Early References to Modern Processes


To recover gold from cloth woven out of it, the gold garment was first burned. The ashes were then thrown into water that contained quicksilver. The quicksilver attracted the gold, which was then squeezed through a cloth. The recovery of gold through amalgamation was indeed practiced by the ancients:

"For from this well they get bitumen, salt, and oil, procuring it in the way that I will now describe. They draw with a swipe, and instead of a bucket, make use of the half of a wine skin; with this the man dips and after drawing pours the liquid into a reservoir wherefrom it passes into another and there takes three different forms. The salt and the bitumen forthwith collect and harden, while the oil is drawn off into casks. It is called by the Persians 'rhadinace,' is black, and has an unpleasant smell."
Stillman, John Maxson. "The Story of Alchemy and Early Chemistry" New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1960, p. 53

This is the first unmistakable reference in literature to a petroleum industry (Stillman 53). An early process of distillation was described by Pliny. Wood was chopped into small pieces, placed in a furnace and heated. The first liquid was very thin - it was like water, and was used to preserve bodies in Egypt. The next liquid was thicker - it was the true pitch.


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