Vitriol

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Copper or blue vitriol, the mineral ( chalcanthite )

Vitriol is a trivial name for the sulphates (salts of sulfuric acid ) containing water of crystallization of divalent metals , for example zinc or white vitriol ( zinc sulphate , ZnSO 4  7 H 2 O, the mineral goslarite ), iron or green vitriol ( iron (II)) sulfate , FeSO 4  · 7 H 2 O, the mineral melanterite ) and copper or blue vitriol ( copper sulfate , CuSO 4  · 5 H 2 O, the mineral chalcanthite ). Galitzenstein is an outdated name . A mixture of copper vitriol and iron vitriol is also known as an eagle vitriol .

Origin of the designation

Until the beginning of the modern era, the vitriol was generally called in Latin atramentum sutorium "cobbler" because it was mainly used for blackening leather, or chalcanthum (from ancient Greek χαλκός chalkós "copper" and ἄνθος ánthos "flower, blossom", so "copper flower or -blüte ") and in German also galitzenstein . The term vitriol (from Latin vitreolus , vitriolus "even fine glass", to vitrum "glass") first appeared in the 8th century in a Latin translation of the composition ad tingenda and then again in the work Mineralia by Albertus Magnus as atramentum viride quod a quibusdam vitreolum vocatur - "the green black leather, which some call the glass". The name is explained by the fact that the crystals resemble green glass. Still Georgius Agricola used in 1546 in De natura fossilium the name atramentum with the note that vitriolum begin to spread. Atrament was also used to describe the mixture of copper sulfate (copper (II) sulfate) and iron sulfate or their crystal-forming hydrates, which when dissolved in water give it a dark color.

Gerhard Eis interpreted the name Galitzenstein as a Galician stone - for him an indication that vitriols were mainly obtained from Spain in the Middle Ages.

Of vitriol also directs vitriol as name for sulfuric acid from prepared earlier from vitriol and from it the "sweet vitriol" ( oleum vitrioli dulce ), later " sulfuric ether " called, was recovered.

Occurrence, extraction

Vitriol production according to Georgius Agricola: leaching with hot water in the front right (A), precipitation of the vitriol in the "ready room" (C) and removal of the vitriol sludge (D), boiling furnace for evaporation of the residual water in the front center (E).

Vitriols come as oxidation products in sulphidic non-ferrous metal - ore deposits before. They are obtained by collecting the vitriol-containing seepage water and by leaching out weathered, oxidized non-ferrous metal ore. This process was first described by Georgius Agricola in his De re metallica published in 1556 . Iron vitriol is also obtained from the residual solution that accumulates after copper has been separated from water containing copper sulphate by cementation with metallic iron.

use

Vitriols were and are used for various purposes:

Meaning in alchemy

Ikon an emblem with the vitriol - acrostic from Daniel Stolzens Stolzenberg Viridarium chymicum ( Chymisches Pleasure Garden ) by 1624. lemma and epigram , translated by Daniel Meissner of Commenthaw :

Des Hermetis emeralds tablet .

The Colonels play / Hermes speaks richly /
They are completely the same as the Provosts:
When someone wishes (with art and sterck.)
To accomplish such a miracle.
The surrounding planets are beautiful
when you stand in the high sky:
This is also the same as the earth
With yhrn Metals / thewr and werth:
This stone's father is the sun /
but the mother is the mon:
The wind carried the son in his womb /
The earth has fisted him fine.

Vitriol was a popular substance in hermetic alchemy ; it was used, for example, in the weapon ointment or in the Pasilalin sympathetic compass .

Vitriolum results as an acronym from the first letters of a motto of alchemy , which appears for the first time in the writing L'Azoth des philosophes , ascribed to the alchemist Basilius Valentinus : Visita interiora terrae, rectificando invenies occultum lapidem, veram medicinam, “Observe what is inside the earth lies: by purifying it , you will receive a previously hidden stone (the true remedy). ”This sentence alludes to the extraction of the green vitriol; under vera medicina the honorary award is to be understood as a cipher for the chalcanthite: on the one hand because the flower of the honorary prize has the color of vitriol, on the other hand because this mineral was formerly also flos cupri - 'copper flower ' (literally also as 'copper flower ') to translate) was called.

In the haze of Rosicrucians and Freemasonry , this motto was reinterpreted - with the omission of veram medicinam - to a sentence of mystical contemplation and the vitriol as a cipher for the philosopher's stone ; The acronym VITRIOL can also be found on the wall of the Masonic Dark Chamber .

Well-known vitriol mines

Well-known Vitriol huts

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Vitriol  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Plin. nat. hist. 1.87.
  2. ↑ Dieter Lehmann: Two medical prescription books of the 15th century from the Upper Rhine. Part I: Text and Glossary. Horst Wellm, Pattensen / Han. 1985, now at Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg (= Würzburg medical-historical research , 34), ISBN 3-921456-63-0 , p. 177.
  3. ↑ Georges: Latin-German / German-Latin, p. 60122 (cf. Georges-LDHW vol. 2, p. 3527).
  4. ^ JM Stillman: The Story of Alchemy and Early Chemistry. New York 1960, p. 185.
  5. ↑ 2,3 ed. Borgnet 1890.
  6. ↑ VLADIMÕR KARPENKO, JOHN A. NORRIS: VITRIOL IN THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY (PDF; 148 kB), Chem. Listy 96, 997-1005 (2002).
  7. ↑ Gundolf Keil: The "Cirurgia" Peters von Ulm. Investigations into a memorial of old German specialist prose with a critical edition of the text (= research on the history of the city of Ulm. 2). Stadtarchiv, Ulm 1961 (also philosophical dissertation Heidelberg 1960), p. 355.
  8. ↑ Jürgen Martin: The 'Ulmer Wundarznei'. Introduction - Text - Glossary on a monument to German specialist prose from the 15th century. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1991 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 52), ISBN 3-88479-801-4 (also medical dissertation Würzburg 1990), p. 114.
  9. ↑ limited preview in the Google book search
  10. ^ Vitriol from Daniel Stolcius' Viridarium Chymicum (1624); (German translation)
  11. ↑ a b symboldictionary.net: VITRIOL (Masonic / Alchemical Motto)
  12. ↑ Andreas Libavius: Res chymicae epistolica format. Lib. II. Francofurti 1565, p. 191. (Online) ; (Facsimile) . The name comes from the Greek name or from the Arabic alchemist Geber , who qualquant called the copper vitriol ' copper blossom '. Today, however, the term copper bloom means chalcotrichite , a variant of cuprite or copper (I) oxide .
  13. ^ Vitriol mine in Rodenfeld
  14. ^ History of the Saalfeld fairy grottoes - fairy grottoes. Retrieved October 17, 2018 .