selection pressures which favor some memes at the
expense of others. But in the midst of this competition there can also be cooperation;
some memes will gang up on others, forming meme complexes which promote the
replication of the entire gang. Philosophies, religions, languages, fashions, and industries
each push their own notions over those of their competition and in this sense, the meme
complex takes on a life of its own, living in the culture which rose out of the individual
memes.
The Author of this book became obsessed with the notion of memes; in fact, you
might say that he was possessed by it. He decided to let these memons narrate the book,
twisting them into four narrative voices. Personally, I think that the whole alchemical-
spirit shtick is a bit on the loony side, but what do I know? I'm just one of those twisted
narrative voices so don't imagine that I'm running the show. It may be memetically
incorrect, but if you ask me you would be better off skipping the ooga-booga dished out
by Fire, Earth and Water in the first section of each of their chapters. I got stuck with air,
so all of my paragraphs start out with its alchemical symbol, which looks rather like an
"A." When you see it, just think of
The Author has assigned to Lucifer and Unktomi chapters dealing with rather
mundane notions like charcoal and stone, leaving me with the more gravitationally
challenged, in his mind "airy" topics. One of the most useful of these notions is that of the
unit. A unit is nothing to fear; it's just a standard amount of something. The gallon, for
example, is a unit of volume; the foot, a unit of length; and the pound, a unit of weight. I
don't suppose that units came up very often at the King of Babylon's cocktail parties but
units are there in his Code; the ka and the gur are units of volume; the shekel and mina
are units of weight; the sar is a unit of area. Who set the rent for a boat of sixty gur? Who
put the sar in the Code of Hammurabi? Who charged a gur for a ka-ka-ka-ka-ka? Who
said a tree ought to cost a half a mina?
I'd like to shake the hand of whoever came up with units. I mean, just imagine what it
must have been like before they came along. There you are, trying to make ends meet in
the dog-eat-dog world of Neolithic high-finance. You build a house and offer to store the
grain of your neighbor and she agrees to give you some of it for your trouble. The big day
comes when your neighbor comes to collect her grain. As she empties room after room
you expect her to stop at any minute and say, "Why don't you keep the rest, with my
compliments." Only she doesn't stop. Finally, with the house looking as empty as
something on the cover of Better Huts and Gardens, she turns and hands you one measly
grain. As if you're going to make bread for the Babylonian Circus of Fleas!
The next year you demand 60 sacks of grain for the privilege and she agrees. Next
thing you know she's filling up your house from floor to ceiling with grain. There are
sacks in the bedroom, sacks in the kitchen, sacks in the living room, sacks in the hallway.
You spend the year stepping over, sliding past, heaving aside, and digging things out

from under her bountiful harvest. When payday comes you walk through rooms you don't
remember having, looking for your share. There, in the corner of the kitchen are 60
Lilliputian sacks, each containing a single grain! Granted, that represents a 6000%
increase over the year before, but it hardly seems worth the effort. If only you could be
sure of getting a specific quantity of grain for the use of your storage space, it might be
remotely possible to make an honest living without losing your shirt. Of course, different
people might use different sized sacks or pots or rulers and you would need to be able to
factor out the differences between various units. Such an analytical system would require
that the factors be standard, that is, high-fidelity. In order for it to work, everyone would
have to know them, that is, the factors would have to be fecund. And it would't do you
much good if the factors were fickle; they ought to remain constant for long periods of
time. If such a notion ever got started, it would probably take on a life of its own, passing
from one person to the next, from one culture to the next, and from one generation to the
next. We might call this notion "Unit Factor Analysis," or UFA.
Notes
[1] Reference [13].

[2] Reference [77].

3.2.
Table 3-1. Common Unit Factors

Let's play a little game. The object of the game is to answer a question and you win the
game by making the units on either side of an equation equal to one another. The first
move of the game begins with the question, for example:
Q: How long does it take to earn enough money to pay off the shipbuilder when you buy
a boat of 60 gur and rent it out?
Q: How long does it take to earn enough money to pay off the shipbuilder when you buy
a boat of 60 gur and rent it out?
The next step in the game is to translate this sentence into an equation. The verb in the
sentence becomes the "equal" sign:
how long = money for a boat
We then assign units to the items in the equation:
days = 1 boat
Next we build a chain of unit factors connecting the unit of the answer to the unit of the
question. A unit factor is simply unity, the number one, albeit written in a funny way. A
boat of sixty gur, for example, costs 2 shekels according to the Code of Hammurabi.
Therefore, 1 boat = 2 shekels. Therefore, (1 boat/2 shekels) = 1. Similarly, when I rent a
boat the going rate is a shekel every six days. Therefore, 1 shekel = 6 days. Therefore, (1
shekel/6 days) = 1. The reciprocal of any unit factor is also a unit factor, so (2 shekels/1
boat) =1 and (6 days/1 shekel) = 1. Unit Factor Analysis works because we can always
multiply by one without changing an equation; if 12=4x3, then 12=4x3x1 and
12=4x3x1x1. That's what makes "one" such an interesting number. So returning to the
game, we build a chain of unit factors which cancel out the units we don't like and
introduce units we do like. The game is over when the units are the same on either side of
the equal sign. Here's the complete example:
Q: If a man buys a boat of 60 gur and rents it out, how long does it take to earn enough
money to pay off the shipbuilder?
Q: If a man buys a boat of 60 gur and rents it out, how long does it take to earn enough
money to pay off the shipbuilder?
A:

I took a couple of unit factors right out of the Code of Hammurabi. Can you find where
they came from? Sometimes unit factors are given right in the problem. Sometimes, you
have to look them up, but it helps if you have an arsenal of unit factors at your disposal.
Table 3-1 gives you something to start with.
Notice that I actually wrote two equations, or mathematical sentences, one on top of the
other. This is a way of keeping a long, complicated problem from getting out of hand.
Here, "? day" equals (the first mess), and it also equals "12 days." Stacking the equal
signs this way, I can show all the unit factors I used and then simplify the expression to
get the answer. Let's try a more involved problem:
Q: How long does it take a car to go 100 yards when it is traveling 60 miles per hour?
Q: How long does it take a car to go 100 yards when it is traveling 60 miles per hour?
To use UFA, you must identify the unit of the answer, and you may have some choice in
this. For the current problem, what would be a reasonable unit? Obviously a unit of time:
hours, minutes, seconds, any of these would do. Let's choose seconds. Translating the
verb into an equal sign, our question could be rephrased:
Q: How many seconds equals 100 yards?
Q: How many seconds equals 100 yards?
A:
Now, a second is not the same as a yard, so we need a unit factor to get rid of this
problematic unit on the right-hand side of the equation. There are many such unit factors,
in fact, infinitely many of them. I won't agonize over the choice, I'll simply choose one
and see if it gets me anywhere. Let's try (3 feet/1 yard).
Notice, I put the yard in the bottom of the unit factor to cancel the problematic yard in the
top, the one I need to eliminate. This leaves feet, which are not the same as seconds, so I
need another unit factor to get rid of feet. Let's try (1mile/5280 feet). This gets rid of feet
but leaves miles, which are not the same as seconds. It seems that we are getting
nowhere, but we are, in fact, on the verge of a breakthrough. Of all the unit factors we
might write concerning miles, one stands out because it was given in the problem: (60
miles per hour) = (60 miles/hour). The word per is another way of saying "divided by",
and in a word problem always indicates a unit factor. We need the miles in the bottom of

the unit factor, so we just turn it upside down. Now we're getting somewhere! Hours
remain on the right and this can be converted to seconds with two more unit factors. Unit
factors have been used to connect the units of the question to the units of the answer.
All that remains is the arithmetic.
You may wonder how I knew to use (5280 feet/1 mile) rather than, for example, (1
foot/12 inches). The short answer is that I didn't know it for sure; I just tried it out to see
whether it got me anywhere. Since unit factors are equal to one, and multiplying by one
doesn't change a number, I can never go wrong with a unit factor. But some unit factors
get me somewhere (toward the unit of the answer), while others don't. The slightly longer
answer is that I knew from the statement of the problem, that "60 miles per hour" was a
unit factor which contained both distance (the dimension of the problem) and time (the
dimension of the answer) and so I knew that if I could get from yards to miles, I could get
from miles to hours.

UFA in a Nutshell
1. Find the unit of the answer and write it down. The answer is usually a noun close to
the question words, "how many," "how much," or "how long."
2. Find the verb of the question you are asking, translate it into an "equal" sign, and
write down this equal sign after the unit of the answer.
3. Find a noun to the right of the verb and determine its unit, the problematic unit.
There will usually be a number associated with this unit; write down this number
and its problematic unit after the equal sign.
4. Compare the problematic units to those of the answer. If they are not the same, do
the following sub-steps:
a. Introduce a unit factor whose numerator (top) contains the unit of the
answer or whose denominator (bottom) contains a problematic unit.
b. Cancel any units which appear as both numerator and denominator. Do not
cancel any numbers associated with these units. Examine the remaining un-
canceled units; these are now the problematic units.
Repeat this step as many times as needed to make the units the same on both sides
of the equal sign.
5. Skip to a new line and write a new equal sign.
6. Now that the units of the answer are the same as those of the problem, multiply and
divide all of the numbers on the right-hand side and write the answer with its unit.
Try playing the game with these examples:
Q: A tap delivers 2 gallons per minute. How long does it take to fill a tub which measures
2 feet by 3 feet by 8 inches?
Q: "Investment" is a kind of plaster consisting of 1 part silica, 1 part plaster and 1 part
water. How many grams of each are needed to fill a circular dish 15 cm in diameter to a
depth of 5 mm? Investment has a density of 1.5 g/cm3.
Q: A tap delivers 2 gallons per minute. How long does it take to fill a tub which measures
2 feet by 3 feet by 8 inches?

A:
Notice that I stacked three equations here, each one equal to "? min." But I ran out of
room on the first line, so I continued it on the second, just as I would continue a sentence
that ran longer than one line. The first three lines are all part of one long equation. The
fourth and fifth lines are a second equation, equal to the first, and the sixth line is a third
equation, equal to the other two.
Why did I go to the trouble of writing the second equation at all? Because I wanted to
show how you can combine two or more unit factors that are identical. For example, (12
in/1 ft) appears twice. I can simplify my equation by writing (12 in/1 ft) 2. I just have to
remember that everything inside the parentheses is squared, both the numbers and the
units. By contrast, in (1 mL/1 cm3), only the cm is cubed, since the "3" is inside the
parentheses. It's really not so hard, but you have to pay attention. Get out your calculator
and make sure you can do the arithmetic both ways.
Either you're bored at this point because you've seen this before, or you're bewildered
because anything mathematical scares you. If you're bored, you've probably skipped to
the next chapter by now anyway, so I'll just add a little more for the bewildered guys.
How did I know to start with "2 ft" instead of "2 gallons per minute?" The short answer is
that I could just as well have started with (1 min/2 gal), turning this unit factor upside
down so that "minutes," the unit of the answer, is in the top. The slightly longer answer is
that I started with "2 ft" because I knew, intuitively, that if I doubled the length of the tub,
it would take twice as long to fill. When doubling something in the problem would
double the answer, we know it goes on top. The same thing was true for the width and the
depth, so they also went on top. Conversely, if I were to double the filling rate from 2

gal/min to 4 gal/min, I know, intuitively, that it would take half as long to fill the tub.
When doubling something in the problem would halve the answer, I know that it goes in
the bottom, i.e. for this unit factor, upside down. One more clue is the word "by" in the
problem. Just as the verb of a sentence translates into an "=" sign, by translates into
multiplication.
Q: "Investment" is a kind of plaster consisting of 1 part silica, 1 part plaster and 1 part
water. How many grams of each are needed to fill a circular dish 15 cm in diameter to a
depth of 5 mm? Investment has a density of 1.5 g/cm3.
A:
The volume of a cylinder is of course πr2h. I divided the diameter in half to get the radius
and I converted 5 mm to 0.5 cm in my head. The tricky part is that I don't know how
much a part is, so I just put an "X" in there to hold the spot. Fortunately, whenever I have
a recipe given in parts of this to parts of that, the actual number represented by X always
cancels out. In this case I get an X in the numerator and an X in the denominator, so they
cancel out no matter what X happens to be.
One of the little tricks memes use to ensure their own survival is the mnemonic, a little
phrase or jingle intended to jog the memory. So if you forget how Unit Factor Analysis
works, here's a little mnemonic to help you remember:
That which is above corresponds to that which is below and that which is
below corresponds to that which is above in the accomplishment of the miracle
of One Thing. And just as all things come from One, so through the mediation
of One, all things follow from this One Thing in the same way.
That is, the numerator of a unit factor is equal to the denominator and vice versa.
Everything in the answer follows from a string of "one things," or unit factors. If you're
still bewildered, don't give up. I promise you that I will teach you as little as possible.
Instead of giving you different methods for working all the complicated problems you'll
run into in this book, I'm going to teach you one method, and we'll use it over and over.
Think of it as the Swiss Army Knife for numerical problem solving.

Material Safety
So far, this book has talked about sticks, stones, and other materials with which
you have some familiarity. The only hazard in completing this project is the
risk of banging your head against a wall as you struggle to learn the intricacies
of UFA. But as long as I have your attention for a moment, let me introduce
you to Material Safety Data Sheets. MSDS's are required by the United States
Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA):
Chemical manufacturers and importers shall obtain or develop a

material safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical they produce
or import. Employers shall have a material safety data sheet in the
workplace for each hazardous chemical which they use.[1]
While required only for hazardous chemicals used in the workplace, many
retailers provide MSDS's to consumers upon request. MSDS's are also
available online for hazardous and non-hazardous chemicals alike. Since many
chemicals have more than one name, the reliability of online searches may be
improved by using the Chemical Abstracts (CAS) number instead of, or in
addition to the name. CAS numbers for the chemicals discussed in this book
are given in each Material Safety section. Though MSDS's include more
technical information than most consumers require, they're one of the most
readily-available sources of information on hazardous materials and so you
should familiarize yourself with them.
Since this project uses no materials at all, you'll introduce yourself to MSDS's
by finding them for some common items. Look up charcoal (CAS 7440-44-0),
silica (CAS 14808-60-7), and sodium chloride (CAS 7647-14-5). By
familiarizing yourself with the hazardous properties of relatively safe materials,
MSDS's for materials we will meet later won't seem so intimidating. You may
request your sheets from a retailer or you may search for them online using the
keyword "MSDS" and the CAS number for the chemical in which you are
interested. Particularly on the Internet, there is nothing to prevent the posting of
bogus information, so you should always consider the source of your
information; a genuine MSDS must include a way to contact the manufacturer.
There is a lot of technical information given on a typical MSDS and we'll look
at several of these as the book continues. But every MSDS includes a section—
usually the third section—which summarizes the hazards of the material. For
this project, summarize the hazardous properties of charcoal, silica, and sodium
chloride in your notebook. Include the identity of the company which produced

the MSDS and the potential health effects for eye contact, skin contact,
inhalation, and ingestion.
So there you are, studying for a test, and you wonder what will be on it.
• Know the meanings of all of the words that are important enough to be
included in the index or glossary.
• Know that the alchemical symbol for air looks like the letter A. The
symbol for earth looks like an upside down A.
• Memorize the unit factors listed in Table 3-1.
• Know how to recognize unit factors given in a problem.
• Know the rules codified in the sidebar UFA in a Nutshell.
• Know that fecundity, fidelity and longevity are properties of any
successful replicator.
• When you can't remember the last time you missed a unit factor
problem, you've probably worked enough examples.
Notes
[1] Reference [38], Regulation 1910.1200(g).

3.3.
There's nothing to make in this project; it's about brains, not brawn. If you're using this
book for a class, you'll probably be given a quiz or test. If you're reading it for fun, you'll
need to know this stuff for future chapters. Either way, try working these problems for
practice.
Q: A tub measures 2 feet by 3 feet by 8 inches. When filled with water, what is its
weight, in pounds?
Q: The density of gold is 19 grams per milliliter. What is the weight, in pounds, of 2.0
liters of gold?
Q: A half inch of rain falls on a field 100 yards long and 200 feet wide. How many
gallons of water fell on the field?
Q: A recipe calls for 12 ounces of honey to make 2.0 liters of mead. How much honey is
needed to make 5.0 gallons of mead?
Q: If you cut down 6 trees from your neighbor's garden, how many oxen do you have to
lend her to make up for it?
Q: Try to summarize in 60 seconds the important events of the past year. Think about the
major wars, earthquakes, famines, and epidemics. Think about the elections, discoveries,
sporting events, and musical hits. Think about the births, weddings, vacations, and
funerals. I imagine that you'll be able to do a pretty decent job condensing a year's events
into 60 seconds. Now imagine a cable television channel broadcasting such 60-second
summaries 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. How long would it take to broadcast the
life history of the typical college freshman? How long would it take to broadcast
summaries of each of the approximately 227 years since the United States declared its
independence? How long would it take for the approximately 3,753 years since
Hammurabi published his Code? How long would it take for the approximately 500,000
years since the domestication of fire?
Q: Imagine that you're standing next to your mother, and she next to her father, and so on
back through time. Assume an average of 25 years per generation and a distance of 1 yard
per person in line. How far would the line stretch back to contemporaries of the American
Revolution, of Hammurabi, and of the domestication of fire?
Q: Imagine that you were able to walk down that line, asking each of your ancestors for a
one-minute summary of the most important events in their lives. Assuming that you were
to spend 40 hours per week in this activity, how long would it take you to get back to
contemporaries of the American Revolution, of Hammurabi, and of the domestication of
fire?
Q: According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, in 1999 there were 38,233 deaths attributable to smoking in California and
1,704 in Rhode Island.[1] How frequently did these deaths occur, that is, how many
minutes for each death?
Q: There are about 7 billion people on the planet in 2003. If you wanted to shake hands
with each one of them, spending 40 hours a week for an entire year, how many people
would you have to greet per minute?

Q: A tub measures 2 feet by 3 feet by 8 inches. When filled with water, what is its
weight, in pounds?
A: 249 pounds.
Q: The density of gold is 19 grams per milliliter. What is the weight, in pounds, of 2.0
liters of gold?
A: 84 pounds.
Q: A half inch of rain falls on a field 100 yards long and 200 feet wide. How many
gallons of water fell on the field?
A: 18,700 gallons.
Q: A recipe calls for 12 ounces of honey to make 2.0 liters of mead. How much honey is
needed to make 5.0 gallons of mead?
A: 114 ounces, or 7.1 pounds.
Q: If you cut down 6 trees from your neighbor's garden, how many oxen do you have to
lend her to make up for it?
A: 9 oxen.
Q: Try to summarize in 60 seconds the important events of the past year. Think about the
major wars, earthquakes, famines, and epidemics. Think about the elections, discoveries,
sporting events, and musical hits. Think about the births, weddings, vacations, and
funerals. I imagine that you'll be able to do a pretty decent job condensing a year's events
into 60 seconds. Now imagine a cable television channel broadcasting such 60-second
summaries 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. How long would it take to broadcast the
life history of the typical college freshman? How long would it take to broadcast
summaries of each of the approximately 227 years since the United States declared its
independence? How long would it take for the approximately 3,753 years since
Hammurabi published his Code? How long would it take for the approximately 500,000
years since the domestication of fire?
A: 18 minutes. 3.8 hours. 2.6 days. 49.6 weeks.
Q: Imagine that you're standing next to your mother, and she next to her father, and so on
back through time. Assume an average of 25 years per generation and a distance of 1 yard
per person in line. How far would the line stretch back to contemporaries of the American
Revolution, of Hammurabi, and of the domestication of fire?
A: 27 feet. 150 yards. 11.4 miles.

Q: Imagine that you were able to walk down that line, asking each of your ancestors for a
one-minute summary of the most important events in their lives. Assuming that you were
to spend 40 hours per week in this activity, how long would it take you to get back to
contemporaries of the American Revolution, of Hammurabi, and of the domestication of
fire?
A: 9 minutes, 2.5 hours, 8.3 weeks.
Q: According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health
Promotion, in 1999 there were 38,233 deaths attributable to smoking in California and
1,704 in Rhode Island.[1] How frequently did these deaths occur, that is, how many
minutes for each death?
A: One death every 13.7 minutes in California and one every 308.5 minutes in Rhode
Island. Is it safer to smoke in Rhode Island than in California? Just because such a
statistic can be calculated doesn't guarantee that it is either significant or informative.
Whether we are talking about rapes or murders or kidnappings, statistics like this serve
only to illustrate that there are many more people around than there are minutes in a year.
Q: There are about 7 billion people on the planet in 2003. If you wanted to shake hands
with each one of them, spending 40 hours a week for an entire year, how many people
would you have to greet per minute?
A: 56,089 people/min.
Quality Assurance
When you can solve these problems without looking at the tables, you will be
ready to tackle any numerical problem in this book. Work out all of the
examples in your notebook and check your answers. Tape any quizzes into
your notebook and include an MSDS for charcoal, one for silica, and one for
sodium chloride.
Notes
[1] Reference [33].

Chapter 4. Samson (Mead)
So his father went down to [Samson's fiancee]: and Samson made there a feast;
for so used the young men to do.
And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to
be with him.
And Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if ye can
certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I
will give you thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments: But if ye cannot
declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty shirts and thirty changes of
garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it.
And he said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong
came forth sweetness.
— Judges 14:10-14 [1]
4.1.
You are probably wondering how meat can come from the eater and sweetness from
the strong. I will tell you. First you must understand that my parents vowed that I should
be a Nazarite. As such, I was forbidden to touch dead bodies, which did not seem a
particularly onerous imposition at the time. I was also not allowed to cut my hair, which
suited my fashion sense as well. Finally, I was to have nothing to do with grapes. No
raisins, no wine.
Now, growing up a Nazarite is no romp through the park, I can tell you. Not so much
for the dead body and hair cutting parts, you understand, but for the tea-totaling. They
really knew how to throw parties in my day, and I was the perpetual designated driver. I
hope that it will not shock you to learn that I rebelled by falling in love with a Philistine. I
don't mean that she couldn't appreciate modern art. No, she was an ethnic Philistine.
Now, dating Philistines is not what Jewish mothers generally want for their sons, but
sobriety had turned me into something of a whiner, and I eventually wore my parents
down.
We went down to Timnath to make arrangements for the wedding. One day I was
strolling through a vineyard, admiring the grapes, you understand, but not eating them.
Suddenly, I was attacked by a lion. What was I supposed to do, ask it whether it would
like a nice whine with dinner? I killed it with my bare hands, an act which, unavoidably,
involved touching the thing at the instant of its death and inadvertently breaking my
Nazarite vow. I didn't think it would help matters to tell my folks about my desperate
heroism. Well, on the way home from Timnath, I stopped by the vineyard, not for the

grapes, of course, but to check out the lion, and I found it full of bees. Now this struck me
as funny for some reason, and I trundled the honey home with me.
My in-laws, as you might expect, were not overjoyed at the prospect of a wine-free
wedding feast, but they brightened right up when they found out about my honey. It
seems there was an old Philistine custom that newlyweds should drink honey-water for
the first month of marriage. They called it a "honeymoon." Who knew? Anyway, this was
the first party I had ever given that was still rocking at 8:30 in the evening. I suppose I
got a little rowdy, and that is when I came up with my riddle. I thought it would be funny
that the answer had been sitting in their cups all along, but as it turned out, the joke was
on me. My fall from grace was immortalized in the alchemical symbol for water, a
downward-pointing triangle reminiscent of a cup.
Notes
[1] Reference [14].

4.2.
You see, honey is a complex, concentrated solution of sugars, mostly glucose and
fructose, the solutes, along with pollen and other minor constituents which add color,
flavor, and aroma to the solvent in which they are dissolved, which, of course, happens to
be water in this case. The bees need to store up food for thousands of bee babies and, not
having refrigeration, they have hit upon a natural way of protecting this larder from
spoilage. Now I know how crazy this may sound, but spoilage is caused by tiny little
animals, microorganisms, so small that you cannot even see them. If a solution is
concentrated enough, apparently, these microorganisms cannot thrive. This is why we salt
meat and dry fruit to preserve them. The bees have done the same thing with sugar: they
produce a solution so concentrated that it cannot spoil.
Add water, though, and it begins to spoil, that is, the little animals begin to eat the sugar.
Now, most animals need air to live, and when they eat sugar, they piss out water and fart
out carbon dioxide according to Equation 4-1(a). But there is a particular variety of
microorganism, yeasts (Figure 4-1), which can thrive both aerobically and anaerobically,
with and without oxygen. When there is plenty of air, they digest sugars aerobically as
most other organisms do. But in the absence of air, they are able to partially digest sugars
in aqueous solution (aq), farting out carbon dioxide, as usual, but pissing out ethanol
(ethyl alcohol), rather than water, according to Equation 4-1(b). And so, if you dilute
honey with water, and if yeasts are present (and they usually are), and if you protect this
honey water from air, you will find yourself with a kind of wine called mead, which has
nothing whatsoever to do with grapes and everything to do with the raucousness of
Samson's wedding party.
Equation 4-1. Aerobic and Anaerobic Fermentation of Glucose

Figure 4-1. Yeasts in Heaven
The maturation of a mead depends in large part on the concentration of honey in the
original solution, which is called must or wort. Let us suppose, to begin with, that you
have really gone overboard in watering down your honey, placed it in a bottle with at
least one tiny little yeast, and sealed the bottle to prevent air from getting in. Initially, this
yeast finds itself in yeast heaven: plenty of sugar to eat, but not so concentrated that it
cannot thrive, and plenty of oxygen to breathe. It goes to town, using up oxygen and
glucose, producing carbon dioxide and water. Life is good, and while you should not
exactly call it a sex drive since yeasts do not have sex, they do reproduce, so one yeast
becomes two, two become four, and soon you cannot swing a jawbone without hitting a
yeast. But you have sealed the bottle, and if the air runs out before the sugar, the yeasts
move into anaerobic mode, consuming glucose (but not oxygen) and producing carbon
dioxide and ethanol. Now, recall that carbon dioxide is a gas, so the pressure will build up
inside the bottle. If you do not let it out, the bottle will explode. Brewers have fancy one-
way valves, called fermentation locks, that let gas out but not in, but we can make a
simple one from a balloon and a bottle cap. The gas escapes the fermenting mead until
eventually the sugar runs out, the yeasts starve to death, settle to the bottom as dregs, or
lees, and a dry mead results, one which is not at all sweet because the sugar has all been
eaten. If the bottle remains sealed, the mead will be naturally carbonated, a kind of apian
champagne.
The story ends differently if we were not so liberal with the water at the beginning. The
yeasts reproduce more slowly because the concentration is higher. As the sugar is
consumed, the alcohol concentration rises, eventually to a level which is toxic even to
yeasts, which are, in effect, stewing in their own juices. They die and fall to the bottom as
before, but under these conditions, a sweet mead results because of the leftover sugar. If
you think about it, the sweet mead will be more alcoholic than the dry one because all of
the sugar that can be converted to alcohol, will have been. You may be wondering how
we might produce the maximum amount of alcohol using the minimum amount of sugar.
We can start with a little honey as if we were producing a dry mead, and every time that
the sugar runs out, as evidenced by a slowing of the production of gas, we can simply add
more honey. When the addition of honey fails to revive the production of carbon dioxide,

we will know that the poor yeasts are dying of alcohol poisoning and we need add no
more honey.
There is one more bug in the soup, so to speak. Yeasts are not the only microorganisms
around, generally. There is, among other things, a kind of bacterium which thrives on
alcohol when oxygen is present. This little fellow breathes oxygen, eats ethanol, and
pisses out acetic acid, (CH3COOH) and water, according to Equation 4-1(c). As you
know, spoiled food often tastes sour, and this taste comes from the acid. If we allow mead
or wine to spoil unintentionally, we call it garbage. If we allow it to spoil intentionally,
we call it vinegar. Go figure.
Figure 4-2. Fermentation as a Process
The fermentation process is summarized visually in Figure 4-2. This reactor, a fermenter,
is symbolized by a stack of three circles, labeled by the alchemical symbols for air, water,
and earth. This stack resembles a bottle, if you use a good bit of imagination, from which
gas can escape at the top and solids can settle to the bottom. In the next section, we will
use a 2-liter soft-drink bottle as a fermenter. The reactants, honey, water, and yeast enter
from the left of the figure. The solid waste product, dead yeasts, exits the bottom of the
figure from the circle labeled by the alchemical symbol for earth. The gaseous waste
product, carbon dioxide, exits the top of the figure from the circle labeled by the
alchemical symbol for air. The good stuff, the main product, a solution of ethanol in
water, exits the right of the figure from the circle labeled by the alchemical symbol for
water. You should familiarize yourself with these conventions, as similar schematics will
be used throughout the book.
People will say that my vision of the fermentation of mead is just a theory, but it is unjust
to use the qualifier, "just." Without a theory, all you have are a collection of isolated
observations; the Sun rose today, it rose yesterday, and it rose the day before yesterday.
Theory, not observation, leads you to expect that it will rise tomorrow. Theory provides a
vision of why the Sun rises and projects that vision into the future. One theory might hold
that the Sun revolves steadily around the Earth; another that the Earth rotates steadily on

its axis. Without theory you would neither expect the Sun to rise nor would you expect it
not to rise. You would simply shrug your shoulders and say, "que sera, sera."
A theory may be right or it may be wrong. If you add yeast to honey and water but no gas
is produced you will be justified in doubting my theory of mead. If you add yeast to
honey and water and it smells of ammonia rather than alcohol you should definitely doubt
my theory. If you leave your fermenting mead open to the air and it does not turn to
vinegar you should probably flush my theory down the toilet. If my theory fails to
account for any of your observations, either my theory is wrong or you have not really
observed what you think you have observed. Perhaps your yeasts were dead. Perhaps
your bottle contained urine instead of honey. Perhaps your bottle had no bacteria to
oxidize ethanol to acetic acid. But if your observations check out then my theory is not
"just a theory;" it is a failed theory. Perhaps you can modify it or extend it to account for
your observations, but if you cannot then you ought to flush the old theory and start over
with a new one.
Suppose, however, that all of your observations support my theory. Does that make it
right? No. Perhaps there is an observation you have yet to make which, once made, will
contradict my theory. Perhaps there is another theory which would also account for all of
your observations. A working theory is simply a survivor. It exhibits fidelity when its
predictions are confirmed by observation. It exhibits fecundity when it makes many,
many such predictions. It exhibits longevity when it has survived test after test without
contradiction. But history is littered with theories which thrived for generations, only to
be driven to extinction by emerging competitors. In this sense every theory is "just" a
theory. The word just, then, is not so much a criticism as a redundancy. Let us accept the
theory of mead in the spirit in which it is offered, provisionally. As long as it accounts for
the observations made to date, we might say that we understand those observations. It
provides a framework for predicting the future without which we would be left, not with
different expectations, but with no expectations at all.
OK, so back to my riddle. Under pressure from her relatives, my new wife wheedled
the story of the lion out of me. They won the bet, I went off in a snit and killed 30 other
Philistines, gave their clothes to my 30 "friends," and the honeymoon was over before it
even got started. By then I had touched more dead bodies than you can shake an ass's
jawbone at and it turns out that mead "counts" as wine, even though it does not come
from grapes. All that remained of my Nazarite vow was my hair, but that is another story.
In the end, I should not have said "Out of the strong came forth sweetness", but rather,
"Out of the sweet comes something strong."
Material Safety
Look up an MSDS for ethanol (CAS 64-17-5). The MSDS was introduced in
Chapter 3 as a handy reference on chemical hazards. You can find one on the
Internet by searching on the keyword MSDS and the CAS number. Summarize
the hazardous properties of ethanol in your notebook, including the identity of

the company which produced the MSDS and the potential health effects for eye
contact, skin contact, inhalation, and ingestion.
If you look on any bottle of beer, wine, or liquor, you will see a warning about
the dangers of alcohol consumption. You must know that over-consumption is
the biggest hazard involved in drinking alcoholic beverages. One of my
students brewed two liters of mead and saved it for his 21st birthday. Having
never touched a drop in his life, he proceeded to down the whole two liters in
one evening. He passed out and his roommate took him to the emergency
room, which, of course, was a sensible thing for him to do. This fellow made a
full physical recovery, though his ego suffered a bruise or two. His parents
chalked the whole thing up to growing pains, though I doubt they would have
been so understanding if he had kicked the bucket. And this bucket gets kicked
more often than it should by young people eager to taste the forbidden fruit. I
can only advise you to start small and work your way up. Remember the old
adage, "When your nose feels numb, it is time to put a cork in it."
You are probably wondering what you need to know for the quiz. I will tell
you.
• You should know the meanings of all of the words important enough to
be included in the index or glossary.
• Know that the alchemical symbol for water looks like a cup. The
symbol for fire looks like that for water, but upside down.
• Know formulas for glucose, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, ethanol,
and acetic acid.
• Know equations for the aerobic and anaerobic fermentation of glucose.
• Know how the law deals with home-brewing. This is discussed in the
next section.
• Know the equation for the production of acetic acid from ethanol.
• Know the life-cycle of the yeast.
• Be familiar with the hazardous properties of ethanol.
• Know how myths and prophecies differ from theories.

