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Alchemical Texts An Artificial Synthesis Of Gold? You Be The Judge - Mark House
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You Be The Judge

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The select processes presented here, presumably appertaining to research
and development of Jollivet Castelot,
Alchemy are facsimiles of photocopied excerpts
once written out longhand by W.L.V...these are taken from a 20th century
and art
French text, concerning Castelot, translated to English.

Virtual Musaeum This research is in character, considered to be worthy of

publishing
for the conceivable, intrinsic value.
of imagery Inasmuch as it is not the goal of
alchemists to lust vicariously after texts extolling transmutations to
make gold,
nevertheless, these experiments were found to be of alchemical
interest back in the 1920's. Was Castelot on to
Practical something of an alchemical
nature? In the increase of the gold found in the metals used he may have
Alchemy in other manipulated the seed of gold.

cultures and languages A. M.W. House

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[Here is the text starting at page 125.]

Introduction
ACCORDING TO THE PROCESS OF MR. JOLLIVET
CASTELOT -
HOW I SUCCEEDED IN MAKING GOLD
Recent Additions December 1925

By A. Ballandras

Alchemy Web

Dosage of Gold obtained by the second method -

Bookshop The residue, which had been obtained by a mixture

of:

Silver 10 grams

Tin 3 grams

Arsenic sulphide 3 grams

Antimony sulphide 3 grams

was crushed as much as possible

and subdued (read: subjected) to a
treatment of pure chloric acid like in the
first method. [Here is a reference
to a first method - not presented here - the above being the second method
presented by Ballandras from a text, the name and size of which is unknown
to me.]

However, to completely eliminate the silver and the tin employer, I

scrupled to begin
the indicated treatments,
that is to say that the powder
which was obtained having been subdued first to the action of azotic acid
then
washed with distillated water, then subdued to the action of chloric
acid, then once more washed with
distillated water, and these different
operations were begun once more with another portion of pure azotic
acid,
and another portion of pure chloric acid after having carefully washed
the insoluble residue was subdued
to the prolonged action of aqua regalis
following: Chloric acid - 15 parts/ Azotic acid - 4-5 parts.

[Page 126]

It must be noted that this thing happened during the ebullition (bubbling;boiling).
The washed residue
contained the slighter part of gold, this thing would
be found dissolved in the last liquor, which I obtained. After
18 hours
of digestion at the temperature of about 25 degrees, I subdued the mixture
to ebullition during 3
hours.

After refrigeration, I filtered on wool of glass and I looked if parts

were not drawn along in suspense. Finding
nothing I proceeded to an analysis
of the liquor which I obtained. For that month I made two parts strictly
equal
of the liquor, the first being destined to qualitative analysis,
the other quantitative.

A) Qualitative Analysis: Assay of usual reagents:

Chloride of Tin - Rose colored precipitate

Pure Soda in solution - Voluminous yellow

reddish precipitate

Sulfate of Iron - During ebullition, metallic precipitate, black greenish

very dense spangles.

B) Quantitative Analysis:

The second part of the liquor destined to undergo quantitative analysis

was treated by H2S when the most
important part of chloric and azotic acids
were driven out by a prolonged ebullition.

[Page 127]

liquor was slightly acid and has a weak smell of chlorine.
I called H2S into action; about 20
This time the
minutes long. The black precipitate
which I obtained was received by a filter paper carefully washed first
with
well distillated water, then with hot water and at last with chloric
acid.

After drying in the vapor-bath, the precipitate was put in a capsule

of porcelain and heated in a mould at about
850 degrees, so as to destroy
the sulphides precipitated with gold i.e., the arsenic and the antimony.
These were
naturally decomposed by the temperature of 850 degrees to which
it had been subdued during two hours.

The quantity of gold obtained was 0.238 grains. The half of the liquor
having served for the dissolution having
been turned to good use for the
qualitative analysis it followed that the whole quantity of gold contained
in the
original liquor should be equal to double the quantity obtained.
i.e., 0.476 grains of gold per 10 grams of silver
employed, yield then
was 0.476 grains of gold per gram silver. {I must point out that the obtaining
of gold is not
a mathematical regularity, that is to say, the purport (proportion)
of residue changes according to the conditions
of heating.}

[Page 131]

2) DRY METHOD

I acted on 22 grains of chemically pure silver supplied by Messrs.

