Section 44

Chap. XII. Of building * fornacefor the colturtng Plates.
NOw we will (hew how to colour them: but6rft, lec us defcribe the fornace, wherewith it muft be done. Therefore let a Idnace be made of iron plates of a convenient thicknefs : let ic be a foot in height , and as much in the diameter of the length ; let ir be covered on the top, with a circular plate : In the centre of the roof of ic, cut a round bole, a handful in breadth $ and fet another fornace upon ir, of the fame length and breadth, and make a hole in thataifo, which mutt be fee againft the other, and joynchem clofe together. Make a little door in the lower fornace , clofe-to the ground ; let it be made with an arch , four fingers wide, and jet out half a foot , like the mouth of an oven, and be joy Bed in the fame manner to the great fornace. Then kindle your coals in another place , until they ccafe moking, and with iron tongs caft them into the forefaid fornace : Heat it very well, and let the outward fornace or mouth of the oven be fill d half way with live coals.Thefe being thus difpofed, fall to colouring the plates. And firft, I willtcach you
Hew to colour plates with a purple colour.
Take the places tyed about with thread , as I told you , and fit them upon a pair of iron tongs,which you muft fatten at the fore-end with an iron ring, that they may not open : hold them upon the hole of the upper fornace , that they may receive the afcending fmoak ; and turn them about , until by degrees you (ball perceive them gather a purple colour, without any other fmoak then what arileth from the heat of the coals: when you think them coloured enough, remove them from the fmokc, and lay them afide.
How to mafe them of a Saphire colour. It is done much after the fame way : for taking the rays in an iron tongs , and hold- ing them over the hole of the fornace, caft upon the coals through the low arched door, the feathers of a goofe, which grow upon her breft , and then lay upon them a red hot iron rod. For the fnvoke of the fearhers,arifing through the tunnell of the fornace, will beat upon the rays, and make them of a sky-colour : when the iron rod groweth cold, take another and put in. It h very admirable , how on a fuddain thefc copper rays will change into feveral colour* : wherefore, when they have ob- tained the colour which you defire, take them off the fornace prefently , for other- wife they will alter into another.
How to make them of a fiver colour. Take a little filver , and diflblve it with a^uafortu: then pour fome fountain-water
intu —i
Of counterfeiting precious Stones. 1 89
into it ,~and your copper rays : prefently the water will be troubled, and will flick upon the copper like filver fleeces : caft away the water , and wafhthefilver , and dry it in die Sun ; and when it is dry, lay it upon a mar ale, and mix with k an ounce of Tartar , and as much ordinary fait ; grinde them together, till they be well mix- ed. This being made into powder , lay it on copper, and rub it with your fingers, and it will make it (hine like filver : then fpread the rays upon the round wood, and the copper, wftf them with the water, lay the powder on them, and rub them with your thumbs, that tbey may become of a filver colour ; fteep them in water, and levigate them with the blood-ftone upon the forefaid copper • then fet them in thefmoke>and they will fhine with a sky-colour.
Haw t» make them of the colour of an "Emerald, It is very difficult, and there fcarce is one of very many that will prove right. Firft, make your rays of a sky-colour, as before ; then take thofe which have not took that colour rightly, and lay two of them upon the hole of the fornace j and through the vault of the little door, fling fome leaves of Box upon red hot plates of iron, where they will crackle like bay-leaves, and fend up a fmoke through the hole, which will colour the rays. Butbefore they come to be of a green colour, they muft pais through many other colours, as yellow, red, and sky-colour ; but they muft con- tinue fome time before they obtain aperfed green.
How to make them red, like a %ub]r. Fling fome flocks of Scarlet upon the live coles, and lay the thin plates over the hole, and the arifing fmoke will colour them red.
How to mak« them of the colour of the Amethifl. When it is made of a sky-colour, it pafleth through the colour of the Amethiftj take it therefore off in time, and you have your wi(h.
Chap. XIII. Hovt rajs are to be coloured by a mixture of Metals,
I Will now (hew how rays may be coloured by mixture with other metals j which is of more difficulty, but of longer continuance. The former colt but little labour, bat they eafily lofe their colour: thefe are harder to be made ; but keep their co- lour longer. Take half a pound of copper , and melt it in a melting pot, put there- unto half a crown of gold ; and when it is well melted , and mixed, adde fome tar- tar, that when it cooleth, the top of it may be plain and fmooth ; after it is cold, fee it afide. Then take another half pound of copper, and melt it in the fame manner ; mix a drachm of filver with it , and let it cool : take it out of the pot , and file the ou:-fide of it fmooth j for the leaft crack, or chap, would fpoii the work. You may know whether there be any crack within fide or without , by this fign ; place it in an even poifc upon a piece of iron,and ftrike it with another piece • if it found equal- ly, and ring clearly, it is whole; if it do jar, it is cracked fome where. Let your pieces of metal be about a finger inbignefs; beat them gently upon theanvilej left they break fomewhere : fee them in the fire and feafonthem, and when they are cold, beat them with the hammer into thin rays, as I have faid before : if they chance to crack, file orTthe flaws ; and when they have been feafoned twice or thrice,in the fire, have your pot of water ready , prepared with fait and tartar, to whiten them, that yoa may more exactly find out the craks.