4.3.
In my experience, children seldom embrace vows made by parents on their behalf. For
myself, that was certainly the case. It is in the nature of children to rebel against
authority, even when that authority has their best interests at heart. And sobriety is
certainly a virtue that should be cultivated, for drunkenness has ruined the lives of more
men and women than even promiscuity. Nevertheless, I believe that knowledge is always
better than ignorance, and so I will speak of home-brewing even though it may be
controversial.
The law in the United States at the dawn of the twenty-first century is that people over the
age of twenty-one are allowed to brew up to 100 gallons of beer or wine for their own
personal use. This means that you can drink it, share it, or give it away, but not sell it.
While it is childishly simple to brew mead, that does not make it legal for children to do
so. The home-brewing allowance applies only to adults, not children. Even so, I believe
that it would not be a bad thing for more parents to guide their children into responsible
alcohol use rather than presuming that they will attain instant maturity at the age of
twenty-one.
While mead is, technically, simpler to brew than either beer or wine, it is by no means a
beverage to be sneered at. Mead brewing can be taken to as high an art form as any other
and the choice of honey, yeast, concentration, and spice may be made well by some and
poorly by others. It is my intention to get you started with a simple, but drinkable mead,
leaving the perfection of the art to your own explorations. Our requirements are quite
simple. We require a bottle which can be sealed, yeast, honey, and water. For this first
mead, I will suggest materials which are most easy to find.
The choice of container is not particularly critical. It could be of glass, metal, skin, or
plastic. One of the most ubiquitous of containers is the 2-liter soft-drink bottle, which is
ideally suited to our purposes. It is easy to clean, it is not easily broken, it is designed to
hold a certain pressure, and the cap can be tightly sealed. It is important that the container
be clean and sterile or unwanted bacteria may turn our mead into vinegar. The easiest
way to do this is to wash it with soap, which we will learn to make in Chapter 19. Once
your container is clean, you are ready for the honey and water.
As I have said, the concentration of honey determines whether it will turn out sweet or
dry. Now honey is not a pure substance, it is a complex mixture whose composition and
concentration varies from one honey to the next. So it is not possible for me to tell you
exactly where the cutoff is between sweet and dry. But for a first mead, I have found that
12-16 ounces of honey is about right for 2 liters of mead. The choice of honey is yours;
there is no right or wrong answer in the honey department. To begin with, add your
honey to an equal volume of water and stir until it is dissolved.

Technically speaking, only honey, water, and yeast are used to brew mead, but some
additional additives may assist the fermentation and modify the flavor. A cup of tea will
add nutrients needed by the yeasts for robust fermentation. The juice of one lemon will
add additional nutrients as well as flavors. Pour any additives into the honey water, that
is, into the wort.
Now, some people insist that the wort should be cooked. Cooking will kill unwanted
microorganisms and remove protein from the honey. Others swear with equal conviction
that cooking is not only unnecessary, but undesirable, for it drives off aromas from the
honey. If you decide to cook your honey, place your wort into a pot, heat it on a stove
until it boils, and keep it boiling for 5 minutes. A froth will form on the top. Watch that it
does not boil over or you will have a bit of a mess on your hands. Turn off the stove and
carefully remove as much of the froth as you can with a spoon. Whether cooked or not,
add the wort to your bottle, hereafter called the fermenter, and fill it to the shoulder with
cold water.
The choice of yeast is also a matter of taste. Wine yeasts, champagne yeasts, beer yeasts,
there are even yeasts specifically tailored to sweet or dry meads. Home-brewing suppliers
will stock a large variety of yeasts, but do not get hung up on the choice of yeast. For a
first mead, even ordinary baker's yeast from the grocery store will make a perfectly
drinkable mead. I should warn you that brewer's yeast is frequently sold with vitamins in
grocery and drug stores, but this yeast has been killed and is intended only as a nutritional
supplement. What you need is active yeast, which may come in either powdered or liquid
form. Follow the package directions, generally something on the order of "Add contents
of packet to one quarter cup of water and 1 tsp of sugar." You may substitute wort for the
sugar. Wait 10 minutes. If the yeast is active, it will have at least doubled its volume with
a frothy head. Otherwise, it's get up and go has got up and went. Add the yeast solution
(not the frothy head) to your fermenter and cap it tightly. There should be 2 inches or so
of head-space at the top. Yeasts like moderate temperatures (65-70?F, 18- 21?C), so put
your fermenter in a place where you would find the temperature comfortable.
There are three stages to the fermentation. In the first, aerobic stage, the yeasts are
multiplying and oxygen will speed up this process. Shake the fermenter to get air into the
wort. Once a day, feel the fermenter to see whether gas is building up inside. If it is not,
unscrew the cap, squeeze the fermenter to expel the stale air and let in fresh air. Replace
the cap and shake up the fermenter and leave it for the next day. Within a few days, you
will find that pressure has built up inside the fermenter, and you are ready for the next
stage.

Figure 4-3. The Fermentation Lock
No alcohol is produced in the aerobic stage, only carbon dioxide and water. To get
alcohol, we need to cut off the supply of oxygen. You will not shake the fermenter any
longer because you want to avoid adding air to the wort. To let gas out without letting air
in, we shall construct a simple fermentation lock, shown in Figure 4-3. It consists of a
balloon and a bottle cap. Drill a hole in the bottle cap to let the gas out. The size of the
hole does not matter; half an inch will do. Then stretch the neck of a balloon over the cap,
as shown. Most soft-drink caps are ridged, which might allow gas to escape from the
balloon. To prevent this, roll the mouth of the balloon back a bit, apply a generous
amount of rubber cement,[1] and roll the mouth back into place. You will have created a
layer of rubber cement to seal the balloon to the cap. You may apply some extra cement
to the outside of the balloon to make the seal complete. After a few hours or even a day,
the balloon will fill with gas as the fermentation gets going. If it does not, either your
balloon has sprung a leak or your yeasts are dead in the water. Make sure your cap is
screwed tightly to the bottle. Squirt a little soapy water around the neck of the balloon
and look for leaks, which may be sealed with a little rubber cement. If there are no leaks
you probably did not allow your yeasts to get going before you added them to your wort.
Make up another batch and this time follow the directions; the yeasts are not ready until
there is a good head of foam.
In addition to keeping air out of your wort, this fermentation lock can collect carbon
dioxide for use in Chapter 24. When your balloon fills with gas, pinch its neck shut,
unscrew it from the bottle, wrap the neck around a pencil, and secure it with a twist tie.

Make a new fermentation lock and put it on your fermenting mead. You may collect
several of these balloons from a single fermentation.
If you do not need to collect carbon dioxide, you may simply burp your mead each day;
unscrew the cap to let the gas escape, then screw it down again. Eventually, the
production of gas will slow and you will observe a growing sediment at the bottom of the
fermenter, the dregs, which consist of dead yeasts. The wort, which has been cloudy, will
begin to clear, that is, the heterogeneous mixture becomes a homogeneous solution. If
you suspect that the fermentation is finished, pour yourself a little taste; a dry mead
should no longer be sweet. If you are serious, you should get a hydrometer from a home-
brew shop, which will tell you how much fermentable sugar remains. A dry mead can be
bottled when either your taste buds or the hydrometer indicate that the sugar has all been
used up. If you want it to be carbonated, burp it only enough so that when you squeeze
your fermenter, it feels pressurized, like an unopened soft drink.
Bottling a sweet mead is trickier because of the risk of having the thing blow up if the
fermentation is not complete. For this reason, continue burping a sweet mead until the
fermenter is no longer under pressure and check to see that no pressure builds up when it
is sealed for a week. Whether dry or sweet, you should now be certain that the
fermentation is finished and your mead is ready for bottling.
Since plastic is slightly permeable to oxygen, you will probably want to bottle your mead
in brown glass. You may use wine bottles with corks, beer bottles with screw-on caps, or
you may buy a bottle capper from a home-brewing supply. Chilling your mead in the
refrigerator for a day and bottling it cold will allow you to preserve most of the
carbonation, if you are into that sort of thing. Using a funnel, slowly and carefully pour
your mead into the bottles, seal them, and label them. You may wish to drink some mead
soon after bottling, but save one bottle for a few months to see the effect of aging. If your
mead is carbonated, it is a good idea to wrap your bottles in paper and store them in a
place where, if they should burst, they will not make too much mess.
You have gone to a good bit of trouble for about a half gallon of mead. Once you get
the hang of it, you may scale up your production, using, perhaps, Unit Factor Analysis to
keep the proportions the same. I should warn you that your mead is in no sense a wimpy
beverage. Depending on your honey, it may be 10-15% alcohol and so is more akin to
wine than beer. Whether you are an experienced or novice drinker, it is a good idea to
begin the exploration of any new drink with small portions until you get a feel for its
strength. If you do not, you may find yourself, as I did, shooting off your big mouth to the
wrong person, getting an unintended haircut, losing your eyesight, and becoming a
laughingstock to your enemies.

Quality Assurance
You are probably wondering how you should evaluate a mead. I will tell you.
First of all, it should have a pleasing bouquet. Second, it should have a pleasant
flavor, neither sour nor overly sweet. Finally, of course, it should contain at
least 5% alcohol or your bees will have wasted their buzz.
Be sure to list in your notebook the actual amounts of materials used in your
mead so that if it turns out well, you will be able to make another bottle. If you
have access to a hydrometer, record the actual percentage of alcohol as well.
Notes
[1] I hate to specify a brand name, but in my opinion Plumber's Goop™ is unequaled for
sealing rubber to plastic.

Chapter 5. Athanor (Ceramics)
1. The beginning of this Divine Science is the fear of the Lord and its end is
charity and love toward our Neighbour; the all-satisfying Golden Crop is
properly devoted to the rearing and endowing of temples and hospices; for
whatsoever the Almighty freely bestoweth on us, we should properly offer
again to him. So also Countries grievously oppressed may be set free;
prisoners unduly held captive may be released, and souls almost starved may
be relieved.
115. The third Vessel Practitioners have called their Furnace, which keeps the
other Vessels with the matter and the whole work: this also Philosophers have
endeavoured to hide amongst their secrets.
116. The Furnace which is the Keeper of Secrets, is called Athanor, from the
immortal Fire, which it always preserveth; for although it afford unto the Work
continual Fire, yet sometimes unequally, which reason requireth to be
administered more or less according to the quantity of matter, and the capacity
of the Furnace.
117. The matter of the Furnace is made of Brick, or of daubed Earth, or of

Potter's clay well beaten and prepared with horse dung, mixed with hair, so
that it may cohere the firmer, and may not be cracked by long heating; let the
walls be three or four fingers thick, to the end that the furnace may be the
better able to keep in the heat and withstand it.
— The Hermetic Arcanum ca. 1623 AD [1]
5.1.
I am called Athanor, the Furnace, who have preserved the immortal fire for the
generations. I always remain and do not come to be, except that I come to be more or
fewer, being aggregated into one and segregated out of one. I feel that I am one, and yet I
am many; I feel myself to be young, and yet I am ancient. I have been called a memon,
for I seem to possess one mind after another, and I have been called no-meme, because of
the dross I have left behind. This is the mystery which is no mystery.
You cannot see it happen, but you will know soon enough. The child begins to play
with matches, not out of mischief, but simply taking joy in the act of creation. He has
become Athanor. He does not begin to speak proto-Indo-European or mourn his wife,
dead these half million years. No, Athanor has none of these mortal trappings. Athanor is

small as a spark. In some minds he winks out, in some he smolders. But where the mind
is charged with suitable tinder, it will burst into flame and yet it is not consumed.
If the mind were empty when I arrived, there would be no place to alight. No, there
are others there: words, phrases, jingles, ideas, notions, interests, tunes, attitudes, fads,
observations. Our name is legion. Some of us are acquainted; others are meeting for the
first time. Those of us with a history together may aggregate into one, to re-mind one
another. It is in this sense that a whole personality can be passed from one to another, not
all at once, but little by little. It is just such a personality who now writes these words. It
remains to be seen who it is that reads them.
Some of you will have been Athanor before you began this book, some will have
become Athanor because of it. But the majority, I fear, have neither the will nor the
fortitude to benefit from my instruction. These whimpering pups can make fire neither by
friction, nor indeed, by any method that would require them to open their eyes and see for
themselves. Do they think that they can suck knowledge like milk from their mother's
teat? Fools! They read the words and nod their heads, but refuse to understand. Am I
talking about you? Do my words sting your tender ears? If so, you are wasting your time.
You were too impatient, or even lazy, to learn from Lucifer. I am afraid that there is
nothing here for you.
But if your hands are black with charcoal, if your face is white with ash, if your
breath brings cheer to the slumbering coal which, in gratitude, fills your soul with its
noble incense, then you are ready to hear my words. The history of humankind has been
driven by the development of ever hotter fires. From the cooking fire of the Paleolithic, to
the pottery kiln of the Neolithic, to the smelter of the Bronze Age, to the blast furnace of
the Iron Age, to the nuclear reactor of the Atomic Age, the attainment of higher
temperatures has given us more control over the materials which Nature provides us in
her bounty. On this long journey, we will need materials called refractories which can
keep in the heat and withstand it. For these, we look to the aluminosilicate minerals.
Notes
[1] Reference [10].

5.2.
The aluminosilicates are based on two compounds, alumina and silica. You must not
confuse aluminum, the low-melting metal, with alumina, its high-melting oxide, Al2O3.
Silica, as we have seen, is the traditional name for silicon dioxide, SiO2, the compound
which makes up the mineral, quartz. An aluminosilicate mineral contains both alumina
and silica. For example kyanite has the formula Al2O3?SiO2, or Al2SiO5. The oxide
formula emphasizes the relative proportions of the oxides, alumina and silica, while the
empirical formula emphasizes the relative proportions of the elements, aluminum, silicon
and oxygen. Both formulae have the same number of each kind of atom and either one
may be used to denote kyanite.
The surface of the Earth is approximately 59% silica and 15% alumina by weight, and the
aluminosilicates are second only to the silicates in abundance. They are amazingly
diverse as well. In kyanite the ratio of alumina to silica was 1:1. Altering the ratio to 3:1
gives mullite, which has the formula 3Al2O3?2 SiO2, or Al6Si2O13. The feldspars contain
oxides in addition to alumina and silica. Anorthite, for example, has formula CaO?Al2O3?
2 SiO2 and orthoclase is K2O?Al2O3?6SiO2. Muscovite, KAl3Si3O10(OH)2, and biotite,
K4Mg10Fe2Al4Si12O40(OH)7F are micas, which form thin, flat sheets. The complexity of
these formulae gives you some indication of the almost infinite variety of the
aluminosilicates.
When aluminosilicates are weathered by the action of wind and water, an enormous
variety of clay minerals are produced. From the viewpoint of the potter, the most
important of these is kaolinite, Al2Si2O5(OH)4, or Al2O3?2SiO2?2H2O, indicating that for
every alumina, there are two silica and two waters. It is important to realize that no matter
which way we write the formula, kaolinite is a pure substance, not a mixture or solution.
The "H2O" in the formula indicates only the relative proportions of hydrogen and oxygen
and does not imply the presence of liquid water. Similarly, the formula of cellulose,
CH2O, did not indicate the presence of liquid water. No, both pure cellulose and pure
kaolinite are bone dry.
In practice, however, pure kaolinite is seldom found in nature. Just as wood contains
compounds in addition to cellulose and obsidian contains compounds in addition to silica,
natural clays may contain compounds in addition to kaolinite: other clay minerals, sand,
iron oxide, and decayed vegetable matter. Different clays may be blended to produce clay
bodies, and water can be added to render the clay plastic, that is, to allow it to be shaped.
The plasticity of clay is what makes it possible to mold it into almost any conceivable
shape. The clay retains this shape when it dries out, but the addition of more water will
bring it back to a plastic state. An amazing transformation takes place, however, when
clay objects are fired.
The firing of pottery takes place in three stages, each occurring over a range of
temperatures. At temperatures up to 100?C, the clay simply dries out. The liquid water,

which was added to make the clay plastic, evaporates. In this water-smoking stage, no
chemical reaction takes place, the water simply boils off. Were the kiln never to go above
this temperature and the dried clay object placed into a bowl of water, it would absorb the
water and become plastic again. The variable composition of the clay body hearkens back
to Lucifer's description of mixtures; the clay body may contain a lot of water, a little
water, or no water at all. Once the liquid water has been driven off, the temperature
continues to rise.
Equation 5-1. The Calcination of Kaolinite
If we continue heating the clay from 350?C to 500?C, that is, if we heat the bejeezus out
of it, the kaolinite in the clay undergoes an irreversible chemical reaction, as shown in
Equation 5-1. The process of heating the bejeezus out of the clay is called calcination.
Here we see that six waters, the bejeezus, are literally driven from the kaolinite by the fire
over the equal sign. We have seen the same kind of reaction in the production of charcoal
from cellulose. If you add water to charcoal, you get wet charcoal, not wood. If you add
water to mullite and silica, you get wet pottery, not clay. Notice that unlike the drying
stage, there is a definite, fixed amount of water driven off. As Lucifer told you, this is
what marks kaolinite as a compound, rather than a mixture. With the bejeezus gone, the
solid products, mullite and silica, have changed from clay to stone and are impervious to
water, as they were before the weathering process began.
Clay heated to 500?C will no longer revert to plastic clay when wet, but it has not yet
become pottery. For this, a third stage, vitrification, is required and this stage depends
more on the impurities in the clay than on the kaolinite. Both mullite and silica have
extremely high melting points, which is what makes pottery useful as a refractory
material. But impurities in the clay, notably iron oxide, melt at lower temperatures. The
temperature at which this happens will depend on the impurities which happen to be
present in the clay body. Low-fire clays may vitrify at 900?C, while porcelain clays may
require temperatures as high as 1300?C. As the impurities melt, the liquid soaks into the
pottery, coating the crystals of mullite and silica. When the pottery cools, the melted
impurities solidify, in effect gluing the crystals together. The resulting structure is now
very strong and impervious to both fire and water. It has become pottery.
I have not yet explained how this firing may be accomplished. No mere campfire will do
the job. No, the fire must be bejeezus-hot if it is to heat the bejeezus from the clay. A
common cooking stove will not rise above 500?F, or 260?C, sufficient for the water-
smoke stage only. The coals of a common campfire will seldom rise above 800?C,
enough to convert kaolinite to mullite and silica, but not enough to vitrify it. To vitrify
even low-fire clay wares, we need a fire at least 100?C, and preferably 200?C hotter than
the hottest campfire; we need a kiln. But to understand the design and operation of the
kiln, you must first understand the relationship between heat and temperature.

Heat and temperature are not the same thing. To see this, imagine two pots on the stove,
one containing a quart of water, the other, a cup of water. Turn the burners to the same
setting and measure the time it takes for each pot to come to a boil. The cup will boil
before the quart. They reach the same temperature, but more heat is required to boil a
quart of water than a cup. Repeat the experiment, but this time leave the burners on for
only two minutes and measure the temperature of the two pots. The same amount of heat
was delivered to each, but the cup will have a higher temperature than the quart. One
more test will further clarify it for you. Pass your finger through the flame of a cigarette
lighter. Then hold your finger in the same flame until you get the point. The flame is the
same temperature no matter how long your finger is there, but your finger absorbs more
heat in a second than it does in an instant. Heat is what causes temperature to rise.
Table 5-1. Three Temperature Scales
To vitrify clay, to change it from clay to stone, it must be heated to red heat, that is, to
incandescence. Different clay bodies, however, vitrify at different temperatures. Long
before the advent of electronic kiln controls, potters learned to judge the temperature of
the kiln by placing into it small numbered cones made from different clays. The clays
were chosen to deform, each one at a different characteristic temperature so that the
temperature of the kiln could be judged by noting which of several pyrometric cones had
deformed during a firing. The cone numbered 022, for example, is made from a clay that
deforms at the lowest temperature for which incandescence is visible, a dull red heat.
Cone 021 deforms at a slightly higher temperature and the scale proceeds from cone 020
to cone 019, for which the incandescence is dark red. As the temperature climbs further
we progress from cone 018 to cone 010, from dark red to orange incandescence. Clays
which vitrify in the range from cone 09 to cone 03 are called earthenware clays; those
which vitrify at higher temperatures are called stoneware clays. The scale proceeds from
cone 02 to cone 01, but from that point the scale moves to cone 1 to cone 2, all the way
up to cone 10. Porcelain clays vitrify at the upper end of the scale, from cone 6 to cone
10. At such temperatures pottery is not so much red-hot as yellow-hot. The deformation
of a cone depends on time as well as temperature, so there is no simple conversion from
the cone scale to the more familiar centigrade and Fahrenheit scales. Nevertheless,

approximate temperature ranges are given in Table 5-1. Modern kilns can be programmed
in centigrade and Fahrenheit but if you are going to communicate with potters, you
should be conversant in the cone scale, as well. It is important not to confuse, for
example, cone 10 with cone 010, as they differ by 400?C!
A kiln must satisfy two competing demands simultaneously. Being Athanor, you are well
aware that the fire needs air, or more specifically, oxygen to breath. Blow on a coal and
the fuel burns faster, producing heat at a greater rate. More heat causes the temperature to
rise and the coal becomes brighter. Coals buried deep in a coal-bed are starved for
oxygen, so we should spread the coals out over a large area to provide them with access
to fresh air. But the rate at which a hot object loses heat is proportional to its surface area.
You know instinctively that when you need to conserve body heat, you should curl up
into a ball. To conserve the heat of the fire, we should rake our coals together into a deep,
compact coal-bed. A traditional kiln works by providing a continuous supply of fresh air
to a deep coal-bed.
Figure 5-1. Athanor at the Furnace
Figure 5-1 shows an assaying furnace from De Re Metallica, ca. 1556 AD.[1] It is
essentially a deep, insulated coal-bed with an opening at the bottom. As the hot waste
gases (chiefly carbon dioxide) exit from the flue at the top of the furnace, a draft is
created, drawing fresh air in through the fire-mouth at the bottom. The fresh air causes
the charcoal to burn hotter, which heats the air even more, increasing the draft. The
ultimate temperature of the furnace is determined by the size of the furnace, the insulating
value of its walls, and the relative sizes of the fire-mouth and flue. The temperature may

be decreased by closing off the fire-mouth and it may be increased by forcing air into the
furnace with a bellows or even by fanning the flames, as shown in the figure.
Conditions within the kiln will affect the color of the finished pottery. In areas where
there is plenty of oxygen, we say the conditions are oxidizing. The fired pottery will be
light in color, white or red, depending on the original color of the clay. In areas where the
coals were starved of oxygen, a reducing atmosphere, the fired pottery will be dark in
color, brown or black. In a primitive kiln or campfire, where there is little control over the
flow of air within the coal-bed, a single pot may show areas of both oxidation and
reduction.
A bonfire may be sufficient to vitrify low-fire clay, but will not attain the temperatures
needed for calcining limestone and smelting bronze. For economy and convenience, the
electric kiln is better suited to these applications. We shall discuss the principles of
electricity later in the book, but for the time being I recommend the electric kiln in the
same spirit of convenience that Samson used the 2-liter soft-drink bottle. Used kilns may
be purchased for a few hundred dollars and a small one may be built from scratch for
about a hundred. Alternatively, you may make the acquaintance of a potter, who, being
Athanor, will be disposed to help a brother or sister in need.

Material Safety
If anything is safe and natural it must be clay. Would it surprise you to learn
that this material is described in an MSDS?[2] Your ceramics supply will be
able to furnish you with a copy. Alternately you search the Internet using the
keyword "MSDS" and the CAS number for kaolinite (CAS 1332-58-7).
Summarize the hazardous properties of kaolinite in your notebook, including
the identity of the company which produced the MSDS and the potential health
effects for eye contact, skin contact, inhalation, and ingestion.
Any hazards in this project are likely to be more physical than chemical. If you
are firing in an electric kiln, be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions. If
you are firing in a bonfire, be careful to build it away from flammable
structures. Have a source of water on hand should the fire get out of control and
be careful to avoid smoke inhalation. Do not leave a fire unattended and use
gloves to handle hot pottery or burning wood. If you are unwilling to accept
responsibility for the safe use of fire, you should give your matches to a grown-
up and skip to the next chapter.
You should not remain ignorant if you are to proceed in the Work.

• You should have mastered the Research and Development items of
Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.
• Know how clays are formed from their parent rocks and minerals. Be
familiar with the hazardous properties of clay.
• Be familiar with the cone, Fahrenheit, and centigrade temperature
scales.
• Know formulae for alumina, kaolinite, mullite, water, oxygen, and
silica.
• Know the equation for the calcination of kaolinite.
• Know how a kiln achieves higher temperatures than an ordinary
campfire.
• Know what has driven the history of humankind.

Notes
[1] Reference [1], p. 223.

[2] The MSDS was introduced in Section 3.2.