Poulenc of Paris and on 3.5 grains of
chemically pure orpiment supplied
by the Pharmacie Central of Paris. The mixture was heated to about 1600
C
in a metal smelting furnace for about พ hour. The residue obtained was
again melted for an hour with the
addition of orpiment, after having been
hammered for half an hour and re-melted with the addition of small
quantities
of orpiment every 10 minutes, it was withdrawn.

After cooling and the addition of chemically pure antimony sulphide,

it was again put back into the furnace,
small quantities of orpiment being
thrown in every 5 minutes. The residue obtained had a dark metallic tint,
after hammering it became slightly golden.

Analysis of the Residue

The residue dissolved in chemically pure 36 degree HNO3 first cold

and then hot, gave an abundant pulverulent
deposit. This deposit after
being washed and treated with HN3 to dissolve the arsenic and antimony
salts was
completely dissolved in aqua regia. The liquor after being chlorinated
and filtered was subjected to the reagents
of Platinum and gold.

[Page 132]

Mr. Andre Vandenberghe who was acting as preparator for this experiment,
had thought that in accordance
with the law of evolution of matter, the
transmutation of bodies into gold should be preceded or accompanied
by
their transmutation into platinum. According to Mendeleiev's progression,
we have Pt - 195.2 and Au - 197.2

The reactions of gold were quite characteristic; the reactions of platinum

also seemed to reveal its presence. The
quantity of gold obtained in this
experiment was estimated at about one gram. I emit the hypothesis that
the
arsenic acts as a catalyzer and the sulphur as a ferment in this transmutation.

Douai, December 1925

Jollivet Castelot

[Page 133]

A RECENT EXPERIMENT IN TRANSMUTATION 1

By M. Jollivet Castelot

All my research work on transmutation since 1908 has started from the
fact that gold is found in nature
associated with antimony and arsenic
sulphides as well as with Tellurium which is considered as the
mineralizer
of gold. I therefore considered it logical to introduce Tellurium into
the artificial combination of
silver and arsenic and antimony sulphides
that I make. The following is an account of one of my recent
experiments:

I prepared a mixture composed of 6 grams of chemically pure silver,

1 gram of native orpiment (Arsenic
trisulphide A52S3) free from gold, 1
gram of chemically pure antimony sulphide, and 2 grams of chemically
pure
Tellurium. I added pure silica to the usual fluxes. This mixture was heated
in the furnace in the usual way
for one hour at a temperature of 1100 C
(approximately) [note: parenthesis are not mine AMWH]

[Page 134]

The residue obtained was of a blackish grey color with violet reflections.
It weighed 6.420 grains. When
subjected to the action of nitric acid, the
residue was attacked with difficulty and greenish metallic particles
became
detached. The solution was then decanted and a greenish-yellow residue
remained which was kept at
the boiling point in nitric acid for several
hours, after decanting off the liquor once again, the residue, which
had
not changed, was washed, treated with ammonia and then subjected to the
action of aqua regia in which it
was entirely dissolved after boiling for
several hours.

The solution after being chlorinated and then subjected to the reagents
of gold, gave the following:

Potassium Ferrocyanide - greenish brown coloration.

Tin Protochloride + Tin Bichloride - a yellow bronze coloration and

then a metallic deposit of the same shade.

Ammonia - coloration and precipitate identical with the preceding one

and which became transformed into a
yellow deposit of fulminating gold
at the end of a few hours.

Formol - light yellowish black metallic precipitate.

Peroxide of Hydrogen - light very finely divided brownish black precipitate.

Oxalic acid - yellowish black precipitate.

Ferrous Sulphate - golden yellow metallic precipitate.

Caustic Potash - a fairly abundant golden yellow metallic precipitate

at the end of a few hours.

The presence of gold was therefore very distinctly shown and a remarkable
feature was that the metal obtained
possessed the yellow bronze color of
gold telluride and of native silver. I had therefore produced a bronze
colored gold in my laboratory by artificial means thanks to the intervention
of the Tellurium.

A certain amount of gold was certainly lost in this test as in all

my previous tests, for it is known that arsenic,
antimony and Tellurium
entrain gold in their fusion and their volatilization. In order to obviate
this
disadvantage, I had thought of making the vapors of arsenic and antimony
sulphides and of Tellurium act on
the silver in fusion in a closed vessel
by means of a special device, but I have been forced to give up this scheme
for the time being on account of the difficulties met with for the construction
of this apparatus, the cost of which
would be very high. I consider it
certain that if the vapors were allowed to bubble through the melted silver,
a
much higher yield of gold would be obtained than that I have obtained
hitherto by an imperfect and too rapid
contact of the bodies in presence;
while it is undoubtedly necessary to make them react on one another in
the
state of vapor in a closed vessel.

