Alchemy: Ancient and Modern / Being a Brief Account of the Alchemistic Doctrines, and Their Relations, to Mysticism on the One Hand, and to Recent Discoveries in Physical Science on the Other Hand; Together with Some Particulars Regarding the Lives and Teachings of the Most Noted Alchemists

Ramsay’s Experiments on Copper.

§ 98. The fact that an excess of hydrogen was produced when water was decomposed by the emanation suggested to Sir William Ramsay and Mr. Cameron that if a solution of a metallic salt was employed in place of pure water, the free metal might be obtained. These “modern alchemists,” therefore, proceeded to investigate the action of radium emanation on solutions of copper and lead salts, and again apparently effected transmutations. They found on removing the copper from a solution of a copper-salt which had been subjected to the action of the emanation, and spectroscopically examining the residue, that a considerable quantity of sodium was present, together with traces of lithium; and the gas evolved in the case of a solution of copper nitrate contained, along with much nitric oxide and a little nitrogen, argon (which was detected spectroscopically), but no helium. It certainly seemed like a dual transformation of copper into lithium and sodium, and emanation into argon. They also observed that apparently carbon-dioxide is continually evolved from an acid solution of thorium nitrate (see below, § 100). It is worth while noticing that helium, neon and argon occur in the same column in the Periodic Table with emanation; lithium and sodium with copper, and carbon with thorium; in each case the elements produced being of lighter atomic weight than those decomposed.[121] The authors make the following suggestions: “(1) That helium and the α-particle are not identical; (2) that helium results from the ‘degradation’ of the large molecule of emanation by its bombardment with α-particles; (3) that this ‘degradation,’ when the emanation is alone or mixed with oxygen and hydrogen, results in the lowest member of the inactive series, namely, helium; (4) that if particles of greater mass than hydrogen or oxygen are associated with the emanation, namely, liquid water, then the ‘degradation’ of the emanation is less complete, and neon is produced; (5) that when molecules of still greater weight and complexity are present, as is the case when the emanation is dissolved in a solution of copper sulphate, the product of ‘degradation’ of the emanation is argon. We are inclined to believe too [they say] that (6) the copper also is involved in this process of degradation, and is reduced to the lowest term of its series, namely, lithium; and at the same time, inasmuch as the weight of the residue of alkali, produced when copper nitrate is present, is double that obtained from the blank experiment, or from water alone, the supposition is not excluded that the chief product of the ‘degradation’ of copper is sodium.”[122]

Further Experiments on Radium and Copper.

§ 99. A little later Madame Curie and Mademoiselle Gleditsch[123] repeated Cameron and Ramsay’s experiments on copper salts, using, however, platinum apparatus. They failed to detect lithium after the action of the emanation, and think that Cameron and Ramsay’s results may be due to the glass vessels employed. Dr. Perman[124] has investigated the direct action of the emanation on copper and gold, and has failed to detect any trace of lithium. The transmutation of copper into lithium, therefore, must be regarded as unproved, but further research is necessary before any conclusive statements can be made on the subject.

Ramsay’s Experiments on Thorium and allied Metals.

§ 100. In his presidential address to the Chemical Society, March 25, 1909, after having brought forward some exceedingly interesting arguments for the possibility of transmutation, Sir William Ramsay described some experiments which he had carried out on thorium and allied elements.[125] It was found, as we have already stated (§ 98), that, apparently, carbon-dioxide was continually evolved from an acid solution of thorium nitrate, precautions being taken that the gas was not produced from the grease on the stop-cock employed, and it also appeared that carbon-dioxide was produced by the action of radium emanation on thorium nitrate. The action of radium emanation on compounds (not containing carbon) of other members of the carbon group, namely, silicon, zirconium and lead, was then investigated; in the cases of zirconium nitrate and hydro-fluosilicic acid, carbon-dioxide was obtained; but in the case of lead chlorate the amount of carbon dioxide was quite insignificant. Curiously enough, the perchlorate of bismuth, a metal which belongs to the nitrogen group of elements, also yielded carbon-dioxide when acted on by emanation. Sir William Ramsay concludes his discussion of these experiments as follows: “Such are the facts. No one is better aware than I how insufficient the proof is. Many other experiments must be made before it can confidently be asserted that certain elements, when exposed to ‘concentrated energy,’ undergo degradation into carbon.” Some such confirmatory experiments were carried out by Sir William Ramsay and Mr. Francis L. Usher, and they also described an experiment with a compound of titanium. Their results confirm Sir William Ramsay’s former experiments. Carbon-dioxide was obtained in appreciable quantities by the action of emanation on compounds of silicon, titanium, zirconium and thorium. In the case of lead, the amount of carbon dioxide obtained was inappreciable.[126]

The Possibility of Making Gold.