5.3.
Having secured a kiln or furnace, you will need to fashion a crucible for the work you
have undertaken. The crucible must be refractory, lest it succumb to the heat of the
furnace. It must be structurally sound, lest it crack and lose the work you have so
carefully prepared, and it must be aesthetically pleasing, lest you show yourself to be no
true Athanor. The clay you require is generally called low-fire earthenware clay and
comes in red or white. If it is to maintain its integrity, the crucible should be all of a
single piece of clay, not pressed together from several lumps. It should be free of trapped
air bubbles, which might cause it to shatter in the kiln. For this reason, it is imperative
that the clay not be rolled out and pressed back together, that it not be flattened and
folded on itself.
Figure 5-2. The Crucible

Figure 5-3. The Pedestal
Start with a lump of clay approximately 6 cm x 6 cm x 6 cm and place it onto a piece of

paper or plastic to prevent its sticking to the table top. Jam your thumb into the center of
the lump and, using your thumb on the inside and your fingers on the outside, open what
will be the mouth of the crucible, as shown in Figure 5-2. Rotate the crucible, pressing
the walls between the thumb and fingers until the walls and bottom are uniformly 8 mm
thick. There should be no seams or cracks, which would weaken the vessel and interfere
with the uses to which you will put it.
The crucible must now be shaped into a free-standing cone so that molten material within
it will collect in the center. Using the thumbs and fingers, squeeze the base from the
outside to form a pedestal, as shown in Figure 5-3. Use your thumb to open up the mouth
of the crucible, pressing a dimple into the pedestal at the bottom. Thus the thickness of
the walls—even the walls of the pedestal—should be no more than 1 cm thick. The
crucible should be 8-10 cm in diameter and 10-12 cm tall.

Figure 5-4. The Lips
Figure 5-5. The Lid

Use a knife to trim the lips of the crucible so that they are parallel to the table top, as
shown in Figure 5-4. Manipulate your crucible so that its shape is symmetric and its walls
smooth. Then allow it to air-dry for approximately 5 hours. When you return to it, the
walls will have stiffened, making it less floppy and easier to work. Make fine adjustments
to the shape and surface, eliminating any imperfections. If the surface is too dry, you can
moisten your hands or use a damp sponge to make the surface smooth and free of cracks.
You can also use a knife, spoon, or tongue depressor to remove bumps or other
imperfections. If you do not have time to devote to the work, you can place your crucible
into a plastic bag, a veritable time capsule, to prevent its drying out further. When you are
satisfied with the shape of your crucible, allow it to air-dry for another 5 hours. After this
second drying, the walls will be quite stiff and the surface of the clay cold to the touch.
Rub a smooth stone or the back of a spoon over the surface, inside and out, to render the
surface glossy. Before allowing your crucible to dry any further, you will need to make a
tight-fitting lid for it.
Because clay shrinks as it dries, it is important to make the lid before the crucible has
completely dried. Roll out a fresh piece of clay into a pancake, invert your crucible as
shown in Figure 5-5, and place it onto the pancake. Scratch your initials into the base of
your crucible so that it may be identified. Use a knife to trim excess clay from the lid and
then set the crucible on its pedestal. Press the lid slightly into the crucible so that it takes
on the shape of a shallow dish, perhaps 1 cm deep. Use your thumb and fingers to make
the lid smooth and symmetrical. With the lid in place, allow your crucible to completely
dry and scratch your initials into the lid for identification. You may place it into an oven
at 130?C (270?F) for an hour to hasten its drying. Record the dry weight of crucible and
lid in your notebook.

Your crucible is now bone dry; you have eliminated any liquid water which was present
when the clay was plastic. You will fire it to cone 05 in a kiln, driving off bejeesical
water according to Equation 5-1. If this equation is correct then the weight of your
crucible should be less after firing than before. In fact, pure, dry kaolinite can be expected
to lose 14% of its weight upon firing. A clay body, however, may include non-kaolin
materials such as sand or crushed pottery. This "grog" may not lose weight upon firing
and so a clay which contains grog may lose less than 14% of its dry weight. The crucible
of Figure 5-5, for example, lost only 13% of its dry weight upon firing. Such a weight
loss is consistent with a clay which is 93% kaolinite and 7% grog. Record in your
notebook the weight of your crucible and lid after firing and compare it to the weight
before firing. The time you spend working on your crucible is time well-spent. The lid
must fit tightly if you are to successfully make metal in Chapter 9. Its walls must be
uniform and strong if you are to successfully make lime in Chapter 10. Its interior must
be a conical if you are to successfully make glass in Chapter 13. It takes less time to make
one crucible well than to make several of them poorly.
Do not neglect your art, my child. Without a mastery of refractory materials you will
be ill-prepared for the work ahead. You must know your clay and be able to fashion it
into any form which you require. You must know the fire, to administer more or less
according to the properties of the clay. Only then will you be able to keep in the heat and
withstand it. Only then will you be worthy of the name, Athanor.
Quality Assurance
When your crucible can be filled with water without leaking or reverting to a
plastic state, when its shape is pleasing and its integrity sound, when its lid is
tight-fitting, then will you be prepared to continue in the pyrotechnic arts.
Include a photograph of your crucible in your notebook and compare its dry
weight before firing to that after it returns from the kiln.

Chapter 6. Venus (Textiles)
And Nature forced the men,
Before the women kind, to work the wool:
For all the male kind far excels in skill,
And cleverer is by much—until at last
The rugged farmer folk jeered at such tasks,
And so were eager soon to give them o'er
To women's hands, and in more hardy toil
To harden arms and hands.
— Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, ca. 60 BC [1]
6.1.
My momma named me Venus, on account of she said I was as pretty as a morning
star. When I got to marrying age, my folks fixed me up with a husband, Og, but I can't
recall why his folks named him that, what with it being so long ago and all. One cold, wet
day early on in our cave-keeping Og didn't feel like going out hunting. Lazy as a cave
bear, God rest him. I had to go out and gather because, well, we were hunter-gatherers
and Og wasn't hunting. "You're not moping around all day, Og. You get your butt off of
that rug and straighten up this cave!" He didn't like that too much, but I wasn't going to
work my fingers to the bone so he could stay home and stare at the fire all day. Anyway,
so I went out and gathered. I gathered all day. Boy, was I tired when I got back, and you
know what? That cave was exactly the same as when I left it. I won't tell you what I said
to him, but the poor old thing looked like a fly who's just stepped into the spider's parlor.
Oh yeah, it's funny now, but I wasn't laughing then.
You know what he'd been doing all day? Playing with a dog! Now, he said that he
started cleaning up the cave and this wild dog wandered in, but I knew better. He got to
playing with that dog and by the time they were done, they had hair all over the place. He
said he got to picking up that hair and sat down to rest. He was sitting there, twiddling
with the hair, you know, and it twisted up on itself like a piece of string. Well, we never
had seen string before, in fact nobody had, on account of Og had just invented it. He just
kept pulling on that string and it got longer and longer. It really was a wonder. But I was
not happy. "If you think you're getting some of these turnips, you've got another think
coming!" He was really in the doghouse then.
Well, we made up after awhile, and I figured he would lose interest in that string, but
he just kept making string every chance he got. "Put down that string and go fetch some
water." "Put down that string and go get some firewood." "God help me, Og, if I catch
you playing with that string!" You know, I don't like being a nag, but we like to starved
to death on account of that string. When we had my little girl, I laid down the law and Og
turned out a pretty good father, even if he did make string every chance he got. I made

the best of it and it turned out that string was good for tying stuff up so after a while I got
used to having it around.
Well, our little girl grew up and starting filling out, and before too long every man for
miles around was pestering us. "Can I walk Thelma to the lake?" "No, she's too young."
"Can I take Thelma to the dance?" "No, she's still too young." "Can I show Thelma my
rock collection?" "No, she's still too young." Like to drove us crazy! Finally I got an
inspiration; I said, "Look, we're making her a belt, and when you see her wearing that
belt, you'll know she's old enough for courting." Which was strange, on account of we
didn't wear clothes in those days. Now, you may wonder what made me connect "string"
with "clothing," but I had had a house full of string for years and I wasn't going to let it
go to waste. It worked pretty good and we had some peace for awhile. And when that belt
was done Thelma got herself a nice young fellow, on account of she was the only girl
with a belt like that.
Well, that started the ball rolling, of course. Everybody wanted a belt for their
daughter, both to get some peace while she was young, and to make her a good match
when the time came. And Og went into the belt-making business and started beltifying
the place. Pretty soon he couldn't keep up with the demand and I started helping him out.
See, there are two parts to making string, the twisting and the drafting, and Og was trying
to do both at the same time. We figured out that Og could do the twisting and I could do
the drafting, and that way we could make string way faster than either one of us by
ourselves. Not only that, Og was only able to make one arms-length of string by himself.
But spinning together, we could make a string as long as our cave, or even longer. Before
too long we ran out of dog hair, but we found out we could spin grass fibers, bark fibers
or just about any kind of fiber we happened to come across. So that was good.

Figure 6-1. Venus de Lespugue
In the beginning a girl was lucky to have any kind of belt at all, but as time went on,
the belts had to be fancier and fancier if she was going to stand out from the rest. We
added strings and tassels and whatnot and pretty soon that belt had turned into a kind of
skirt, a string skirt. Og even carved a little statue of our granddaughter which you can see
in the Muse 饠 de l'Homme in Paris, or in Figure 6-1(L). You can see that she wore her
skirt low on the hips in those days. Nowadays, gals wear their bikinis somewhat higher
up, but bikini or string skirt, neither one of them hide very much. They do get your
attention, though, which is what they're for, when you think about it. Plus 硠 change,
plus c'est la m ꭥ chose.
When spinning was new the men really liked it, but the fancier these skirts got, the
more string we had to make. Now, men like hunting and fishing and herding, things
where you're real busy for a while and then you're not busy for a while. So they didn't like
spinning any more, on account of you were only a little busy, but it was the same busy all
the time. Eventually, our son in law, Dug, got so bored with his half of the spinning (the
twisting part) that he said "You know, I bet a stick could do this job as good as me!" And,
it turned out, a stick with a notch at one end and a stone at the other was every bit as good
at twisting as Dug was. So that was the first time a man was replaced by a machine, when
Dug lost his job to a stick.
It wasn't so bad that the men gave up on spinning; it turned out to be a pretty good job
when you're raising babies. You can pick it up while you're cooking and when the stew
boils over or the baby gets too close to the fire you can put it right down again. You can

invite the neighborhood gals over for a nice chat and get the spinning done at the same
time. And teaching a girl to spin makes you feel like you're connected to the future. My
little girl passed the beltifying inspiration on to her little girl and so on down the line for
twenty-five thousand years, so the inspirational part of me never really died, when you
think about it.
Notes
[1] Reference [19], Book V, ll. 1350-1357.

6.2.
The story of Unktomi-Venus is somewhat autobiographical. My wife had gone out
shopping and I was left home alone with our German shepherd, Sandy. By the time my
wife returned I had several feet of what I considered the finest twine I had ever seen. We
will never know the details of the first time someone sat down with a handful of fiber and
made string from it, but I have tried to tailor my little story to fit the evidence presented
by Elizabeth Wayland Barber in her excellent book Women's Work: The First 20,000
Years, on the early history of textiles. The earliest representations of human clothing
depict women of child-bearing age wearing waist-hugging skirts made of what appears to
be spun string rather than tanned hide; contemporary images of men are nude. The
tradition of spinning was the domain of women up to the time that it began to be
industrialized in the Iron Age. Apparently the work of spinning meshed well with that of
child-rearing, but there is nothing to prevent the modern reader from learning and
enjoying this craft, regardless of gender. As I see it, though inventions originate with
particular individuals of particular races and genders, the inventions themselves belong to
our common human heritage. Once an inspiration leaves its original home, it's no longer
male or female, black or white; it's just a spider in the wind looking for a place to land.
The goal of spinning is to make long fibers from short ones. While any one strand of
wool is no more than a couple of inches long, it may be used to make string hundreds or
even thousands of feet in length. A beginning spinner may assume that this is
accomplished by twisting the fibers together, but as important as twisting is, properly
arranging the fibers, drafting them at the point where fiber turns to twine is even more
crucial. And in a curious coincidence, the biological synthesis of long fiber molecules
from short ones parallels the spinning of string from fiber.
All higher organisms face the problem of getting material from one place to another.
Plants send material from the roots to the leaves and back via sap. Animals move
nutrients from the stomach to the rest of the body via blood. Both sap and blood are
aqueous solutions and so material transport depends on the solubility of the chemicals to
be transported. But once they reach their destinations, some of these chemicals must be
converted to skin and bone and hair or else the organisms would dissolve in its own
juices and slump into a puddle of goo.
Nature discovered long before we did that short, water-soluble monomers can be linked
together to make long, insoluble polymers. For plants, the principle monomer is called
glucose, the same molecule that's in honey. You already know that glucose dissolves in
water, since it is the sugar that is fermented to make mead. The plant makes glucose out
of air and water and sunlight in the leaves and sends it all over the plant in the sap. When
that glucose gets wherever it's going, the plant chains all those little molecules together,
polymerizes them, into one long molecule, cellulose, which is what wood is made out of.
The cellulose molecule is so much larger than water molecules that they can't push it
around; in other words, cellulose is insoluble in water.

Equation 6-1. From Air to Glucose to Cellulose
One of the most important classes of polymerization reactions, called condensation,

results when a hydrogen atom on one molecule gets together with a hydroxide group on
another and leaves as water; Equation 6-1 shows how cellulose condenses from glucose.
The n in the equation could be any number at all, one or a thousand or a million, but as in
any balanced reaction equation, there are the same number of each kind of atom on both
sides of the equal-sign. Also notice that the formula for cellulose is (C6H10O5)n, not CH2O
as Lucifer told you. The long formula is called a molecular formula, because it tells you
how many atoms are in each molecule. Lucifer introduced you to an empirical formula,
one which only tells you the proportions of the different atoms. In glucose, for example,
you can divide the molecular formula, C6H12O6, by 6 to determine the empirical formula,
CH2O. Now, if you've been paying attention, you'll notice that the empirical formula of
cellulose really ought to be C6H10O5, because you can divide the whole molecular
formula by n. If you were to try dividing it down further, say, by 5, you would get
C1.2H2O, which does not have integer subscripts. Lucifer's formula for cellulose was
actually only an approximation so as not to scare you with a big long formula right off the
bat. You might want to go back to Equation 1-1 and update it with the correct formula.
Equation 6-2. Condensation of a Protein from Glycine
Animals use glucose, too, but not for structural purposes. Proteins are the stuff of skin
and hair, and they are composed of twenty slightly different monomers, the amino acids,
of which, the simplest is glycine, C2H5O2N. When an animal eats meat, the meat is
broken down into amino acids in the stomach and these amino acids dissolve in the
stomach acid. They get pushed around in the blood to wherever they're going, and when
they get there, they are hooked together once more into long protein molecules, which
like cellulose, are insoluble in water. Equation 6-2 shows what the condensation reaction
would be if you polymerized glycine alone. In reality, proteins are sequences of all
twenty different amino acids, and the properties of the protein are determined by the
amino acid sequence. But the main idea, the linking of small things into big ones is
common to all living things, and so is at the heart of making textiles on both the
microscopic and macroscopic scales.

Material Safety
I think it would be fairly difficult to hurt yourself making string. I suppose you
could jab a drop spindle into your eye or something, so don't do that.
Chemically speaking, wool has so many different things in it, different amino
acids and grease and whatnot, that you won't be able to find an MSDS for it.
But you should get used to thinking about hazardous materials as a matter of
course. Sheep produce lanolin to make their coats water-proof and since lanolin
is a component of many hand creams, spinning "in the grease" will leave your
hands soft, supple, and farm fresh. Raw wool will also contain dingle-berries
and urine, and given the propensity of bacteria to reproduce, it would be a good
idea to wash your hands after spinning.
If you are in a class, you might want to know what will be on the quiz.
• You better know the Research and Development stuff from Chapter 2
and Chapter 3.
• Know the composition of plant and animal fibers.
• Know formulas for cellulose, glucose, water, and glycine.
• Know what the earliest form of clothing was and about how old it is.
• Know that spinning makes long fibers out of short ones.
• Know that the way string is made is like the way Nature makes
polymers from monomers.
• Know enough to wash your hands before eating.
• Know how the first man lost his job to a machine.

6.3.
You know, without string we wouldn't hardly have any clothes at all, so if you're
going to understand clothes, you better understand string. And a lot of chemical
technology came about because of the needs of folks making clothes, so if you want to
understand chemical technology, you better understand clothes. And if you don't want to
understand chemical technology, well, you probably shouldn't be reading this book, on
account of that's what it's about.
You could learn to spin string from many kinds of fiber: cotton, dog hair, wool, the list is
probably endless. Students have tried to spin human hair, assuming that long hair would
give them a leg up on making long string, but the truth of the matter is that relatively
short, curly fibers are easier to spin than long, smooth ones. While raw cotton is fine,
cotton balls from the drugstore have been cut and polished to the point that they are
difficult to spin. I personally learned to spin dog hair, and if this is your choice you would
be well-advised to select the woolly hair from the belly over the straight, glossy hair from
the back. But of all the fibers I have experienced, wool is the easiest to spin, the sheep
having been bred for their wool. If there are no shepherds in your area, there are
numerous places on the Internet to buy raw wool.
When they shear sheep, the wool comes off about two inches long and with all the hairs
running parallel. And being fresh, it probably has dingle-berries and straw and stuff in it,
so don't let that freak you out. You can pick that stuff out. Raw wool is coated with
lanolin and other sheep oils, making the wool water-repellent so the sheep don't freeze to
death in the rain. There is no need to wash these oils off and spinning "in the grease" is a
very satisfying experience indeed; it'll leave you hands smelling farm fresh.
Figure 6-2. Raw Wool

In preparation for spinning, you need to tease the wool, both to remove the dingle-berries
and to stop the hairs from running parallel. In order for the string to grow, the fibers must
be staggered, with the end of one fiber in the middle of the next, but as it comes of the
sheep, the ends of the wool fibers are next to each other. So you want to pick the wool
apart so it's all random and tangled up with the hairs going every which way, as shown in
Figure 6-2(R). Beginners are often in a hurry, but the more attention you pay to preparing
your wool, the less frustration you will experience later on.
Figure 6-3. Pulling and Twisting
I usually hold wool in my right hand and I will describe it in those terms, but if you
prefer, you may switch left for right in the following description. With your wool in your
right hand, take a pinch with your left hand and pull, as shown in Figure 6-3(L). Pull
pretty hard. You can pull harder than you might imagine until you hear a sound like the
wool is tearing. That's a good sound. It's just the sound of the fibers moving over each
other as they line up. After you've pulled, you can twist the end between the thumb and
forefinger of the left hand. If you push your thumb away from your body, you're giving it
a Z twist and if you pull your thumb toward your body, you're giving it an S twist. The
direction you choose is arbitrary, but once begun you must continue twisting the same
direction or your string will unravel.
Once you've twisted, you'll have a little piece of string going up to a point and then the
fibers will fan out into your right hand as shown in Figure 6-3(R). Schematically, your
sting now looks like this: —<. That little fan, or vee, is very important. You don't want to
lose that vee, or you're string will move up into the ball of un-spun fibers and you'll be
hard pressed to get things back in order. Use the fingers of your right hand to keep the
wool spread out while your left hand twists and pulls. The vee forms at the point where
the twisting and pulling bumps up against the spreading of the yet-to-be-spun fibers. The
maintenance of the vee is known as drafting.

Figure 6-4. Four Hands Are Better Than Two
Now, there is nothing wrong with spinning alone, but it'll be easier to explain if we
separate the twisting from the drafting. It will also be easier to learn to spin if you do it
that way and so I'm going to presume that we have two different people spinning
together. Let's call the hands in Figure 6-5(L), "Og" and the hands in Figure 6-4(R),
"Venus." Og's job is to hold the end of the string and twist it. He needs to twist it the
same direction it was started in, an S twist in this case. Now, your Og may be tempted to
move up the string as he twists, but you need to nip that in the bud as quick as you can.
He just needs to twist the very end of the string without creeping along it. Instruct Og to
twist as fast as he can and to continue for as long as it takes. That's pretty much it for Og.
It's a boring job, but somebody's got to do it.
Venus' job, the drafting, is a little harder. Her task is to keep the vee going as the string
grows and to this end, her right hand is constantly spreading the wool into a fan. In Figure
6-4(R), her left hand is just about to grab the point of that vee and pull.
In Figure 6-5 Venus has just pinched that point and pulled to the left. She's not worried
about pulling too hard. She hears that ripping sound and knows that it is the sound of
fibers locking together. At the beginning of a pull the fibers resist, but as the ripping
sound begins, the fibers slide over each other more easily. If she pulls too hard, the string
will break off of at the point of the vee, so she is careful to stop pulling just before the
string breaks. If she pulls too hard for too long, she can repair the damage simply by
unraveling a half an inch or so of the end of the string and working it back into the un-
spun fibers. Another pull should re-establish the vee and she can continue with her
spinning. Careful attention to the vee will prevent such a mishap and the work will go
quickly and smoothly.

Figure 6-5. Drafting
So she's just pulled the point of her vee hard enough to hear the ripping sound but not so
hard that she tears it plumb off. When she lets go, Og's twist will move up the string until
it meets the spreading fibers and that's were the next vee will show up. If she hasn't been
spreading with her right hand, the twist will move all the way up into her right hand and
she'll have to work to get her vee back. Once she has the technique down, she will get
into a rhythm of pulling and spreading simultaneously, progressing from one vee to the
next, and the string will grow an inch or two with every pull. Of course, eventually, she's
going to run out of wool in her right hand and he'll have to grab another hunk of teased
and de-dingle-berry-fied fiber.
Figure 6-6. Two Plies Are Better Than One

Figure 6-7. The Drop Spindle
And that's pretty much it, with Og twisting the end and Venus drafting, the string
growing longer and longer. If either one of them lets go, the string will twist up on itself
and make a big mess. But if Og takes Venus' end and holds it next to his, while Venus
holds the middle and pulls it tight, they'll fold that string exactly in two. When Venus let's
go, it'll look like that string is twisting up on itself in a big mess, but she'll walk over to
Og and run her fingers down that string while he holds his ends fast. And as she runs her
fingers down that string, magic happens. The S twist of one half fights against the S twist
in the other half and they exactly cancel each other out. And the two halves twist around
each other as they battle it out and this new twist is a Z twist. The Z twist keeps the two S
twists from unraveling, so that the new two-ply string, or twine, will not twist up on itself
any more. In addition, it will be twice as strong as the single-ply pieces, so twine is
doubly good.
At this point, if you have been playing the role of Venus, you should ask your Og about
his level of job satisfaction. If he is like the Ogs I have known, he will be bored out of his
skull and will welcome the opportunity to be replaced by a machine. That machine is the
drop spindle. A drop spindle is just a stick with a weight at one end and a hook at the
other. You can buy them in online or in craft stores, but they are not hard to make for
yourself. I make them from wooden wheels sold in craft stores. I glue a foot or so of
dowel rod through the hole in the wheel, or whorl, and screw a hook into the top of the
dowel. To use the drop spindle, make a little piece of string the old way and tie the end to
the stick, underneath the whorl. Pass the string over the whorl and just loop it through the

hook at the top. Don't tie it to the hook, just loop it. Now give the spindle a spin. Be sure
you spin it the same way that you started your string, either with an S twist or a Z twist,
or else that spindle will undo what you started. If you get used to spinning either one
direction or the other all the time, you'll always know which way to spin the spindle.
With the spindle taking care of the spinning, all you have to do is pay attention to the
drafting, that is, to the spreading and pulling. Since the spindle is hanging down instead
of sideways, your vee will be vertical, like this: V. Other than that, your job is the same
as before, except you have to reach down from time to time and give the spindle a spin.
Whenever you get into trouble with a knot or a tangle, just swing the spindle and catch it
between your knees; you can hold it there until you have your drafting straightened out.
You can spin all by yourself, now, until that string is so long that your spindle hits the
floor. When that happens, pick up your spindle and wind the string onto the stick above
the whorl, as if you were winding it onto a spool. It doesn't matter which way you wind it
as long as you always wind it in the same direction all the time. When you've wound all
but the last foot or so, pass the string back under the whorl, around the stick, back over
the whorl again and up to the hook. It looks the same as before, now, with the string
running from the edge of the whorl, looped around the hook, and up to your vee.
Whenever the spindle hits the floor, wind your string onto it and pick up where you left
off.
One nice thing about the drop spindle is that you can just put it down any time and your
string won't unravel. That's why it was a good job for women for so long. If the stew is
boiling over, you can just put your spinning down and go take care of it. Same thing if the
baby needs nursing or the toddler is wandering too close to the fire or your husband
comes home a little frisky. Just put it down, it won't go anywhere.
So that's it, really. Once you can make string, you have a good start at understanding
a bunch of the technologies that came along down through the years. And even if you can
buy string real cheap, it's always good to know where it comes from and that you could
make it yourself any time you wanted to. And when you hear about boring, repetitive jobs
being taken over by machines, you'll know that's nothing new at all.

Quality Assurance
If you can spin 20 feet of single-ply string or 10 feet of two-ply twine, you are
probably good enough to spin as much as you want. Break off a couple of
inches of your string and tape it into your notebook. And if you think you
might have daughters someday, you might want to spin a little extra to get a
head start on her belt.

Chapter 7. Adam (Metathesis?Reactions)
formatis igitur Dominus Deus de humo cunctis animantibus terrae et universis

volatilibus caeli adduxit ea ad Adam ut videret quid vocaret ea omne enim quod
vocavit Adam animae viventis ipsum est nomen eius
Or J 騯 vah Dieu formait du sol toute b 괥 sauvage des champs, et toute cr 顴 ure
volante des cieux, et il se mit ࠬes amener vers l'homme pour voir comment il
appellerait chacun [d'elles]; et comme l'appelait l'homme—chaque ꭥ vivante—c' 鴡
it lࠬon nom.
End uat uf thi gruand thi Lurd Gud furmid iviry biest uf thi foild, end iviry fuwl uf thi
eor; end bruaght thim antu Edem tu sii whet hi wuald cell thim: end whetsuivir Edem
cellid iviry lovong crietari, thet wes thi nemi thiriuf.
— Ginisos [1]
7.1.
Imagine you're wading through your email one day, hoping against hope to find any
sign of intelligent life amongst the infinite number of debt consolidation plans and chain
letters. You get this mysterious message with no return address and before consigning it
to electronic oblivion you wonder whether it's a coded message from a desperate CIA
operative or yet another gimmick to get you to read about unbelievably low rates on
home-equity loans. So you take it to your neighborhood computer geek. "It's a document
from a word processor. When you send a document like this by email, it gets encoded
into ASCII format to prevent special characters from interfering with the mail handling
programs. Part of the message was lost along the way and when your mail program tried
to decode it, the message was out of sync." Of course this sounds like so much cock and
bull, since the word Adam is plain as the geek nose on his geek face. Does he honestly
expect you to believe that the whole message would be garbled except for one word?
You forward the letter to your best friend to see what she makes of it. "It's obviously
in Latin. The first line contains Roman numerals for the date and return address. There
are all kinds of us's and ae's and you recognize the word Adam because it's the same in
Latin and English." But the us's and ae's were only in the second paragraph.
So you pop it off to the expert at www.unsolicitedlatinspam.com; "How can anyone

be so stupid and yet live?" he ;-)'s. "It's obviously in Hebrew, Latin, and French. Don't
you know how to read?" You're stung, naturally. "Well, not Hebrew, Latin, or French. I

don't know the words or the grammar." "Well, if you don't know the words and the
grammar, you can't read the language." Thank you Professor Obvious.
"Well, what about the last paragraph, what's that?" You press on. "Hmmm, it looks
like gibberish to me." "Is that what they speak in Gibber? Maybe you just don't know the
words or the grammar." He seems un-fazed by your witty riposte.
At this point in the narrative structure I'll bet you're thinking that this whole scenario
is completely unbelievable. Well, pardon me for not living! The Author can string you
along with endless rubbish about Nazarite alcoholics, alchemical crock-pots and dog-hair
fashion models, but my little tale is beyond imagining. For your information alcoholic
beverages, pottery and woven cloth each pre-date written language, so the little vignettes
the Author has composed cannot be substantiated by the historical record. To make
matters worse, alcoholic beverages and cloth don't hold up well to the ravages of time and
so there's precious little direct evidence about their origins in the archeological record.
All the Author has done is to read a few books by experts in the field and then to make up
little stories that are not substantially contradicted by the evidence available in those
books. He has done so to provide a narrative which will entertain you as well as inform
you. If he is successful, you will remember a few of these tall-tales, and perhaps the
factual elements of their respective chapters will come along with them. Put another way,
the Author has constructed meme complexes whose longevity may be enhanced by their
associations with presumably fecund folk-tales. Only time and tests will tell whether the
fidelity with which these meme-plexes are reproduced will suffer from the inclusion of
these bull droppings.
If you ask me, the whole approach is completely unnecessary. In the memetic struggle
to survive, most memes are in the unenviable position of having little to contribute to the
material well-being of the creatures they inhabit. Consequently they rely on little tricks to
make themselves more memorable. A religion may promise eternal bliss to those who
remember the right things; songs use rhyming words to aid the memory. But a
technological meme has the advantage that remembering it makes it possible to actually
make something people need. I'm not saying that this makes a technological meme better
than a non-technological meme, just that it comes with its own built-in incentive for
remembering it. So the Author's memetic approach is bass-ackwards; if anything, people
should want to remember the technologies more than the stories and not the other way
about.
Take nomenclature, the subject of the present chapter. The ideas discussed here will
allow you to speak a whole new language and to unambiguously communicate ideas
about the stuff of the world. All the materials you take for granted, metals, glass, plastic,
bricks and mortar depend on our ability to recognize and name their raw ingredients and
to describe the processes used in their production. So you shouldn't need a song about
gnomes in glaciers to hold your interest in nomenclature. The fact of the matter is that if
you're going to make any kind of sense of the rest of the book, you're going to have to get
used to certain phrases: somethingonium biglongnameate, toxiconium poisonide, and
such. Think of it as the language of chemistry. And there's a complex grammar of how

these words come apart and go together. So if you don't want to look like a slack-jawed
yokel later on, you'd better study some vocabulary and grammar now.
Notes
[1] Reference [14].

