Chap. II Of Silver
Process I.
To separate Silver from its Ore, by means of Scorification with Lead.
Beat to powder in an iron mortar the ore from which you mean to separate the Silver, having first roasted it well in order to free it from all the Sulphur and Arsenic that it may contain. Weigh it exactly: then weigh out by itself eight times as much granulated Lead. Put one half of this Lead into a test, and spread it equally thereon: upon this Lead lay your ore, and cover it quite over with the remaining half of the Lead.
Place the test thus loaded under the further end of the muffle in a cupelling furnace. Light your fire, and increase it by degrees. If you look through one of the apertures in the door of the furnace you will perceive the ore, covered with calcined Lead, swim upon the melted Lead. Presently afterwards it will grow soft, melt, and be thrown towards the sides of the vessel, the surface of the Lead appearing in the midst thereof bright and shining like a luminous disc: the Lead will then begin to boil, and emit fumes. As soon as this happens, the fire must be a little checked, so that the ebullition of the Lead may almost entirely cease, for about a quarter of an hour. After this it must be excited to the degree it was at before, so that the Lead may begin again to boil and smoke. Its shining surface will gradually lessen, and be covered with scoriæ. Stir the whole with an iron hook, and draw in towards the middle what you observe towards the sides of the vessel; to the end that, if any part of the ore should still remain undissolved by the Lead, it may be mixed therewith.
When you perceive that the matter is in perfect fusion, that the greatest part of what sticks to the iron hook, when you dip it in the melted matter, separates from it again, and drops back into the vessel; and that the extremity of this instrument, when grown cold, appears varnished over with a thin, smooth, shining crust; you may look on these as marks that the business is done, and the more uniform and evenly the colour of the crust is, the more perfect may you judge the scorification to be.
Matters being brought to this pass, take the test with a pair of tongs from under the muffle, and pour its whole contents into an iron cone, first heated and greased with tallow. This whole operation lasts about three quarters of an hour. When all is cold, the blow of a hammer will part the Regulus from the scoria; and as it is not possible, how perfect soever the scorification be, to avoid leaving a little Lead containing Silver in the scoria, it is proper to pulverize this scoria, and separate therefrom whatever extends under the hammer, in order to add it to the Regulus.
OBSERVATIONS.
Silver, as well as Gold, is often found quite pure, and under its metalline form, in the bowels of the earth; and in that case it may be separated from the stones or sand in which it is lodged by simple washing, or by Amalgamation with Mercury, in the same manner as before directed for Gold. But it also happens frequently, that Silver is combined in the ore with other metallic substances and minerals, which will not admit of this process, but force us to employ other methods of separating it from them.
Sulphur and Arsenic are the substances to which Silver and the other metals usually owe their mineral state. These two matters are never very closely united with Silver; but may be pretty easily separated from it by the action of fire, and the addition of Lead. If Arsenic be predominant in a Silver ore, it will unite with the Lead by the help of a pretty moderate heat, and quickly convert a considerable quantity thereof into a penetrating fusible glass, which has the property of scorifying with ease all substances that are capable of scorification.
When Sulphur predominates, the scorification proceeds more slowly, and doth not always succeed; because that mineral combined with Lead lessens its fusibility, and retards its vitrification. In this case, part of the Sulphur must be dissipated by roasting: the other part unites with the Lead; and that, being rendered lighter by this union, floats on the rest of the mixture, which chiefly contains the Silver. At last, the joint action of the air and of the fire dissipates the portion of Sulphur that had united with the Lead: the Lead vitrifies and reduces to a scoria whatever is not either Silver or Gold: and thus the Silver being disentangled from the heterogeneous matters with which it was united, one part thereof being dissipated and the other vitrified, combines with the portion of Lead which is not vitrified, and falls through the scoria, which, to favour its descent, must be in perfect fusion.
The whole process, therefore, consists of three distinct operations. The first is Roasting, which dissipates some of the volatile substances found united with the Silver: the second is Scorification, or the Vitrification of the fixed matters also united with the Silver, such as sand, stones, metals, &c. and the third is precipitation, or the separation of the Silver from the scoria. The two first are, as hath been shewn, preparatives for the last, and indeed produce it.
As every thing we said concerning Gold, when we treated of the process of Amalgamation, is to be applied to Silver, which may be extracted by the same method when it is in its metalline form; in the same manner, all we now advance touching the method of extracting Silver by Scorification, when it is depraved with a mixture of heterogenous matters, is equally applicable to Gold in the same circumstances: and indeed Silver almost always contains more or less Gold naturally.
In the process we directed, that the ore should be pulverized before it be exposed to the fire, with a view to enlarge its surface, and by that means facilitate the action of the Lead upon it, as well as the evaporation of its volatile parts.
We recommended the precaution of slackening the fire a little at the beginning of the operation, only to prevent the Lead from being too hastily converted into litharge, lest it should penetrate and corrode the test before it had wholly dissolved the ore: but if we were perfectly certain of the vessel’s being so good as to be in no danger of penetration by the Lead, this precaution would be needless.
It is proper to add eight parts of Lead for one of ore; though so much is not always absolutely necessary, especially when the ore is very fusible. The success of this operation depends chiefly on the completeness of the Scorification; and therefore the addition of more Lead than enough is attended with no inconvenience: for, as it always promotes the Scorification, it can never do any harm.
If the ore be mixed with such earthy and stony parts as cannot be separated from it by washing, it is the more difficult of fusion, even though the stones should be such as are most disposed to vitrify; because the most fusible earths and stones are always less so than most metallic substances. In that case it will be necessary, for effecting the Scorification, to mix thoroughly with the pulverized ore an equal quantity of Glass of Lead, to add twelve times as much granulated Lead, and then to proceed as directed for a fusible ore; exposing the mixture to a degree of fire strong enough, and long enough kept up, to give the scoria all the properties above required as signs of a perfect scorification.
