The Alchemy Key.pdf - Veritas File System

To achieve a more intense reaction the alchemists of old increased
the ammonia and nitrate in the solution with niter. Ammonium nitrate is
very soluble and a concentrated solution will dissolve metals, although
the reaction is very slow with metals less active than iron.
This is where one of the Gnostic interpretations of I.N.R.I
applied: Igne nitrum raris invenitur, or Fire is discovered in nitrum. Niter
is saltpeter, the mineral form of potassium nitrate (KNO3), found naturally
as an efflorescent rock salt in caves and as short fibers on rock surfaces.
Potassium nitrate oozes into the cellars of old buildings near stables or
barns with ruminant animals. When distilled with urine, saltpeter
produces glassy-white crystals of niter that are quite beautiful.
Distillation of excrement and bones produces ammonium.
Egyptian priests produced ammonium from dung, bones and horns at the
Temple of Amun in Libya. 768 Their product was the salt of Amun, sal
ammoniacus or ammonium.
The nearby Temple of Amun, in the Egyptian Oasis of Siwa is a
place of mystery. The Egyptian priests may have used their Libyan
ammonium for sacred chemistry involving an important substance used in
the Pharaonic Rite of Passage. The Egyptian priests mixed salts of niter
(potassium nitrate) and sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride, NH4Cl, then
given the symbol of salt, X) to produce a universal solvent. The presence
of ammonia in this Secret Fire is very important because of a polarization
effect that produces dipoles to increase the solubility of gold salts.
Ammonium chloride (NH4Cl) and ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) are still
used in modern cyanide-based gold leaching processes.
Stibnite, the mineral of antimony, dissolves in similar solvents:
ammonia hydrogen sulfide (NH4HS), potassium sulfide (K2S) and
hydrochloric acid (HCl). The gases given-off can be very toxic.
Even though alchemists talked of a nitrate salt, it was actually a
synthetic mixture of oxidizing and non-oxidizing acids. Today we
produce this same odd combination of oxidizing and non-oxidizing acids
by mixing one part by volume of nitric acid (HNO3) with three parts of
hydrochloric acid (HCl). The result is Aqua Regia. 769
The great title of Aqua Regia derives from its ability to dissolve
noble metals, particularly gold and platinum. Gold is inert to either of the
component acids used separately. Aqua Regia is a powerful solvent
because of the combined effects of the H + , NO3 - , and Cl - ions in solution.
These three ions react with gold atoms to form water, nitric oxide (NO)
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