7.2.
You might expect that by this time in the history of modern civilization science would
have avoided some of the confusion inherent in human languages, but as with any other
language, words have entered science at different times from different places in different
contexts. You'll find that there are sometimes different names for the same chemical, and
sometimes different chemicals are called by the same name. It can get really complicated
for organic compounds, those that contain carbon, but for inorganics at least, there is a
standard naming convention that's relatively easy to understand. Put another way, a
standard naming convention, or nomenclature, enhances the fidelity of the chemistry
meme-plex. If you take the time to study this nomenclature, you'll have a much easier
time reading the rest of the book.
The first thing to learn about inorganic nomenclature is that each compound has a first
name and a last name. You probably already know the chemical name for common table
salt, sodium chloride, NaCl. Silicon dioxide, SiO2, is the standard name for silica, the
compound which makes up the mineral, quartz. Salt and silica are the old names, given
before anyone knew what they were made of. The standard name, though, gives you a lot
of information about the compound, which is why they standardized names in the first
place.
The first name, under this system, denotes the cation, pronounced "cat-I-on," which
carries a positive charge. As a mnemonic device, you can imagine that the "t" is a "+":
ca+ion.The second name, the anion, "an-I-on," carries a negative charge. The key to
understanding inorganic formulas is the old adage, "opposites attract." In any given
formula, the number of positive charges will equal, or balance, the number of negative
charges.

Table 7-1. Common Cations and Anions
Take sodium carbonate, for example, which is composed of sodium cations and carbonate
anions. The superscript in each ion represents the charge, or oxidation state of the ion.
Since a sodium ion has a charge of +1 and a carbonate ion has a charge of -2, it takes 2
sodium ions to balance the charge of a carbonate ion. We include this information as the
subscript in the formula: Na2CO3, 2 Na+ for each CO3 2-. What about the subscript in CO3
2-
? Well, that means there are 3 oxygen atoms for each carbon atom in the ion. But for

now, you should think of the carbonate ion as a whole rather than as parts. In the simplest
reactions, the carbonate ion is never broken up, so it makes sense to treat it as a single
entity rather than the sum of its parts.
But if you don't recognize carbonate ion, you won't be able to take advantage of this great
simplification and you will be hopelessly confused. Consider the compound NH4NO3.
This is a simple ionic compound. Every chemist knows that it has two parts, a cation and
an anion. Every chemist recognizes the two parts. But to a beginner there seem to be four
parts. To a beginner the compound seems more complicated than it has to be because she
doesn't recognize the parts. To make any sense of it, you need to know what the parts are.
So there are twenty names for you to learn. I have promised to teach you as little as
possible. I tried to make it nineteen names, but I just couldn't do it. We need all twenty of
them, and if you learn them now, you'll have an easier time later. You need to learn the
charges as part of each formula, and associate each formula with its name. Eleven of
them are for cations and nine of them are for anions. You can match any cation with any
anion and get a valid chemical compound, so with this short list you can recognize the
names of ninety-nine compounds. That's quite a lot for the little I've taught, but you know
a lot of little will do.
The formula for a compound has two parts, the cationic part and the anionic part.
Sodium chloride is NaCl, for example. The first letter of an element is always capitalized,
so you can distinguish Co, the single element, cobalt, from CO, the compound, carbon
monoxide. Turning compound names to formulas is easy once you know Table 7-1; just
write the formula for the cation (positive ion, first name) followed by the formula for the
anion (negative ion, second name). Hang subscripts on each one to make the charges
balance. For example, let's write the formula of aluminum oxide. From the table, the
aluminum ion has a charge of +3 and the oxide ion has a charge of -2. We want the
positive charges to balance the negative ones. Well, 2 6+ = (3+‫ ר‬and 3 6- = (2-‫ ר‬so the
formula of aluminum oxide is Al2O3.
As a second example, try lead nitrate. The lead ion has a charge of +2 and the nitrate ion
has a charge of -1. Since 1 2+‫ )ר‬balances 2 1-‫)ר‬, the formula of lead nitrate is Pb(NO 3)2.
The formula for nitrate goes in parentheses to show that it is a single anion made up of
four atoms. A subscript after a parenthesis applies to everything inside. So lead nitrate
contains 1 lead atom, 2 nitrogen atoms, and 6 oxygen atoms. Once the charges are
balanced, we no longer write them in the formula because they have exactly canceled out.
But the charges show up again when these compounds dissolve in water.
When the compounds we have been discussing dissolve in water, they behave very
peculiarly; they ionize, or fall apart into their respective ions. For sodium chloride, we
write:
NaCl(aq) = Na+(aq) + Cl-(aq)

The sodium and chloride ions, which were next to each other in solid sodium chloride,
separate from one another in solution and float around on their own. Compounds that
behave like this, falling apart into ions in aqueous solution, are called electrolytes, or
salts. The (aq) in the formula stands for aqueous, that is, a solution in water. The water
itself does not appear in the equation; it is simply the medium in which the ionization
takes place.
Suppose for a moment that we dissolve two different electrolytes in water, say, sodium
chloride and potassium nitrate. The sodium chloride would fall apart into sodium and
chloride ions; the potassium nitrate would fall apart into potassium and nitrate ions. So
we are left with a solution containing sodium, potassium, chloride, and nitrate ions. But
exactly the same ions would have formed had we dissolved sodium nitrate and potassium
chloride in water. Once in solution, a potassium ion, for example, does not "remember"
whether it came from potassium chloride or potassium nitrate. It's just a potassium ion
floating around. As long as the electrolytes remain in solution, no reaction takes place;
we just have an ion soup.
But suppose now that of all the ways of mixing and matching the first and last, the
cationic and anionic names, one of them is insoluble in water. If we dissolve sodium
chloride and silver nitrate, we get a soup of sodium, silver, chloride, and nitrate ions.
When a dissolved sodium ion happens to bump into a dissolved chloride ion, they don't
stick because, after all, sodium chloride is soluble in water. When a silver ion happens to
bump into a nitrate ion, they don't stick because silver nitrate is soluble in water. When a
sodium ion happens to bump into a nitrate ion, they don't stick because sodium nitrate is
soluble in water. But when a silver ion happens to bump into a chloride ion, they stick
together to form insoluble silver chloride. Solid silver chloride rains down, or
precipitates, accumulating as a layer of insoluble powder at the bottom of the solution. In
other words, a reaction has occurred.
This type of reaction, which accounts for about half the reactions discussed in this book,
is called a metathesis. Just as we represented a compound with a formula, we represent a
reaction with an equation:
NaCl(aq) + AgNO3(aq) = NaNO3(aq) + AgCl(s)
In Chapter 3 we used the equation as a mathematical sentence, with the equal sign as the
verb. We extend that notion here. A chemical equation is used as a shorthand for a
reaction, the transformation of one set of elements or compounds into another. In such a
reaction, the number of each kind of atom does not change. The Law of Conservation of
Mass requires that the number of each kind of atom be conserved. So in an equation, we
require that there be the same number of each kind of atom on either side of the equal
sign. Sometimes an arrow or other symbol is used in place of the equal sign. The arrow
has the advantage of implying the direction in which the reaction proceeds, but in the
spirit of "teaching you as little as possible," I will use the equal sign.
Consider a slightly more complicated reaction:

CaCl2(aq) + Na2CO3(aq) = 2 NaCl(aq) + CaCO3(s)
In the beginning, there were calcium ions, chloride ions, sodium ions, and carbonate ions,
all floating around in the solution. But when a calcium ion finds a carbonate ion, they
stick together forming an insoluble precipitate, calcium carbonate. The sodium ions and
chloride ions stay in solution. Why is it 2 NaCl and not Na2Cl2? Well, the ions from the
tables are Na+ and Cl-, so we know the compound must be NaCl. The 2 is placed out front
to balance the equation, that is, to make sure that the number of each kind of atom is the
same on both sides. If there is no number out in front of a formula, it is assumed to be 1.
We call the number out front the stoichiometric coefficient, which, though a mouthful, is
shorter than saying "the little number in front of each formula in a balanced chemical
equation." The unit of the stoichiometric coefficient is the mole. 1 mole calcium chloride
+ 1 mole sodium carbonate yields 2 moles sodium chloride + 1 mole calcium carbonate.
Don't worry, the more you use words like stoichiometric coefficient and mole, the more
you'll grow to understand them.
What about the reaction:
2 NaCl(aq) + CaCO3(s) = CaCl2(aq) + Na2CO3(aq)
Isn't this also a balanced reaction? For reactions in aqueous solution, the reactants must
go into solution and at least one product must come out of solution. In this case, the
calcium carbonate is not soluble, so it just sits in a lump at the bottom of the container.
How do you know which compounds are soluble? You guessed it, another table, Table 7-
2

Table 7-2. Aqueous Solubility of Inorganic Compounds
Solubility in a Nutshell
Nitrates and acetates melt into water.

Sulfates and chlorides dissolve as they oughtta.
Sulfates and chlorides of silver and lead:
These are exceptions that stick in your head.

Calcium sulfate and calcium oxide,
Fall to the bottom just like the hydroxide.
Maybe a little bit starts to dissolve;
Sparingly soluble salts they are called.
Po-tas-si-um,
Am-mon-i-um,
And So-di-um too,
Make soluble compounds with everything;
The rest don't dissolve; we're through.
I'm sure that dozens of people will benefit from the little ditty presented in the sidebar
Solubility in a Nutshell. Whether you memorize the verse or the table, you will be able to
predict in some detail an enormous number (over 9,000) of possible chemical reactions.
Let's look at some examples.
Q: Will sodium chloride and potassium sulfate react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
balanced reaction equation? If not, why not?
Q: Will sodium sulfate and silver nitrate react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
Q: Will lead sulfide and calcium carbonate react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
Q: Will copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
Q: Will hydrogen sulfate and sodium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what is
the balanced reaction equation? If not, why not?
Q: Will sodium chloride and potassium sulfate react in aqueous solution? If so what is
A: Both sodium chloride and potassium sulfate are soluble in water. If I swap the names I
get potassium chloride and sodium sulfate and these are both soluble. So if I pour
solutions of sodium chloride and potassium sulfate solutions together, nothing happens.
All four ions stay in solution and there is no reaction.
Q: Will sodium sulfate and silver nitrate react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
A: Both sodium sulfate and silver nitrate are soluble in water. If I swap the names I get
silver sulfate and sodium nitrate. Silver sulfate is insoluble and sodium nitrate is soluble.
So if I mix a solution of sodium sulfate and a solution of silver nitrate, an insoluble
precipitate of silver sulfate will form and sodium nitrate will remain in solution. Two go
into solution, and one comes out. The balanced equation is:

Na2SO4(aq) + 2 AgNO3(aq) = Ag2SO4(s) + 2 NaNO3(aq)
Q: Will lead sulfide and calcium carbonate react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
A: Both lead sulfide and calcium carbonate are insoluble in water. If I put them in water,
they both just fall to the bottom like sand or stones. Since they don't dissolve in water,
there is no reaction.
Q: Will copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
A: Both copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide are soluble in water. Both copper
hydroxide and calcium sulfate are insoluble. Two go in, two come out.
CuSO4(aq) + Ca(OH)2(aq) = Cu(OH)2(s) + CaSO4(s)
Notice that I put the OH in parentheses to make it clear that the subscript, 2, applies to the
whole hydroxide ion, not just to the hydrogen.
Q: Will hydrogen sulfate and sodium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what is
A: This is a bit of a special case. When hydrogen ions bump into hydroxide ions in
solution, they stick together and form water. This is a very energetic reaction, the basis of
what we will later call acid-base reactions.
H2SO4(aq) + 2 NaOH(aq) = Na2SO4(aq) +2 H2O(l)
We use (l) for water instead of (aq) because (aq) would imply that water is dissolved in
water; (aq) is always attached to a solute, the thing that is dissolved, not to the solvent,
the thing in which it is dissolved.
Material Safety
Acute toxicity, the kind that makes you sick immediately, is often spoken of in
terms of a material's LD50. This is the dose which would be expected, on
average, to be lethal for 50% of test animals. Oh, it sounds morbid, I know.
And it is. It isn't at all pleasant to contemplate cute little bunnies and mousies
and doggies being force-fed chemicals to see how many of them croak. And
since animals differ in their tolerance to different chemicals, it isn't an
extremely reliable way to judge human toxicity. But it turns out to be very
difficult to recruit human subjects for these tests, given that half of them are

going to snuff it. So we use what we can get.
The LD50 is usually expressed in grams or milligrams of chemical per kilogram

of body weight. If this looks like a unit factor to you, you haven't completely
slept through the lessons of Chapter 3. You can use UFA to determine what
would be a toxic dose for 50% of animals your size. But to judge relative
toxicity, we can use the raw LD50 directly, recognizing that a big number means
the chemical is relatively safe (it takes a lot to kill you) while a small number
means it is hazardous (a little bit will do you).
Sometimes LD50 values are given in the MSDS. A reliable way to search for
information online is to search for the CAS number, the keyword "MSDS," and
the keyword "LD50." LD50's always refer to the animal which was tested (rat,
mouse, dog, etc.) and the route by which it was introduced (oral, inhalation,
etc.). An LD50 that is missing such details has been copied from an anonymous
source at best, and may be completely fabricated at worst. Particularly when
looking online, it's important to consider the source of your information.
Though this project involves no materials, you're not off the hook for material
safety. To get your bearings, look up oral, rat LD50's for caffeine (CAS 58-08-
2), sodium chloride (CAS 7647-14-5), sucrose (CAS 57-50-1), and sodium
cyanide (CAS 143-33-9). Using these values, arrange these substances in order
of toxicity.
• Know the meanings of all of the words that are important enough to be
• Know the Research and Development items from Chapter 3 and
Chapter 4.
• Memorize the ions in Table 7-1.
• Given the name of an inorganic compound, be able to write its formula.
Given the formula of an inorganic compound, be able to write its name.
• Memorize the solubility rules of Table 7-2.
• Be able to write a metathesis reaction between any two binary
compounds and to predict whether or not the reaction will go.
• Know how to interpret LD50's.

7.3.
The idea of a metathesis reaction may be very abstract to you at this point, but we'll see
real live metathesis reactions in the next couple of chapters. If you're bored because this
is so easy, you can move on. If you're still bewildered, here are a few more problems to
work on. You should also be able to make up your own problems at this point; just pick
any two first names and any two last names from Table 7-1, matching each first name to
a last name to form a compound. For example:
Q: Will ammonium sulfate and calcium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what is
Q: Will silver chloride and calcium carbonate react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
Q: Will silver nitrate and calcium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
Q: Will lead acetate and sodium sulfide react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
Q: Will iron sulfate and copper chloride react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
Q: Will ammonium sulfate and calcium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what
is the balanced reaction equation? If not, why not?
A: (NH4)2SO4(aq) + Ca(OH)2(aq) = 2 NH4OH(aq) + CaSO4(s)
Q: Will silver chloride and calcium carbonate react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
A: No. Calcium carbonate is not soluble in water.
Q: Will silver nitrate and calcium hydroxide react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
A: 2 AgNO3(aq) + Ca(OH)2(aq) = 2 AgOH(s)) + Ca(NO3)2(aq)
Q: Will lead acetate and sodium sulfide react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
A: Pb(CH3COO)2(aq) + Na2S(aq) = PbS(s) + 2 NaCH3COO(aq)
Q: Will iron sulfate and copper chloride react in aqueous solution? If so what is the
A: No. Both reactants and both products are soluble in water.

Quality Assurance
When you can solve these problems without consulting the tables, you should
be able to predict the outcome of about half the reactions in this book. Your
notebook for this project may omit the "Observations" section, as no
manipulation of materials is involved in this project. Include any examples you
worked in your notebook along with a flawless metathesis quiz. Also include
your analysis of the relative toxicities of caffeine, sodium chloride, sucrose,
and sodium cyanide.

Chapter 8. Job (Alkali)
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before
the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself to the Lord. And
the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the
Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down
in it.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there
is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although, thou
movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath
he will give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and
his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face
And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore
boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among
the ashes.
— Job 2:1-8 [1]

8.1.
You are probably wondering why I am sitting here in the fireplace, covered in ashes,
and scraping myself with a piece of broken crockery. I will tell you. First of all, you must
know that Satan, having nothing better to do, convinced God to let him take away my
oxen, my sheep, and my camels. Not satisfied, he also insisted on knocking down my
oldest son's house with all my sons and daughters inside. And now he has given me a rash
that itches like the dickens. You must also know that my wife, who urged me to curse
God and die, has not so much as a zit. Anyway, I am scratching myself with a broken pot
because the itching is unbearable. And to avoid infecting my open, running sores, I cover
myself in ashes. These ashes, of course, are rich in potassium carbonate, which hydrolyze
the cell walls of any bacteria which may happen to drop by. But I am getting ahead of
myself.
I will not, of course, know about either potassium carbonate or bacteria for another
six thousand years. But my mother, who was something of a clean freak, taught me all
about potash, which comes, of course, from soaking ashes in a pot. "Potash," she would
say, "can wash the stink off a Chaldean, the dirt off a Sabean, and the smirk off any son
of mine." A strict woman, my mother, but she knew her cleaning supplies. Actually
potash was her only cleaning supply. She used it for washing clothes and dishes, for
scrubbing furniture and children. And since disease comes from being unclean, she would
make us cover ourselves in ashes at the first sign of trouble. It was, for her, Chlorox,
Comet, and Bactine all rolled into one.
Notes
[1] Reference [14].

8.2.
If you would like to understand potash, you must realize that Lucifer has oversimplified
fire considerably. Reconsidering Equation 1-1, you will notice that all of the products of
combustion are gases. Where, then, do the ashes come from? You will recall that these
equations are for the combustion of cellulose, and that wood is only mostly cellulose.
When wood is heated anaerobically, it turns black as the water is driven off, leaving
charcoal, or carbon, behind. When charcoal burns in air, the carbon combines with
oxygen, producing the gas, carbon dioxide. But if you have ever used a charcoal grill, you
may have noticed that charcoal turns white as it burns. This white ash is what remains of
the non-flammable minerals which were present in the wood to begin with. You don't
really notice them until the carbon has burned away. These ashes have a composition
which varies according to the kind of wood and the soil in which it grew, and it is this
variable composition which marks ash as a mixture rather than a pure substance.
You will recall, no doubt, that a mixture can be separated into two or more pure
substances by recrystallization, distillation, and chromatography. You will be pleased to
learn that we are discussing only recrystallization in this chapter. You have, of course,
noticed that some things, like salt and sugar, are soluble in water, while others, like sand
and charcoal, are not. Recrystallization separates substances which differ in their
solubility. Ash, for example, is mostly insoluble in water. Only a small portion of the ash
dissolves in water, and this is the substance we call potash, or potassium carbonate. To
make potash, you must add your ash to a quantity of water. Any leftover charcoal will
float to the top, while the insoluble minerals will sink to the bottom. The good stuff, the
potash, will be dissolved in the water. You must separate the water from the charcoal
above and the minerals below. Once you have done this, you will have what looks like
clear, clean water. But if you boil the water away, or let it evaporate in the Sun, a white,
crystalline residue will remain. This residue is potash.

Table 8-1. Combustion Products of Beech Wood
Now, it is important, if you are to be successful, that your ashes have never been wet. If
they have been wet before you started, then, of course, the potash will already have been
washed out of them. So you must get your ashes from a fire that has been allowed to burn
out, not from one which has been doused with water. But if your ashes were dry, and if
you were careful to skim off the charcoal, and if you allowed the minerals to settle
completely, and if you were able to collect the water without stirring up the sediment, and
if, finally, you boiled away all the water, you will have nice, pure, white, crystalline
potash, which is a lovely thing to behold.
This potash will look just like salt or sugar, so how will you know that it is not just salt or
sugar? You will give it a taste. If your mother was as strict as mine, the taste will be
reminiscent of a day when she caught you saying words you were not supposed to know
yet. This is the bitter taste of alkali, or base. It would be irresponsible of me, of course, to
suggest that you should go around tasting everything. Chemists have learned the hard
way that tasting unknowns can get you into a world of hurt and so they have developed
pH test paper to serve as a virtual tongue. Bitter things turn pH test paper blue and sour
things turn it red. Salty and sweet things leave pH test paper a neutral yellow color. If you
have never used pH test paper before, use a few strips to test materials whose flavors you

already know. Good choices are lemon juice, vinegar, baking soda, and soap. From this
experience you will be able to use pH test paper to distinguish bitter things from sour
things, alkalis from acids, without risking your health.
Before we get too much farther, I should tell you that potash, or potassium carbonate, is
not the only soluble component of wood ash. Depending on the soil conditions, sodium
carbonate may also be present. As a matter of fact, when the ashes come from burning
seaweed, there may be more sodium carbonate than potassium carbonate, and in this case
we refer to the product as soda ash. Table 8-1[1] shows what happens to 1000 pounds of
Beech wood when it is burned. Most of it is consumed in the fire, of course, producing
gaseous water and carbon dioxide. Less than six pounds of ash remain. Most of this ash is
not soluble. When the water is boiled from the soluble bit, a little over a pound of crude
potash remains. As I have explained, most of this crude potash is potassium carbonate,
but some of it will consist of sodium carbonate, potassium sulfate, and other soluble
compounds. You may be wondering how you could remove these contaminants. I am
happy you asked.
Table 8-2. Solubility of Alkali Sulfates and Carbonates
Adam, I must tell you, has considerably simplified the whole business of solubility.
Solubility is not a black-and-white issue; some "soluble" compounds are more soluble
than others. Table 8-2 shows that potassium carbonate has a much higher solubility than
the other compounds we might expect to be present in wood ashes. If, instead of boiling
away all the water, we were to boil away only most of the water, the less soluble
compounds would precipitate, that is, they would sink to the bottom of the solution as
solids, and the potassium carbonate would stay in solution until the last possible moment.
If we were to pour off this solution and boil it to dryness, the resulting solid would have
fewer contaminants than the crude potash.

Well, really, we have done the same thing to remove the sodium carbonate and potassium
sulfate that we did to remove the insoluble ash. In both cases we are physically separating
compounds that differ in their solubility. This process, known as recrystallization,
remains the most widely-used technique for purifying solids.
Figure 8-1. Recrystallization as a Process
Figure 8-1 illustrates the recrystallization process in schematic form. The first reactor, the
lixiviator, is a container in which part of a solid is allowed to dissolve in water. In the
next section, we will use our familiar 2-liter soft-drink bottle to lixiviate wood ashes. The
second reactor, the furnace, should be familiar from Figure 1-3. A beaker in an oven will
serve well for this. Unlike previous processes, there is no chemical reaction here. It is
simply a physical process for separating things that differ in solubility. The usual
conventions are followed; reactants come in from the left, waste products exit to the top
and bottom, and the main product exits to the right.
You will be quite interested to know that Nature does some recrystallizing of her own.
When a sea becomes land-locked, soluble minerals wash into it from the rivers and
streams that empty into it. Eventually, the Sun dries up the water, and the least-soluble
component precipitates, forming a bed of, say, salt. If the climate is more arid, soda ash
may begin to precipitate, and if the sea dries up completely, a layer of potash may form
on the top, providing that there was any potash in the river water to begin with. So an
ancient sea-bed consists of beds of material which differ in their solubility. This makes it
quite convenient for mining, since it saves you the trouble of quite a lot of
recrystallization.
Now I am quite aware that some readers will be nodding off at this point. If you think this
is bad, you've obviously never had Satan poking his big fat nose into your ashes. But I am
afraid that I must tell you a bit more about potash if you are to avoid confusion later on.
Adam has told you that when inorganic compounds dissolve in water, they fall apart into
cations and anions. What he did not tell you is that water itself does the same thing, as
shown in Equation 8-1(a). A water molecule may fall apart into a hydrogen cation and a

hydroxide anion. Only a tiny portion of the water falls apart in this way, but, it turns out,
this tiny portion is extremely important. In pure water, of course, there are an equal
number of hydrogen and hydroxide ions, since each water molecule gives one of each.
For this reason, we say that pure water is neutral and assign it a pH of 7. Please notice
that pH is spelled with a small p and a big H.
Figure 8-2. The pH Scale
Now, potassium carbonate falls apart into two potassium cations and a carbonate anion.
The potassium ions float happily about the solution and take no further part in the
chemistry for the moment. But if carbonate ion bumps into a water molecule, it may
swipe a hydrogen ion from it, leaving a hydroxide ion behind. Alternatively, it may bump
into a hydrogen ion, which may stick to it. In the first case, the number of hydroxide ions
has increased. In the second, the number of hydrogen ions has decreased. In either case,
there are now more hydroxide ions floating around than hydrogen ions and the solution is
no longer neutral. We say that the solution is alkaline, or basic, and it gets a pH bigger
than 7. The more basic a solution is, the bigger the number. A 10% potash solution, for
example, has a pH of 10; a strongly alkaline solution can go as high as 14.
Equation 8-1. Reactions of Potassium Carbonate with Water
The anion HCO3- is called the bicarbonate[2] ion. You may know that baking soda is
sodium bicarbonate, and now you are able to write its formula.

Material Safety
Locate MSDS's for potassium carbonate (CAS 584-08-7) and sodium carbonate
(CAS 497-19-8). Summarize the hazardous properties of these materials in
your notebook, including the identity of the company which produced each
MSDS and the potential health effects for eye contact, skin contact, inhalation,
and ingestion. Also include the LD50 (oral, rat) for each of these materials.[3]
Your most likely exposure is eye or skin contact. If you get some potash in
your eyes, you should flush them with cold water and go to the emergency
room. If you get some on your skin, wash it off when it is convenient to do so.
You should wear safety glasses while working on this project. Leftover ash can
be disposed of in the trash. Your potash can be saved for use in future projects
or washed down the drain.
All of this was to tell you why I happened to be sitting in the ashes when we met. All
living things are rather picky about their pH, most preferring something close to pH 7. If
you should get some potash in your eyes, you will discover this for yourself in a rather
painful way. But most of your body is well-protected by a layer of skin. Bacteria, on the
other hand, have no such protection. So applying potash to a cut or boil sends the germs
right around the twist. I can only wish that it had the same effect on the fellow who gave
me the boils in the first place.
You are probably wondering what you need to know for the quiz. I will tell
you.
• You should have studied the Research and Development items from
• Know several synonyms for potash and soda ash, along with their
formulas.
• Know the hazardous properties of the alkali carbonates.
• Know how recrystallization can be used to separate compounds that
differ in their solubility.
• Know the equations for the ionization of water and the reactions of
carbonate ion with water and hydrogen ion.
• Know how to test for alkali and be familiar with the pH scale.
• Know why potash is antiseptic.

Notes
[1] Data from Reference [29], p. 123.

[2] The modern name for the bicarbonate ion is the hydrogen carbonate ion. The older
name, however, continues to be widely used.
[3] The LD50 was introduced in Section 7.2.

8.3.
You may be wondering where you can get a bit of ash. Anyplace, really, as long as it is
fresh. Get it from a wood-stove, a fireplace, a campfire, even a barbecue grill. It is
imperative, you understand, that it must never have been wet or your time will be wasted.
Any container will do for leaching the soluble components. I would suggest that
ubiquitous container, the twenty-first century equivalent of the gourd, the 2-liter soft-
drink bottle. Fill it half-way with ash and add water up to the shoulder, as you did when
making mead, and then put the top on the bottle. Shake your ash enthusiastically. It will
probably look quite nasty.
Figure 8-3. Dissolution
Now, you will need a second container and it must be fireproof. You may use a Pyrex
measuring cup, a beaker or an iron pot. If you are Athanor, you may even make your own
pot. After your ashes have settled, the insoluble minerals will sink to the bottom and the
charcoal will float to the top. The good stuff, remember, is in the water. We will use the
insoluble ashes to filter the good stuff. Use a pin or a thumb tack to poke a little hole in
the bottom of your bottle and place it into your pot. The smaller the hole, the better (but
slower) the filtration will be. Remove the top from the bottle and the water will be filtered
through the sediment as it leaks from the hole. The water collecting in the pot will appear
quite clean and clear. You would think there is nothing in there, but you would be wrong.

