Quicksilver

“ Quicksilver, meanwhile, was being walked about, switching his tail viciously and glaring wickedly to right and left. He was an evil-tempered brute, and this young darkey was the only rider who seemed equal to him. Immense sums had been put up on the race and desperate measures were resorted to to bring the obstreperous jockey to his reason. ”

“ Quicksilver is a conspicuous instance of weight; for it is far heavier than any other substance except gold, which is not much heavier, and it is a better instance than gold for the purpose of indicating the form of weight; for gold is solid and consistent, which qualities must be referred to density, but quicksilver is liquid and teeming with spirit, yet much heavier than the diamond and other substances considered to be most solid; whence it is shown that the form of gravity or weight predominates only in the quantity of matter, and not in the close fitting of it. ”

“ Isidore of Seville says also, that quicksilver is best preserved in vessels of glass, as it penetrates all other substances; and that without it neither silver nor brass can be gilded31. Modern mineralogists however have this advantage over the ancient, that they know how to separate the quicksilver from gold and silver without losing it. Instead of exposing the amalgam to an open fire, as formerly,16 and driving off the volatile metal, it is now put into a retort, and the quicksilver is collected in a receiver for further use. ”

“ Remarkable also is the motion of attraction between quicksilver and gold; insomuch that gold attracts quicksilver, though made up into ointments; and men who work amid the vapours of quicksilver usually hold a piece of gold in their mouths, to collect the exhalations which would otherwise penetrate into their skulls and bones ”

“ It is said also that quicksilver, if poured out from the vessel that contains it down a dusty slope, forms small globules and scatters itself over the ground, mingling with none of those bodies with which it meets: but if one should collect at one place the substance dispersed in many directions, it flows back to its kindred substance, if not hindered by anything intervening from mixing with its own kind. ”

“ But Quicksilver caught his hand.
"Don't let them make a fool of you!" said he. "These Three Gray Women are the only persons in the world that can tell you where to find the Nymphs, and unless you get that information you will never succeed in cutting off the head of Medusa with the snaky locks. Keep fast hold on the eye and all will go well."
As it turned out, Quicksilver was in the right. There are but few things that people prize so much as they do their eyesight; and the Gray Women valued their single eye as highly as if it had been half a dozen, which was the number they ought to have had. ”

“ First of all it is pressed through canvas or buckskin in order to get rid of the liquid quicksilver, which will pass through the weave of the first and the pores of the second, leaving inside only such of it as has firmly allied itself with the gold to form the amalgam.
"The next thing to do is to put this amalgam into a retort, out of which leads a long pipe, and to subject this retort to intense heat. Quicksilver is vaporized at a comparatively low temperature—for a metal. It is driven from the [Pg 211] amalgam in the form of vapor, much as water may be driven off in steam. ”

“ The shells of the buttons, which are made of copper, are shaken 229in a hat with a lump of amalgam of gold and quicksilver, till they are all covered over with it. They are then put into a sort of frying-pan, and held over the fire. The quicksilver, being very volatile in its nature, flies off in the form of a smoke or vapour when it is heated, leaving the gold behind it spread over the surface of the button. Thus many dozens are gilt at once with the greatest ease. ”

“ The quicksilver cradle is a more complicated and expensive machine, requiring six men instead of three to work it. It is understood, however, to save at least 20 per cent. of the metal, and indeed to be indispensable in some places in California, where the gold is in too fine particles to be detected by the common rocker. Quicksilver has so strong an affinity for gold, that the minutest particle of the latter having once touched, it is deprived of the possibility of escape ”

“ Even now, men are working over with profit the tailings that the forty-niners threw away.
"Suppose, now, you make your sluice, cover the bottom of it and the riffles with copper plates to hold the quicksilver better, and then cover your copper with quicksilver. What happens when the dirt and water come flowing down the sluice? The riffles will catch your heavy gold, just as well as before, and the quicksilver will catch a lot of the light gold that used to escape. You've got your gold in the riffles, then, and you've got a mixture of gold and quicksilver which has formed an amalgam. ”

