Inner Garden Alchemical Dictionary F

Alchemical Dictionary - F

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

FABA: Rulandus: The Third Part of a Scruple and Gram.
FABA AGRESTIS: Rulandus: i.e., Horse-Bean.
FABIOLA: Rulandus: Bean-Flower.
FACINUM: Rulandus: i.e., Metal, Ore.
FALCANOS: Rulandus: Otherwise Arsenic; vulgarly Orpiment.
FASCES VIRGULTORUM: Rulandus: Bundles of Twigs.
FASDIR
SASDIR: Rulandus: i.e., Tin.
FASSIN: Rulandus: A Matter which flows out when Stones are Melted.
FATUM: Rulandus: The permanent imperceptible Influence of the Stars of Heaven, the Sun, and the Moon.
FAULEX: Rulandus: i.e., Steel.
FAVONIUS: Rulandus: The West Wind.
FECES: Rulandus: Capt Mortuum.
FECES CANDIDAE: Rulandus: i.e., Ruby and Saffron Waters.
FECLA: Rulandus: i.e., Dregs of Wine, or of Vinegar.
FEDUM: Rulandus: i.e., Saffron.
FEHLECH
FAULES: Rulandus: i.e., Iron. Called also Falex.
FEL DRACONIS: Rulandus: is Living Silver extracted from Steel.
FEL VITRI: Rulandus: is Froth of Glass.
FELLA: Rulandus: is Sulphur Water.
FEMINA: Rulandus: i.e., Sulphur.
FERMENTATIO: Rulandus: The Exaltation of a Matter into its essential part by means of a ferment which penetrates the entire mass, and operates therein in a peculiar manner, acting immediately on the spiritual nature. Thus, it is found that out of an agent of medicinal fermentations which is of little symbolic value, the most noble substance is produced which nature suffers us to attain. But it exists much more abundantly in metals, the nature of which is more akin to it. It takes its name from its likeness to a fermented mass. Or:
Fermentation is the incorporation of a fermenting substance with a substance which is to be fermented. For even as a small modicum of ferment, or yeast, can leaven a large mass of flour, so does the chemical ferment assimilate itself to the thing that is to be fermented. Whatsoever be the nature of the ferment, of such is the fermented matter. By ferment the philosophers understand a true body and a true matter, which, united to its proper Mercury, convert it into the nature thereof. Some will have that the stone itself is the ferment of a perfect body. For when the stone is so subtle, as the philosophers term it, that when it is projected over an imperfect body it floats after the manner of an oil, without combining therewith, we need some other body, which still retains traces of its former affinity therewith, which shall receive and introduce it into other bodies.
FERMENTUM: Rulandus: is Elixir, a Leaven, which makes the body spongy, which ascends, and the spirit finds place, so that it may be prepared to be baked, since now the meal is no leaven, and the meal and the water and the whole dough are thoroughly leavened, and indeed mere leaven, therefore also is the stone itself the Ferment, yet are gold and mercury also called Ferment.
2. Hermes says: Ferment displays the work, otherwise nothing comes of it.
3. Gebir says (L. Form., c. 19) : Resolve Sun and Moon into dry water; this is what is called Mercury. Also the twelfth part of the water holds a part of the perfect body. After forty days you will find the body resolved into water. The sign of the complete dissolution is the blackness which appears above, and is our Mercury, which we take for a Ferment.
4. The Paste which we wish to Ferment, which we extract from imperfect bodies, the white out of Saturn and Jove, the red out of Mars and Venus; but every body shall be dissolved in its own ferment.
5. The English Richard says: Take white Ferment, but for the red take red; nevertheless, the red can give white.
6. Gebir says: After the fermentation, it must be shut up; thus the material is brought to the white stage in forty days; to the red stage in ninety days; in one vessel and operation.
7. Lully says: The ordinary gold cannot be a Ferment, for it must have an actual, effectual, and working power, and be full of spirit; yet it is also called Ferment, and silver is called White Ferment. Or:
Ferment is a firm, and, as it were, a fixed matter, which prepares a substance after its own nature to become of its own fixed condition, which also before it was prepared had itself no greater fixity ; as, for example, Ferment of Bread is flour condensed into a paste which will also communicate the fermented state to other flour.
FERMENTUM ALBUM
FELDA: Rulandus: is Silver.
FERRAMENTA: Rulandus: Plate of Hammered Iron.
FERRAMENTO EXPOSITA: Rulandus: Another Mining Instrument.
FERRAMENTUM PRIMUM: Rulandus: A Mining Instrument.
FERRAMENTUM QUARTUM: Rulandus: A Miner's Wedge.
FERRAMENTUM SECUNDUM: Rulandus: A Pitching Tool.
FERRI SCOBS: Rulandus: Iron Filings.
FERRUGO: Rulandus: Rust, Must, Iron Mould, or Scoria of Iron. Iron Refuse.