To mtke them of the colour of a Ruby. The plates being finifhed, if you would make them of a ruby colour, do it with flocks of fcarlct,as before j but then the rags muft be of the mixture of copper and gold.
To make them of the colour of a Saphire or Emerald. Let the plates be of copper and filver : the Saphire colour is made with goofe feather?, but the Emerald with box-leaves, holding them femewhat longer over the fire. And thefe are the experiments which I have made concerning Gems. ° THE
THE
SEVENTH BOOK
O F
Natural Magick i
V
Of the wonders of the Load-ftone,
The Proem b.
i • .j ,, ~,ri, njstffii » on ^nt ?^7C"' i ».vJ d ^J/' *'.*v-"~i J'ivW 'i *jjj;'w ^^7£ pafs from Jewels to Stones : the chief whereof \ and the moft admirable is the Load' ft one, and in it the Majefty ofb(jture doth meft appear : and I under eake this workjhe wore willingly, becwfe the Ancients left little or nothing of this in wrtthg topofteritj. In a few days, not to fay hours, when I fought one experiment, others offered themfelves , that J collected almoft two hundred of principal note j fo wonderful it God in all his works* %*t what wifer and learneder men might find out , let all men judge, I knew at Venice R. M. Paulus the Venetian, that was bufied in the fame ftudy : he was 'Provincial of the Order of fervmts , but now a moft worthy Advocate , from whom I not onely confefs , that I gained fomething, but I glory in it , becaufe of all the men lever faw, I never knew any man more learned, or more ingenious, having obtained the whole body of learning • and is not onely the Splendor and Ornament of Venice or Italy > but of the whole werld. I fhall begin from the mofi known experiments , and pafs to higher matters, that it may not repent any man of his great ftudy and accurate diligence therein* By thefe, the longitude of the world may be found out, that is ef no fmall moment for Say lor s , and wherein the greateft wits have been employed. And to a friend that is at afar di fiance from ut, and faft (hut up in prifon, we may relate our minds ; which 1 doubt not may be done by two Mariners (fompaffes, having the Alphabet wrtt about them. Upon thisdepends the principlesof perpetual motion, and more admirable things, which I fhaU here let pafs. If the Antients left any thing of it, I (hall put that in by the way : J fhall mark, feme faffe reports of fame men , not to deteft their pains and influftry , but left any man (hould follow them in an error, and fo errors fhould be perpe» tual thereby. I (hall begin with the Name.
Chap. I.
What is the Name of this Stone, the kind of it, and the Comtrey where it grows.
Lata in lone writes, that Empedecles called this flone (Aaynr,^ bat Lucretius from the countrey Magnefia.
The Greeks do call it Magnet from the place,- For that the Magnets Land it doth embrace.
And the fame Plato faith , fome call it Heraclms. Theophraftm in his book of Stones calls it wf that is Herculeum, be-
caufe he found it about the city Heraclea. Others think it denominated from Her- cules : for as he conquered and fubdued all beafts, and men j fo this ftone conquers iron, which conquers all thing*. Nicandsr thinks the ftone fo called , and fo doth Pliny from him , from one Magnes a fhepherd ; for it is reported that he found it by his hobnail'd fhooes, and his fhepherds-crook that it (luck to , when he fed his flocks ii Tda, where he was a fhepherd. But I think it is called Magnes, as you iliould fay CM.igntis, onely one letter changed. Others call it Sideritcs from*^®*, that in
Greek
Of the mnders of the Load/lone, i o i
Creek fignifies iron, and the Latinc ctll it Magne«,H «» makes the ftone Sidci-ices to be different from FLrcnlcus ; for he faith, one haul in iron colour , and the other a filver colour. Alio Vlny from Set«cm m;kc. kinds of it. The Ethiopian, the Magnefan from Magnefia nc-'i Mtcedoni;? , t.sjhe way lies to the Lake Bxbis, on the right hand ; the third in E.hium of B fourth about Alexandria at Troaderum ; the fifth in Magneto of Afia The firfl dif- fereoce is, whether it be male or female , the next in the coiosr : for ihofe that aie found in Macedonia and Magnefia, are red and black ; but the Bcsoiian h more red then black: That which is found in Tress is black, and of the ?em*le kind, and hath no force therefore. But the worft fort is found in Magnefia, of Afia ; it is whi attracts not iron, and is like a Pumice ftone. It is certain, that the blut r they arc, the better they are. The Ethiopian is highly commended , aod it colts the weight in filver. It is found in Ethiopia at Zirnimm ; for fo is the tandy country called. It is a token of an Ethiopick ftone,if it will draw another Loadftone to it.There is gj- fo a mountain in Ethiopia, not far off, that produceth a Hone called Theamedes, that drives away all iron from it. Diofcorides defcribes it thus. The belt Loadlfon? is that which cafily draws iron, of a biuifla colcur, thick, and not very weighty. P fax- renfis makes three forts of them ; one that draws iron , another flefli , another that diaws and repels iron ; very ignorantly : for the fleftiy Loaditone is different from this,and one and the fame ftone draws & drives iron frcm k.Marlfodem faith Jt throws amongft the Proglodites and Indians. Olaus {JMagnut reports , that there are moun- tains of it in the North, and they draw fo forcibly , that they have (hips made fait to them by great fpikers of wood , left they fhould draw out their n nails out of the fhip and Ttaly,call'd Ilva, commonly Elba, whereaLoadftone may be cut frrth : but it hath no veriue. It is found in Cantabria in Spain, Bohemia, and manyother places.