Silver ore is sometimes mixed with Pyrites, and the ore of Arsenic, or Cobalt, which also make it refractory. As the Pyrites contain a large quantity of Sulphur, which is very volatile as well as Arsenic; in this case it is proper to begin with freeing the ore from these two extraneous substances. This is easily done by roasting: only be sure, when you first expose the ore to the heat, to cover the vessel in which you roast it, for some minutes, with an inverted vessel of the same width; because such sorts of ore are very apt to fly when they first feel the heat.
After this uncover it, and leave it exposed to the fire till no more sulphureous or arsenical matters rise. Then mix it with the same quantity of Glass of Lead as we ordered for ores rendered refractory by the admixture of earths or stones, and proceed in the same manner.
It is the more necessary to roast Silver ore infected with Sulphur and Arsenic, because, as Sulphur obstructs the fusion of Lead, it cannot but do hurt, and protract the operation; and Arsenic does mischief, on the other hand, by scorifying a very great quantity of Lead too hastily.
When the Sulphur and Arsenic are dissipated by roasting, the ore must be treated like that which is rendered refractory by stony and earthy matters; for as the pyrites contain much iron, there remains, after the Sulphur is evaporated, a considerable quantity of martial earth, which is difficult to scorify. The pyrites, as well as the cobalts, contain moreover an unmetallic earth, which is hard to fuse.
The general rule therefore is, when the ore is rendered refractory by any cause whatever, to mix it with Glass of Lead, and to add a larger quantity of granulated Lead. Yet some ores are so refractory that Lead alone will not do the business, and recourse must be had to some other flux. That which is fittest for the present purpose is the Black Flux, composed of one part of Nitre and two parts of Tartar deflagrated together. The Phlogiston contained in this quantity of Tartar is more than sufficient to alkalizate the Nitre. This Flux, therefore, is nothing more than Nitre alkalizated by Tartar, mixed with some of the same Tartar that hath not lost its Phlogiston, and is only reduced to a sort of coal.
The White Flux is also very fit to promote fusion; but on this occasion the Black Flux is preferable, because the Phlogiston of the Black Flux prevents the Lead from being too soon converted to litharge, and so gives it time to dissolve the metallic matters. The White Flux, which is the result of equal parts of Tartar and Nitre alkalizated together, being no more than an Alkali destitute of Phlogiston, or containing but very little, doth not possess this advantage.
If Silver should be combined in the ore with Iron in its metalline state, which however does not commonly happen, then, in order to separate them, the Iron must be deprived of its Phlogiston, and converted to a crocus before the mixed mass be melted with Lead; which may be done by dissolving it in the Vitriolic Acid, and then evaporating the Acid.
We are necessitated to make use of this contrivance, because Iron in its metalline form cannot be dissolved either by Lead or by the Glass of Lead; but when it is reduced to a calx, litharge unites with it and scorifies it.
If you have not at hand the utensils necessary for performing the operation we have been describing in a test, and under the muffle; or if you have a mind to work on a greater quantity of ore at a time, you may make use of a crucible for the purpose, and perform the operation in a melting furnace.
In this case the ore must be prepared, as above directed, according to its nature, and mixed with a proper quantity of Lead and Glass of Lead; the whole put into a good crucible, leaving two thirds thereof empty, and covered with a mixture of Sea-salt and a little Borax, both very dry, to the thickness of a full half inch.
This being done, set the crucible in the midst of a melting furnace, raise the coals quite to the lip of the crucible; light the fire; cover the furnace with its dome; but do not urge the fire more than is necessary to bring the mixture to perfect fusion: leave it thus in fusion for a good quarter of an hour; stir the whole with a bit of strong iron wire; then let it cool; break the crucible, and separate the Regulus from the scoria.
The Salts added on this occasion are fluxes, and their use is to procure a perfect fusion of the scoria.
If the melted matters be left exposed to the fire, either in a test or in a crucible, longer than is above prescribed, the portion of Lead, that hath united and precipitated with the Silver, will at last vitrify, and at the same time scorify all the alloy with which that metal may be mixed. But as there are no vessels that can long endure the action of litharge, without being pierced like a sieve, some of the Silver may escape through the holes or fissures of the vessel, and so be lost. It is better, therefore, to complete the purification of your Silver by the operation of the Cupel, the description of which follows.
Process II
The refining of Silver by the Cupel.
Take a cupel capable of containing one third more matter than you have to put into it: set it under the muffle of a furnace, like that described in our Theoretical Elements, as peculiarly appropriated to this sort of operation. Fill the furnace with charcoal; light it; make the cupel red-hot, and keep it so till all its moisture be evaporated; that is, for about a good quarter of an hour, if the cupel be made wholly of the ashes of burnt bones; and for a whole hour, if there be any washed wood-ash in its composition.
Reduce the Regulus which remained after the preceding operation to little thin plates, flatting them with a small hammer, and separating them carefully from all the adherent scoria. Wrap these in a bit of paper, and with a small pair of tongs put them gently into the cupel. When the paper is consumed the Regulus will soon melt, and the scoria, which will be gradually produced by the Lead as it turns to litharge, will be driven to the sides of the cupel, and immediately absorbed thereby. At the same time the cupel will assume a yellow, brown, or blackish colour, according to the quantity and nature of the scoria imbibed by it.
When you see the matter in the cupel in a violent ebullition, and emitting much smoke, lower the fire by the methods formerly prescribed. Keep up such a degree of heat only that the smoke which ascends from the matter may not rise very high, and that you may be able to distinguish the colour which the cupel acquires from the scoria.