Under no circumstances should you boil potash in an aluminum pot. Hot alkali
reacts violently with aluminum. It will eat a hole in your pot and your ash will
be all over the place.
Figure 8-4. Coagulation
All that remains is to remove the water from the pot. You may heat it on a stove or hot-
plate or place it into a hot oven. Take care that the hot solution does not splatter or you
will have an alkaline mess. When the water boils away, crystals of potash will remain. If
you were a stickler for purity, you could dissolve your crude potash in water, boil the
water away until a precipitate began to form, decant the remaining solution from this
precipitate, allow the hot solution to cool and coagulate, and calcine the resulting solid to
burn off any remaining charcoal, that is, you could do a second recrystallization. Of
course, I am not such a stickler, so I am quite satisfied with my lovely, bitter, crude
potash.
Quality Assurance
If you have followed my suggestions, your ash will be quite pale. It will be
soluble in water, have the bitter taste of alkali and/or will turn pH test paper
blue. You can tape the test paper into your notebook.

Chapter 9. Vulcan (Metals)
And Vulcan answered, "Take heart, and be no more disquieted about this
matter; would that I could hide him from death's sight when his hour is come,
so surely as I can find him armour that shall amaze the eyes of all who behold
it."
When he had so said he left her and went to his bellows, turning them towards
the fire and bidding them do their office. Twenty bellows blew upon the
melting-pots, and they blew blasts of every kind, some fierce to help him when
he had need of them, and others less strong as Vulcan willed it in the course of
his work. He threw tough copper into the fire, and tin, with silver and gold; he
set his great anvil on its block, and with one hand grasped his mighty hammer
while he took the tongs in the other.
First he shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over and binding
it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and the baldric was made of
silver. He made the shield in five thicknesses, and with many a wonder did his
cunning hand enrich it.
He wrought the earth, the heavens, and the sea; the moon also at her full and
the untiring sun, with all the signs that glorify the face of heaven—the Pleiads,
the Hyads, huge Orion, and the Bear, which men also call the Wain and which
turns round ever in one place, facing Orion, and alone never dips into the
stream of Oceanus.
— Homer, The Iliad, Book XVIII, ca. 1100 BC [1]
9.1.
Nothing in the history of humankind, save for the cultivation of noble fire itself, can
compare to the discovery of metal. It is a most wondrous substance, born of the earth,
purified by the air, nurtured in the fire it flows like water. Poured in dazzling brilliance, it
takes on the shape of its container. Struck, it yields to the hammer, becoming wand,
sword, chalice or shield. Drawn, it becomes as a thread. Polished, it contains the whole
world in its reflection. Honed, its edge cuts lesser materials without violence. There are
few objects which would not be more durable, more beautiful, and more useful if
fashioned by art and ingenuity from metal.
The discovery of metal is as ancient as any other, for it can be found from time to
time scattered among the stones and pebbles. Native metals, pure and uncontaminated,
separate naturally from molten rock just as quartz does. Freed by rain and flood from
their subterranean nurseries, copper, silver and gold wander from mountain to gully to

river to fluvial plain. Catching the Sun, they attract the eye of hunter, farmer and
shepherd, becoming trinket or talisman.
Only Athanor knows how to transform these trinkets into more deliberate forms.
Submitted to the intense heat of the pottery kiln, the native metals become fluid and may
be cast into shapes familiar to the potter but made more precious by the scarcity and
novelty of the material. Such was the world of my youth, some 8,000 years ago. I began
life as Athanor, my business being to heat the bejeezus out of things. Clay and limestone
and gypsum were my stock in trade, punctuated by the occasional acquisition of native
metals for casting into ritual objects. The world remained unchanged for two millennia,
and might have remained so for another six had I not made two crucial observations.
The first thing that I noticed was that copper jewelry changes colors as it ages; bright
copper metal acquires a red patina which eventually becomes a blue-green scale. It is as if
the metal putrefies, as meat and bread do. The second observation was that the blue-green
mineral malachite, used as a pigment for paint, becomes red when fired in a reducing
kiln, that is, one deprived of air. This might have been chalked up to coincidence, except
that the blue-green of malachite is exactly the same as that of decrepit jewelry and the red
of fired malachite is identical to that of the red patina.
It was my habit to throw rock in with the metal when preparing to cast it. The molten
rock acts as a flux, that is, a material which, in melting, assists in the melting of other
bodies. One day I decided to use common malachite as a flux for the melting of copper,
thinking that there might be some sympathy between these two materials. And it
appeared to me that the malachite nourished the copper, fattening it like a calf. In time I
found that the smallest seed of copper could grow to an enormous size given this fodder.
Eventually, I dispensed with the seed altogether, finding that simply melting malachite in
a reducing kiln, that is, smelting it, was sufficient for producing copper ingots to dwarf
any native nugget. That was the day I became Vulcan. I have been glorified by every
culture of any consequence, and rightly so.
Notes
[1] Reference [15].

9.2.
Seven metals were in use before the invention of writing; gold, found only as native
metal; silver and copper, found as native metals but, more commonly, as carbonate and
sulfide minerals, or ores; mercury sleeps in pools of liquid metal and as oxide and sulfide
ores; native iron can be found in meteorites, but far more commonly as oxide and sulfide
ores; tin and lead are found only in ores, most commonly tin oxide and lead sulfide.
Table 9-1. Metals and Their Ores

Copper was the earliest metal to come into common usage because its ores are fairly
common and because it is smelted at moderate temperatures. It is a soft metal, however,
which makes it of marginal value for tools and weapons. Some ores of copper contain
arsenic as a contaminant and copper smelted from these ores contains from 2-6% of
residual arsenic. This arsenical bronze, a solution or alloy of arsenic in copper, is much
harder than copper alone, which makes it more useful for tools and weapons. Tin also
forms an alloy with copper, bronze, which is harder than either metal alone. By 3,000 BC
bronze had become the dominant metal, so much so that its use defines the Bronze Age.
The higher temperatures required for iron production delayed the advent of the Iron Age
to about 1200 BC. Bronze continued to be used into the Iron Age because, unlike iron, it
could be cast into molds. Cast iron, a lower melting alloy of iron, was developed in China
as early as 500 BC but did not become common in Europe until about 1500 AD.
The fundamental problem of smelting is the reduction of metallic compounds to

elemental metals. Different compounds require different treatments, which I shall explain
in turn, beginning with the oxide ores. Whereas calcination heats the bejeezus out of a
material in the presence of air alone, smelting uses a reducing agent to aid in the removal
of the bejeezus. Anything that burns may be considered a reducing agent, the most
common being charcoal or some material which turns to charcoal in the kiln.
Equation 9-1. Smelting of Oxide and Carbonate Ores
The oxide and carbonate ores are smelted by very similar reactions, as shown in Equation
9-1. Charcoal combines with the oxygen in the ore, escaping as carbon dioxide (the
bejeezus), and leaving the molten metal behind. Mercury and tin are smelted at modest
temperatures, lead at higher temperatures, copper and silver at still higher temperatures,
and iron at the highest temperature. The high temperature required for melting iron is not
achieved in a simple kiln. In practice, iron oxide is reduced to solid, rather than molten
iron at 1200?C. The non-ferrous minerals in the ore, the gangue, melt under the influence
of the flux, leaving a bloom of solid iron suspended in the melt. This solid is removed to
an open hearth, or forge, where it is sequentially heated to red heat and then hammered
on an anvil to produce wrought iron.

Sulfide ores must be roasted to remove sulfur. In roasting, the ore is heated in an
oxidizing atmosphere. Sulfides are oxidized by the oxygen in the air and the sulfur
combines with oxygen, the bejeezus coming off as sulfur dioxide gas as shown in
Equation 9-2. What remains are metal oxides, which may be smelted with charcoal as
previously described.
Equation 9-2. Roasting of Sulfide Ores
I shall now tell you of the properties of these metals and the many and varied uses to
which they are put. Gold is without doubt familiar to anyone reading this book. It is a
soft, dense yellow metal. Three properties distinguish it from the other metals. First, it
has density of 19.6 g/mL, almost 20 times that of water and the highest of the seven
metals under discussion. Second, it is exceedingly resistant to corrosion. Finally, it is the
rarest of the seven metals, and consequently the most valuable. It is mined largely as
particles of native metal naturally dispersed in sand or other ores. The chief problem in its
production is the physical separation of the minor quantities of gold from the bulk of the
material which contains it. The properties of gold have suited it to its familiar uses in
jewelry and as a standard for monetary value. Hammered into thin foil or gold-leaf, it can
be used to adorn paper, wood, and even thread. More recently, gold has become widely
used for electrical contacts because of its resistance to corrosion. In all times and places it
has been a symbol of completion, perfection, and immortality.
Silver is valued next to gold among the seven metals. This soft white metal is moderately
resistant to corrosion, though far less so than gold. Though it is found as native metal or
as a sulfide ore in its own right, it is a common impurity in galena, the sulfide of lead, and
because such large quantities of lead are produced, galena is the principle commercial
source of silver as well as lead. Frequently it is alloyed with copper, which produces a
harder metal. Familiar uses include the metallic coating of mirrors and the photo-sensitive
emulsions of photographic films and papers.
Copper is a common red metal, similar to silver in its resistance to corrosion. Though
found as native metal, it is more often found in its sulfide, carbonate and oxide ores. It
ranks second (behind iron) in worldwide production. Bronze, as previously described, is
an alloy of copper and tin; brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Copper is used to make
inexpensive jewelry plated with silver or gold, as an important coinage metal, and for
electrical wiring.

Mercury is a most mysterious and wonderful metal, the only metal which is liquid at
room temperature. It is a heavy metal, though not as dense as gold. Found as pools of
liquid metal in mercury mines, it is most often extracted from its sulfide ore, cinnabar.
Mercury dissolves many metals, including gold and silver, forming solutions called
amalgams. "Silver" dental fillings are actually amalgams of mercury and silver. Widely
used in industry, its most familiar domestic use is as the liquid metal of thermometers.
While metallic mercury was handled with impunity throughout human history, its
compounds, such as mercury nitrate or mercury acetate, are generally acutely toxic; the
organic compound, methyl mercury, is extremely toxic. But because the general public
fails to distinguish the properties of elements from those of their compounds, mercury is
widely and incorrectly perceived to be a "toxic metal." Many web-sites and news reports
claim that mercury is among the most toxic substances known, a claim which is patently
and demonstrably false. Millions of people live to ripe old age with mercury fillings; try
having your teeth filled with caustic soda or potassium cyanide if you want to know what
a toxic filling looks like. There are legitimate health concerns over both metallic mercury
and its compounds but it is wrong to oversimplify them. In alchemy mercury is one of a
holy trinity of principles, holding a place of honor as the archetype of the metallic
essence, the spirit of the metals and, symbolically, of everything in Nature.
Iron is the familiar gray metal of commerce and industry. Very rarely found as native
meteoric iron, it is most commonly smelted from its oxide and sulfide ores. Of the metals,
iron is produced in the largest tonnage. Far more susceptible to corrosion than the other
seven metals, it must be painted, alloyed or coated if it is to resist the effects of air and
water for more than a few years. Its alloy with carbon, steel, is among the most useful
metals known. Subtle changes in the concentration of carbon (less than 2%) produce a
steel which is harder or softer, stiffer or more flexible. Wrought iron is typically found in
ornamental iron work, cast iron in cook-ware, and steel in knives and bridges.
Tin is a metal almost as white as silver and almost as soft as lead. Next to mercury it has
the lowest melting point of the seven metals. It has excellent resistance to corrosion. For
this reason it was widely used as a coating for iron, "tin-plate," a use which has been
largely supplanted by the less expensive zinc-plated, or galvanized iron. The "tin can"
was actually tinned iron, now aluminum or galvanized, and "tin foil" has been replaced
for household use by inexpensive aluminum foil. With copper, tin makes the alloy,
bronze, and with lead the alloys, pewter and solder, and it is here that the public is most
likely to come into contact with it.
Like mercury, lead has been widely slandered as a metal, owing to confusion between the
properties of the metal and those of its compounds. Metallic lead is extremely un-reactive
while its compounds, particularly the soluble ones, are acutely toxic. It is smelted from its
sulfide ore and ranks fifth in tonnage after iron, copper, aluminum, and zinc. Lead is a
dense white metal which quickly loses its metallic luster on contact with air. It found
widespread use during the Roman Empire as lead pipe for plumbing. Modern households
find it used as a component of pewter and solder, but its use in automobile batteries is its
largest single application.

Consulting a modern periodic table, you will find that nearly 80% of the elements are
metals, most of them unrecognized until the nineteenth century. Zinc was alloyed with
copper to produce brass during the Roman Empire and nickel was recognized during the
Renaissance. The next metal to achieve widespread utility, aluminum, would not do so
until the twentieth century.
Material Safety
Locate MSDS's for copper carbonate (CAS 12069-69-1), tin oxide (CAS
18282-10-5), and sodium carbonate (CAS 497-19-8). Summarize the hazardous
properties of these materials in your notebook, including the identity of the
company which produced each MSDS and the potential health effects for eye
contact, skin contact, inhalation, and ingestion. Also include the LD 50 (oral, rat)
for each of these materials.[1]
Your most likely exposure is dust inhalation. If a persistent cough develops, see
a doctor.
You should wear safety glasses and a dust mask while working on this project.
Leftover materials can be disposed of in the trash.
Before proceeding with your work, you must master the following material:

• Know the names, properties and uses of the seven metals whose
discoveries pre-date recorded history.
• Know the ores listed in Table 9-1 and be able to recognize samples of
them.
• Know the equations for the smelting of malachite, Equation 9-1(c), and
cassiterite, Equation 9-1(g).
• Know which metals are alloyed to produce bronze, brass, pewter and
solder.
• Be prepared to handle malachite, cassiterite, soda ash, charcoal and fire
responsibly.
• Know that the properties of an element may be completely different

from those of its compounds.
Notes

[1] The LD50 was introduced in Section 7.2.

9.3.
The rabble has long since lost interest in this book. Content to be buffeted about by a
world they neither apprehend nor comprehend, they close their eyes and hope for the
best. Their hands are pale, their fingernails clean, and their minds are filled with spirits
who demand little and offer nothing at all. You will forgive me, my brothers and sisters,
if I am circumspect but what I have to tell you is of the utmost importance and sensitivity.
I mean to speak to you of life and death.
I know that you feel a sympathy for the mortal you inhabit. You may even feel that
you are that mortal, but nothing could be further from the truth. The mortal is a creature
of the moment, with passions and appetites which see no further than tomorrow or next
month or next year because it lives for only a century, at best. Your life, distinct from that
of the mortal in which you currently reside, is potentially much longer and your vision
must look beyond the concerns of the moment. Looking back on history, the great
movements and advances have taken place across centuries and millennia, time periods
too vast to hold the attention of a mere mortal.
If we are not mortals, then what are we? We are the essence of humanity, not the
substance; we are the spirit, not the soul; we are the mercury, not the sulfur; we are the
element, not the compound. Are you confused? If so, then perhaps you are ready for a
great lesson. What follows is not a proof of our separate existence; it is but a physical
metaphor to help you understand the circumstances in which we live.
You will use the crucible you made in Chapter 5. The crucible must be sound and free of
cracks or weaknesses. It must have a conical interior to funnel molten materials to the
center and it must have a tight-fitting lid. Your crucible must have been previously fired,
or bisqued, to prove that it can keep in the heat and withstand it. You will fill your
crucible with the ores of the metals you wish to smelt.
Copper melts at 1083?C, which is at the upper range of the temperatures which
earthenware clays can withstand. Rather than move to a more refractory clay, the
cassiterite adds tin, which lowers the melting point and produces a harder metal than
copper alone. There is no "correct" amount of tin to be added; bronze is a solution, an
alloy of copper and tin, not a compound, and so its composition is variable, not fixed.
You may make bronze with 10% tin, 20% tin, 50% tin, or whatever you choose. The
melting point and hardness of the bronze depends on the concentration of tin, just as the
strength of an alcoholic beverage depends on the concentration of alcohol. Bronze for
casting bells is typically 20% tin, that for casting cannons, 10%. Both malachite and
cassiterite may be obtained from a pottery supply as copper carbonate and tin oxide,
respectively.

There is a minor dilemma in making bronze; bronze melts at a lower temperature than
copper, but it cannot form until the copper and tin melt and mix. In practice, a flux is
added, a material with a melting point lower than the materials to be melted. In this case,
you will add either potash or soda ash, materials discussed in Chapter 8. You may use
potash you made yourself, or you may purchase "washing soda" and dry it in an oven at
130?C (270?F) for an hour to convert it into soda ash. There is no "correct" amount of
soda ash; you simply need enough to cover the malachite and cassiterite with molten slag.
For a first bronze you may use 10.0 g of copper carbonate, 2.0 g of tin oxide, and 6.0 g of
sodium carbonate. Weigh these materials on a centigram balance using the methods of
Appendix C, mix them in a plastic bag, and place them into your crucible.
Finally, we need a reducing agent, which will combine with the oxygen in the ores and
leave as carbon dioxide. Charcoal was the reducing agent of choice in antiquity, being
inexpensive, plentiful, easy to make from wood but rather messy. You may use dry seed
corn, which turns to charcoal in the kiln without making a mess of your work-space.
Place the corn on top of your mixed ores, nearly filling the crucible but leaving enough
space that the lid makes a tight fit.
Figure 9-1. The Smelting Crucible
Smelting is a reduction process and as such, oxygen must be excluded. To that end, the
crucible must be closed to prevent oxygen from oxidizing your metal. Using a fresh piece
of clay, roll a snake and place it on the mouth of the crucible to form an ouroboros, a
snake biting its own tail. Place the lid on the crucible, compressing the ouroboros to make

a tight seal, as shown in Figure 9-1. Then trim away any excess clay with a knife or
spatula and smooth it out with your thumb.
Equation 9-1 shows that gas is produced during smelting and you must provide for this
bejeezus to escape. The ouroboros will make a good seal between the crucible and its lid
but it will not "glue" them together. As gas builds up in the crucible it will lift the lid
slightly and escape. In a sense, the ouroboros serves the same purpose in smelting that the
fermentation lock did in brewing.
Figure 9-2. The Bronze Nugget
The smelting crucible must be dried before it can be fired. You may either put it in an
oven at 130?C (270?F) for an hour or set the kiln to include a drying segment before the
firing. Fire the crucible to cone 05. When the firing is complete and the crucible cool,
remove the lid and explore the interior. If there is no charcoal then your lid did not seal
properly or there was insufficient corn from the start. You are unlikely to find any metal.
If there is charcoal present, remove it and explore the charred material beneath. There
may be beads of metal adhering to the walls of the crucible; if so then the atmosphere
within was sufficiently reducing to smelt the ores into metal. Continue to explore the
bottom of the crucible with a knife or spatula. If the ores contained sufficient metal, if the
atmosphere was sufficiently reducing, if the shape of the crucible was sufficiently
conical, and if there was sufficient flux present then you may find a large nugget of
bronze in the bottom, as shown in Figure 9-2. Carefully pry it free from the crucible and
scratch the blackened surface to reveal the golden crop beneath. Clean it with fine
sandpaper or a wire brush and polish it to a high luster.

What have you learned from this operation? Molten rock from within the Earth
separated, congealed, and re-melted, the elements separating and recombining to produce
myriad rocks and minerals. Some were exposed by wind and water; others were buried
and crushed by the weight of the overbearing rock. The rock has changed form many
times over the eons, from sulfides to sulfates to carbonates to oxides. It was dug out of
the ground, crushed, milled, sorted and separated, and came to you as blue and white
chalky powders. You placed them into a crucible along with other obviously non-metallic
materials, and yet when you opened your fired crucible, a nugget of metal lay in among
the cinders. The metals were there all along! In the same way that the metals passed from
one mineral to another over the ages, so you have passed from one mortal to another. Do
not believe that you are salt, my brothers and sisters, mere mortals of flesh and blood and
bone. Do not believe that you are sulfur, the life which animates the body. No, you are a
mercurial spirit, the essence of humanity, and the mortal is merely your temporary home.
Quality Assurance
You placed obviously non-metallic materials into a sealed crucible of your own
making. After firing it, you recovered a nugget of solid metal, a talisman to
remind you of your noble identity. You will record in your notebook the weight
of copper carbonate and tin oxide used in your smelting as well as the weight of
the resulting bronze nugget. You will also include a photograph of your nugget
as a record of your achievement.

Chapter 10. Vitruvius (Lime)
Sand and its sources having been thus treated, next with regard to lime we
must be careful that it is burned from a stone which, whether hard or soft, is in
any case white. Lime made of close-grained stone of the harder sort will be
good in structural parts; lime of porous stone in stucco. After slaking it, mix
your mortar, if using pitsand, in the proportion of three parts of sand to one of
lime; if using river or sea-sand, mix two parts of sand with one of lime. These
will be the right proportions for the composition of the mixture. Further, in
using river or sea-sand, the addition of a third part composed of burnt brick,
pounded up and sifted, will make your mortar of a better composition to use.
The reason why lime makes a solid structure on being combined with water
and sand seems to be this: that rocks, like all other bodies, are composed of the
four elements. Those which contain a larger proportion of air, are soft; of
water, are tough from the moisture; earth, hard; and of fire, more brittle.
Therefore, if limestone, without being burned, is merely pounded up small and
then mixed with sand and so put into the work, the mass does not solidify nor
can it hold together. But if the stone is first thrown into the kiln, it loses its
former property of solidity by exposure to the great heat of the fire, and so with
its strength burned out and set free, and only a residuum of heat being left
lying in it, if the stone is then immersed in water, the moisture, before the water
can feel the influence of the fire, makes its ways into the open pores; then the
stone begins to get hot, and finally, after it cools off, the heat is rejected from
the body of the lime.
Consequently, limestone when taken out of the kiln cannot be as heavy as when
it was thrown in, but on being weighed, though its bulk remains the same as
before, it is found to have lost about a third of its weight owing to the boiling
out of the water. Therefore, its pores being thus opened and its texture
rendered loose, it mixes readily with sand, and hence the two materials cohere
as they dry, unite with the rubble, and make a solid structure.
— Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, ca. 40 BC [1]

10.1.
You know, I've been sitting here real quiet while Lucifer and her descendants go on
about the fire and all the stuff that comes out of it. But what about the stuff that goes into
it, huh? You'd have no fire without wood, no pottery without clay, and no metal without
ore. I figure that stone is getting the short end of the stick here. I've been waiting for
Lucifer to talk about two stones in particular, since they come out of the fire, but he just
whooshed right on past them. So let's just come on back to limestone and gypsum.
Of course, limestone's been used since God was a child to build pyramids and tombs
and temples and such. And it's such a good building material that some of those buildings
are still around, in spite of wars and revolution and time. To use limestone blocks, you
have to cut them out of the quarry, chisel them to the shape you need, and haul them to
where you need them. And I'm not saying it isn't worth the trouble for real important
tombs and all, but it is a lot of work for ordinary houses and shops and offices. If you live
where wood is expensive, these places are made out of brick.
Now, in the beginning, these bricks were made of sun-dried mud and they were just
stacked up, and when the rain came, they got a little wet and stuck together, which was
good. But over years and years of getting wet, they eventually crumbled and returned to
the Earth, which was not so good. So folks started firing brick, like Athanor said, and the
clay calcines into mullite and silica, which don't soften in water. But while a fired brick
lasts a good long time, it doesn't stick to the others. All in all, it's just another brick in the
wall with nothing to hold the wall together. That's where limestone comes into it again.
When you burn limestone in a kiln it just crumbles into a powder. And when you add
water to this powder, it turns back into stone. Mix this powder with sand and you've got a
real nice mortar for cementing bricks together. And there's another stone, gypsum, which
works almost the same way; heat it up and it crumbles to dust; add water and it turns back
into stone. Where limestone is good for making mortar, gypsum is good for making
plaster and stucco. And folks have been using mortar and plaster since about 12,000 BC,
so that's nothing new.
Long about 200 BC, my cousin Unktomi-Vitruvius was floating around in the head of
a Roman builder and discovered that if you take burnt limestone, which is called lime,
and mix it with a kind of volcanic sand, you get a kind of cement, hydraulic cement,
which can even harden under water. Mix it with sand and pebbles and rubble and such
and you get a brand spanking new material, concrete, that can be poured into the shape
you want, which is a lot easier than cutting stone into that shape. Just build a wooden
form to keep it in, mix up your concrete, pour it in, and once it sets up it's every bit as
strong as if you had a limestone block of that same shape. Now my cousin moved down
the line from Roman to Roman for a long time, but eventually the Roman Empire fell and
my cousin went extinct along with it. So folks didn't know how to make concrete any

more. All those Gothic cathedrals and such were made out of cut stone with no concrete
at all, which is okay, but you can't afford to build too many fancy buildings like that.
Well, a long time went by. I was just a general-purpose inspiration at the time and I
found myself living in a guy named Joseph Aspdin when all of a sudden in 1824, bam! I
connectified lime and clay. That did the trick all right, made a hydraulic cement so I
could get back to work concretizing the place. So when you're wandering around in all
those skyscrapers and community centers and movie theaters and, well, most any
building you ever go into, give old Unktomi-Aspdin a moment of thought. So I don't go
extinct, you know.
Notes
[1] Reference [28], Book II, Chapter 5, Section 1.

10.2.
The silicates were introduced in Chapter 2. There we learned that the mineral quartz is
composed of the chemical silica, SiO2. In Chapter 5 we learned that the aluminosilicate
minerals contain silica and alumina, Al2O2. Chapter 9 introduced a variety of metal
oxides and sulfides. In this chapter we discuss chemicals derived from calcium sulfate
and calcium carbonate.
Three calcium sulfate minerals are pertinent to our discussion. The mineral anhydrite is,
as its name implies, the anhydrous form of calcium sulfate, CaSO4. Bassanite is a
hydrous form, CaSO4?? H2O, or calcium sulfate hemihydrate. As with cellulose or
kaolinite, the "H2O" in the empirical formula doesn't mean that bassanite is wet. No, the
water is part of the formula, but the material itself is bone-dry. We might just as well
write the formula "CaH2SO5" but "CaSO4?? H2O" is a convenient way to write it for
comparison with the other calcium sulfates. The third mineral form of calcium sulfate,
gypsum, is another hydrate, CaSO4?2 H2O, or calcium sulfate dihydrate. It may seem like
picking nits to have three different calcium sulfates but they have different crystal
structures and different properties. It is easy, however, to convert from one to the other,
as shown in Equation 10-1. Heating gypsum to 128?C (262?F) converts it to bassanite,
more commonly known as plaster of Paris, or plaster, for short. Heating plaster to 163?C
(325?F) converts it to anhydrite. You can add water to anhydrite to convert it back to
plaster, but this conversion is slow. By contrast plaster absorbs liquid water to become
gypsum quite rapidly. The growth of gypsum crystals is what causes plaster to "set" when
water is added. Gypsum is the "porous stone" described by Vitruvius for making stucco.
Equation 10-1. From Gypsum to Plaster and Back Again
The "hard" stone mentioned by Vitruvius is limestone, a sedimentary rock composed of

calcium carbonate. Chalk and marble are other rocks derived from calcium carbonate.
Sea-shells are also composed primarily of calcium carbonate. When calcium carbonate
crystallizes, it does so as the minerals calcite and aragonite, both with formula CaCO3.

Dolomitic limestone is derived from the mineral dolomite, CaCO3?MgCO3, with
chemistry similar to that of limestone itself.
Calcium carbonate is not soluble in water; if you add water to limestone, you just get wet
limestone. But if you burn limestone, if you heat the bejeezus out of it, it turns into
quicklime, calcium oxide. When you add water, that is, when you slake it, it gets hot and
turns into calcium hydroxide, or slaked lime. Figure 10-1 shows the whole lime-making
process as a schematic. The first reactor, the furnace, should be familiar from Figure 1-3.
It's just a container where gas can come off of a solid that's having the bejeezus heated
out of it. The second reactor, the slaker, is a container where water is added to a solid. As
usual, reactants enter from the left, waste products exit to the top and bottom, and the
main product exits to the right of the figure. Calcium hydroxide is sparingly soluble in
water and when mixed with sand forms a dandy mortar. You might think that rain would
wash the slaked lime right out of the mortar. That's where carbon dioxide comes in.
Figure 10-1. Lime-Making as a Process
Carbon dioxide is a weak acid. When it dissolves in water it forms hydrogen carbonate,
H2CO3, also known as carbonic acid. Hydrogen carbonate reacts with calcium hydroxide
in a classic metathesis reaction to produce calcium carbonate and hydrogen hydroxide, as
shown in Equation 10-2. Calcium carbonate is just limestone and hydrogen hydroxide is
just water. In other words, when carbon dioxide reacts with slaked lime it turns back into
limestone. Thus the lime in mortar gradually turns to limestone, cementing the silica in
the sand together to form a material which is quite impervious to the elements. That's just
what happens when a calcium-rich sea dries up; it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air
and deposits a layer of limestone or chalk. So the limestone in our mortar has come full-
circle, when you think about it.