§ 101. It does not seem unlikely that if it is possible to “degrade” elements, it may be possible to build them up. It has been suggested that it might be possible to obtain, in this way, gold from silver, since these two elements occur in the same column in the Periodic Table; but the suggestion still awaits experimental confirmation. The question arises, What would be the result if gold could be cheaply produced? That gold is a metal admirably adapted for many purposes, for which its scarcity prevents its use, must be admitted. But the financial chaos which would follow if it were to be cheaply obtained surpasses the ordinary imagination. It is a theme that ought to appeal to a novelist of exceptional imaginative power. However, we need not fear these results, for not only is radium extremely rare, far dearer than gold, and on account of its instability will never be obtained in large quantities, but, judging from the above-described experiments, if, indeed, the radium emanation is the true Philosopher’s Stone, the quantity of gold that may be hoped for by its aid is extremely small.

§ 102. A very suggestive argument for the transmutation of the metals was put forward by Professor Henry M. Howe, LL.D., in a paper entitled “Allotropy or Transmutation?” read before the British Association (Section B), Sheffield Meeting, 1910. Certain substances are known which, although differing in their physical properties very markedly, behave chemically as if they were one and the same element, giving rise to the same series of compounds. Such substances, of which we may mention diamond, graphite and charcoal (e.g., lampblack)—all of which are known chemically as “carbon”—or, to take another example, yellow phosphorus (a yellow, waxy, highly inflammable solid) and red phosphorus (a difficultly-inflammable, dark red substance, probably possessing a minutely crystalline structure), are, moreover, convertible one into the other.[127] It has been customary to refer to such substances as different forms or allotropic modifications of the same element, and not to regard them as being different elements. As Professor Howe says, “If after defining ‘elements’ as substances hitherto indivisible, and different elements as those which differ in at least some one property, and after asserting that the elements cannot be transmuted into each other, we are confronted with the change from diamond into lampblack, and with the facts, first, that each is clearly indivisible hitherto and hence an element, and, second, that they differ in every property, we try to escape in a circle by saying that they are not different elements because they do change into each other. In short, we limit the name ‘element’ to indivisible substances which cannot be transmuted into each other, and we define those which do transmute as ipso facto one element, and then we say that the elements cannot be transmuted. Is not this very like saying that, if you call a calf’s tail a leg, then a calf has five legs? And if it is just to reply that calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg, is it not equally just to reply that calling two transmutable elements one element does not make them so?

“Is it philosophical to point to the fact that two such transmutable elements yield but a single line of derivatives as proof that they are one element? Is not this rather proof of the readiness, indeed irresistibleness, of their transmutation? Does not this simply mean that the derivativeless element, whenever it enters into combination, inevitably transmutes into its mate which has derivatives?”[128]

According to the atomic theory the differences between what are termed “allotropic modifications” are generally ascribed to differences in the number and arrangement of the atoms constituting the molecules of such “modifications,” and not to any differences in the atoms themselves. But we cannot argue that two such “allotropic modifications” or elements which are transmutable into one another are one and the same element, because they possess the same atomic weight, and different elements are distinguished by different atomic weights; for the reason that, in the determination of atomic weights, derivatives of such bodies are employed; hence, the value obtained is the atomic weight of the element which forms derivatives, from which that of its derivativeless mate may differ considerably for all we know to the contrary, if we do, indeed, regard the atomic weights of the elements as having any meaning beyond expressing the inertia-ratios in which they combine one with another.

If we wish to distinguish between two such “allotropic modifications” apart from any theoretical views concerning the nature and constitution of matter, we can say that such “modifications” are different because equal weights of them contain, or are equivalent to, different quantities of energy,[129] since the change of one “form” to another takes place only with the evolution or absorption (as the case may be) of heat.[130] But, according to modern views regarding the nature of matter, this is the sole fundamental difference between two different elements—such are different because equal weights of them contain or are equivalent to different quantities of energy. The so-called “allotropic modifications of an element,” therefore, are just as much different elements as any other different elements, and the change from one “modification” to another is a true transmutation of the elements; the only distinction being that what are called “allotropic modifications of the same element” differ only slightly in respect of the energy they contain, and hence are comparatively easy to convert one into the other, whereas different elements (so called) differ very greatly from one another in this respect, whence it is to be concluded that the transmutation of one such element into another will only be attained by the utilisation of energy in a very highly concentrated form, such as is evolved simultaneously with the spontaneous decomposition of the radium emanation.

Conclusion.

§ 103. We have shown that modern science indicates the essential truth of alchemistic doctrine, and our task is ended. Writing in 1904, Sir William Ramsay said: “If these hypotheses [concerning the possibility of causing the atoms of ordinary elements to absorb energy] are just, then the transmutations of the elements no longer appears an idle dream. The philosopher’s stone will have been discovered, and it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that it may lead to that other goal of the philosophers of the dark ages—the elixir vitæ. For the action of living cells is also dependent on the nature and direction of the energy which they contain; and who can say that it will be impossible to control their action, when the means of imparting and controlling energy shall have been investigated?”[131] Whatever may be the final verdict concerning his own experiments, those of Sir Ernest Rutherford, referred to in the Preface to the present edition, demonstrate the fact of transmutation; and it is worth noticing how many of the alchemists’ obscure descriptions of their Magistery well apply to that marvellous something which we call Energy, the true “First Matter” of the Universe. And of the other problem, the Elixir Vitæ, who knows?

THE END.

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