Douai, April 24th, 1926

Jollivet Castelot

[Page 137]

THE CHEMICAL MANUFACTURE OF GOLD

ACCOUNT OF ONE OF MY LAST EXPERIMENTS IN THE TRANSMUTATION OF SILVER

INTO GOLD

As a sequel to my previous work on the artificial synthesis of

gold, I have introduced Tin into these new tests as
it is also often associated
with gold in nature. The following is a description of this new process,
thanks to which
the percentage of gold obtained destroys all the objections
that are raised with regard to impurities.

I made an intimate mixture of 6 grams of chemically pure silver of

which the purity was tested by a
professional chemist, the Head of the
laboratory of one of the most important Works of the region. 2 Grams of
antimony sulphide, 1 gram of orpiment, and 1 gram of Tin; all these bodies
were obtained from the
Establishment Poulenc of Paris and were chemically
pure. I added the usual fluxes and then heated the whole
in a crucible
in the furnace to about 1100 C fort2 about 1 hour, twice adding a small
quantity of antimony
sulphide.

The residue obtained was treated for a long period in pure 36 degree
nitric acid, first cold and then at the
boiling point.

[Page 138]

The insoluble residue was next washed with distilled water, treated
with ammonia, washed again and finally
treated for a long period with boiling
aqua regia. The liquor when filtered and subjected to the reagents of gold
showed the presence of this metal in the form of deposits3 which maybe
estimated at 0.05 grains in all, which is
very high considering the 6 grams
of silver employed.

With Oxalic acid, the solution turned violet and gave an abundant black
pulverulent precipitate.

With Hydrogen Peroxide, a very finely divided precipitate of gold.

With Formic Aldehyde, a brown precipitate of gold.

With Tin Protochloride, an intense violet pink coloration.

The addition of Tin to the other bodies has certainly facilitated the
reactions of the gold and increased the yield
of this metal which can be
manufactured artificially by my process.

[Page 139]

It would be easy to show that, given the respective prices of gold

and of the other substances that are used in my
process to produce it,
a profit could be obtained if the process were worked industrially; all
the more so as the
greater part of the silver employed can be recovered
at each test.

I believe I now hold the key to the regular and even industrial manufacture
of gold. But the industrial question
is voluntarily put aside from my thoughts,
for my only object is the search for pure scientific truth.

Douai, April 15th, 1927 Jolivet Castelot

[Page 140]

TABLE OF REACTIONS

"GOLD"

C2H2O4 - Abundant deposit of metallic gold.

H2O2 (basic) - Brown precipitate.

K4 Fe Cy6 . 3H2O - Green coloration.

Na2CO3 (in ebullition) - Brownish precipitate

"PLATINUM & GOLD"

NH3 - Reddish yellow precipitate (Au); topped by a yellow precipitate

(Pt).

KOH - Reddish yellow precipitate (Au); topped by a yellow precipitate

(Pt).

SnCL2.2H2O - Solution colored brown with reactions of platinum salts

and deposit of black powder.

KI - Solution becomes reddish followed by a discharge of iodine and

a brown precipitate (Platinum iodide).

[Page 141]

EXTRACTS FROM THE PRESS

"It must be admitted that it is extraordinary and incomprehensible

that France for the past ten years has
refused to take an interest in the
experiments of a rich and universally respected scientist who has given
proofs
of his worth, even after the conclusive experiments carried out
by an official chemist, Mr Ballandras of Lyons."

Andre Ibels, La Razon, June 8, 1927

"It is unjust, gentlemen, that a scientist of the value of Mr.

Jollivet Castelot should be held in suspicion at the
very moment when he
is losing his sight through overwork. To continue his work, however embarrassing
it
may be to yours, is a sacred duty."

Declaration by Mademoiselle M.L. of Paris.

Professor of Engineering at the Conservatoire
des Arts et Metiers, Paris, at the Chemical Congress in Paris. October
1927

"Oh! it is not that Mr. Jollivet Castelot has not attempted to

make his invention known in France, on the
contrary, he has written leaflets
and books and has founded reviews for this purpose... Not only was he not
taken seriously, but he was also a butt to the sarcasm and even to the
insults of the official scientists in general
and of the Nobelist Perrin
in particular. The Acedemie des Sciences itself - as usual - refused to
record his
communication."
Andre Ibels, Nouveau Journal de Nice

October 16, 1927