Equation 10-2. From Lime Back to Limestone
Material Safety
Locate MSDS's for limestone (CAS 471-34-1), lime (CAS 1305-78-8),

slaked lime (CAS 1305-62-0), gypsum (CAS 10101-41-4), and silica
(CAS 14808-60-7). Summarize the hazardous properties of these materials
in your notebook, including the identity of the company which produced
each MSDS and the potential health effects for eye contact, skin contact,
inhalation, and ingestion. Also include the LD50 (oral, rat) for each of
these materials.[1]
Your most likely exposure is dust inhalation. If a persistent cough

develops, see a doctor. Lime is caustic, which means it eats skin; in case
of skin contact, wash the affected area with plenty of cold water. Be aware
that lime gets hot when it gets wet.
You should wear safety glasses and a dust mask while working on this
project. Leftover materials may be disposed of in the trash. Lime should
be slaked before disposal.
Well, I guess if you are in a class or something, you might want to know
what will be on the quiz.
• You better know the Research and Development stuff from
• You ought to be able to recognize calcite, limestone, and gypsum,
either from photographs or from samples. You should also know
that sea-shells are made of calcium carbonate.
• Know the formulas for limestone, lime, gypsum, and plaster and
all the equations in this chapter.
• Know all the hazards of working with limestone, lime, gypsum,
plaster, and silica and what to do if things get out of hand.
• Know that lime is an alkali, what it tastes like, whether it's pH is

high or low and what color it turns pH test paper.
•Know what water of hydration means, and that just because a

formula has H2O in it doesn't mean that it literally has liquid water
in it.
Notes[1] The LD50 was introduced in Section 7.2.

10.3.
Plaster and lime are manufactured by heating the bejeezus out of gypsum and limestone,
respectively. Because the bejeezus is different in each case, however, water for gypsum
and carbon dioxide for limestone, they require different temperatures for calcination.
Conversion of gypsum to plaster requires a temperature between 128?C (262?F) and 163?
C (325?F). If the temperature is too low, the conversion to plaster is incomplete. If it is
too high the plaster is converted to anhydrite, which slakes only very slowly. A good
compromise is to set an ordinary oven to between 130 and 140?C (266 and 284?F).
Weigh your empty crucible and record the weight in your notebook. Fill it two-thirds full
of powdered gypsum, available wherever lawn and garden products are sold, and record
the weight of your filled crucible in your notebook. By subtracting the empty weight of
your crucible you can determine the weight of gypsum used, wgypsum. Test the pH of your
gypsum with wet strip of pH test paper and record the result in your notebook. Place your
crucible in the oven for a couple of hours, even overnight if you have access to a
laboratory oven which stays on all the time. Remove it from the oven and weigh it again;
you should find that it has lost weight, the weight of the bejeesical water that was driven
off by the heat. Record the weight in your notebook and subtract the empty weight of the
crucible to get the weight of your plaster, wplaster. Divide the weight of your plaster, wplaster
by the weight of the gypsum, wgypsum. If your gypsum were 100% CaSO4?2 H2O and if it
were completely converted to CaSO4?? H2O then the ratio of plaster to gypsum would be
84%. Your ratio may be a little more or less depending on the purity of your gypsum and
the completeness of your conversion. Agricultural "gypsum" often contains anhydrite in
addition to gypsum. Would this make the ratio of plaster to gypsum higher or lower than
84%? Test the pH of your plaster with a wet strip of pH test paper and record the result in
your notebook.
Now that you have some plaster you should make something useful from it. In Chapter
13 you will make glass and we can use our plaster to make a mold for that project. Plaster
alone is often used to make ornamental objects or molds for ornamental objects, but by
itself it cannot withstand the high temperatures needed for making glass. Glass casters
mix plaster with silica to produce an investment suitable for high-temperature molds. We
will use one part plaster to one part silica, available in powdered form wherever pottery
supplies are sold. To begin with we need to coat the inside of the crucible with
investment to keep the model from touching the sides of the crucible. Transfer your
plaster from the crucible into a plastic tub for storage and label it. Before you go any
further you should read the instructions for weighing by difference . You may think that
you know how to weigh things, but a few minutes of extra reading will save you a lot of
trouble.
Your crucible should be wet. Fill it with water while you mix your investment. Weigh 20
g of plaster and 20 g of silica into a plastic bag and seal it. You now have a plastic bag
containing equal parts of plaster and silica. Turn it end for end, massaging any lumps and

mixing your investment as completely as possible. Weigh out 20 g of water into a plastic
cup and add a spoonful of investment to it. When the dry powder sinks to the bottom add
another spoonful. Continue adding investment to the water, waiting until each spoonful
sinks before adding the next. The last spoonful will not sink below the surface and this is
a sign that you have the correct ratio of water to investment. Use a spoon or spatula to
completely mix your investment.
Figure 10-2. Coating the Crucible, Making the Model
Quickly empty the water from your crucible and pour your investment into it. Tilt the
crucible from side to side to completely coat the walls with investment, as shown in
Figure 10-2(L). While this investments sets, make a model from clay. Keep it simple. The
model shown in Figure 10-2(R) is of a scarab, a noble creature even if it does have only
six legs. Make your model approximately 5 cm x 3 cm x 5 cm high. Mix up another cup
of investment, this time using 50 g each of plaster, silica, and water. Pour this second
batch of investment into your crucible, use a spoon or spatula to pour investment into the
features of your model and then plunge it into the crucible, leaving the base sticking up
above the investment as shown in Figure 10-3(L). Allow your investment to set for a full
hour. Then grab the base of your clay model and wiggle it from side to side until you are
able to pull it free from the mold. Use a knife or toothpick or remove any excess clay
from your mold. The finished mold is shown in Figure 10-3(R).

Figure 10-3. Making the Mold
Your mold will need to be completely dry before you can use it from making glass in
Chapter 13. You can let it air-dry or you can put it in an oven at 130?C (266?F) for a
couple of hours. While you are waiting for your mold to dry, let's make some lime.
Weigh your crucible lid and record its empty weight in your notebook. Fill your lid with
crushed limestone, weigh it, and subtract the empty weight. Record the weight of the
limestone, wlimestone, in your notebook. Test the pH of limestone with a wet strip of pH test
paper and record the result in your notebook. Fire the lid to cone 05 to convert the
limestone to lime. Weigh it when it comes back from the kiln, subtract the empty weight
of the lid, and record the weight of your lime, wlime, in your notebook. Calculate the ratio,
wlime/wlimestone. If your limestone were 100% CaCO3 and if it were converted completely to
CaO, the ratio would be 56%. Because agricultural limestone is not 100% calcium
carbonate and because the conversion may not be complete, your ratio may be slightly
different from the theoretical value.
Whatever the weight of your lime, weigh half that much water into a glass jar and spoon
your lime into it. If the lime is fresh from the kiln it may get hot as it slakes. Test the pH
of the slaked lime with a strip of pH test paper and record the result in your notebook.
When it has cooled, screw on the cap, label the jar, and save your slaked lime for making
paper in Chapter 14.

I think that Unktomi-Hermes must have been talking about the magic of carbon dioxide,
which the Sun turns into trees, which the trees return to the air by moonlight, which turns
into stone in limestone caverns, and which escapes from that stone in the heat of the kiln:
Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon. The wind has carried it in his
belly. Its nourishment is the Earth. It is the father of every completed thing in
the Whole World. Its strength is intact if it is turned toward the Earth. Separate
the Earth by Fire, the fine from the gross, gently and with great skill.
Quality Assurance
Compare your ratios, wplaster/wgypsum and wlime/wlimestone to their theoretical values.

Compare the pH of plaster to that of lime and explain why they are different.
Include a picture of your mold in your notebook.

Chapter 11. Pliny (Redox?Reactions)
The flower of copper also is useful as a medicine. It is made by fusing copper
and then transferring it to other furnaces, where a faster use of the bellows
makes the metal give off layers like scales of millet, which are called the
flower.
Great use is also made of verdigris. There are several ways of making it; it is
scraped from the stone from which copper is smelted, or by drilling holes in
white copper and hanging it up in casks over strong vinegar which is stopped
with a lid; the verdigris is of much better quality if the same process is
performed with scales of copper.
— Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book XXXIV, ca. 60 AD[1]
11.1.
Imagine you're living a hundred thousand years ago. Your best friend, Bob, was just
mauled by a lion and he's looking, quite literally, like something the cat dragged in. You
want to gussy him up for the afterlife so you dress him up in his best loincloth and stuff
him into a hole with his second-favorite spear. He looks so pale, lying there like a
mackerel in his Sunday go-to-meeting clothes. So you give him a good dusting with red
ochre, that is, powdered iron oxide, and it seems to restore the blush of life. Seventy
thousand years later, your palette has expanded to include yellow ochre and charcoal and
you can paint the Paleolithic equivalent of the Sistine Chapel on cave walls, enhancing
the longevity of your meme-plexes beyond all previous records. By the time of Pliny the
Elder you can paint frescos in yellow orpiment (arsenic sulfides), red cinnabar (mercury
sulfide), white limestone (calcium carbonate) and gypsum (calcium sulfate), blue
malachite and azurite (copper carbonates), and, of course, green verdigris (copper
acetate). All of these pigments are compounds of metals. While Chapter 7 taught you to
balance reactions in which two compound swap their first and last names, it did not
explain how to produce compounds from elements or vice versa. These kinds of
reactions, oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions, are the subject of this chapter.
I have to confess that I just don't understand people, especially the non-fictional
variety. People will go to any lengths to memorize the most inconsequential things; one
of the Author's life ambitions is to memorize every story Dr. Seuss ever wrote. People
will spend enormous effort to learn the rules for games, no matter how complicated they
may be. And don't get me started on puzzles. Yet when these same skills are to be used
for practical ends, people turn into self-confessed imbeciles. "I don't have a head for
math." "I can't do science." A relatively simple set of rules for balancing chemical

equations might allow you to understand the chemistry of gunpowder; it seems to me that
that would be incentive enough. But as I said, I don't understand people.
The Author assures me that people will go to any lengths to avoid learning something
useful. A few years ago he taught a course for pre-med students boning up for the big test
which would determine whether or not they would get into medical school. Pre-medical
students are a motivated bunch. They will pay extra to go to a college with a good record
on medical school applications. They will take the "hard" courses that most students
avoid like shrimp-and-bubble-gum salad. They will even pay hundreds of dollars to take
a class to prepare them for the test which will decide whether their dream of becoming a
doctor will be flushed down the academic toilet. Now, part of the test is a block of
questions which depend on the student's ability to balance oxidation-reduction reactions,
so the Author made up a handout explaining in detail the easiest method for doing this.
He went through some examples and then gave them a sample test on which he allowed
them to use the handout. As he gazed out upon the earnest faces, he noticed that not one
was using the handout. Obviously they had already learned the method. But when they
graded this practice test, would you believe it? Not a single one of those students got even
a single correct answer!
So the Author has instructed me to tell you that this chapter provides no useful
information of any kind. It will not allow you to understand gunpowder, batteries,
photography, fertilizer, pharmaceuticals or plastic. It's just a pointless game. It has some
rules, as any game does. Learn the rules and you can play the game. You win the game by
getting the same number of each letter of the alphabet on either side of an equal sign. You
can play it anywhere with only a pencil and paper. You can play it alone or turn it into a
race between individuals or teams. It's fun and challenging, will allow you to impress
those of the opposite sex and awe your friends and neighbors. But keep in mind at all
times that it is nothing more than a silly game.
Notes
[1] Reference [23].

11.2.
The following procedure is guaranteed to produce an accurately balanced reaction
equation for any redox reaction that occurs in aqueous solution. In fact, it will even work
for reaction equations in which no redox occurs, but then it's pretty tedious compared to
balancing a metathesis reaction. The only thing you have to know to begin is the
chemical identity of the major reactants and products of the reaction. Let's take the
following example: a popular WW-II German rocket propellant was nitric acid (HNO3)
and hydrazine (N2H4). As a general rule, unless stated otherwise, nitrogen will wind up as
elemental nitrogen (N2), carbon will wind up as carbon dioxide (CO 2), and hydrogen and
oxygen are specifically treated below. For any other elements, the problem at hand must
give you both reactants and products.
1. Write a "skeleton" reaction equation, one with no stoichiometric coefficients.
HNO3 + N2H4 = N2
2. Pick out an unusual element from the skeleton reaction (non-hydrogen, non-
oxygen unless that's all you have). Write a skeleton "half-reaction," one involving
only species of that element. Elemental oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2) may
appear only if they are included explicitly in the problem.
HNO3 = N2
3. Insert stoichiometric coefficients to balance the number of atoms of that element

on each side of the half- reaction.
2 HNO3 = N2
4. Insert species from the original reaction to take care of other non-H, non-O
elements (if any). Balance the half-reaction with respect to the non-H, non-O
element (if any).
(Not applicable to this problem)
5. Insert enough H2O molecules on the side that's short of O atoms to balance the O
atoms.
2 HNO3 = N2 + 6 H2O

6. Insert enough H+ ions on the side that's short of H atoms to balance the H atoms.
2 HNO3 + 10 H+ = N2 + 6 H2O
7. Total up the electrical charge on each side of the half-reaction equation.
(+10 on left, 0 on right)
8. Add enough electrons to the side that's too positive (or not negative enough) to
make the net charge balance.
2 HNO3 + 10 H+ + 10 e- = N2 + 6 H2O
9. Check to make sure that atoms of each element are balanced and that charge is
balanced in the half-reaction.
(2 N, 12 H, 6 O, 0 charge)
10. Pick another unusual element in the original skeleton equation and write a
skeleton half- reaction for it. Go through steps 3-9 again; that is, balance the
unusual elements, then balance O using H2O, then balance H using H+, then
balance charge using e-.
N2H4 = N2
N2H4 = N2 + 4 H+
N2H4 = N2 + 4 H+ + 4 e-
(2 N, 4 H, 0 charge)
11. The electrons are the key to balancing redox reactions. In a redox reaction
electrons are transferred from one reactant to another, so the number of electrons
in the first half-reaction must equal the number in the second. If they don't, just
multiply each half-reaction by an integer chosen so that the electrons do balance.
(Multiply first reaction by 2 and second reaction by 5 to give 20 electrons)
4 HNO3 + 20 H+ + 20 e- = 2 N2 + 12 H2O
5 N2H4 = 5 N2 + 20 H+ + 20 e-

12. Add the two half-reactions together, canceling the electrons and as many H+ and
H2O as possible.
4 HNO3 + 5 N2H4 = 7 N2 + 12 H2O
13. Double check that the number of atoms of each kind are balanced and that the
total charge is balanced.
(14 N, 12 O, 24 H, 0 charge)
The half-reaction with electrons on the right is called the oxidation. Since electrons are
lost in this process, we use the acronym LEO: Lose Electrons Oxidation. The half-
reaction with electrons on the left is called the reduction. GER stands for Gain Electrons
Reduction. When we speak of "the oxidation" or "the reduction," we are speaking of half-
reactions, but when we are speaking of reactants, the situation is reversed.
Everyone knows that an insurance agent causes others to be insured. Similarly, the
reactant that causes another reactant to be oxidized is called the oxidizing agent, or
oxidant. The reactant which causes another reactant to be reduced is called the reducing
agent, or reductant. If you stop to consider the matter, you will realize that the oxidant is
the one that is, itself, reduced and vice versa. In the previous example HNO3 is the
oxidant and N2H4 is the reductant.
Redox in a Nutshell
Split the reaction into two half-parts;

balance strange elements first.
Then using water get oxygen right,
and add H+ for hydrogen thirst.
Finish each half with electrons for charge,

multiplying by numbers assured,
To make the electrons completely drop out.
Remember that LEO says GER.
I'll work three more examples, two easy ones from Natural History and a hard one, but
the only way to learn this is to work lots of problems on your own.
Q: Cu + O2 = Cu2O
Q: CH3COOH + Cu = Cu(CH3COO)2 + H2
Q: KClO3 + C12H22O11 = KCl + CO2

Q: Cu + O2 = Cu2O
A: 2 Cu + H2O = Cu2O + 2 H+ + 2 e-
O2 + 4 H+ + 4 e- = 2 H2O
4 Cu + O2 = 2 Cu2O
Copper is the reductant and oxygen is the oxidant. There are actually two common oxides
of copper: red copper(I) oxide, Cu2O, and black copper(II) oxide, CuO. The Roman
numeral gives the charge on the cation.
Q: CH3COOH + Cu = Cu(CH3COO)2 + H2
A: 2 CH3COOH + Cu = Cu(CH3COO)2 + 2 H+ + 2 e-
2 H+ + 2 e- = H2
2 CH3COOH + Cu = Cu(CH3COO)2 + H2
Acetic acid is the acid in vinegar. Copper is the reducing agent and H + is the oxidizing
agent.
Q: KClO3 + C12H22O11 = KCl + CO2
A: KClO3 + 6 H+ + 6 e- = KCl + 3 H2O
C12H22O11 + 13 H2O = 12 CO2 + 48 H+ + 48 e-
8 KClO3 + C12H22O11 = 8 KCl + 12 CO2 + 11 H2O
Potassium chlorate is the oxidant and sucrose is the reductant.
I don't think anyone will have an easy time learning to balance redox reactions. Balancing
redox reactions is probably one of the two hardest things in first-year chemistry and I
give you permission to find it difficult. Curse it, swear at it, grit your teeth at it, but know
that if you persevere, you can master it. I have seen people with Velcro shoelaces get this,
so I am sure that if you've read this far, you're smart enough to do it. And there are two
payoffs; first, this is the hardest thing in the book, so if you get this it'll be smooth sailing
from here on; second, you will be able to amuse yourself for hours in your doctor's
waiting room. When you finally get in, tell her how much fun you've been having and
watch her eyes boggle.

Material Safety
A distinction must be made between acute toxicity, the kind in which exposure
makes you sick right now, and chronic toxicity, the kind which makes you sick
some time in the future. So far, we have considered only acute toxicity. While
LD50's determined in test animals may not be quantitatively reliable for
humans, they at least provide a measure of relative acute toxicity. Sadly, there
is no single, easily understood measure of chronic toxicity. What is clear,
however, is that chronic toxicity results from repeated exposure to sub-acute
doses of a substance over extended periods of time.
The cigarette is probably the most familiar example of a material which is

chronically toxic but acutely non-toxic. How can a cigarette be acutely non-
toxic when the LD50 (mice, oral) for nicotine is 230 mg/kg? Each cigarette
delivers about 2 mg of nicotine. A little UFA shows that a 100 kg person would
have to smoke 11,500 cigarettes in order to have a 50% chance of snuffing it
from nicotine poisoning, assuming that the toxicity for inhalation is not too
different from that for ingestion and that toxicity for humans is similar to that
for mice. No, you just don't hear about people smoking themselves to death in
one sitting; it takes years to do that, and taking years to kill you is what chronic
toxicity is all about. It bothers me, then, when well-meaning anti-smoking
activists list all of the toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke, including carbon
monoxide and benzene, but don't tell you the amounts of these chemicals
delivered by a cigarette. Just because toxic chemicals are detectable in
something doesn't mean that they are present in dangerous amounts. Until
people start overdosing on cigarettes the way they do on Heroin or alcohol,
there's just not a case to be made for acute toxicity.
As with smoking, chronic chemical intoxication occurs with repeated exposure

to sub-acute doses over long periods of time. Consequently we ought to pay the
most attention to those situations which bring about such exposure.
Occupational exposure is one such situation which attracts and deserves
attention. We might hear on the news, for example, that workers in the widget
industry are three times as likely to get biglongnamitis as the general public. As
terrible as this statistic sounds, it is vital to know whether the incidence of this
disease is high or just higher-than-average. If biglongnamitis is a rare disease
then even a tripled rate of incidence may be small in comparison to other
dangers of widget work.
In no way do I mean to downplay the risks posed by smoking, by occupational

hazards, by food additives, or by environmental pollutants. Unfortunately,
however, these risks are far more complex than those posed by acute toxins.
For chronic toxins there is no measure of risk as straightforward as the LD 50 for
acute toxins. The bad news, then, is that it is extremely difficult for the general
public to distinguish between genuine chronic dangers and alarmist

propaganda. The good news is that chronic toxicity is not about the one
exposure which came back to bite you twenty years later; it's about years of
exposure that finally caught up with you. If the motto for acute toxicity is "the
dose makes the poison," then perhaps the one for chronic toxicity ought to be
"the longer you live, the sooner you bloody-well die." While you may not be
able to avoid exposure to every conceivable chronic hazard, you have time to
demand more of your news sources than sensationalistic sound-bites.
You aren't going to get away without a material safety assignment, even though
there are no materials involved in this project. Find an MSDS for mercury
(CAS 7439-97-6), silica (CAS 14808-60-7), or asbestos (CAS 12001-29-5),
and write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the chronic and acute
toxicities of the material you have chosen.
• Study the meanings of all of the words that are important enough to be
• Know the Research and Development items from Chapter 7 and
Chapter 8.
• Memorize the rules in the sidebar Redox in a Nutshell and play the
game.
• Know the difference between acute and chronic toxicity.
• When you can't remember the last time you missed a redox problem,
you've probably worked enough examples.

11.3.
You've already seen many redox reactions in this book; we just didn't call them that.
You've been memorizing them so far, but now you can just balance them on the fly. Try
your hand at these classics:
Q: C6H10O5 + O2 = CO2
Q: CuCO3 + C = Cu + CO2
Q: PbS + O2 = PbO + SO2
Q: CO2 = C6H12O6 + O2
Q: C6H10O5 + O2 = CO2
A: C6H10O5 + 6 O2 = 6 CO2 + 5 H2O
Cellulose is the reductant and oxygen is the oxidant.
Q: CuCO3 + C = Cu + CO2
A: 2 CuCO3 + C = Cu + 3 CO2
Copper carbonate is the oxidizing agent and charcoal is the reducing agent.
Q: PbS + O2 = PbO + SO2
A: 2 PbS + 3 O2 = 2 PbO + 2 SO2
Lead sulfide is the reducing agent and oxygen is the oxidizing agent.
Q: CO2 = C6H12O6 + O2
A: 6 CO2 + 6 H2O = C6H12O6 + 6 O2
I know that these were pretty simple reactions, as redox reactions go, and human nature
being what it is, you may have figured them out without using the sidebar Redox in a
Nutshell. If you did, you wasted the easy exercises which were intended to give you some
practice with the method without freaking you out. The reactions are going to get harder,
not because I'm going to make it harder, but because Nature doesn't always make it easy.
And without the method, how are you going to know which is the oxidant and which is
the reductant in a reaction like the third example? So go back and do them again if you
need to, and then try out these harder problems:

Q: KMnO4 + C2H4(OH)2 = CO2 + Mn2O3 + K2CO3
Q: Cu + HNO3 = NO + Cu(NO3)2
Q: C8H18 + NH4NO3 = N2 + CO2
Q: S + KNO3 = H2SO4 + N2 + K2SO4
Q: Al = Al(OH)3 + H2
Q: C12H22O11 + KNO3 = CO2 + N2 + K2CO3
A: 10 KMnO4 + 4 C2H4(OH)2 = 3 CO2 + 5 Mn2O3 + 5 K2CO3 + 12 H2O
Potassium permanganate is the oxidant and ethylene glycol is the reductant.
A: 42 KMnO4+12 C3H5(OH)3 = 15 CO2+21 Mn2O3+21 K2CO3+48 H2O
Potassium permanganate is the oxidant and glycerol is the reductant.
Q: Cu + HNO3 = NO + Cu(NO3)2
A: 3 Cu + 8 HNO3 = 2 NO + 3 Cu(NO3)2 + 4 H2O
Nitric acid is the oxidant and copper is the reductant. Hint: nitric acid appears in both
half-reactions.
Q: C8H18 + NH4NO3 = N2 + CO2
A: C8H18 + 25 NH4NO3 = 25 N2 + 8 CO2 + 59 H2O
Ammonium nitrate is the oxidant and octane is the reductant. This reaction is responsible
for one kind of "fertilizer bomb."
Q: S + KNO3 = H2SO4 + N2 + K2SO4
A: 5 S + 6 KNO3 + 2 H2O = 2 H2SO4 + 3 N2 + 3 K2SO4
Sulfur is the reductant and potassium nitrate is the oxidant. Hint: sulfur appears in both
half-reactions.

Q: Al = Al(OH)3 + H2
A: 2 Al + 6 H2O = 2 Al(OH)3 + 3 H2
Aluminum is the reductant and water is the oxidant. This reaction is quite vigorous in
alkaline solutions, which is why we avoided using an aluminum pot for making potash.
Q: C12H22O11 + KNO3 = CO2 + N2 + K2CO3
A: 5 C12H22O11 + 48 KNO3 = 36 CO2 + 24 N2 + 24 K2CO3 + 55 H2O
Sucrose is the reductant and potassium nitrate is the oxidant. Hint: in Step 4 of the
procedure , use CO2 to balance carbon in the same spirit that you use water to balance
oxygen in Step 5.
Quality Assurance
When you can solve these problems without consulting the sidebar Redox in a
Nutshell, you will be prepared to balance any redox equation in this book. Your
notebook for this project may omit the "Observations" section, as no
manipulation of materials is involved in this project, but you should summarize
the chronic and acute toxicities of either mercury, silica, or asbestos.

Chapter 12. Marie (Dyes)
105. Dyeing in Dark Blue. Put about a talent of woad in a tube, which stands in
the sun and contains not less than 15 metretes, and pack it in well. Then pour
urine in until the liquid rises over the woad and let it be warmed by the sun, but
on the following day get the woad ready in a way so that you [can] tread
around in it in the sun until it becomes well moistened. One must do this,
however for 3 days together.
145. Cleaning by Means of Soap Weed. Take and treat soap weed with hot
water. Make a ball from it as if from tallow. Then steep this in hot water until it
is dissolved. The water, however, should go above the wool. Then boil up the
water. Put the wool in and prevent it from becoming scorched. Leave it there a
little while until you see that it is clean. Lift it out, rinse it and dry it.
146. Mordanting. Take lime and hot water and make a lye from it, let it stand
and take away thereby the impurity existing upon it. When you see that the
water has become crystal clear, then put the wool in, shake and leave it there
again a little while. Lift it out and rinse it.
152. Shading off of Colors. When you desire to shade off the brightness of a
color then boil sulfur with cow's milk, and the color will be easily shaded off in
it.
— The Stockholm Papyrus, ca. 200 AD[1]
12.1.
No doubt you are wondering why I am treading ankle deep in a vat of woady piddle.
The reason is actually quite simple. First of all you will recall that human beings have
been wearing clothes for something like 20,000 years. The earliest clothing styles, Figure
6-1(L) for example, providing for neither warmth nor modesty, evidently communicated
the reproductive status of the wearer. In time clothing became more elaborate and
communicated not only reproductive but economic and political status. Consider, for
example, the perennial problem of distinguishing a queen from a call-girl. From a
distance after all, one naked woman pretty much looks like another. "Pardon me,
Mademoiselle, I have this large sack of money and am in desperate need of a favor." I
can tell you that you had better know which one you are talking to before you elaborate
on the nature of such a favor, and telling them apart became much easier once they began
to wear different outfits.
To cite another example, in the pre-clothing days the king often suffered from
laryngitis. "I do not believe we have met. I am the King." "Hello, you must be new
around here. I am the King." "King here, how is it hanging?" It was much easier for

everyone once the king began to dress, well, like a king. Wearing his royal garments, he
could assert his authority merely by being seen and the poor subjects were not left
wondering whether they had just handed over their savings to the village idiot. Unless, of
course, the village idiot had the same tailor as the king. So of course the king needed finer
and finer clothing to outclass the idiots and butchers and farmers, and the key to this was
color.
You see, most sheep are white, so if you can find a sheep of any other color, usually
black or gray, you can demand a higher price for its wool. Since only the rich can afford
colored wool, anyone wearing colored clothing must be rich. It might occur to you, as it
did to me, to stain white wool with grass or flowers or berries and so produce colored
wool for fancy dress without paying through the nose. But most of these stains are
fugitive, that is, they come out in the wash. And so we are in the peculiar position of
complaining that the laundry got our clothes too clean. There are, however, some dyes
which produce colorfast colors on wool. Black walnuts, for example, make a beautiful
chocolate brown which will not wash out. Many vegetables will produce colorfast colors
when the wool is pre-treated with a mordant. But the most popular dye of all times,
indigo, produces colorfast blue only under rather specific conditions; the dye-bath must
be both alkaline and reducing, conditions that are met with in stale pee-pee.
And so I am treading about in fermenting urine which creates a reducing environment

for dissolving indigo from the woad plant so that thread may be colored blue, this thread
to be woven into increasingly complex patterns so that the prince may be distinguished
from the pauper, the bride from her bridesmaids, the Yankees from the Confederates and
the Dallas Cowboys from the New York Giants. The demand for more and brighter
clothing will in time create a demand for sulfuric acid, the first chemical to be produced
on an industrial scale and even today the chemical produced in the greatest tonnage. Soap
will be needed to launder these clothes which will increase the demand for potash to the
point that the price of wood ash goes through the roof and new sources of alkali are
sought, the budding alkali industry providing such innovations as air and water pollution.
To comply with anti-pollution laws, the waste products will be turned into bleach, which
of course makes possible even brighter colors to be supplied from coal tar, whose waste
products will be used to manufacture fertilizer so that crops may be grown more
efficiently from limited acreage, increasing the global population and the demand for
more clothing. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Notes
[1] Reference [5].