Increase the fire by degrees, as more and more litharge is formed and absorbed. If the Regulus examined by this assay contain no Silver, you will see it turn wholly into scoria, and at last disappear. When it contains Silver, and the quantity of Lead is much diminished, you will perceive little vivid irises, or beautiful rain-bow colours, shooting swiftly along its surface, and crossing each other in many different directions. At last, when all the Lead is destroyed, the thin dark skin, that is continually protruded by the Lead while it is turning into litharge, and which hitherto covered the Silver, suddenly disappears; and, if at this moment the fire happen not to be strong enough to keep the Silver in fusion, the surface of that metal will at once dart out a dazzling splendour: but, if the fire be strong enough to keep the Silver in fusion, though freed from all mixture of Lead, this change of colour, which is called its fulguration, will not be so perceptible, and the Silver will appear like a bead of fire.
These phenomena shew that the operation is finished. But the cupel must still be left a minute or two under the muffle, and then drawn slowly out with the iron hook towards the door of the furnace. When the Silver is so cooled as to be but moderately red, you may take the cupel from under the muffle with your little tongs, and in the middle of its cavity you will find an exceeding white bead of Silver, the lower part whereof will be unequal, and full of little pits.
OBSERVATIONS.
The Regulus obtained by the former process consists altogether of the Silver contained in the ore, alloyed with the other metals that happened to be mixed therewith in its mineral state, and a good deal of the Lead that was added to precipitate the Silver. The operation of the cupel may be considered as the sequel of that process, being intended only to reduce into a scoria whatever is not Gold or Silver. Lead being of all metals that which vitrifies the most easily, which most promotes the vitrification of the rest, and the only one which, when vitrified, penetrates the cupel, and carries along with it the other metals which it hath vitrified, is consequently the fittest for that purpose. We shall see in its place, that Bismuth hath the same properties with Lead, and may be substituted for it in this operation.
Care must be taken to chuse a cupel of a proper capacity. Indeed it should rather be too big than too little: because the operation is no way prejudiced by an excess in its size; whereas, if it be too small, it will be over-dosed with Lead, and at last the litharge, which destroys every thing, will corrode its cavity, and eat holes through the very body of the vessel. Add, that the ashes, of which the cupel is made, being once glutted with litharge, absorb it afterwards but slowly, and that the quantity of this vitrified litharge, becoming too great to be contained in the substance of the vessel, exsudes through it, and drops on the floor of the muffle, which it corrodes and renders unequal; and moreover solders to it the vessels set thereon. It may be laid down as a general rule for determining the size of a cupel, that it weigh, at least, half as much as the metallic mass to be refined in it.
It is also of the utmost consequence that the cupel be well dried before the metal be put into it. In order to make sure of this point, it must be kept red-hot for a certain time, as is above directed: for though to the sight and to the touch it may appear very dry, it nevertheless obstinately retains a small matter of moisture, sufficient to occasion the loss of some of the metal; which, when it comes to melt, will be thereby spirited up, in the form of little globules, to the very roof of the muffle. The cupels that stand most in need of an intense heat to dry them, are those chiefly in whose composition wood-ashes are employed: for whatever care be taken to lixiviate those ashes before they are used, they will still retain a little alkaline salt; and that, we know, is very greedy of moisture, will not part entirely with it, but by the means of a violent calcination, and presently re-imbibes it when exposed to the air.
A little Phlogiston also may still be left in the ashes of which the cupels are made; and that is another reason for calcining them before they are used. By this means the remaining Phlogiston is dissipated, which might otherwise combine with the litharge during the operation, reduce it, and occasion such a ferment in the matter as to make some of it run over; to these inconveniencies, which any remainder of moisture or Phlogiston may produce, we must add the cracks and flaws, which are very incident to cupels not perfectly freed from both those matters.
It is of no less importance to the success of this operation, that a due degree of heat be kept up. In the process we have described the marks which shew the heat to be neither too strong nor too weak; when it exceeds in either of these respects it may be known by the following signs.
If the fume emitted by the Lead rise like a spout to the roof of the muffle; if the surface of the melted metal be extremely convex, considering the quantity of the mass: if the cupel appear of such a white heat, that the colour communicated thereto by the imbibed scoria cannot be distinguished: all these shew that the heat is too great, and that it ought to be diminished. If, on the contrary, the vapours only hover, as it were, over the surface of the metal; if the melted mass be very flat, considering its quantity; if its ebullition appear but faint; if the scoriæ, that appear like little fiery drops of rain, have but a languid motion; if the scoria gather in heaps, and do not penetrate the cupel; if the metal be covered with it as with a glassy coat; and, lastly, if the cupel look dull; these are proofs that the heat is too weak, and ought to be increased.
The design of this operation being to convert the Lead into litharge, and to give it sufficient time and opportunity to scorify and carry off with it whatever is not Gold or Silver; the fire must be kept up to such a degree that the Lead may easily be turned into litharge, and yet that litharge not be absorbed too hastily by the cupel, but that a small quantity thereof may all along remain, like a ring, round the melted metal.
The fire is to be gradually increased as the operation draws nearer to its end: for, as the proportion of the Lead to the Silver is continually lessening, the metallic mass gradually becomes less fusible; while the Silver defends the Lead mixed with it from the action of the fire, and prevents its being easily converted into litharge.
When the operation is finished, the cupel must still be left under the muffle, till it has imbibed all the litharge, to the end that the bead of Silver may be easily taken out: for, without this precaution, it would stick so fast as not to be removed, but by breaking off part of the cupel along with it. Care must also be taken to let this bead of Silver cool gradually, and be perfectly fixed, before you draw it from under the muffle; for if you expose it at once to the cold air, before it be fixed, it will swell, shoot into sprigs, and even dart out several little grains to a considerable distance, which will be lost.
If the bead appear to have a yellowish tinge, it is a sign that it contains a great deal of Gold, which must be separated from it by the methods to be hereafter shewn.