FERRUM: Rulandus: Iron, is a Metal, for the most part, of a livid colour, but having also a certain quality of redness and a kind of impure whiteness, while it is also hard in texture. If fixed, earthy sulphur be mixed with fixed, earthy quicksilver, neither being pure, but partaking of a livid whiteness, and if the sulphur predominate, then iron results. In fine, if the quicksilver be porous, terrene, and impure; and if the sulphur be also impure, fetid, and terrene, then their copulation produces iron. This metal is attributed to Mars by the chemists, and is so called, because of its many uses in war. By some the stone Sideritis is called Iron Filing, or Scale of Iron, and the magnet, which attracts iron, sometimes has the same name. Now, iron is of two kinds, native and melted, or excocted. The native is pure, and is found in mines, either in grains or nuggets. The second species is that which is produced in the forges of Germany after one of two manners: either from iron ore, as it is in a certain valley which takes its name from Kings, and in a number of other places. It is to be noted that the same veins which produce iron frequently produce loadstone, which has affinity with iron. Iron is also melted out of ruddy ferruginous earth, among other places, in Silesia, where I have myself witnessed the process in a foundry not far from Berlin, and am in a position to affirm that, even as some Pyrites is hard, solid, and close of grain, while other is brittle, and easily pounded, so also some iron ore is solid, and requires much melting, while some is brittle and like a rusty corroded earth, which can be operated on with little fire, as is the case with the rich ore of Silesia, and the earth of Marchia and Nicia. There are also very ancient mines of iron which were worked, as Tacitus informs us, by the Goths of Gaul. In Germany the first mines worked were those of iron. For the rest, concerning what iron is good and what bad, I refer to the smiths. If I mistake not, in Thuringia the Dylmeratian species is commended, while that which is derived from a vitreous ore is condemned for its brittleness. On the varieties of iron and its metallic alloys, consult Pliny (l. 34, c. 14, 15, etc.), and Dioscorides (1. 5, c. 46), who treats of Iron Rust and its virtues. Iron rust has a powerful, restringent, medical quality, and is also binding and drying. It is warm and dry in the second degree. With it Hercules is said to have healed the wound of Telephus, to which occurrence an allusion is made by Ovid in his first elegy: " Either no one, or Achilles only, who inflicted the wounds, can heal me ". Dioscorides also (l.c.) treats of Recrement of Iron, or Iron Slag, which he also calls Scoria and Excrement of Iron, or the Stone Sideritis, the German Thunderstone (Arolite). For even as all the higher metals yield recrement when melted, so also does iron. Thus we have:
Recrement
of Copper:Copper Slag; of Silver: Silver Slag; of Iron: Iron Slag; of Lead: Lead Slag.
Recrement of Iron has the same kind of virtue as Rust of Iron, but it is of less efficacy. This will apply also to that broad and thin scaling of iron which is obtained by hammering. For the rest, on these subjects, consult the Arabian writers, Serapion, and also Nicander, who calls Scoria of Iron by the name of Iron Feces, and says that it is an antidote to Belladonna, which Dioscorides appropriates after his usual fashion.
1. Pure Iron of an iron colour, found in seams in a white flint.
2. Pure Naricum Iron, found in river sand.
3. Liver-coloured Iron-stone, mined in Franconia, and containing particles of purest Gold.
4. The same, from the same place, but containing particles of purest Silver in place of gold.
5. Combined with Loadstone.
6. Solid, pure, heavy, liver-coloured Iron, found in seams of Gishubelia.
7. Liver-coloured Iron in grape-like clusters.
8. Liver-coloured Iron in White Flint, so combined that it is like Leucostic Marble.
9. Cuprine seams of Iron.
10. Mixed with Cobalt.
11. Containing White Lead.
12. Spongy, liver-coloured Iron, from a rich iron ore.
13. Containing White Lead.
14. Seams of Iron in a fissile stone.
15. Best liver-coloured Iron.
16. Iron of Norica, extracted from ferruginous water.
17. Iron of Sagana, in Eastern Germany; when the iron is removed from the ore more metal is produced.
18. Black, hard, heavy Iron Nuggets, shaped like the human head.
19. Iron obtained from a mine in that district which lies between Hoenicha and Veterocella.
20. Iron combined with Ochre, mined between Francoberg and Chemnic.
21. Black, hard Iron, similar to Gagates, and as if composed of many fibres, originating from one clod, and being of a saffron tint, owing to a certain terrene exhalation.
22. Iron of a normal colour, with a black tinge derived from a hot vapour.
23. Cloddy Iron, of normal colour, similar to Gagates, covered with a black stratum. Light-grey Ironstone.
24. Ashy, similar to thin stalks.
25. Like Hematite.
26. Combined with mud or clay.
27. Botrytis, i.e., in clusters like grapes, black in an ashen deposit. Like pellets of Gagates, black in colour, and surrounded by white floors.
