Zinc oxide forming on the walls of the distillation flask like snow PHILOSOPHICAL MERCURY:
Place the crystals in a distillation flask, and heat until a white fog appears. This is acetone and zinc fumes. If you use too much zinc acetate, more smoke will be created than your condenser can handle, so don't use too much at once. It's essential to keep the condensers cold with ice water. The fog will condense into a golden water, and zinc oxide flowers will form on the condenser walls. After it's all done, the zinc in the distillation flask will be ashes, and will smell aweful. Pour the liquid from the reciever flask back into the distillation flask with the zinc, and redistill. Do this several times. Then wash out the condenser and attachment arm with the golden water solvent. You will see a small amount of red oil form on the surface of the solvent. Collect and save this. It is the Philosophical Mercury which dissolves gold without violence. It is red, just like metallic mercury is when in a vacuum like a thermometer. It is the only chemical which dissolves gold, yet can be touched by the human skin without harm. It's a special form of mesityl oxide created by the condenstation reaction of the acetone fumes.
That's where I'm at on wet path.
Subject: Wet path prime materia 
Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:46 pm