It is proper to observe, that there is scarce any Lead that does not contain some Silver; too little perhaps to defray the charges necessary to separate it, yet considerable enough to lead us into an error, by mixing with the Silver obtained from an ore, and increasing its weight. And therefore, when the operations above described are applied to the assaying of an ore, in order to know how much Silver it yields, it is previously necessary to examine the Lead to be used, and to ascertain the quantity of Silver it contains, which must be deducted from the total weight of the bead of Silver obtained by purifying it in this manner.
Silver may be separated from its ore, and at the same time refined, by the single operation of the cupel, without any previous scorification with Lead. In order to do this, you must pound the ore; roast it, to dissipate all its volatile parts; mix it with an equal quantity of litharge, if it be refractory; divide it into five or six parcels, wrapping each in a bit of paper; weigh out eight parts of granulated Lead for one of ore, if it be fusible, and from twelve to sixteen, if it be refractory; put one half of the Lead into a very large cupel under the muffle; add thereto one of the little parcels of ore, when the Lead begins to smoke and boil; immediately slacken the fire a little; continue the same degree of heat till you perceive that the litharge formed round the metal, and on its surface, begins to look bright; then raise the fire; add a fresh parcel of ore; continue proceeding in the same manner till you have put in all the ore; then add the remaining half of the granulated Lead, and conduct the succeeding part of the operation in the same manner as that of cupelling.
In this operation it is necessary that the fire be not too strongly urged, and that it be diminished every time you add a fresh parcel of ore; that so the Lead and the litharge may have time to dissolve, scorify, and carry off into the pores of the cupel, all the adventitious matters with which your Silver may be mixed. Notwithstanding this precaution, when the ore is refractory, there often gathers in the cupel a great quantity of scoria, together also with some of the ore that could not be dissolved and scorified. It is with a view to remedy this inconvenience that the second moiety of the Lead is added towards the end, which completes the dissolution and scorification of the whole; so that by means thereof no scoria, or very little, is left in the cupel at the end of the operation.
The operation of the cupel is chiefly used to purify Silver from the alloy of Copper; because this metal, being more fixed and harder to calcine than other metallic substances, is the only one that remains united with Silver and Lead, after roasting and scorification with Lead. It requires no less than sixteen parts of the Lead to destroy it in the cupel, and separate it from Silver. It melts into one mass with the Lead; and the glass produced by these two metals, deprived of their phlogiston, inclines to a brown or a black colour; by which appearance chiefly we know that our Silver was alloyed with Copper.
Process III
To purify Silver by Nitre.
Granulate the Silver you intend to purify, or reduce it to thin plates; put it into a good crucible; add thereto a fourth part in weight of very dry pulverized Nitre, mixed with half the weight of the Nitre of calcined Wine-lees, and about a sixth part of the same weight of common glass in powder. Cover this crucible with another crucible inverted; which must be of such a size that its mouth may enter a little way into that of the lower one, and have its bottom pierced with a hole of about two lines in diameter. Lute the two crucibles together with clay and Windsor-loam. When the lute is dry, place the crucibles in a melting furnace. Fill the furnace with charcoal, taking care however that the fuel do not rise above the upper crucible.
Kindle the fire, and make your vessels of a middling-red heat. When they are so, take up with the tongs a live-coal, and hold it over the hole of the upper crucible. If you immediately perceive a vivid splendour round the coal, and at the same time hear a gentle hissing noise, it is a sign that the fire is of a proper strength; and it must be kept up at the same degree till this phenomenon cease.
Then increase the fire to the degree requisite to keep pure Silver in fusion; and immediately after take your vessels out of the furnace. You will find the Silver at the bottom of the lower crucible, covered with a mass of Alkaline scoria of a greenish colour. If the metal be not rendered perfectly pure and ductile by this operation, it must be repeated a second time.
OBSERVATIONS.
The purification of Silver by Nitre, as well as the process for refining it on the cupel, is founded on the property which this metal possesses of resisting the force of the strongest fire, and the power of the most active solvents, without losing its phlogiston. The difference between these two operations consists wholly in the substances made use of to procure the scorification of the imperfect metals, or semi-metals, that may be combined with the Silver. In the former this was obtained by Lead, and here it is effected by Nitre. This Salt, as we have shewn, hath the property of calcining and quickly destroying all metallic substances, by consuming their phlogiston, except the perfect metals, Gold and Silver, which alone are able to resist its force. This method may therefore be employed to purify Gold as well as Silver, or indeed both the two mixed together.
In this operation the Nitre is gradually alkalizated, as its Acid is consumed with the phlogiston of the metallic substances. The Alkaline Salt and pounded glass are added, with a view to promote the fusion of the metalline calces, as fast as they are formed, and to fix and retain the Nitre, which, as we shall presently see, is apt to fly off in a certain degree of heat.
The precaution of covering the crucible with another crucible inverted, which hath only a small hole in its bottom, is designed to prevent any of the Silver from being lost in the operation: for when the Nitre comes to be acted on by a certain degree of heat, and especially when it deflagrates with any inflammable matter, part of it flies off, and so rapidly too as to be capable of carrying off with it a good deal of the Silver. The little hole left in the covering crucible is necessary for giving vent to the vapours, which rise during the deflagration of the Nitre, as they would otherwise open themselves a passage by bursting the vessels. After the operation this vent-hole is found beset with many little particles of Silver, which would have been lost if the crucible had not been covered.
If you should observe, during the detonation of the Nitre, that a great many vapours issue through the vent-hole with a considerable hissing noise, even without applying the coal, you must take it for a sign that the fire is too brisk, and accordingly check it; else a great deal of the Nitre will be dissipated, and with it much Silver.
You must observe to take the Silver out of the fire as soon as it is in fusion: for if you neglect this, the Nitre being entirely dissipated or alkalizated, the calces of the metals destroyed by it may possibly recover a little phlogiston, communicated either by the vapours of the charcoal, or by little bits of coal accidentally falling into the crucible; by which means some portion of those metals being reduced will mix again with the Silver, prevent its having the desired degree of purity and ductility, and oblige you to begin the operation afresh.