28. Containing a sterile Plumbago.
29. Containing Mica.
30. Containing gold-coloured Pyrites.
31. Combined with sterile Lead, similar to sterile Pitch.
32. Iron that has been melted out.
33. Living Iron of Pliny; Iron tinged with magnetic virtue.
34. Burnt Iron Ore.
35. Washed Iron Ore.
36. Best Iron of Norica, melted out from a coagulated slime in a ferruginous water.
37. Slimy Earth, from which Iron of Norica is melted out.
38. Ilmenanum Iron, melted from a chestnut brown earth.
39. That which is melted from a ruby-coloured ochre. Hepatic, Copper ore.
40. That which is melted from old mounds of Iron.
41. Melted from cuprine recrements, which remain at the bottom of the caldron.
42. Hard, the pure part which remains at the bottom of the vessel, and is extracted with difficulty.
43. Hard.
44. Tenacious Suevian Iron.
45. The best Iron-that which comes to the surface in smelting.
46. Full of fissures. Slatey Iron.
47. Iron changed into Steel by continual extinction.
48. Iron from which recrements are removed. Iron Ashes.
49. To which Steel is added. Iron made into Steel.
50. Ductile Iron.
51. Brittle Iron.
52. Small Sticks of Iron.
53. Plates or Shavings of Iron.
54. Iron Wire.
55. Iron Filings.
56. Iron Rust.
57. Polished and so prepared by art that it does not rust.
58. Polished Iron.
59. Gilt Iron.
60. Overlaid with White Lead.
61. Silvered Iron.
62. Coloured Iron. Atramental Water, coloured like copper.
63. Iron naturally changed into Brass in the Spring of Cepusius.
Black Recrements of Iron:
1. Ashen.
2. Cerulean.
3. Smith's Recrement.
4. Given off from a hot Iron mass, when it is compressed and kneaded into a mass by a mallet.
5. Shavings of Iron which are given off in the making of iron bars, shaped by large mallets.
FERRUM INDICUM: Rulandus: A species of Iron which most nearly approaches Steel.
FERRUM SIGNATORIUM: Rulandus: A Stanchion.
FERU
ZEGI: Rulandus: is Tin.
FERVERE: Rulandus: To Boil.
FEUSTEL: Rulandus: A kind of hammer or mallet.
FEX VITRI: Rulandus: i.e., Vitreous Salt.
FEXA: Rulandus: is the Scum or Lees of the Germans. But we always understand it to be the Dregs of Wine, as Dioscorides teaches (1. 5, c. 79). He adds also Dregs of Vinegar, and describes how it is dried by fire and in other manners; he refers also to its medical potency, which is abstergent and heating, and the various properties of the crude, burnt and washed species. Consult Serapion (I. Agg., c. Haarim.). Concerning indurated wine dregs, consult Paulus, De Tartaro.
FIBULA FERREA: Rulandus: An Iron Buckle, a Cramp Iron. A Triple Band.
FIBULAE: Rulandus: Clasps, Braces, Buckles, Bands, etc.
FICUS CUTIS: Rulandus: Lichen of Pliny and Dioscorides, a Wart or Swelling on the knee of a horse, a good Medicament for the matrix.
FIDA: Rulandus: i.e., Gold or Silver.
FIDDA
FIDHE: Rulandus: i.e., Luna,
FIDER
FIDEX: Rulandus: i.e., White Lead, Ceruse.
FIDO: Rulandus: i.e., Quicksilver, sometimes Gold.
FIGERE: Rulandus: To make Fixed, so as to withstand Fire.
FIGURA DISCI: Rulandus: Eye. (The Centre of a Circle.)
FILLETIN: Rulandus: i.e., Plates of Iron.
FILIUS: Rulandus: i.e., the Son, the Child. According to Morien it has a father and mother, by whom it is nourished, and is one with them, yet where the chicken is not hatched and born it dies in the egg, just as bread which is sufficiently baked, and soap which is sufficiently melted.
2. When he is born, he wants food and nouruishment. The nourishment is the augment. When the material is nourished by means of the ferment, then the child becomes a seed again.
3. The Stone is at first the old man, then young; then the strength and working is like those of youths full of blood and fighting power. The aged are grey and white. At first the Egyptian is moist and white, afterwards red and dry. Therefore it is said: The son killed the father; the father must die; the son must be born; die with one another and so rise again, according to the saying: He who dies with me must live with me. The Sun kills the Mercury and hardens it.
4. His nourishment is first in the bath or in the matrix of the earth, which receives and nourishes until body and soul become one thing, and of a fixed nature. Bernard says: The feminine germ nourishes the Stone, not by dissolution but by addition, thereby it grows strong and great.
5. Turba (fol. 89): Take the white tree; build about it a round and gloomy house; surround it with a tower and put therein a centenarian. Then shut it up so that no wind or dust can get to him. Leave him there eight days. I say to you that the same man must not cease to eat of the fruit of the tree until he grows young again. 0 what a wonderful quality! Here is the father become a son, and born again.
FILIUS UNIUS OSTUM: Rulandus: is Vitriol or Orpiment. It is also the generated Stone which is eaten. It is, moreover, the Mercury which destroys the son or the father.
FILTUEN: Rulandus: To Clean through a Colander; to Strain.
FILUM ARSENICALE: Rulandus: i.e., Sublimed Arsenic.
FILUM EX ALUMINE PLUMOSO: Rulandus: Virgin Thread.
FILIUS UNIUS DIEI: Rulandus: Son of a Single Day, is the Philosophic Stone.
FILIUS UNIUS OSTUM: Rulandus: An Egg.
FILIUS VENERIS: Rulandus: i.e., Brass.
FILTRATION: Rulandus: is Subduction by Filtration in a Colander; but this process in the chymical filter may be also called Straining, or Percolation ; it is performed chiefly in operation upon moist substances, from which the aqueous part passes through the colander, and those which are oily or thick are left behind. The practice is principally this. A sheet of commercial paper [carte emporetica], or a rough basket, is shaped into the form of a bag, or applied to the vessel, after the manner of a funnel, etc. The infused liquid passes out by degrees, to be distilled into its receptacle, whence this operation is called Distillation by the Colander. Or:
FILTRATION: Rulandus: is a Frigid Descension, the aqueous portions of the matter treated, passing through the colander, or filter, or funnel, etc., the refuse being left behind. But, in place of the filter, some employ other instruments, especially the chemical glove, woolen bag, flax bag, etc.