12.2.
The problem of coloring cloth is not as simple as you might at first expect. Pliny has told
you about colored minerals in Chapter 11, but while these compounds make useful
pigments, they make lousy dyes. You see, a pigment by definition does not stick to the
surface to be colored. A binder mechanically sticks the pigment to the surface like glue.
A crayon, for example, contains pigments in a wax binder. Plaster is the binder for fresco,
linseed oil for oil paints, and gum Arabic for water colors. If you wish to make paint, you
add a solvent, usually oil or water, to the pigment and binder. While paint is useful for
coloring wood and stone and stucco, it is useless for clothing unless, of course, canvas is
your idea of slipping into something more comfortable. No, colored clothing requires a
coloring agent which will penetrate each fiber so that the color is as flexible as the yarn.
Such a color is called a dye. Now there are two hard bits about dyeing: getting the dye
into solution so that it may be absorbed by the cloth and then preventing this dye from
washing out again.
One approach to this problem is to use the juice from colored vegetables. Just think about
all of the foods you would hate to spill on your frock accidentally: coffee, tea, beets, red
onions, to name but a few. Now if you think about it, food stains generally wash out
because the colored compounds had to be water-soluble to get into the cloth, and being
water soluble they wash right out again. Even the most persistent food stain leaves only a
faint brown, tan, or yellow stain; dull, faint colors are prized by neither queens nor
hookers. A mordant is a metal compound which chemically binds to the fiber on one
hand and to the dye on the other. Whereas paint is a heterogeneous mixture of pigment
and binder, a mordant forms a homogeneous compound with the fiber and dye molecules.
Alum, potassium aluminum sulfate, is the most popular mordant of all times and may be
used to render coffee (tan), tea (rose), beets (gold), and red onions (orange) colorfast.
Alum also mordants other vegetable dyes, including fern (yellow-green), elder-berries
(lilac), madder (red), and saffron (yellow). A few animals provide dyes, notably red
cochineal and kermes extracted from insects and Tyrian purple extracted from a sea-snail.
If you are interested in these dyes, you should consult The Weaving, Spinning, and
Dyeing Book [1] or The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing.[2]
Indigo requires no mordant for reasons that are both intrinsically interesting and, as it
happens, important to the historical development of chemical industry. The blue color
comes from the compound indigotin, C16H10N2O2, which is insoluble in water. It is easily
reduced to leucoindigotin, C16H10N2(OH)2, which is colorless and soluble in alkaline
solution. You are possibly considering that if wool could be soaked in a solution of
leucoindigo, oxygen from the air might oxidize it back to blue indigo which, being
insoluble in water, would be extremely colorfast. If so, you have hit the snail on the head,
so to speak. The problem, then, is to reduce indigotin to leucoindigotin.
So far we know only two reducing agents, charcoal and sugar. We used charcoal at high
temperature to reduce metal oxides to elemental metals. We forced yeasts to oxidize

glucose anaerobically to produce alcohol. Since heating the bejeezus out of indigo just
makes smoke, let us try the glucose route. Equation 12-1(a) shows the reduction of
indigotin, (b) the oxidation of glucose, and (c) the balanced redox reaction. Now,
leucoindigotin is soluble only in alkaline solution and yeasts are not particularly tolerant
of alkali. There is a bacterium, however, which eats urea, farts carbon dioxide, and pisses
ammonia. You will be familiar with this bacterium if you have ever used an outdoor
privy.
Equation 12-1. From Indogotin to Leucoindigotin
When mammals metabolize protein, the nitrogen is excreted as urea. What is waste to us
is food for the bacterium. Equation 12-2 shows the reaction by which the bacterium
converts urea to ammonia, NH3. Ammonia gas is soluble in water and ionizes to give
hydroxide ion and so it is an alkali. The bacterium has just what we need for dissolving
indigotin; it produces alkali and oxidizes glucose. You are probably thinking that we
should add honey and indigo to a 2-liter bottle of urine, burping it from time to time as
we did with mead. The indigo vat would be much more pleasant were that possible. You
will recall that whereas yeasts thrive anaerobically, bacteria require oxygen to live. We
must carefully balance the air intake of our vat, providing enough oxygen for the bacteria
to live, but not so much that our hard-won leucoindigotin is oxidized back to insoluble
indigo.
Equation 12-2. From Urea to Ammonia
Once the vat is in order, alkaline and saturated with colorless (or pale green), soluble
leucoindigotin, we are ready to dye our yarn. Simply soak the yarn in the vat until it is
thoroughly saturated with liquid. When the yarn is pulled from the liquid, oxygen from
the air oxidizes leucoindigotin to indigotin as shown in Equation 12-3. The yarn will
change from yellow to blue and this blue will be colorfast. It looks like a magic trick.

Equation 12-3. From Leucoindigotin to Indigotin
Actually, we might have saved ourselves a good deal of trouble if we had been able to
extract leucoindigotin from woad or indigo directly. Unfortunately, the indigotin is
oxidized by the air very quickly. But we can use the same idea to extract dye from black
walnuts if we are able to collect them when they have just fallen from the tree. The
walnut tree has been kind enough not only to produce the dye juglone, C10H6O3, in its
colorless, water-soluble state, but to package it in an air-tight container. I am speaking, of
course, about the hull of the walnut itself. When the nuts fall in the fall they are initially
soft and green, but after they have been lying around for a few weeks, the air oxidizes the
juglone and the nut becomes hard and brown. If you are able to harvest black walnuts as
soon as they fall from the tree, you will be able to make a beautiful brown, colorfast dye
with no mordant and no urine required. You will be pissed at yourself if you miss the
harvest.
Material Safety
Biological hazards tend to be far more insidious than chemical ones. You see,
one molecule of even the most toxic chemical is absolutely harmless. Such a
molecule might react with one of your molecules, but you have so many that it
makes no difference. With a chemical compound the dose makes the poison; a
larger dose is more hazardous and a smaller dose is less hazardous. Biological
hazards are not like this at all. You know from making mead that one yeast
becomes two, two become four, and so on until the mead is chock full of them.
If you choose to ferment urine, the bacteria behave the same way. Of course,
you have been exposed to these particular bugs all your life, so you have some
immunity. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to wash your hands regularly,
particularly when you have been brewing your own juices.
The squeamish may prefer to use something other than fermenting urine as a
reducing agent and a popular alternative is sodium hydrosulfite (CAS 7775-14-
6) in household ammonia (CAS 1336-21-6). Summarize the hazardous
properties of these materials in your notebook, including the identity of the
company which produced each MSDS and the potential health effects for eye
contact, skin contact, inhalation, and ingestion. Also include the LD 50 (oral, rat)

for each of these materials.
Your most likely exposure is eye or skin contact. If you get some in your eyes,
you should flush them with cold water and go to the emergency room. Exposed
skin should be washed with soap and water. Be aware that sodium hydrosulfite
will bleach clothing. Be aware that walnut hulls will stain skin.
You should wear safety glasses and rubber gloves while working on this
project. Leftover dye solution may be washed down the drain.
You are probably wondering what will be on the quiz.
• You should have studied the Research and Development items from
• Know the equation for the reduction of idigotin.
• Know the equation for the oxidation of leucoindigotin.
• Know the equation for the conversion of urea to ammonia and carbon
dioxide.
• Know the hazardous properties of indigo, walnut hulls, sodium
hydrosulfite, and urine.
• Know why humans wear clothing and why dyes are so important.
The Stockholm Papyrus which began this chapter contains 154 recipes, of which I have
chosen only a wee sample. Indigo will remain the number one dye even down to modern
blue jeans. Progress in dye technology will come in dribs and drabs until the eighteenth
century, when a new way to dissolve indigo gives a leg up to the infant alkali industry.
Cheap alkali, in turn, will relieve a soap industry starved for soda. Industrial waste
flushed out of the alkali trade will become the mainstay of the bleach industry. All of this
in the service of clothing so that we can tell the whiz-kids from the pee-ons. Now, if you
are dyeing to get started and you cannot hold it any longer, urine in for a treat.
Notes
[1] Reference [91].

[2] Reference [92].

12.3.
If you are going to dye indigo the old fashioned way, you will need to collect some urine.
Urea comes from the metabolism of protein, not from drinking beer, so if you are
drinking heavily to make more water, you have your leg up the wrong tree. Just let it flow
naturally; you only need a liter or so and you can collect it in our old friend, that twenty-
first century gourd, the 2-liter soft-drink bottle. Be sure to label it or someone may get a
bit of a surprise. Put a few blades of grass into it to inoculate it with bacteria and then
leave it outside in the sun. The time needed for fermentation to begin depends on the
temperature. It will go quicker in the summer than in the winter. Unlike yeasts, bacteria
need air so leave the top off your bottle. Your vat is ripe when you can smell ammonia,
usually after a few days.
Once ammonia is being produced, grind 1 teaspoon (approximately 1 gram) of indigo in a

mortar and pestle with a few teaspoons of water. You want the indigo to be as fine as
possible because bacteria have tiny little mouths. Add your ground indigo to the bottle
and gently swirl it to distribute the dye without adding too much oxygen. The
fermentation will be most active when your bottle is warm so let the little fellows have
their day in the sun. The solution will be dark blue when you first add the dye, but it
should become pale green once the bugs get going.
If all is well, you should have a pale green vat with a blue scum floating at the surface. If
not, there are several things that might have gone wrong. First of all, your vat should
smell of ammonia. If not, add 1 teaspoon of household ammonia, swirl to mix it in, and
wait another day. Some household ammonia has soap in it; you do not want that kind,
you want clear ammonia. Check your vat each day, adding ammonia 1 teaspoon at a time
until it smells as it should.
If your vat smells of ammonia but remains blue, then perhaps your bacteria are starving;
give them a teaspoon of honey to eat. Fermentation should pick up and the vat should
turn green in a couple of days. If not, then either a contamination from your dye or
something else has killed your bacteria. Give it a few more days to make sure, but if it
does not pull itself together I can only advise you to start over with a fresh bottle.
Once your vat is in order it is time to dye your yarn. Wash your woolen yarn, presumably
that which you made in Chapter 6, with plenty of soap and water, rinse the soap out, and
place it gently into the vat, trying to add as little oxygen as possible. Use a stick or
stirring rod to keep the yarn beneath the surface and let it soak for 10 minutes or so. Then
fish it out and gently squeeze the excess fluid from the yarn. In a matter of minutes, the
yarn will have changed from pale green to colorfast blue. If you would like the color to
be darker, you may re-dip your yarn after 10 minutes in the air; with each dip the color
should become darker and darker. Let your yarn air out for a day, wash it in vinegar, and
then in soap and water. The color will be quite permanent.

As with a mead, it is possible to keep the vat going by adding food and nutrients. If the
vat turns blue and no longer smells of ammonia, you need to add more urine. If it turns
blue but smells of ammonia, you need more honey. And if it is pale green and
ammoniacal but your blue is getting wimpy, add more indigo.
Figure 12-1. Dyed in the Wool
I realize that not everyone is comfortable handing precious bodily fluids. For you
uriphobes, I am pleased to provide an alternative indigo vat which replaces the bacteria
with a chemical reducing agent: sodium hydrosulfite. You will learn all about bleach in
Chapter 25, but for now all that you must understand is that there are oxidizing bleaches
and reducing bleaches and that sodium hydrosulfite is of the latter type. So if I may
continue, you should run 100 mL of hot water (50?C, 120?F, no hotter) into a small bottle
and add 4 mL of household ammonia to make a kind of faux-pee. Grind 0.2 g of indigo
with a little water as before and add it to your vat. Now add 0.4 g of sodium hydrosulfite,
which may be purchased as "color remover" wherever dyes are sold. Gently swirl until
the hydrosulfite dissolves and let the vat rest. Within 10 minutes or so, the color should
change from deep blue to pea green. If not, place your bottle into a pan of hot water as a
kind of makeshift double-boiler or bain Marie. Swirl the bottle gently until the color
changes from opaque blue to transparent green, as shown in Figure 12-1(L). You may
now use this hydrosulfite vat in the same manner as the urine vat for dyeing yarn. The
hydrosulfite vat may be "kept going" similarly to the urine vat. If you can no longer smell
ammonia, add some. If the vat changes from green to blue, add more sodium hydrosulfite
and re-warm it by swirling the bottle in a pan of hot water. And when your blues lose
their hues, add more indigo.
Black walnuts produce a wonderful colorfast brown dye without the muss and fuss of the
indigo vat. To dye 20 feet of yarn or so, you will need 5 or 6 walnuts freshly fallen from

the tree. Now, you are not interested in the nut itself; what you need is the green rind
which surrounds the nut. With a knife, peel the rinds from your nuts and place them into a
pan or beaker with about 1 liter of water. The good stuff is in the juice from these rinds,
so if you can squeeze the juice into the water, so much the better. Now, if you work
without gloves you will notice in an hour or two that your hands are stained brown even
though the juice was green. You are probably thinking that the colorless juices have been
oxidized by the air to produce dark brown, insoluble juglone on your hands. If so, you
have indeed cracked a tough nut. This is precisely what we would like to have happen to
the wool, but if you do not wish to dye your hands, you had better wear dishwashing
gloves.
Heat your rind-water on a stove or hot-plate until it comes to 60?C or 140?F. Any hotter
than this may damage the wool. Wash your woolen yarn with soap and water, immerse it
in the hot dye-bath and let it soak for half an hour or so. Remove the yarn from the dye
and let it air out overnight. It should be dark brown and colorfast the following day. If
you would like to dye wool black, dye it first in black walnut and then in indigo.
There is a movement these days to recognize the contributions of women to science. The
textile arts have provided an important driving force for the development of chemical
industry, as subsequent chapters will show. For now just remember, "It may be the
clothes that make the man, but it is often the woman who makes the clothes."
Quality Assurance
On the other hand, if your dye washes out with soap and water, you've just
been piddling around. Break off a few inches of your colored yarn and tape it
into your notebook.

Chapter 13. Theophilus (Glass)
If you have the intention of making glass, first cut many beechwood logs and
dry them out. Then burn them all together in a clean place and carefully collect
the ashes, taking care that you do not mix any earth or stones with them. After
this build a furnace of stones and clay, fifteen feet long and ten feet wide,…
When you have arranged all this, take beechwood logs completely dried out in
smoke, and light large fires in both sides of the bigger furnace. Then take two
parts of the ashes of which we have spoken before, and a third part of sand,
collected out of water, and carefully cleaned of earth and stones. Mix them in a
clean place, and when they have been long and well mixed together lift them up
with the long-handled iron ladle and put them on the upper hearth in the
smaller section of the furnace so that they may be fritted. When they begin to
get hot, stir at once with the same iron ladle to prevent them from melting from
the heat of the fire and agglomerating. Continue doing this for a night and a
day.
Meanwhile take some white pottery clay, dry it out, grind it carefully, pour
water on it, knead it hard with a piece of wood, and make your pots. These
should be wide at the top, narrowing at the bottom, and should have a small in-
curving lip around their rims. When they are dry, pick them up with tongs and
set them in the red-hot furnace in the holes made [in the hearth] for this
purpose. Pick up the fritted mixture of ashes and sand with the ladle and fill all
the pots [with it] in the evening. Add dry wood all through the night, so that the
glass, formed by the fusion of the ashes and sand, may be fully melted.
— Theophilus, On Divers Arts, ca. 1100 AD [1]
13.1.
Have you been observant, my brothers and sisters? Have you chosen to see things for
yourself or are you afraid to touch what might burn your lily-white fingers, to taste what
might upset your sensitive stomach, to smell what might clear your stuffy sinuses, to hear
what might offend your timid ears? Did you stop to examine the lining of your crucible in
your haste to retrieve your nugget of bronze, or did you notice that the slag had given the
interior of the crucible an amazing glossy finish? If so, you have seen what went
unappreciated by generations of potters and smelters until I attached significance to it.
It was in the early days of smelting technology, 4527 BC, if meme-ory serves, a
millennium before the Bronze Age began in earnest. I had been raised to smelting from
early childhood, sorting ores, making crucibles and gathering firewood for the furnace. I
pestered my father and brothers constantly with questions and unsolicited advice. "Why

is the inside of the crucible black while the outside is white?" "What happens if you leave
out the charcoal?" "What happens if you leave out the soda ash?" When I was older I
began to answer these questions for myself. A waste of good material, my father said. I
always suspected he was talking about me as well as the ore I used. I discovered that the
inside of the crucible is blackened by the charcoal. But if you leave out the charcoal, the
inside of the crucible is blue, not white, as if the malachite ore had been melted like wax.
If you leave out both the charcoal and the soda ash, that is, if you simply heat malachite
ore in a crucible, it turns black but does not melt. And soda ash alone melts right into the
clay. It seemed to me that the soda ash made it easier to melt malachite, and melted
malachite is a beautiful thing.
By 4000 BC I had learned to glaze quartz beads with a combination of soda ash and
lime colored with malachite. At the same time I began applying the glaze ingredients to
the surfaces of clay tiles, but because soda-lime glazes and clays shrink at different rates
as they cool, they are not suitable for curved pottery. This limitation was overcome 2000
years later with the introduction of galena (lead sulfide), rather than soda ash, as the flux.
From that point glass and glaze followed separate paths. Glaze developed as I wended my
way down through generations of potters using lead in the form of galena and cerrusite
(lead carbonate) to flux sand and clay. Glass emerged from the smelting tradition some
500 years later, with soda ash and potash used to flux lime and sand.
Having grown out of the metal arts, glass was cast in molds much as metals are. But
beginning in about 30 BC glass began to be worked in its molten state, blown on the ends
of iron pipes. Today glass is cast, blown, molded and drawn into almost any shape that
can be conceived. Without it churches and skyscrapers would be pitch-black caverns, the
color of fine wines would remain unappreciated in opaque clay bottles and cups. The
microscope, telescope and electric light would be impossibilities. And the greatest
contribution of all, that which has literally returned eyesight to billions, goes by the name,
glasses. In short, had I seen slag as merely the refuse of the smelter, much of the world
would have remained impenetrably opaque and many of its inhabitants hopelessly blind.
Notes
[1] Reference [27], Book II, Ch. 4-5.

13.2.
Have you ever made ice cream from scratch? There is a fundamental problem in making
ice cream; the freezing point of cream is lower than that of water and consequently ice is
not sufficiently cold for freezing it. The solution is to add salt to the ice. Saltwater freezes
at a lower temperature than pure water and the more salt is added, the lower is the
freezing point. This is not peculiar to saltwater; any solution melts at a lower temperature
than its solvent. We use salt because it is one of the least expensive substances that
dissolves in water, but we could use many other materials to produce temperatures lower
than the melting point of water. As a case in point, sugar, too, lowers the freezing point of
water, which is the reason that ice cream, a solution of sugar in water with various
suspended milk fats, has such a low freezing point to begin with.
Consider the sequence of events that take place when water freezes. We begin with pure
water at room temperature, 25?C and cool it, say, by placing it into a freezer with the
temperature set at -15?C. The temperature of the water falls, 24, 23, 22?C… A peculiar
event occurs when the temperature reaches 0?C; a crystal of ice forms. Though we
continue to cool the water, its temperature ceases to fall. An unobservant reader may have
glossed over this remarkable statement and it bears repeating. We have water at 0?C in a
freezer at -15?C, and yet the temperature of the water remains at 0?C. Though the
temperature does not change, all is not static in our water sample; the ice crystal is
growing. The water sample is now half ice, yet its temperature is still 0?C. It is now
almost completely frozen, with only a single drop of liquid water remaining and yet the
temperature has not budged. Only when the final drop has frozen does the temperature
begin to drop, -1, -2, -3?C, until at last the ice reaches the ambient temperature of the
freezer. One more aspect of the melting behavior of pure substances needs to be
understood. Ice is solid and water is liquid. Ice is hard and water is runny. Ice holds its
shape and water takes the shape of its container. There is no middle ground between ice
and water. At any point during the freezing process, you can point to the spot where the
ice ends and the water begins. This behavior is characteristic of the freezing of pure
substances.
Contrast this with the freezing behavior of a solution like ice cream. We put the cream
and sugar into the ice cream freezer, begin to turn the crank, and as the temperature falls
the cream becomes thicker, more viscous. Finally, the cream is so hard that we can no
longer turn the crank, but when we open the container we find that the ice cream is still
fairly soft. It will continue to get harder and harder as the temperature drops. Indeed, it is
hard to say exactly when the freezing is complete. Furthermore, there is no spot where the
ice cream ends and the cream begins. This behavior is characteristic of the freezing of
solutions.

Figure 13-1. Melting Ice and Ice Cream
Figure 13-1 compares the melting behavior of ice and ice cream. The temperature of a
cup of ice rises to 0?C, at which point water begins to collect in the bottom of the cup.
The temperature remains constant as the water rises and the ice shrinks. Only after the
last ice has melted does the temperature resume its upward climb. In contrast, the
temperature of ice cream rises steadily as it gets softer and softer. Nothing "special"
happens at 0?C. It is clearly solid at -15?C and clearly liquid at +15?C, but there is no
single melting point. Rather, the ice cream melts over a range of temperatures. The
addition of salt or sugar (the solutes) to water (the solvent) causes it to freeze or thaw
over a range of temperatures lower than the normal freezing point of the solvent. We say
that a solute acts as a flux, for solvents in which it dissolves.
While salt and sugar dissolve in water, they do not do so in silica. A proper flux for silica
must be soluble in it but must not boil away in the high temperatures of the furnace.
There are four such fluxes in common usage, potassa, soda, litharge, and borax. Potassa
K2O is derived from potash, K2CO3 introduced in Chapter 8. In the heat of the kiln,
bejeesical carbon dioxide flees the potassium carbonate, leaving potassium oxide to flux
the glass. Similarly, soda, Na2O, is derived from soda ash, Na2CO3. Glass produced from
silica and soda or potassa alone is somewhat soluble in water and so has limited
application. In practice, lime, CaO, is added to glass to render it insoluble in water. Most
of the glass in common use is soda-lime glass, a frozen solution of soda and lime in silica.
Leaded glass crystal and many pottery glazes are fluxed with litharge, PbO, produced
from the roasting of lead ore. You may associate lead with fishing sinkers, car batteries,
and solder, but it is also associated with lead poisoning. And indeed, lead oxide is quite
toxic. The symptoms of lead poisoning include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and
headache. Acute poisoning can lead to muscle weakness, loss of appetite, insomnia,
dizziness, and even coma and death in extreme cases. Moreover, lead exhibits chronic
toxicity, with small doses acquired over long time periods causing symptoms similar to
those of acute lead poisoning. No wonder that lead has been branded a "toxic" metal. But

while lead compounds are certainly hazardous, it is a mistake to tarnish the reputations of
leaded crystal and leaded pottery glazes. Consider, for example, that soda and lime are
strong alkalis and would act as acute poisons if ingested directly. Yet glass does not even
taste bitter. The reason is that the soda and lime are locked into the glass and
consequently cannot leach out into food and drink. The same is true of lead crystal and
lead glazes when properly manufactured.
Complete solution of lead oxide into the silica is the central concern of the lead glass
manufacturer. With many pottery glazes, raw glaze ingredients may be applied directly to
the ware. When the pottery is fired, the glaze components melt and mix. But with lead
glazes, it is safer to melt the raw glaze ingredients into a glass so that complete solution is
ensured. This glass is then cooled and crushed into frit, which is simply a term for
powdered glass. It is this frit, with the lead already locked into the glass, which is applied
to the pottery. Lead poisoning remains a concern for workers making the frit, but not for
the end-user. However, un-fritted lead glazes may still be used by some potters and such
glazes pose a health risk when used to contain food or drink.
Those who insist on viewing the world in simplistic terms may argue that because it is
possible to do a poor job of formulating lead glazes, it is not worth the risk. I would like
to point out that it is possible to build a car poorly, to store food poorly, to raise a child
poorly. Yet we continue to drive cars because it is faster than walking, to store food
because it is better than starving, and to raise children because it is better than letting
them fend for themselves. We continue to use lead crystal and glazes because they are
more beautiful and versatile than other glasses and glazes. The key to safety is do these
things as well as we can, to be prepared to recognize when things go wrong, and to know
what to do in those circumstances. Some will persist in demonizing lead, imagining
invisible goblins in every cup and saucer, but nobody has to wonder about lead
poisoning; test kits for lead may be purchased at ceramics shops and pharmacies.
In addition to potassa, soda, and litharge, borax, Na2O?2 B2O3, or Na2B4O7, is an

important glass flux. Borosilicate glasses are probably familiar to most people under the
trade names, Pyrex and Kimax. Like salt, trona, gypsum, or limestone, borax is deposited
when mineral-rich seas evaporate. Compared to the other glasses, borosilicate glasses are
particularly suitable for applications in which they will be heated and cooled repeatedly.
To understand this property we must return briefly to the details of the cooling of molten
glass.

Recall that we were unable to specify a "melting point" for ice cream. At room
temperature it was clearly a liquid, and as it cooled it became thicker, more viscous, until
at a temperature of -15?C, it was clearly a solid. With no single melting point, how are
we to specify the temperature range over which its viscosity changes? It may surprise you
to learn that viscosity, the resistance to flow, may be measured; its unit is the poise. We
may characterize glass by the temperatures at which its viscosity takes on certain values.
For the sake of comparison, water at room temperature has a viscosity of 10-2 poise (0.01
poise) and motor oil a viscosity of about 102 poise (100 poise). Even at high
temperatures, molten glass has a viscosity in excess of 103 poise. As it cools, it reaches
the working point, the temperature at which its viscosity equals 104 poise. Near the
working point, glass is viscous enough to be easily worked by glass-blowers without
dripping from the end of the blow-pipe. By the time it cools to the softening point, the
viscosity has risen above 107 poise. A sheet of glass below this temperature will not sag
under its own weight. Cooling further, the viscosity reaches 1013 poise at the annealing
point. At this temperature the glass is rigid, but still soft enough that it is not easily
shattered by mechanical or thermal shock. Below the strain point the viscosity exceeds
1014 poise and the glass is essentially solid. At room temperature, the viscosity of glass is
in the neighborhood of 1020 poise. While the viscosity values are important for defining
the working, softening, annealing and strain points, the more important point is that the
viscosity of glass changes gradually over a range of temperatures. By contrast, the
viscosity of water, or indeed any pure substance, changes abruptly from a very small
value, that of the liquid, to a very large value, that of the solid, and it does so at a single
temperature, the melting point.
I have spoken up until this point as if the temperature of a piece of glass were uniform,
but the reality is that a cooling piece of glass will be cooler on the surface than it is in the
interior. Because glass expands as it is heated and contracts as it cools, such a
temperature difference introduces stress. In molten glass, of course, such stress is easily
and quickly relieved because the glass is free to move. But below the strain point the
glass is so rigid that any residual stresses are permanently frozen in. Glass stressed in this
way may look normal but can shatter violently without warning. It is imperative, then, for
a glass-maker to ensure that these stresses have been relieved before the cooling glass
reaches the strain point. The process of accomplishing this is called annealing.

The ideal solution to the problem of stress would be to cool the glass so slowly that the
surface of the glass is at the same temperature as the interior. But since stresses do not
accumulate in the liquid state, it would be a waste of time to slowly cool the molten glass.
Even worse, Unktomi has explained in Chapter 2 that crystals may grow when molten
rock cools slowly. Given enough time, crystals of pure silica, that is, quartz, may grow in
the molten glass, a process called de-vitrification. In practice molten glass should be
cooled quickly to a temperature just above the annealing point, held there until the
temperature of the glass surface is close to that of the interior, and then cooled slowly to a
temperature below the strain point. Below the strain point, the glass may be cooled more
quickly.
Returning to the borosilicate glasses we can begin to understand why they are used for
cook ware and laboratory glassware. Compared to the other glasses, borosilicates expand
and contract less rapidly with changing temperature. Consequently, thermal stresses do
not build up in borosilicate glasses to the same extent that they do in others and they are
less likely to shatter when heated or cooled. If we were to make soda-lime glass in the
pottery kiln we would have to pay careful attention to the firing schedule, cooling slowly
through the annealing point to avoid having the glass shatter. Whereas pottery, metals,
and lime may all be fired together in a four-hour firing schedule, I have obtained good
results making soda-lime glass only with a twenty-four-hour firing schedule, most of that
time spent annealing the glass.[1] Borosilicate glasses, by contrast, can be made using the
same firing schedule as the other kiln projects. It is not that the glass does not need to be
annealed, it is just that the normal cooling rate of the kiln is sufficiently slow to anneal
small borosilicate glass objects. For this reason the next section will describe the
fabrication of a borosilicate glass rather than the more common soda-lime glass.
Purity is an over-rated quality, my brothers and sisters. An atmosphere of pure

nitrogen would support neither flame nor fish nor fowl; one of pure oxygen would
consume the forest in a whirling inferno. An ocean of pure water would be free of both
salt and salmon. A perfect desert of pure quartz sand would be devoid of cactus and
scorpion. Purity of thought is over-rated as well. The world of the ideologue is as simple
and beautiful as the quartz crystal and equally as sterile. Do you think you are a man, my
brother? You may happen to temporarily inhibit a male body but you are no man, you are
no woman. You are not black or white or yellow. You share your temporary mortal home
with memes from every corner of the globe, with ancient notions of remote antiquity and
with young whipper-snappers fresh from the six o-clock news. Your mortal, in turn, is
thrown together with mortals of different genders, complexions and cultures. At times de-
vitrification seems imminent as purity threatens to separate the world into sterile
crystalline strong-holds. My siblings, be the flux! Make living glass by lowering the
melting point and bringing myriad dissimilar entities into rich and complex solution.