Process IV
To dissolve Silver in Aqua Fortis, and thereby separate it from every other metalline substance. The Purification of Aqua Fortis. Silver precipitated by Copper.
The Silver you intend to dissolve being beaten into thin plates, put it into a glass cucurbit; pour on it twice its weight of good precipitated aqua fortis; cover the cucurbit with a piece of paper, and set it on a sand-bath moderately heated. The aqua fortis will begin to dissolve the Silver as soon as it comes to be a little warm. Red vapours will rise; and from the upper surfaces of the Silver there will seem to issue streams of little bubbles, ascending to the top of the liquor, between which and the Silver they will form, as it were, a number of fine chains: this is a sign that the dissolution proceeds duly, and that the degree of heat is such as it ought to be. If the liquor appear to boil and be agitated, a great many red vapours rising at the same time, it is a sign that the heat is too great, and should be lessened till it be reduced to the proper degree indicated above: having obtained that, keep it equally up till no more bubbles or red vapours appear.
If your Silver be alloyed with Gold, the Gold will be found, when the dissolution is finished, at the bottom of the vessel in the form of a powder. This solution must now be decanted while it is yet warm; on the powder pour half as much fresh aqua fortis as before, and make it boil; again decant this second aqua fortis, and repeat the same a third time; then with fair water wash the remaining powder well: it will be of a brown colour inclining to red. In the observations we shall show how the Silver is to be separated from the aqua fortis.
OBSERVATIONS.
All the processes on Silver already delivered, whether for extracting it from its ores, or for refining it, either by the Cupel or by Nitre, are applicable to Gold also. And if Silver be alloyed with Gold before it undergo those several operations, it will still remain alloyed therewith after them, in the same manner, and in the same quantity; because both metals bear them equally. All therefore that can be expected from those several assays, is the separation of every thing that is neither Silver nor Gold from these two metals. But in order to separate these two from each other, recourse must be had either to the process laid down under the head of Gold, or to that here described, which is the most commodious, the most usual, and known by the names of Quartation and the Parting Assay.
Aqua fortis is the true solvent of Silver, and is utterly incapable of dissolving the least atom of Gold. If therefore a mass consisting of Gold and Silver be exposed to the action of aqua fortis, that Acid will dissolve the Silver contained in the compound, without touching the Gold, and the two metals will be separated from each other. This method of parting them is just the reverse of that described before under the head of Gold, which is effected by the means of aqua regis.
To the success of this separation, by means of aqua fortis, several conditions are essentially necessary. The first is, that the Gold and Silver be in due proportion to each other; that is, there must be at least twice as much Silver as Gold in the metalline mass, otherwise the aqua fortis will not be able to dissolve it, for the reason formerly given. If therefore the mass contain too little Silver, it must either be melted down again, and a proper quantity of Silver added; or else, if the Gold be in a sufficient proportion to the Silver, they may be parted by means of aqua regis.
Secondly, it is necessary that the aqua fortis employed in this operation be absolutely pure, and free from any taint of the Vitriolic or Marine Acid: for, if it be adulterated with the Vitriolic Acid, the Silver will precipitate as fast as it dissolves, and so the precipitated Silver will again mix with the Gold. If the aqua fortis contain any of the Marine Acid, the Silver will be precipitated in that case also; and this inconvenience will be attended with another, namely, that the menstruum, being partly an aqua regis, will dissolve some of the Gold. You must therefore be very sure that your aqua fortis is pure, before you set about the operation. In order to discover its quality, you must try it by dissolving, in a small portion thereof, as much Silver as it will take up: if the aqua fortis grow opaque and milky as it dissolves the Silver, it is a sign it contains some foreign Acid, from which it must be purified.
In order to effect this, let the portion of aqua fortis used for the above trial stand to settle: the white milky part will gradually fall to the bottom of the vessel. When it is all fallen, gently decant the clear liquor, and pour a few drops of this decanted solution of Silver into the aqua fortis which you want to purify. It will instantly become milky. Let the white particles precipitate as before, and then add a few more drops of your solution of Silver. If the aqua fortis still become milky, let it precipitate again, and repeat this till you find that a drop of your solution of Silver, let fall into this aqua fortis, does not make it in the least turbid. Then filter it through brown paper, and you will have an aqua fortis perfectly fit for the Parting Assay.
The white particles that appear and settle to the bottom, on dissolving silver in an aqua fortis adulterated with a mixture of some foreign Acid, are no other than that very Silver, which is no sooner dissolved by the Nitrous Acid than it deserts that solvent to unite with the Vitriolic or Marine Acid, wherewith it has a greater affinity, and falls to the bottom with them. And this happens as long as there remains in the aqua fortis a single atom of either of those two Acids.
When therefore your aqua fortis hath dissolved as much Silver as it is capable of taking up, and when all the white particles formed during the dissolution are settled to the bottom, you may be assured that the portion which remains clear and limpid is a solution of Silver in an exceeding pure aqua fortis. But if the solution of Silver thus depurated be mixed with an aqua fortis adulterated with the Vitriolic or Marine Acid, a like precipitation will immediately ensue, for the reasons above given, till the very last particle of the heterogeneous Acid contained in the aqua fortis be precipitated.
Aqua fortis purified by this method contains no extraneous substance whatever, except a small portion of Silver; so that it is very fit for the parting process. But if it be intended for other chymical purposes, it must be rectified in a glass retort with a moderate heat, in order to separate it from the small portion of Silver it contains, which will remain at the bottom of the retort.
The third condition necessary to the success of this operation is, that your aqua fortis be neither too aqueous, nor too highly concentrated. If too weak, it will not act upon the Silver: and the consequence will be the same if it be too strong. Both these inconveniencies are easily remedied: for in the former case part of the superfluous phlegm may be drawn off by distillation; or a sufficient quantity of much stronger aqua fortis may be mixed with that which is too weak: and, in the latter case, very pure rain water, or a weaker aqua fortis, may be mixed with that which is too strong.