FIMUS EQUINUS: Rulandus: Horse Dung.
FIOLA: Rulandus: A Glass with a long neck.
FIREX: Rulandus: i.e., Oil.
FIRFIR: Rulandus: i.e., Ruby Colour.
FIRMAMENTUM: Rulandus: i.e., Lazurium.
FISARUM: Rulandus: i.e., Confection of Sal Ammoniac.
FISSURAS AGERE VEL ADIGERE: Rulandus: To dig Trenches.
FISTULA: Rulandus: i.e., either a Fistulous Ulcer, or a narrow reed-like Opening, Pipe, or Channel.
FIXATION: Rulandus: is an operation upon a volatile subject, after which it is no longer volatile, but remains permanent in the fire, to which it is gradually accustomed. It is performed by calcination, or by slow decoction, taking place daily, or by frequent sublimation and coagulation, or by the addition of a fixed matter.
FIXIO
FIXATION: Rulandus: To make Firm, to Solidify.
FIXIO: Rulandus: Making Firm or Tenacious.
FLAGIE: Rulandus: are Spirits who divine the Secrets of Men; invisible, and yet concealed among us; ever present in our words and works.
FLAMMULA: Rulandus: Crowsfoot.
FLEGMON: Rulandus: Common Abscess.
FLORIFICIREN: Rulandus: Flowers, or the production thereof.
FLOS
BOLUS: Rulandus: (which see), extracted by sublimation. It is also elevated and produced from the centre and inmost parts, that it may coagulate in a dry form at the top. The spirituous Flos, or Flower, is the substance of a thing. Every flower of a matter is in itself volatile and spirituous, although it is possible to fix it by a masterly skill, and to bring it to the nature of Turbith (which see).
FLOS AERIS: Rulandus: Verdigris. Flos AEris is the coagulum, the spirit of the male essence which works upon the female essence; the masculine spirit which completes the work.
FLOS CHEIRI: Rulandus: i.e., Essence of Gold.
FLOS SALIS: Rulandus: is the Greek Alasanthos. Fine Salt.
FLOS SECTOREM CROE: Rulandus: Some say that this is Saffron Flowers. It is a substance mentioned by Paracelsus, and there is supposed to have been a mistake in his manuscript. For myself, I understand it to be the Flower of Moss-nut [? Florem muscatce nucis. Red Emuscata.] Others suppose it to be Flower Extract of Celandine.
FLOX: Rulandus: i.e., Flame.
FLUORES: Rulandus: are Stones similar to gems, but less hard. They are called Fluors by the metallurgists, because they melt and flow under the heat of a fire, even as ice does in the sun. But there are also species which dissolve under the influence of a spirit, and of the air. Theophrastus, if indeed he is referring to these things, calls them *** [Greek], because they are produced in a terrene flux. But I believe that they were unknown to all the ancients. In order that the various species may be better known, we subjoin them in the interest of the student. Fluors are the rudiments of gems, and like unto the same in appearance; they are found in mines and are:
1. Of red colour. At first sight this kind is like rude reddish silver, or carbuncle, but it is of less effulgence. Also the carbuncle withstands fire, whereas the Fluor melts immediately under its influence.
2. Of pale purple colour. This kind is at first sight like pale green amethysts, such as are found in Bohemia, and certainly are not very different from these. As uncritical persons are deluded by the similarity they are unable to judge amethysts. They are unlawfully set in rings and sold as the genuine stone.
3. Of white colour, looking like crystal.
4. Of clay colour, looking like topaz.
5. Of ashen colour.
6. Of semi-black colour. But there are also Fluors of other colours, if we look closely into this matter. It is the custom, when metals are smelted, to treat them and cast them in. The material is restored in a more fluid state, even as with the kind of stone out of which pyrites is made. If the experiment were made, I consider that the best colours would be obtained from Fluors thus treated.
Red Fluors:
1. Showing ruddy in white, sexangular, and pellucid.
2. Long red Fluors, like an upright beam, whence are obtained those small black stones from which White Lead is obtained.
3. Pyramidal quadrangular and sexangular Fluors.
4. Sexangular Fluors, showing ruddy in white, like the sea-urchin.
White, transparent Fluors:
1. Long, white, pellucid, sexangular Fluors, like crystal.
2. Long, white, pellucid Fluors, in the middle of which is a small black stone, from which White Lead is made.
3. White, pellucid, sexanguar Fluors, like a straight beam, such as Misenian Bisalt.
4. White pellucid, quadrangular Fluors, like adamant, adhering to a red metallic marble.
5. White, pyramidal Fluors, transparent at the top, in a white metallic rock, which are overlaid with saccharine matter, like grains of coriander in appearance. They also contain bright particles, as it were, gold-coloured pyrites.
6. Long, white, pellucid, sexangular Fluors, in white, aqueous plumbago and pyrites.
7. White, pellucid, quinquiangular Fluors, in a hard metallic rock.
8. Long, white, pellucid, sexangular Fluors, in an argentine mica.
9. White, pellucid Fluors, as it were, composed of scales.
Ashen Fluors:
1. Long, ashen, sexangular, transparent Fluors, in a hard, ashen stone, like the sea urchin, interspersed with silver-coloured grains of pyrites.