“ Mercury, on the other hand, according to the pseudo-Geber, is the cause of perfection in the metals, and endows gold with its lustre. Another alchemist, quoting Arnold de Villanova, writes: “Quicksilver is the elementary form of all things fusible; for all things fusible, when melted, are changed into it, and it mingles with them because it is of the same substance with them. Such bodies differ from quicksilver in their composition only so far as itself is or is not free from the foreign matter of impure sulphur.” ”

“ The separation of the metals is managed with as little judgment as the amalgamation, and the waste of quicksilver is enormous. It is computed that on each mark of silver, half a pound of quicksilver is expended. The quicksilver, with the exception of some little brought from Idria and Huancavelica, comes from Spain in iron jars, each containing about seventy-five pounds weight of the metal. In Lima the price of these jars is from sixty to 100 dollars each, but they are occasionally sold as high as 135 or 140 dollars. ”

“ If you dip a gold ring or a sovereign into quicksilver, it will be silvered by it, and the silvering will not come off. This union of theirs is called an amalgam. On a ring or sovereign it is mere silvering; but when the gold is in a state of powder, and the amalgamation takes place on a complete scale, it forms a white, doughy mass, in which there is included much loose quicksilver. This doughy mass is presently washed clear of all impurities, and is then squeezed in skins or cloths, through the pores of which loose quicksilver is forced, and saved for future operations. ”

“ Abat and others, who have considered these words as decisive, make less hesitation to ascribe to the75 sixth century, in which Isidore lived, a knowledge of mirrors covered on the back with tin and quicksilver, as the same writer, in another place, observes, that quicksilver can be kept in no vessel but one of glass188. It is very true that a glass filled with that metal will form a very good mirror; but I am of opinion that this may have been long known, before people thought of making an amalgam of tin and quicksilver in order to cover the backs of mirrors. ”

“ Security swims ashore at Cuckold’s Haven; Winifred is rescued at St. Katherine’s; Quicksilver finds himself by the gallows at Wapping; Sir Petronel and Seagull are cast-up on the Isle of Dogs, which the cupshot knight takes to be a spot on the French coast. Quicksilver falls in with Sir Petronel and the two repair to London, where they are arrested at the suit of Touchstone and, after being examined before Golding (who has been appointed deputy to the alderman of his ward) , are committed to the Counter. ”

“ It was written in the above year by a merchant named Henry Hawks, and contains only the following information: “A good owner of mines must have much quicksilver; and as for this charge of quicksilver, it is a new invention, which they find more profitable than to fine their ore with lead.”
Gobet, in a work entitled The Ancient Mineralogists of France, accuses Alphonso Barba of asserting that he found out amalgamation in the year 1609. ”

“ And our Helmont several times tells us, that fair Water wherein a little Quantity f Quicksilver has lain for some time, though it acquire no certain Tast or other sensible Quality from the Quicksilver; Yet it has a power to destroy wormes in humane Bodies; which he does much, but not causelessly extoll. And I remember, a great Lady, that had been Eminent for her Beauty in Divers Courts, confess’d to me, that this insipid Liquor was of all innocent washes for the Face the best that she ever met with. ”

“ Liquid Beads.
Instead of melting gold, water rolled on to a table thickly dusted with lycopodium, or other fine dust, or quicksilver rolled or thrown upon a smooth table, will show the difference in the shape of large and small beads perfectly. A magnifying-glass will make the difference more evident. In using quicksilver, be careful that none of it falls on gold or silver coins, or jewellery, or plate, or on the ornamental gilding on book-covers. It will do serious damage. ”