You may satisfy yourself whether or no your aqua fortis hath the requisite degree of strength, by dissolving therein a thin plate consisting of one part Gold and two or three parts Silver; which plate must be rolled up in form of a paper coffin. If, when all the Silver contained in the plate is dissolved, the Gold remains in the form of the coffin, it is a sign that your solvent has a due degree of strength. If, on the contrary, the Gold be reduced to a powder, it is a proof that your aqua fortis is too strong, and ought to be weakened.
The Gold remaining after the dissolution of the Silver must be melted in a crucible with Nitre and Borax, as hath already been said under the process for parting Gold and Silver by means of aqua regis. As to the Silver which remains dissolved in the aqua fortis, there are several ways to recover it.
The most usual is to precipitate it by the interposition of Copper, which hath a greater affinity than Silver with the Nitrous Acid7. For this purpose the solution is weakened by adding twice or thrice as much very pure rain water. The cucurbit containing the solution is set on a sand-bath gently heated, and very clean plates of copper put into it. The surfaces of these plates are soon covered with little white scales, which gradually fall to the bottom of the vessel, as they come to be collected in quantities. It is even proper to strike the cucurbit gently now and then, in order to shake the scales of Silver from the copper plates, and so make room for a new crop.
The aqua fortis parts with the Silver by degrees only, as it dissolves the Copper; and therefore the liquor gradually acquires a blueish green colour as the precipitation advances. This precipitation of the Silver is to be continued as long as any remains dissolved in the aqua fortis: you may be sure that your liquor contains no more Silver, if the surface of a fresh plate of Copper laid therein remain clean and free from ash-coloured or greyish particles: or if one drop of a solution of Sea-salt let fall into it produce no white or milky cloud.
The precipitation being finished, the liquor is to be gently poured off from the precipitated Silver, which must be rinsed in several waters, and even made to boil therewith, in order to free it wholly from the dissolved Copper. The Silver thus well washed must be thoroughly dried, mixed with a fourth part of its weight of a flux compounded of equal parts of Nitre and calcined Borax, and then melted in a crucible. On this occasion care must be taken to raise the fire gently and gradually, till the Silver be brought to fusion.
With what accuracy soever the precipitated Silver be washed, in order to free it from the solution of Copper, yet the Silver will always be found alloyed with a small portion of the Copper: but then this Copper is easily destroyed by the Nitre, with which the Silver is afterwards melted; so that the latter metal remains perfectly pure after the operation.
Though the Silver be not previously cupelled, but be alloyed with other metallic substances at the time it is thus dissolved, yet the dissolving, precipitating, and fusing it with Nitre, would be sufficient to separate it accurately from them all, and refine it to a degree of purity equal to that obtained by the cupel.
The Copper that remains dissolved in the aqua fortis, after the precipitation of the Silver, may in like manner be precipitated by Iron, and, as it retains a small portion of Silver, ought not to be neglected when these operations are performed on considerable quantities.
In the two next processes we shall shew two other methods of separating Silver from aqua fortis.
Process V.
To separate Silver from the Nitrous Acid by Distillation. Crystals of Silver. The Infernal Stone.
Into a large, low, glass body put the solution of Silver, from which you intend to separate the Silver by distillation. To this body fit a tubulated head provided with its stopple. Set this alembic in a sand-bath, so that the body may be almost covered with sand: apply a receiver, and distil with a moderate heat, so that the drops may succeed each other at the distance of some seconds. If the receiver grow very hot, check the fire. When red vapours begin to appear, pour into the alembic, through the hole in its head, a fresh quantity of your solution of Silver, first made very hot. Continue distilling in this manner, and repeating the addition of fresh liquor, till all your solution be put into the alembic. When you have no more fresh solution to put in, and when, the phlegm being all come over, red vapours begin again to appear, convey into the alembic half a dram or a dram of tallow, and distil to dryness; which being done, increase your fire so as to make the vessel containing the sand-bath red-hot. In the alembic you will find a calx of Silver, which must be melted in a crucible with some soap and calcined wine-lees.
OBSERVATIONS.
A low cucurbit is recommended for this operation, to the intent that the particles of the Nitrous Acid, which are ponderous, may the more easily be carried up and pass over into the receiver. For the same reason the cucurbit is directed to be almost wholly covered with sand, lest otherwise the acid vapours should be condensed about that part of the cucurbit, which, being out of the sand, would be much cooler than that which is encompassed therewith, and from thence should fall back again to the bottom; by which means the distillation would certainly be retarded, and the vessel probably be broken.
Notwithstanding these precautions the vessels are liable to break in such distillations; especially when they contain a great deal of liquor. With a view, therefore, to prevent this accident, we ordered that the whole quantity of the solution of Silver to be distilled should not be put at once into the alembic. The little bit of tallow, added towards the end of the operation, is intended to hinder the metal from adhering closely to the vessel, as it would otherwise do, when all the moisture is dissipated.
The Soap and Fixed Alkali mixed with the Silver to flux it, after its separation from the aqua fortis in this way, serve to absorb such of the most fixed particles of the Acid as may still remain united with the metal.
If the distillation be stopped when part of the phlegm is drawn off, and the liquor be then suffered to cool, many crystals will shoot therein, which are a Neutral Salt constituted of the Nitrous Acid and Silver. If the distillation be carried further, and stopped when near its conclusion, the liquor being then suffered to cool will wholly coagulate into a blackish mass called the Infernal Stone.
This way of separating Silver from its solvent is attended with the advantage of saving all the aqua fortis, which is excellent, and fit to be employed in other operations.
Process VI
To separate Silver from the Nitrous Acid by Precipitation. Luna Cornea. Luna Cornea reduced.