2. Semi-ashen pyramidal Fluors.
3. Tessellated semi-ashen Fluors.
Black Fluors:
1. Square, and not transparent.
2. Very black and multiangular-not unlike the black stones out of which White Lead is excocted.
3. Cloddy, and like dark, glossy bitumen in appearance.
Blue Fluors:
1. Blue, pellucid, quadrangular Fluors, like sapphire.
2. Non-pellucid.
Purple Fluors:
1. Of the colour of amethyst, found in a stone at Trebisa.
2. From the Geodes (a kind of valuable stone), found at Motschen.
3. Showing red in white, and found in a metallic marble.
4. Quadrate Fluors, in a hard, white mica.
5. Quadrate, pellucid Fluors, covered with silver-coloured pyrites.
6. Non-pellucid, from which Chrysocolla (or Borax) is derived.
7. Purple Fluors, combined with green layers.
8. Blood-coloured Fluors of Aldenberg, white inside, outwardly coloured with metallic water.
Scarlet Fluors:
1. Of scarlet-colour, pointed and sexangular.
2. Long, non-pellucid, scarlet, sexangular Fluors, with white, cloddy Fluors, like the sea-urchin ; adhering to it is a very beautiful native Ochre.
Yellow Fluors:
1. Long, whitish-yellow, sexangular, pellucid Fluors, in a metallic marble.
2. Yellow, transparent Fluors, with a grey metallic marble, in which there is a sexangular stone containing Lead.
3. Tesselate, transparent Fluors, with silver-coloured pyrites, in a simple grey stone.
4. Solid Fluors, white on the upper surface, and, as it were, sprinkled with large grains of salt.
5. Yellow, Hanoverian, pellucid, crusty Fluors, like the mirror stone.
6. Pellucid Fluors, like chrysolith.
7. Transparent Fluors, like topaz.
8. Square transparent Fluors, covered with white Fluors.
9. Triangular transparent Fluors, covered with gold-coloured pyrites.
10. Crocus-coloured, transparent, square Fluors.
11. Fluors in colour like falernian wine, similar to amber.
12. Non-transparent, pointed, sexangular yellow Fluors.
13. Altenburg Fluors, white inside, yellow outside, tinctured by metallic water.
14. Opaque, square Fluors, sprinkled right at the top with, as it were, gold-coloured sand.
15. The same, sprinkled at the top with magnesia.
Green Fluors:
1. Green, square, transparent prase-colour Fluors.
2. Transparent Fluors, like emerald.
3. Green, mixed with transparent slime in layers.
4. Square, tesselated Fluors, in which there is plumbago.
5. Solid Fluors, white on the upper surface, and, as it were, sprinkled with large grains of salt.
Opaque and imperfect Fluors.
1. White, imperfect opaque Fluors.
2. Long, white, opaque, sexangular.Fluors, like an erect beam, in a beautiful silver-coloured pyrites.
3. Long, white, pellucid, sexangular Fluors, which in one part are like a white metallic stone, covered as it were with coriander grains, and which are sprinkled with grains of gold-coloured pyrites.
4. Long, white, sexangular, opaque Fluors, like an upright beam in a tesselated lead ore.
5. White opaque Fluors, ornamented with beautiful grains of silver-coloured pyrites and purple Fluors.
6. White, opaque, sexangular Fluors, covered with gold-coloured pyrites.
7. White, opaque Fluors, native in soft coal.
8. Long, upright, sexangular white Fluors in a grey flint, partly covered with very small scales of different colour, mud-colour, ruby, ashen, black, and which are sprinkled with grains of gold-coloured pyrites.
9. White, crusted, opaque Fluors.
10. White, smooth Fluors, like mirror-stone.
11. Purple in white quadrangular and sexangular Fluors from the earth of Moteschano.
12. White Fluors in which there is pure white capillary silver.
13. White Fluors, concreted as in layers.
14. White Fluors, like thorns of the bramble, rising out of gold-coloured pyrites, and to which, as it were, numberless scales are affixed.
FOCUS: Rulandus: A Hearth on which Lead is purified.
FOCUS: Rulandus: A Hearth outside the house, on which masses of Lead are melted.
FOCUS EXCOCTORUM: Rulandus: The Hearth of the Furnace.
FODINA, CUNICULUS: Rulandus: A Pit, Mine, Underground Passage or Channel.
FODINARUM FRUCTUS EXSTANS E FORNACE: Rulandus: The Product of a Mine coming out of the Furnace.
FOEDULA: Rulandus: is a species of Mushroom.
FOENIX
PHOENIX: Rulandus: The Son of One Day, the Philosophical Stone.
FOLIA: Rulandus: Leaves; that which is absolutely separated. When they say: Change gold into leaves, i.e., dissolve it in water, so that the soul may be extracted from it; which soul is sulphur, and it tinges.
FOLIA DATURAE QUASI OLIA AUREA: Rulandus: Leaves like Gold-leaf.
FOLLES SPIRITUALES: Rulandus: A five-fold Ventilator for a Mine.
FOLLIS: Rulandus: Bellows.
FOM: Rulandus: i.e., Sound or Voice.
FONS PHILOSOPHORUM: Rulandus: The Bath of Mary, which see.