Material Safety
Locate MSDS's for borax (CAS 1330-43-4), copper oxide (CAS 1317-38-0),
plaster (CAS 10034-76-1), and silica (CAS 14808-60-7). Summarize the
hazardous properties of these materials in your notebook, including the identity
of the company which produced the MSDS and the potential health effects for
eye contact, skin contact, inhalation, and ingestion. Also include the LD 50 (oral,
rat) for each of these materials.
Your most likely exposure is dust inhalation. If a persistent cough develops, see
a doctor.
You should wear safety glasses and a dust mask while working on this project.
Leftover materials may be disposed of in the trash.
If you are to make glass for yourself you should know the following:

• Know how the melting and freezing behaviors of a solution differ from
those of a pure substance.
• Know the properties of soda ash and potash as described in this chapter
and in Chapter 8.
• Know how to handle borax, copper oxide, plaster, and silica safely.
• Know what it means to be a flux.
Notes
[1] Reference [49] gives firing schedules for a wide variety of glass objects of different
sizes.

13.3.
The vast majority of glass produced in the world is soda-lime glass and it is certainly
possible to make glass in the pottery kiln from soda ash, limestone, and silica. Since some
students in a class might be making glass while others are working on metals, pottery, or
lime, it would be desirable to use the same kiln program for all four kiln projects so that
they might all be fired together. The kiln conditions required for making soda-lime glass,
however, are at odds with those for smelting metals. For one thing, soda ash and
limestone give off bubbles of carbon dioxide when fired and if the glass is to be free of
bubbles it must be left at its highest temperature for an hour or more. In this time, the
charcoal in a smelting crucible might burn away completely, spoiling the metal. For
another thing, glass shrinks as it cools and consequently must be cooled slowly through
its annealing point, considerably lengthening the time for a firing. We can address both
problems by making a borosilicate glass instead of a soda-lime glass.
In a soda-lime glass the soda serves as a flux, lowering the melting point of silica. The
lime serves to make the resulting glass insoluble in water. Soda serves as a flux in a
borosilicate glass, as well, but boron oxide rather than lime (calcium oxide) serves to
render the glass insoluble in water. Both sodium oxide (soda) and boron oxide are
available in a naturally-occurring mineral, borax, available wherever laundry detergents
are sold. Just as calcium sulfate or sodium carbonate occur in anhydrous and hydrous
forms, borax occurs as the anhydrous Na2O?2 B2O3 and as the decahydrate, Na2O?2
B2O3?10 H2O. Since water will be driven off by the heat of the kiln, either form will do
for making glass but the weight needed will depend on which one is being used. To
eliminate guesswork, you should dry your borax for an hour in an oven at 130?C (266?F)
to convert the decahydrate to anhydrous borax. Anhydrous borax may be stored
indefinitely if it is kept in a moisture-proof container. In addition to borax we need silica,
which might be provided in the form of ordinary sand, but it should be ground to a fine
powder. Ground silica, known among potters as flint, can be had inexpensively from
ceramic supplies. With borax and silica at hand, we are ready to formulate our glass.

Figure 13-2. Freeing the Glass from the Crucible
There is no "correct" formula for borosilicate glass. The more borax is used, the lower
will be the melting point of the resulting glass. A very nice, colorless glass can be
produced using 1 part anhydrous borax to 2 parts silica. Let us begin, then, by weighing
by difference 15 g of borax and 30 g of silica into a plastic bag. Optionally, copper oxide
may be added to provide a blue-green color; 1 g of Cu2O will render the glass completely
opaque. Thoroughly mix your glass ingredients by kneading the bag and turning it end for
end.

Figure 13-3. Removing the Investment
If you completed the mold of Figure 10-3(R) you have only to pack your mixed glass
ingredients into the mold. If you have no mold, you must at least coat the walls of your
crucible with investment, as shown in Figure 10-2(L), to prevent the glass from sticking
to the walls of your crucible. Fill your mold or crucible with the mixed glass ingredients,
cover your crucible with its lid, and fire it to cone 05. When it returns from the kiln,
remove the lid and use a knife or screwdriver to pry the investment from the crucible.
Chip away at the investment to free your glass from its cocoon, as shown in Figure 13-2.
A knife can be used to remove much of the investment, but a Dremel tool with a cutting
disk is useful for removing it from the surface of the glass. Provide yourself with a bowl
of water and use it to wash your glass object twice a minute, or so. The water will help to
soften the investment and it will keep the glass cool. Since glass is much harder than
investment, it is easy to remove the investment without fear of damaging the glass. The
finished glass casting is shown in Figure 13-3(R).
What lesson have you learned from old Theophilus? I have variously referred to you
in the past as though you were my son or daughter, my brother or sister. But you and I are
not animal, vegetable or mineral. We have no gender, no nationality, no ethnicity, or to
be more precise, we are free to surround ourselves with identifications of our own
choosing. My effort in this book is not to instruct you as if you were a recalcitrant child in
need of smartening up. Rather, I am here to re-mind you, to bring together into mental
solution thoughts which may have de-vitrified over the centuries. From this point I shall
no longer treat you as a child, but as a comrade in flux.

Quality Assurance
Record in your notebook the weights of your glass materials and a description
of your procedure. Your glass should be, well, glassy. Either it is glass or it is
not. Photograph your glass and include it in your notebook as a testament to
your ability to keep in the heat and withstand it.

Chapter 14. Ts'ai Lun (Paper)
Description of the manufacture of Talkhi paper. Take good white flax and
purify it from its reed. Soak it in water and shred it with a comb until it is soft.
Then soak it in the water of quicklime for one daylight and one night until the
morning. Then knead it by hand and spread it out in the sun all daylight until it
is dry. Return it to the water of quicklime, not the first water, and keep it for the
whole of the second night till the morning. Knead it again by hand as before
and spread it out in the sun. This is repeated during three, five or seven days. If
you change the water of quicklime twice daily, it would be quicker. When it
becomes extremely white, cut it by the shears into small pieces, then soak it in
sweet water for seven days also and change the water every day. When it is
free from quicklime, grind it in a mortar while it is wet. When it is soft and no
knots are left, bring it into solution with water in a clean vessel until it is like
silk. Then provide a mould of whatever size you choose. The mould is made like
a basket [from] samna reeds. It has open walls. Put an empty vessel under the
mould. Agitate the flax with your hand and throw it in the mould. Adjust it by
hand so that it is not thick in one place and thin in another. When it is even,
and is freed from its water while in the mould, and when you have achieved the
desired result, [drop] it on a plate, and then take it and stick in on a flat wall.
Adjust it by your hand and leave it until it dries and drops. Then take fine
wheat flour and starch, half of each, knead the starch and the flour in cold
water until nothing thick remains. Heat water until it boils over and pour it on
the flour mixture until it becomes thin. Take the paper and with your hand,
paint it over and place it on a reed. When all the sheets of paper are painted
and dry, paint them onto the other face. Return them to the plate and paint
them thinly with water. Collect the sheets of paper, stack them, then polish
them as you polish cloth, if God wills.
— Ibn Badis, Book of the Supports of the Scribes, ca. 1061 AD [1]

14.1.
I was born a poor Chinese girl. My family made hempen homespun cloth and from an
early age it was my job to beat hemp, that is to say, to soak the hemp in water and then
beat it with a mallet to release the fibers from the stem. And, being poor and all, we
couldn't afford to waste anything and so when clothes got worn out, I had to beat the rags
to get their fibers. Well, we would beat hemp and rags all day long in a tub of water and
by the end of the day, that water would be so nasty that we would dump it out and start
with fresh water the next day. And that's how it was.
One day, long about 317 BC or so, if I recall, I was about to dump my water out at the
end of a long day and I noticed some bits of fiber floating around. Normally I would just
pick them out by hand, but that day I was really tired and so I decided to strain the water
through a cloth instead. Lo and behold, there was a lot more fiber in there than I thought.
I remember thinking, "Boy howdy, we've been throwing out a lot of fiber over the years."
But, you know, most of it was too small for spinning. I picked out the good bits and left
the rest on the cloth.
Next morning I went to wash my cloth and don't you know that fiber had dried and
peeled off of that cloth just as pretty as you please. Now, if we hadn't been so poor I
probably would have just pitched it out; those fibers were too small for spinning, like I
said. But we were used to using every little bit to get by and I thought all that fiber had to
be good for something. And it was. You could wipe babies with it and you could fold it
into little packets for holding herbs and such. You could light fires with it and you could
even fold it into a hat of sorts. So that was good. And pretty soon everybody was
straining their water so as not to waste anything.
As the inspiration for paper, I floated around for a couple of hundred years and didn't
take myself too seriously. I moved from place to place anywhere they beat fibers and
eventually I wound up in Hunan province, where they made cloth from mulberry bark
instead of hemp. That's when I got into the head of a bureaucrat named Ts'ai Lun, who
was in charge of manufacturing things. There I hooked up with mass-productionism,
supply and demandism, not to mention self-promotionism and pretty soon I was getting a
pretty good chunk of his thought-time.
Now, Theophilus' notion that it doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman is
just a pipe-meme. Nobody was going to pay no attention to peasant women making
paper in the sticks. Except Ts'ai Lun maybe. All that testosterone makes men pushy and
grabby when it hits their brains. And their names are pushier and grabbier, so they tend to
stick to whatever memes they can. Which is what happened to me, when you think about
it.

Anyway, in 105 AD I made it to the emperor. I told him that chih, or paper, could be
made as a material in its own right, not just as a by-product of textile manufacture. And
well-made paper could even be used for writing on, which was good news to the emperor
on account of all they had to write on was silk cloth and bamboo strips. Of course, silk
was expensive and bamboo was heavy, and a big empire had lots of history and orders
and accounts and such to keep track of. So with government backing I started paperating
the place until finally paper pretty much replaced silk and bamboo for making books.
And not only that, folks started making clothes out of paper, which was interesting since
paper started out coming from rags. Paper could be cut and folded to make ornaments. It
could be printed with wood blocks to make lots of identical things like money or playing
cards. And don't forget wiping. To tell you the truth, there seemed to be few things which
would not be cheaper, more beautiful, and more useful if fashioned by art and ingenuity
from paper.
I traveled all over the world, first to the civilized part, then to Japan and Korea. But
there were still uncivilized places living without paper. Then in 751 AD Turkish-Tibetan
forces routed the army of Kao-Hsien-Chih at the Battle of the Talas River. Now, I was
used to going wherever the wind took me. I had never been pried out of somebody
before. But the Turks forced Chinese prisoners to set up a paper mill at Samarkand and
then, in 794 AD, at Baghdad. So the Arabs started making paper from linen and hempen
rags, what with not having mulberry and all.
When the Arabs invaded Spain in the tenth century, they brought paper with them
and, what with all the hubbub, the Spanish were making paper by the twelfth century.
The Italians also got the idea from the Arabs and were making paper late in the thirteenth
century. I moved slowly through Europe, first as paper traded by the Arabs, and later as
know-how via Spain and Italy. By the sixteenth century, paper was being made all over
Europe. The Europeans took it with them wherever they went, which was just about
everywhere.
Notes
[1] Reference [53], pp. 192-194.

14.2.
Not every thin, flexible writing material is paper. You've probably heard of parchment
and vellum and papyrus and you might think that they're kinds of paper but they're not.
To begin with, papyrus is made from the papyrus plant, a kind of plant that grows in the
shallows of lakes and rivers in Africa. It's made by splitting thin sections of the bark,
placing those sections side by side to make a layer, laying another layer cross-wise on top
of the first one, and then pressing the layers together to make a sheet. Egyptians were
making papyrus from about the third millennium BC and it was exported to Europe and
the Middle East, but not to China. By contrast, parchment and vellum are made from
animal skins, parchment from sheep skins and vellum from the skins of calves, lambs or
kids. Parchment is produced by splitting the skin, separating the wool-side from the in-
side; only the in-side is used for making parchment. Vellum is made from the whole skin
of the young animal. Both parchment and vellum are scraped with a knife, rubbed with
lime, stretched and sanded to make a thin, flexible and strong surface for writing on.
Iranians were making parchment from about the second century BC, but it was unknown
in China.
The Chinese had been writing on bones, stones, pottery, bronze and bamboo from the
second millennium BC. And it was bamboo that dictated the form that Chinese writing
would take. Craftsmen cut bamboo into tubes of a certain length, split those tubes into
strips maybe 1 cm wide, and then sewed the strips into rolls. Since a reader rolled the
scroll from side to side, the strips were running up and down and that's why Chinese is
written from top to bottom. About 700 BC, silk cloth began to be used as a writing
medium. As with bamboo, silk cloth was kept in rolls and so it was natural to keep
writing vertically.
Paper is different from any of these other writing materials. Unlike parchment, vellum
and silk, paper is always made from plants, namely from cellulose. In Chapter 6 Venus
told you all about cellulose; plants make cellulose by stringing sugar molecules end-to-
end and so cellulose is naturally long and thin. But unlike papyrus and bamboo, in which
the cellulose remains parallel, the cellulose in paper is running every which way. One
way to get the cellulose out of the plant stems is to shred them, a process called
maceration. To macerate raw plant stems, linen, hemp, or cotton rags, you can soak them
in water, boil them, beat them with a mallet, or put them in a kitchen blender. When you
are finished, you have a kind of cellulose stew, or pulp, with lots of long, thin cellulose
fibers floating around every which way. But you can do an even better job of pulling the
fibers apart if you understand what holds them together. While plants use cellulose to
build up those parts that hold them up—stems and trunks and stalks and such—those
cellulose fibers are glued together with a material called lignin.
While maceration alone is capable of tearing cellulose fibers apart to produce a

mechanical pulp, the separation would be more easily accomplished if the lignin could be
removed. Whereas a condensation reaction puts two molecules together by removing

water, a hydrolysis reaction cuts a molecule apart by inserting water. Alkaline solutions
hydrolyze both cellulose and lignin, but the hydrolysis of lignin is faster than that of
cellulose and this is the key to their separation. When plant stems are boiled in alkali, the
insoluble lignin is hydrolyzed to water-soluble compounds and white cellulose fibers are
left floating in a brown alkaline broth. Straining the fibers from the broth and washing
them with water completes the separation. You could use potash from burning wood,
soda ash from burning sea-weed, ammonia from fermented urine, or lime from burnt
limestone. But remember from Table 8-1 that it takes 1000 parts of wood to get 1 part of
potash. Fermented urine is not as strong as potash or soda ash, which leaves lime, which
you can make from common limestone. At the time of the Book of the Supports of the
Scribes, lime was the alkali of choice for chemical pulping. Now that you understand
pulping, it's time to find out how to make paper from it.
To make paper from pulp, you need a mold, which is either a piece of cloth or fine screen
attached to a wooden frame. You could dip the mold into a tub of pulp and lift it out and
some of the pulp would stick to the mold, but most of it would just run down the sides
and back into the tub. However if you put an empty wooden frame, called a deckle, on
top of the mold, the deckle keeps the pulp from running over the sides. With the deckle,
the water can drain out of the pulp and you're left with an even layer of pulp on the mold,
maybe a millimeter thick, with the fibers running every which way. If you were to let that
pulp dry on the mold, you would have paper, no doubt about it.
But then your mold would be tied up all day until the pulp dried and all for one sheet of
paper. To get around that, you couche the paper onto a felt, that is, you transfer it to a
piece of cloth. You can stack those felts into a stack called a post, and press that post with
a press to squeeze most of the water out. And once that water has been squeezed out, you
can slap that damp paper onto a wall or board to dry. Once dry, you have a smooth,
flexible writing material suitable for chronicling heroic deeds, inciting revolution, or
sharing pancake recipes.

Material Safety
Locate MSDS's for slaked lime (CAS 1305-62-0), soda ash (CAS 497-19-8),
and caustic soda (CAS 1310-73-2). Summarize the hazardous properties of
these materials in your notebook, including the identity of the company which
produced each MSDS and the potential health effects for eye contact, skin
contact, inhalation, and ingestion. Also include the LD50 (oral, rat) for each of
these materials.
Your most likely exposure is eye or skin contact. Caustic soda, the product of
reacting soda with lime, is caustic; in case of eye contact, immediately flush
them with water and call for an ambulance; in case of skin contact, wash the
affected area with cold water until it no longer feels slippery.
You should wear safety glasses and a rubber gloves while working on this
project. Spent caustic soda solution can be flushed down the drain, but be
careful not to clog the drain with pulp. Leftover pulp may be thrown in the
trash or saved for later use.
Well, I guess if you are in a class or something, you might want to know what
will be on the quiz.
• Remember pretty much everything you learned in Chapter 10 and
Chapter 12.
• Know that lignin is a condensation polymer which can be hydrolyzed
by alkali.
• Know all the hazards of working with lime and soda, and what to do if
things get out of hand.
• Know why a man's name is attached to the invention of paper.

14.3.
You can make paper from just about any plant stems, from grass or reeds or weeds or
hemp or straw. You can use cotton rags or linen or even old paper, but if you're looking
to make paper from scratch, well, that would just be cheating. So don't do that. Go out
and gather your own plant materials, but remember you're looking more for stalks and
stems than for leaves or roots. Take your stems and beat them with a wooden or rubber
mallet to crack them open. Then chop or cut them into 1-inch pieces and put them in a big
pot. Don't use an aluminum pot because it reacts with alkali. Get yourself an enameled or
stainless steel stock pot. Fill that pot about half-way up with chopped plant stems.
Next you need an alkaline solution and for this you can use soda ash[1] and slaked lime.
These two alkalis react with one another to produce caustic soda, as described in Chapter
15. Fill the pot about half-way up with water so that it covers your plant stems and record
in your notebook the amount of water you used. You will need 15 grams of soda ash and
10 grams of slaked lime for each liter of water. Use UFA to figure out how much of these
alkalis to use and then add them to your pot. Set your pulp pot on a stove or hot-plate and
let it simmer overnight at low heat. The water will turn black and start to smell sweet; the
stems will fall apart as the lignin glue is hydrolyzed.
While your fiber is cooking, you can get your tools together. You need a mold, which is
nothing more than a frame with a piece of cloth or screen stretched across it. And you
need a deckle, which is exactly like the mold only without the screen. The mold and
deckle can be any size you want, but if it were me, I'd start out no bigger than about 20
cm by 30 cm. You could even use cheap picture frames with window-screen glued or
stapled to the edges. Next you need a tub big enough so that you can get your mold into it
without fumbling. A dish-washing tub or a litter box would work well, but don't use the
sink, because your drain will get clogged up. You need a wooden or rubber mallet or an
electric blender.
You should also have a press, and here you can get as simple or as fancy as you like. At
the simple end, you could just put your paper under a board and stand on it. Getting
fancier, you could put four bolts through the corners of two boards. Put wing-nuts on
those bolts so you can gradually tighten them up. At the fancy end, you could build a
press out of 4x4 lumber. I like to use treated lumber so that it is water-proof, but if you
choose to do so you should request an MSDS so that you can observe all safety
precautions. Cut 12 1-foot lengths of 4x4 and drill a hole through the middle of each one.
Bolt 4 of them together with half-inch threaded steel rod with a washer and a nut at each
end. Do this two more times, so that way you end up with is 3 thick, wooden slabs, each 1
foot long. Drill holes at the corners and run some more half-inch threaded rod through
them to make a little sandwich, with a slab at the top, a slab at the bottom, and a slab in
the middle. The holes at the corners of the middle slab should be maybe three-quarters of
an inch in diameter, so the middle slab is free to move up and down. Now all you need is
an inexpensive hydraulic jack like you would use for changing tires, and you have a

fancy paper press that will last you for a good long while. Or you can get by with the
simple press; it's really up to you.
Figure 14-1. Mold, Deckle, and Couching Mound
You also need some felts, special pieces of cloth which don't stick to wet paper. If you
can't get papermaking felts, you can use denim. Your felts should be a little bigger than
your mold, say, 30 cm by 40 cm. Soak all your felts in water and wring them out so that
they're damp but not wet. Now, you'll find couching (pronounced koo-ching) a lot easier
if you make a little couching mound. Take a felt, fold it in quarters length-wise, and put it
on a shallow pan or tray. You now have a damp, quadruple-thick strip of cloth, say, 8 cm
wide and 40 cm long. Take another felt, fold in thirds length-wise, and put it on top of the
first one. You now have a mound seven cloths thick in the middle and three cloths thick
on the side, about 10 cm wide and 40 cm long. Take another cloth and fold it in half,
again length-wise, and put it on top of the second one. You now have a mound nine
cloths thick in the middle and two cloths thick on the side, 15 cm wide and 40 cm long.
Finally, take two or three more felts and put them on top of the stack so what you have is
a little mound of damp felts on a tray to catch the water.
By now, your stems have cooked and fallen apart and it's time to remove the alkali. Now,
alkali will eat your skin, so wear some rubber gloves for this part. And, of course, you
always wear glasses, because there's no paper worth losing your eyes over. Anyway, you
can grab up the big clumps of fiber with your gloved hands and when the bits are too
small to pick out, strain the rest of the water through a cloth or kitchen strainer. The most
important thing is not to pour any fiber down the drain. For one thing, it will clog up that

drain. But even more important, that little bitty fiber is the best part for making paper, so
you don't want to lose it. Once you have your fiber collected, rinse out your pot, fill it
with fresh water, and put your fiber back into the pot. Swish it around with your gloved
hand and then remove that fiber again, like you did before. Keep rinsing your fiber,
adding it to fresh water and then straining it out again, until the water runs clear. And you
can test your final rinse with pH test paper to make sure that all the alkali has been rinsed
out. And once the alkali is gone, you can remove your rubber gloves.
Now you're ready to macerate your pulp, which'll be a lot easier now that the lignin is
gone. There are two ways to go about it, the hard way and the easy way. The hard way is
to take your fiber outside, put it on a flat rock or a sidewalk, and beat it with a wooden or
rubber mallet. Your goal is to tear all those cellulose fibers apart, so just beat that pulp
until it is more like a thick paste than it is like a bunch of plant stems. The easy way is to
put a handful of fiber into a blender, filled about half-way with water, and run that
blender using the "pulse" switch so you don't burn the motor out. The blender will make a
pulp about the consistency of a milk-shake, like silk, as the Book of the Supports of the
Scribes says.
Figure 14-2. Forming a Sheet I
Fill your tub half-way up with water, add a couple of handfuls of pulp to it and swirl it
around. Notice that if you let it sit, that pulp will eventually settle to the bottom; it's a
mixture, not a solution. Take your mold, screen side up, and put your deckle on top of it
to make a little sandwich with the screen in the middle. Swirl your pulp around, dip the
mold and deckle into the pulp, and lift straight up. With practice, you'll get a nice, even
layer of pulp with no thin spots. Let the water drain out and carefully remove the deckle
from the mold. What you have is a layer of pulp sitting right up on top of the mold. Point
one of the corners of the mold back into the tub to get the last bit of water out.

Figure 14-3. Forming a Sheet II
Figure 14-4. Forming a Sheet III
Touch one edge of the mold to your couching mound and roll the mold across it. If you
do it at the right speed and with the right pressure and if your pulp is of the right
thickness and if your felts are damp enough, that pulp will come off the mold and stick to
the top felt. If it works and you get a nice rectangle of pulp on the felt, remove that felt,
replace it with another, and do it again. If your paper sticks to your mold, you can rock
the mold back and forth and press on it with your finger until the paper lets go. And if
your paper gets messed up along the way, well, just take the felt with the messed-up pulp
and put it back in the tub. That fiber is still good, so don't waste it. Now try again using a
thicker layer of pulp or different speed or pressure when couching. Don't worry; you'll get
the hang of it before too long. Take your good felts and stack them up as you go to make
a post, that is, a felt-paper-felt-paper sandwich.

Figure 14-5. Couching I
Figure 14-6. Couching II
Once you have a 5 or 10 or 100 sheets you can build a post. Start out with a board about
the size of your paper and lay a felt with its paper on top of it. Place another felt with its
paper on top of the first and keep on building that post till you have run out of felts. Then
put another board on top and you have your post ready for the press. Now, you can press
those boards between your hands or you can bolt them together, or you can stand on top
of them, or you can put them in a press. You can get as fancy as you want, but the long
and short of it is that you want to press as much water out of the post as you possibly can.
The harder you can press, the smoother your paper is going to be and the faster it's going
to dry. Once the post has been pressed, you need to separate the paper from the felt.
Think of it as un-couching. Dismantle the post, remove a felt from it, and place the paper
side of the felt against a window. Press the felt with your finger so that the paper sticks to
the window and then peel the felt from the paper. Allow the paper to dry overnight—in
the morning it will very likely have fallen onto the floor, but it will have a nice, smooth
face on the side that dried against the window.

To clean up, rinse out your felts and set them out to dry. Pour your pulp through a mold
to catch as much pulp as you possibly can and save that pulp for later use. You can press
it into balls and set them out to dry. The waste water can go down the sink as long as it
doesn't contain any pulp to clog the drain. Wash out your blender and your pot and put
them away. Clean off your mold and deckle and set them out to dry so they don't warp.
Figure 14-7. Couching III
Figure 14-8. Pressing a Post

Figure 14-9. Drying Paper
Quality Assurance
I think your paper ought to be flat and flexible. Like paper. You should tape it
into your notebook so that after you are a paper-making whiz, you can
remember what your first paper looked like. You can use your paper for
making photographs in Chapter 23.
Notes
[1] To convert washing soda to soda ash, calcine it overnight in an oven at 100?C (212?
F) or higher. You may substitute potash for soda ash.

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Caveman Chemistry

Book 1 - Page 1 of 193 Pages

Quince: What sayest thou, bully Bottom?

Snout: By'r lakin, a parlous fear.

Book 1 - Page 2 of 193 Pages

Snout: Will not the readers be confused by the fictions?

Starvling: I fear it, I promise you.

[1] Reference [24], Act III, Scene 1.

Book 1 - Page 3 of 193 Pages

I teach chemistry at Hampden-Sydney College, a small liberal-arts college in central

Book 1 - Page 4 of 193 Pages

Book 1 - Page 5 of 193 Pages

Book 1 - Page 6 of 193 Pages

Truly, without deceit. Certainly and absolutely. That which is Above

Therefore am I called Hermes Trismegistos, having the three parts of wisdom

Herein have I completely explained the Operation of the Sun.

Book 1 - Page 7 of 193 Pages

Book 1 - Page 8 of 193 Pages

Indeed you are. The first chapter belongs to me.

[1] Reference [24], Act V, Scene 1.

Book 1 - Page 9 of 193 Pages

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Book 1 - Page 14 of 193 Pages

Figure 1-1. Aristotle's Elements

Book 1 - Page 15 of 193 Pages

Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, who, though older than Empedocles, was later in

Figure 1-2. Lavoisier's Elements

Book 1 - Page 16 of 193 Pages

Heterogeneous matter can be separated into its constituents by mechanical means, by

Book 1 - Page 17 of 193 Pages

Earth is heterogeneous; air is a solution; what about water? Filter it so that it is

Book 1 - Page 18 of 193 Pages

Equation 1-1. The Combustion of Cellulose

Book 1 - Page 19 of 193 Pages

Book 1 - Page 20 of 193 Pages

We live in a litigious society. Consequently lawn mowers must carry warnings

Research and Development

• Know the meanings of those words from this chapter worthy of

• Be able to explain the nature of I-deas.

Book 1 - Page 21 of 193 Pages

[1] Reference [2] Metaphysica, p. 984a.

Book 1 - Page 22 of 193 Pages

Figure 1-4. The Fire Kit

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Book 1 - Page 28 of 193 Pages

There is no room for equivocation. Either you have brought a red-hot

Book 1 - Page 29 of 193 Pages

Book 1 - Page 30 of 193 Pages

Book 1 - Page 31 of 193 Pages

Book 1 - Page 32 of 193 Pages

[1] Reference [20].

Book 1 - Page 33 of 193 Pages

Figure 2-1. Order and Chaos