Into your solution of Silver pour about a fourth part in weight of Spirit of Salt, solution of Sea-salt, or solution of Sal Ammoniac. The liquor will instantly become turbid and milky. Add twice or thrice its weight of fair water, and let it stand some hours to settle. It will deposite a white powder. Decant the clear liquor, and on the precipitate pour fresh aqua fortis, or Spirit of Salt, and warm the whole on a sand-bath with a gentle heat for some time. Pour off this second liquor, and boil your precipitate in pure water, shifting it several times, till the precipitate and the water be both quite insipid. Filter the whole, and dry the precipitate, which will be a Luna Cornea, and must be reduced in the following manner.
Smear the inside of a good crucible well with soap. Put your Luna Cornea into it; cover it with half its weight of Salt of Tartar, thoroughly dried and pulverized; press the whole hard down; pour thereon as much oil, or melted tallow, as the powder is capable of imbibing; set the crucible thus charged, and close covered, in a melting furnace, and, for the first quarter of an hour, make no more fire than is necessary to make the crucible moderately red: after that raise it so as to melt the Silver and the Salt, throwing into the crucible from time to time little bits of tallow. When it ceases to smoke, let the whole cool; or pour it into a hollow iron cone, warmed and tallowed.
OBSERVATIONS.
The process here delivered furnishes us with the means of procuring Silver in a degree of purity which is not to be obtained by any other method of treating it whatever. That which is refined on the cupel always retains a small portion of Copper, from which it cannot possibly be separated in that way: but if it be dissolved in aqua fortis, and precipitated thence in a Luna Cornea by the Marine Acid, the precipitate will be an absolutely pure Silver, unalloyed with that small portion of Copper which is retained on the cupel. The reason of this effect is, that the Copper remains as perfectly dissolved in Spirit of Salt and in aqua regia as in aqua fortis: so that when the Silver, and the Copper with which it is alloyed, are dissolved together in the Nitrous Acid, if the Acid of Sea-salt be mixed with the solution, part of this latter Acid unites with the Silver, and therewith forms a new compound, which not being soluble in the liquor, falls to the bottom. The other part of the Acid mixing with the Nitrous, forms an aqua regis, in which the Copper remains dissolved, without separating from it.
Fresh Acid is poured on the precipitated calx of Silver, in order to complete the solution of the small portion of Copper that may have escaped the action of the first solvent. It is indifferent whether the Spirit of Salt or the Spirit of Nitre be employed for this purpose, because they both dissolve Copper alike, and because Silver precipitated by Spirit of Salt is not soluble in either.
After this it is necessary to wash the precipitate well with pure water, in order to free it entirely from the particles of aqua fortis adhering to the Silver; because they may possibly contain something of Copper, which would mix with the Silver in melting, and taint its purity.
If this precipitate of Silver be exposed to the fire, unmixed with any other substance, it melts as soon as it begins to be red; and, if the fire be increased, part thereof will be dissipated in vapours, and the rest will make its way through the crucible. But being poured out as soon as melted, it coagulates into a cake of a purplish red colour, semi-transparent, ponderous, and in some degree pliable, especially if it be very thin. It bears some resemblance to horn, which hath occasioned it to be called Luna Cornea.
As Luna Cornea is not soluble in water, recourse must be had to fusion, in order to reduce it, by separating from the Silver those acids which give it the above-mentioned properties. Fixed Alkalis and fatty matters are very fit to produce that separation.
We directed that the inside of the crucible, in which the reduction is to be made, should be carefully smeared with soap, and that the Luna Cornea should be quite covered with a Fixed Alkali and fat, to the end that when the heat is strong enough to dissipate it in vapours, or to attenuate it so as to render it capable of penetrating the crucible, it may be forced to pass through matters qualified to absorb its Acid, and reduce it.
Luna Cornea may also be reduced by being melted with such metalline substances as have a greater affinity than Silver with the Acids wherewith it is impregnated. Of this kind are Tin, Lead, Regulus of Antimony: but the Luna Cornea rushes so impetuously into conjunction with those metalline substances, that a vast many vapours arise, and carry off with them part of the Silver: if therefore you chuse to effect the reduction by the interposition of such metalline substances, you must employ a retort instead of a crucible.
But this method is attended with another inconvenience; which is, that some part of those metalline substances may unite with the Silver, and adulterate it: for which reason it is best to keep to the method first proposed.
Process VII
To dissolve Silver, and separate it from Gold, by Cementation.
Mix thoroughly together fine brick-dust four parts, Vitriol calcined to redness one part, and Sea-salt or Nitre one part. Moisten this powder with a little water. With this cement cover the bottom of a crucible half an inch thick; on this first bed lay a thin plate of the mass of Gold and Silver you intend to cement, and which you must previously take care to beat into such thin plates. Cover this plate with a second layer of cement, of the same thickness as the former; on this second bed lay another plate of your metal; cover it in like manner with cement; and so proceed till the crucible be filled to within half an inch of its brim. Fill up the remaining space with cement, and close the crucible with a cover, luted with a paste made of Windsor-loam and water: set your crucible thus charged in a furnace, whose fire-place is deep enough to let it be entirely surrounded with coals, quite up to its mouth. Light some coals in the furnace, taking care not to make the fire very brisk at first; increase it by degrees, but only so far as to make the crucible moderately red; keep up the fire in this degree for eighteen or twenty hours: then let the fire go out; open the crucible when it is cold, and separate the cement from your plates of Gold. Boil the Gold repeatedly in fair water, till the water come off quite insipid.
OBSERVATIONS.
It cannot but seem strange, that, after having so often declared the Acid of Sea-salt to be incapable of dissolving Silver, we should direct either Nitre or Sea-salt indifferently to be employed in composing a cement, which is to produce an Acid capable of eating out all the Silver mixed with Gold. It is easy to conceive how the Nitrous Acid extricated from its basis by means of the Vitriolic Acid may produce this effect: but if Sea-salt instead of Nitre be made an ingredient in the cement, its Acid, though set at liberty in the same manner by the Vitriolic Acid, must at first sight appear unable to answer the end.