FORAMEN FISTULARUM: Rulandus: The Opening of Channels or Fistulas. Item, of a trunk or chest.
FORAMEN SPIRITALE FOLLIUM: Rulandus: Contrivance for catching the wind.
FORAMEN SUPERIORIS TABULATI FOLLIUM: Rulandus: i.e., Bunghole.
FORAMINA SPIRITALIA: Rulandus: Airholes
FORCEPS: Rulandus: Pincers.
FORCEPS FERREUS: Rulandus: Iron Pincers.
FORES QUIBUS VECTIS INSUNT: Rulandus: Doors with Dampers.
FORFEX: Rulandus: An oblong instrument like tongs, which can be easily opened or shut, and is useful for stirring and moving coals under the vessel, or for taking hold of the vessel itself. There is another kind, not unlike forceps, by which the vessel is generally lifted off the fire.
FORICULA: Rulandus: Small Doors for Ventilation.
FORMAE RERUM: Rulandus: The celestial influx which things below derive from things above; the secret potency, power, and virtue of a substance.
FORMICAE: Rulandus: Emmets, Ants; in skin diseases, Pimples, Warts, a kind of Abscess, Black Warts, Pimples raised by irritation, etc.
FORNACIS MAGISTER: Rulandus: Overseer of the furnace.
FORNACULA: Rulandus: Assaying Furnaces.
FORNAX: Rulandus: A Furnace or Oven.
FORNAX PRIMA VITRARIORUM, ET ETIAM EA, IN QUA EXCOQUUNTUR VENIE: Rulandus: A Smelting Oven.
FORNAX: Rulandus: A Refining Oven in which silver is separated from lead.
FORNAX: Rulandus: A Furnace or Oven in which iron ore is smelted.
FORNAX: Rulandus: An Oven in which copper nuggets are melted by baking.
FORNAX: Rulandus: An Oven in which copper nuggets are heated.
FORNAX: Rulandus: An Oven similar to a furnace.
FORNAX ANEMIA: Rulandus: is an Oven shaped after the manner of a tripod, with a conistery and a grate, divided into two parts by a gridiron. The conistery is made fast by an iron gate, by which air can enter. The grate is open and covered with coarse clay. The free space is called Ergastulum. The matters are frequently prepared, or treated, in a frying pan, baking dish, saucepan, triangular vessel, etc., so that they may be set upon the burning coals, or quickly removed therefrom. Frequently the fire is increased by a fan, or bellows, but usually a proper draught of air is sufficient. It should also be said that the gate of the conistery can be opened by the current of wind or air. The only other exit should be that of the shaft or chimney; more especially when a matter has to be melted or calcined by a great heat.
FORNIX: Rulandus: A Vaulted Place.
FORNICULAE: Rulandus: A kind of lancet.
FOSSA LATENS: Rulandus: A Cross-cut.
FOSSA LATENS JUXTA LACUNAM: Rulandus: A Cross-cut by a pool, ditch, etc.
FOSSA OCCULTA: Rulandus: The End of a Passage in a Mine.
FOSSAM LATENTEM SUBSTRUERE: Rulandus: To build a shed in which rubbish may be thrown.
FOSSAM PATENTEM DUCERE: Rulandus: To construct a Channel for getting rid of water in mines.
FOSSOR: Rulandus: A Miner.
FOSSORES, QUI COLLEGERUNT INTORTA: Rulandus: Miners who have to work in a stooping position.
FOSSOS DUCERE: Rulandus: To construct Channels.
FRONDES LAURI: Rulandus: Laurel leaves, or of the colour thereof.
FUGILE, PAROTIS, ABSCESSUS SECUS AURES: Rulandus: Literally an Ear-ring. In diseases, a Tumour of the Ear.
FULIGO: Rulandus: Painter's Black, Cream-soot, is made in several ways and of many materials; among us, out of pitch. Dioscorides says that it is obtained from glassblowers. Its medical virtue is astringent and consuming.
FULIGO METALLORUM: Rulandus: Properly Arsenic, but it often signifies Mercury.
FULMEN: Rulandus: In the present connection is the Flowers of Cupellated Silver, in the cleansing thereof with lead. Consequently, Metallic Fulmination is, especially with the higher metals, a process of purging.
FULMINATION: Rulandus: is a Metallic Gradation, with Excoction, educing the pure part, the perfection thereof being indicated by an irradiating splendour. Hence the name of the operation, because there is a coruscation accompanied, like lightning, with a reverberating noise. After the foreign substances have been separated, a kind of sulphureous cloud appears on the surface, followed by a purplish splendour, which is called the brightness, lightning, or flow. When this has passed away, the matter has already begun to grow cool.
FULTURAE NATIVE VEL FORNICES: Rulandus: Natural Supports or Arches.
FUMIGATIO: Rulandus: Fumigation is Calcination by an aerial and corroding smoke. It is performed in diverse manner, the nobler metals by an afflatus of fused lead or artificial quicksilver; the fragile parts are given up, and subsequently triturated by rubbing with salt.