“ They then add a certain quantity of quicksilver, squeezing it from a skin bag, to make it fall in drops equally on the mass or cuerpo, allowing to each mass ten, fifteen, or twenty pounds of quicksilver, according to the nature or quality of the ore, as the richer it is, it requires the more mercury to draw it to the silver contained in the mass, so that they know the quantity by long experience. An Indian is employed to mould or trample one of these square cuerpos eight times a-day, that the mercury may thoroughly incorporate with the silver. ”

“ It is directed to use quicksilver, and other metals in their fluid state. Quicksilver, my Lord, would amalgamate, and incorporate with all the parts of an Engine which are necessarily of brass, and presently crumble them to powder. Besides when the Engine received a dense, and overheated steam, the Mercury would dissipate in fumes and poison every living creature in its vicinity. ”

“ When the crucible is red you throw into it some of the mixed quicksilver and gold, hold it over the fire, and with a glowing ember gripped in a pair of tongs stir it thoroughly together. Your eye & the feel of your hand will tell you whether the gold be dissolved and united with the quicksilver. Great care has to be taken to aid the solution by rapid stirring, for if you hold it too long, the gold, or rather the amalgam will get too thick ”

“ Ben fervently replied.
[Pg 54]
“Well, it’s just a round bed of bricks, with a two-foot wall ’round it. I’d build that the first thing, if I was you, and put in the rubbish, a little at a time. You want to put in some quicksilver with it. Then I’d get a horse or a mule ter drag ’round a weight till the bricks and mortar was well crushed.”
“Would you put the stuff in wet or dry?”
“Wet; and you want consid’able water, too. I tell you, it’s pretty to see how the quicksilver’ll pick up ’most every mite of gold and hug to the bottom with it!”
Ben’s eyes shone. “It must be!” he said. ”

“ It is no good to use more pressure, for if you do a certain amount of the gold would be squeezed through the leather. You see, as the stuff in the cradle is shaken, the gold being heavier than the sand finds its way down to the bottom, and every particle that comes in contact with the quicksilver is swallowed up by it."
"And how do you get the quicksilver out of those lumps?"
"We put them in one of those clay crucibles you saw, with a pinch of borax, cover them up, and put them in a heap of glowing embers. ”

“ Quicksilver in great quantities is constantly being taken into the State, and not an ounce is ever returned. When it has been used in the amalgamation of a batch of ore, it is taken to the amalgamating-pans, and is used over and over again until it has disappeared. Whether it may float away with the water used in amalgamating, or is lost by evaporation while in the hot-bath of the steam-heated pans, there must be a vast amount of the metal collecting somewhere, as it is a metal not easily destroyed. ”

“ However this may be, it is astonishing that the Chinese should have fallen upon the invention of giving motion to puppets by means of quicksilver, and in so ingenious a manner, that Muschenbroek339 thought it worth his while to describe their whole construction, and to illustrate it by figures. But before this method was known in Europe, Kircher had an idea of putting a small waggon in motion by adding to it a pipe filled with quicksilver, and heating it with a candle placed below it340. The account of Aristotle is more mysterious, for he does not inform us how the quicksilver acted. ”

“ The deposit in the tubs was panned off in ordinary gold-washing dishes, the quicksilver with its precious treasure being put into a separate tub, and the waste earth which the quicksilver refused to embrace thrown aside in a little heap, as though it were of no account. This waste refuse was considered to belong, by right, to the proprietor of the crushing machine, and consisted chiefly of iron pyrites; it was a valuable privilege, producing a good many ounces of gold to the ton sometimes. The quicksilver, having all been extracted, lay in a silky white mass in the large tub. ”

“ No; not when it is quick or fluid, as it always is in our climate. But a very great degree of cold makes it solid, and then it is malleable like other metals.
Geo. I have heard of killing quicksilver; pray, what does that mean?
Tut. It means destroying its property of running about, by mixing it with something else. Thus if quicksilver be well rubbed with fat, or oil, or gum, it unites with them, losing all its metallic appearance or fluidity. It also unites readily with gold and silver, and several other metals, into a kind of shining paste, which is called an amalgam. ”