Chap. II. "the natural reafon of the Loadftone s Attraction,
BEcaufe feme have written whole Books, of the reafon of the Loadftores attract- ing of iron : lettl fhould be cedious , which I purpofcaottobe, I think fit to pafs over ether mens opinions, efpecially, becaufe they depend orely upon words and vain cavils , that Philofophers cannot receive them ; and I fhall fet down my ©Wn, founded upon fome experiments : yet 1 fhall not pafs by the opinion of Anax- agoraty fet down by Arifiotie in his Bock De Amma, who by a fimiliiudc calls it a li- ving ftone, and that therefore it draws iron; and for ibme other peculiar forces, which might be properly faid to proceed from the foul , as you fhall lee. Epicurus would fain give a reafon for it, as Galen and Lucretius report. For, fay they, the Atoms that flew out of the iron, andmeerin the Loadftone in one figure, lothac they eafily embrace one the other ; thefe therefore, when they light upon both the concretes of the ftone and iron,and then flie back into the middle , by the way they are turned between themfelves, and do withall draw the iron with them. Galen inveighs againft this; for he cannot believe, as he faith, that the fmall atoms that flie from theftcne,can be complicated with the like atoms that come from the iron, and that their embracing can draw fuch a heavy weight,Moreover,if you put another iron to that which hangs,that will faften alfo,and another to that,and fo a third and fourth: & the atoms that refult from the ftone, when they meet with the iron,they flie back, and are the caufe that the iron hangsrand it is not poffible that thofe aioms fhould pe- netrate the iron, & through the empty pores flhould rebound unto the former atom«, and embrace otherswhereas he faw five iron icftruments hang one by the other.And if the aroms be diffufed ftraight forward through the iron, why then do other iron nails ftick, faftned but on the fides ? for the venue of it is fpread every way : Where- fore if a very little Loaditone fhould touch many fmall bodies of iron , and thefe others, ar;d thofe others a°ain,and the Loaditone mult fill them all ; that fmall -ftone would even bcconlumed into atoms. But I think the Loaditone, is a mixture of
ftone
i9& Natural Magick. Hookj.
ftone and iron , as an iron ftone, or aftoneofiron. Yet do not think the ft one is fo changed into iron, as to lofe its own Nature, nor that the iron is fo drowned in the ftone , but it prefervcs it felf ; and whilft one labours to get the victory of the other, the attraction is made by the combat between them. In that body, there is more of the ftone, then of iron j and therefore the iron, that it may not be fubdued by the ftone, defires the force and company of iron; that being not able to refill: alone, it may be able by more help to defend it felf. For all creatures defend their being : Wherefore, that it may enjoy friendly help, and not lofe its own perfection , it wil- lingly draws iron to it , or iron comes willingly to that. The Loadftone draws not (tones, becaufe it wants them not, for there is ftone enough in the body of it ; and if one Loadftone draw another , it is not for the ftone, but for the iron that is in it. What I laid, depends on ftiefe Arguments. The pits of Loadftone are where the veins of iron are : thefeare defcribedby Galen, and fuch as deal in Minerals , and in the confines of them both ; of the Hone and the iron they grow , and the Load- ftones are feen, wherein there is more ftone, and others in which there is more iron. In Germany a Loadftone is digged forth , out of which they draw the beft iron; and the Loadftone, whilft it lies in the filings of iron, will ger more ftrength ; and if it be fmeered or neglected, it will lofe its forces. I oft faw with great d^ light a Loadftone wrapt up in burning coles , that fen c forth a bluefiame, thatfmeltof brimftone and iron ; and that being diflipated , it loft its quality of its foul that was gone , namely, its attractive vertue. It is the ftink of iron and brimftone , as fuch who deftroy iron by reducing it to a Calx, or ufe other Chymical operations,can eafi- ly try. And I thought that the fame foul , put into another body , muft neceflarily obtain the fame faculty.