FUMUS: Rulandus: is the Scoria, an incrustation on the floor, yet properly that which arises and brings the body with it. For there are two kinds of smoke, which mix with the earth, make the stars fall from heaven, make also comets and rainbows about the sun and moon. When the batia finds a mineral matter, then it is to the smallest extent mingled with it. It also becomes fixed and a metal, but should the batia not find any, then it becomes a mercury; but the mineral power which it ought to find is clear sulphur washed, and partially fixed, and it is found in the extracted stones, and in sand. It shines like silver, and because nothing can be produced without this, it is found in every place wherein metals are generated. Consequently, metal which contains much sulphur is called the lake of the generation of metals.
FUMUS ALBUS: Rulandus: is Mercury, the Soul and the Tincture, Heavenly Water, the Quintessence of Venus; this smoke conducts the colour of the gold by a dry process into the height. Then the snake climbs up into the tree, and finds the mother with two children, and devours them all. That is to say, the smoke rises over itself, and finds two sulphurs with the Mercury. It dissolves all, generates it in itself, becomes fixed, and is petrified. The white smoke is the soul of the dissolved bodies; it imparts life and whiteness.
FUMUS CITRINUS: Rulandus: is Yellow Sulphur.
FUMUS RUBEUS: Rulandus: is Orpiment. It is also called Gold because it is bright.
FUMUS VIRIOSUS
VIRUS: Rulandus: is poisonous, pestilential Smoke.
FUMUS CASAE: Rulandus: Smoke from a house chimney.
FUNIS DUCTARIUS: Rulandus: A Rope.
FUNIS EX PHILYRIS, TILIAE FACTUS: Rulandus: Rope made from the Bark of the Linden Tree.
FUNICULUS CANAEINUS: Rulandus: String.
FURES CANDIDI: Rulandus: Red Water.
FUROGI: Rulandus: i.e., a Cock.
FURNI TECTI: Rulandus: Covered Furnaces; those which have a roof.
A Covered Furnace is either simple or compound.
A Simple Furnace is that which stands by itself, and has no connection with any other furnace. It may be either a calcinating or dissolving furnace.
A Calcining Furnace is one that is used for calcination. It may be a welding or reverberatory furnace.
A Welding Furnace is one in which the fire is conveniently arranged for welding substances. It would be possible to mention various kinds of furnaces for conducting this operation, but that which I am now about to describe is more satisfactory than all the rest, both on account of its continuous fire, and also because of the easy regulation of the degrees of the same. A square brick wall is built, having internal breadth of a cubit, and extending upwards to the first compartment a height of one foot, thus forming the ash-pan. It extends to the second compartment one foot, thus completing the Ergasterium. Next, the furnace should incline towards the tower a height of one foot. Next, from the top of this furnace we must erect a tower three feet in height, and having an internal capacity of one foot. The height of the furnace so constructed will be six feet or three cubits. But two doors must be left in the interior wall-one in the ash-pan being a third of a cubit in length and the sixth of a cubit in breadth, convenient for removing ashes and inducing currents of air ; the other door in the oven must be nine inches. Between these doors an iron grate is placed, and over it we set an earthenware plate, which can be surmounted by an archshaped roof. Coals supplied through the upright tower burn upon this roof. Moreover, four apertures must be made in each wall, so that on any side the coals can be stirred by a poker. Also, let the tower have an aperture at the top about the breadth of a little finger, which in most cases is to be left open, so that the fire may draw the air which sustains it. The outer doors and apertures are duly closed by their lids, so that the furnace may sustain the fire for an uninterrupted space of twenty-four hours, according as the work requires.
The Reverberatory Furnace is that wherein the matter is calcined by bounding or resilient flame. It is constructed in the following fashion. Let a brick wall of oblong shape, and of the height of one foot, be erected to serve as an ash-pan, having an aperture of the breadth of four fingers, which will serve as a door for the removal of ashes. Place upon this wall a grate obliquely, and over that let there be a wall extending to the height of one foot, to serve as an oven. In the ash-pan there must be a door four fingers broad through which the ashes can be removed. Above it there must be another door in the wall of the grate, wherein wood can be put. After these arrangements have been completed, let a sort of gallery or terrace [solarium] be constructed of bricks, which shall not be in contact with the posterior wall, and shall be three fingers in breadth. Through the aperture thus left the flame will make its way, and being stopped at the arched roof, will reverberate upon the matter. We next leave a moderately sized door in the interior partition above the gallery, through which the matter to be reverberated upon may be put in and taken out. We cover the remaining portion of the furnace with an arched roof, which is a little lower down than the other part. We cover the anterior and posterior portions of the furnace, and strengthen them with walls of brick, after having left four ventilators, side by side, being of the space of two fingers, in the said upper door. By means of these ventilators it is possible to regulate the fire readily and conveniently, to increase and diminish the heat at will, as the operation requires. When everything has been constructed after this fashion, we make a lid to fit each down, and adjust it thereto. The furnace is then ready for use.
The Simple Dissolving Furnace, dissolves matter by its power of resolving the coarse into the refined. It may be either an ascending or descending furnace.
An Ascending Furnace is that which dissolves by ascending. It is either dry or humid.
The Dry Furnace is a vessel containing the matter, the vessel in question not being put into water. The dissolution is effected by means of an external moisture. It takes place in a bladder and sand melting box.