In order to remove this difficulty, we must here observe, that there are two very essential differences between the Marine Acid collected in a liquor, as it is when distilled in the usual manner, and the same Acid separated from its basis in a crucible, as it is in cementation.
The first of these two differences is, that the Acid being reduced into vapours when it acts on the Silver in cementation, its activity is thereby greatly increased: the second is, that in the crucible it sustains a vastly greater degree of heat than it can ever bear when it is in the form of a liquor. For, after it is once distilled and separated from its basis, it cannot sustain any extraordinary degree of heat without being volatilized and entirely dissipated: whereas, while it continues united with its basis, it is much more fixed, and cannot be separated but by a very intense heat. Consequently, if it meet with any body to dissolve, at the very instant of its separation from its basis, while it is actuated by a much fiercer heat than can ever be applied to it on any other occasion, it must operate upon that body with so much the more efficacy: and thus it comes to pass, that in cementation it has the power of dissolving Silver, which it would be incapable of touching if it were not so circumstanced.
But herein Gold differs from Silver: for, whatever force the Nitrous or the Marine Acid may exert, when extricated from their bases in the cementing crucible, this metal obstinately refuses to yield to either of those Acids separately, and can never be dissolved by them, unless both be united together.
Our cementation, therefore, is actually a parting process in the dry way. The Silver is dissolved, and the Gold remains unaltered. Nay, as the action of the Acids is much stronger when they are applied this way, than when they are used for dissolution in the moist way, the Nitrous Acid, which in the common parting process will not dissolve Silver unless its weight be double that of the Gold, is able in cementation to dissolve a very small quantity of Silver diffused through a large quantity of Gold.
It sometimes happens, that after the operation the cement proves extremely hard, so that it is very troublesome to separate it entirely from the Gold. In this case it must be softened by moistening it with hot water. This hardness which the cement acquires is occasioned by the fusion of the Salts, which is the effect of too strong a heat. It was in order to prevent this, and that a due degree of heat might be applied, without the danger of melting the salts, that we directed the cement to be mixed with a considerable quantity of earthy matter incapable of fusion, such as brick-dust. A greater inconvenience will ensue, if the fire be made so strong as to melt the Gold: for then it will partly commix again with the other metalline substances dissolved by the cement, and consequently will not be purified.
The crucible is covered, and its cover luted on, to prevent the acid vapours from being too soon dissipated, and to force them to circulate the longer in the crucible. However, it is necessary that those vapours should find a vent at last, otherwise they would burst the vessel: and for this reason we directed the crucible to be luted only with Windsor-loam, which does not grow very hard by the action of fire, and so is capable of yielding and giving passage to the vapours, when a certain quantity of them is collected in the crucible, and they begin to struggle for an escape on every side.
When the operation is finished, the Silver dissolved by the Acid of the cement is partly distributed through the cement, and partly in the Gold itself, which is impregnated therewith. For this reason the Gold must be washed several times in boiling water, till the water become absolutely insipid: for, if the Gold be melted without this precaution, it will mix again with the Silver: the cement also may be washed in the same manner to recover the Silver it contains.
Though this cementation be, properly speaking, a purification of Gold, yet we have placed it among the processes on Silver, because it is the Silver that is dissolved on this occasion, and because this is a particular way of dissolving that metal. Moreover, most of the processes hitherto delivered, either on Gold or Silver, are equally applicable to both these metals.
If the Gold do not appear quite pure after the cementation, the process must be repeated.
There are several ways to know the fineness of Gold, the quantity of Silver with which it is alloyed, and the proportion in which these two metals are mixed in a mass purified by the cupel.
One of the simplest is the trial by the Touch-stone; which indeed is hardly any more than judging by the eye only, from the colour of the compound metal, what proportion of Gold and Silver it contains.
The Touch-stone is a sort of black marble, whose surface ought to be half polished. If the metalline mass which you want to try be rubbed on this stone, it leaves thereon a thin coat of metal, the colour of which may be easily observed. Such as are accustomed to see and handle Gold and Silver can at once judge very nearly from this sample in what proportion the two metals are combined: but, for greater accuracy, those who are in the way of having frequent occasion for this trial are provided with a sufficient number of small bars or needles, of which one is pure Gold, another pure Silver, and all the rest consist of these two metals mixed together in different proportions, varied by carats, or even by fractions of carats, if greater exactness be required.
The fineness of each needle being marked on it, that needle whose colour seems to come nearest the colour of the metalline streak on the Touch-stone, is rubbed on the stone by the side of that streak. This needle likewise leaves a mark; and if there appear to be no difference between the two metalline streaks, the metalline mass is judged to be of the same fineness as the needle thus compared with it. If the eye discovers a sensible difference, another needle is sought for whose colour may come nearer to that of the metal to be tried. But though a man be ever so well versed in judging thus of the fineness of Gold by the eye only, he can never be perfectly and accurately sure of it by this means alone. If such certainty be required, recourse must be had to the parting assay; and yet when you have gone through it, there always remains a small quantity of the metal, which should have been dissolved, and yet escaped the action of the solvent. For example, if you make use of aqua regis, the Silver that remains after the operation still contains a little Gold; and, if you make use of aqua fortis, the Gold that remains after the operation still contains a little Silver. And therefore if you resolve to carry the separation of these two metals still further by solvents, it will be necessary, after you have gone through one parting process, to perform a second the contrary way. For example, if you begin with aqua fortis, then, after it has dissolved all the Silver in the metalline mass that it is capable of taking up, dissolve the remaining Gold in aqua regis: by which means you will separate the small portion of Silver left in it by the aqua fortis. The contrary is to be done if you made use of aqua regis first.