What Painting Is: How to Think about Oil Painting ... - Victoria Vesna

NOTES TO CHAPTER I 215
until all (or nearly all) the oxide is dissolved (the flask will
grow hot as dissolution occurs; note how Ripley says ‘when
cold again’ in the first paragraph). Decant the clear solution
into an evaporating dish and evaporate the solvent at a very
gentle boil. When the syrupy liquid begins to crystallize,
stir it with a glass rod, remove the heat, and continue
stirring until cold. This salt is Ripley’s Green Lion; green
not in color, but, as he writes in another text, because it is
immature and ‘unripe.’
“Place the salt in a distilling flask, set it in a heating mantle or
sand bath on a hot plate, stopper the flask, insert the side arm into
a condenser, and place a receiver on the end of the condenser. (By
no means seal the apparatus as Ripley advises, pressure release
must be allowed as heating proceeds.) Heat the salt; it will first melt
into a boiling liquid, white fumes will be evolved which condense
into a clear liquid in the receiver, and then, in a moment, the liquid
solidifies and rises in the flask to thrice its former volume,
producing a white ‘biscuit.’
“Continue heating another twenty minutes (until the ‘biscuit’
dries out), then carefully open the flask, and, using a long glass
rod, pushing it down to the bottom of the flask again. Restopper
the flask, and continue heating until the material in the flask is
black. The receiver contains the ‘blessed liquor,’ a strongly
smelling volatile liquid, predominantly acetone and water. (If
desired, a careful distillation of the ‘blessed liquor’ from a steam
bath will provide Ripley’s ‘fragrant ardent water’ which is purified
acetone.)
“When the flask has cooled, take out the black residue, spread it
out (about onequarter inch thick) on a brick or pane of glass, and
place a small fragment of glowing charcoal on it. The powder will
burn like a cinder, turning yellow, red, and orange. (The black
residue can often be started with a match.)
“Note: lead salts are toxic. Use special care in working with the
white salt. Ignite the black residue only with very good ventilation;
lead fumes are produced in its burn ing. Also, keep an eye on the
various appearances (color and texture) as the process develops.
These wide variations must have impressed Ripley.”
7. For variations, see Marcelin Berthelot and Charles Ruelle,
Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, 3 vols. (Paris: Steinheil, 1887–
88), vol. 1, pp. 144–49. For a Greek formula calling for a kerotakis,
see Robert Halleux, Les alchimistes grecs (Paris: Belles Lettres,
1981), vol. 1, p. 120 § 31. Berthelot’s analyses should be treated
with circumspection; see Edmund Oskar von Lippmann,