The Bladder Furnace is that which serves for dissolving the matter in a bladder. It is as follows: Four walls are erected in a square, being of the height of one foot (the breadth varying according to the capacity of the bladder), and this serves as an ash-pan. But from one side of the bottom two fragments are so placed at the corners as to leave in their midst a vacant space of six fingers' breadth and the same height for the ash-pan, which completely fills up the space designed for it. Over this structure we must place iron bars to form a grate, and then we shall have finished with the ash-pan. Above this an oven is to be constructed by means of similar walls, eighteen inches high, a door being left in the centre of the furnace by means of which the coals can be manipulated. Over this wall-structure we place an iron bar, which holds the bladder suspended. Having made this structure, the wall is continued to the height of the bladder. It is to be noted that the furnace is to be constructed with such a capacity that a space of at least two fingers' breadth shall exist between the furnace and the vessel, so that the latter may be properly encircled by the heat. Having put in the vessel we cover the furnace ; nevertheless, we allow the orifice of the bladder to protrude, and the four ventilators are also left open. Finally, we construct a lid for each hole and adjust it thereto.
The Sand Vessel Furnace is that which dissolves metals by means of a sand box. It is made after the manner of the furnace described above; there is no difference in the structure, except that instead of a bladder, we place therein a melting, or any other vessel containing the matter, and we keep a watch on the furnace. But if we wish to dissolve anything by an open fire, i.e., without a vessel of sand, and by inclining the other vessel which contains the matter upon its side, let the furnace have a vacant space in one of its walls, four or six fingers wide, according to circumstances, and of a suitable capacity. Such a furnace is of great use in all kinds of dissolutions, either when performed by ashes, by sand, or by iron, or even by naked fire.
FURNUS: Rulandus: A place wherein the fire for chemically operating upon a matter may be properly and conveniently placed. The furnace may be either open or closed. An Open Furnace is one which has the upper part open. This kind may be either a testing or blasting furnace.
A Testing or Assaying Furnace is a furnace wherein the nobler metals are refined and searched, or, to use a more correct and technical term, are fulminated. It is constructed of potter's earth, iron plates, or tiles. An iron or earthenware plate is taken, and a four-sided structure is built, in such a way that its base is eleven feet square, but its height is sixteen feet. After the first eight feet of its height it becomes narrower by four feet, yet must the mouth of the furnace be seven feet wide. It is correct also for the plates to have a thickness of one foot and a half, but the floor and the base should be potter's clay, half a foot thick. Having erected this building, we measure three feet upwards and four feet along. This constitutes the lower doorway. From the post of this doorway a wall is continued for two feet, which takes up the space between the first door and that next to be mentioned. Measuring three feet and a half above, and four feet along, we have a convenient door for taking things out and putting them in. We must next proceed to bore a certain small hole at a foot's distance in the centre a hole in which the little finger can be placed, this is convenient for the poker whereby the coals are stirred. Moreover, three-quarters of a foot away, and at the extremity of the door, partitions must be placed on the right and left, where the two holes are of the breadth of an ordinary finger. Into these holes, with which two others should correspond in the opposite wall, are placed iron rods, extending to the breadth of four fingers along the wall. Lids or stoppers must be fitted to either door, having a handle, so that they can be removed and replaced. The upper of these lids must have an oblong hole, so that when the door is closed the interior may yet be visible. Let the lower lid be provided with a circular and larger hole, so that the fire may attract the air which sustains it. Over the rods let an earthenware plate be placed, hollowed out on three sides, but intact on the fourth side, and fitting accurately to the anterior wall. Then the floor of the compartment must be fixed, and an arch-shaped roof placed above, which must be distant two feet and a half from the side and back. Further, let a circular hole-as it were, another door-be cut out, to provide air. When everything has been constructed on this model for the furnace, before it is baked, let the iron plates which constitute the furnace be properly fastened together and riveted. Let, finally, the whole construction be dried in a sunny place, and properly baked by a potter. This manner of making a furnace is the most convenient possible, both because it is not easily choked up with ashes, and because it is sufficient for all assaying purposes, far excelling all others in the facility with which the fire can be directed.

A Blasting Furnace, or Anemia, is an open furnace wherein, by means of a current of air which increases the flame, the minerals are liquefied and melted. Should the metals be exceptionally difficult to fuse, so that the blast cannot produce sufficient heat, or the worker desires to melt something very quickly, a bellows can be conveniently attached to the furnace, to increase the fire and accelerate the melting. The blasting furnace may be constructed with its own bellows in the following fashion. Erect four walls, a foot apart either way, and a cubit in height, to serve as an ash-pan. On either side of the ash-pan let there be a door, by which the fire can draw the air, and the ashes be removed. Moreover, above the ash-pan, let iron bars be arranged to form a grate, for holding the coals and the vessel placed therein. Let there be another hole of the breadth of a finger beneath the grate, through which the beak of the bellows can pass. Then let the furnace have an oven added thereto. When it is sufficiently dried by coal-dust, and washed over with mud mingled with water, the bellows may be affixed. This furnace, in case of necessity, may also be used for calcination.
FURNUS BALNEI: Rulandus: is that in which we dissolve the matter when hot in the bronze vessel which contains it. This furnace is built in the same way as the two others, and instead of a bladder or sand box, a brazen box made for the purpose is substituted. But in the vapour bath another vessel of copper made in the following manner is fixed to the top. The vessel is round, and two or three feet in height, the base being comprised in the interior of the ahenum, and the whole arrangement is so exactly adjusted that no vapour can escape. From one side of this vessel a canal or pipe projects, the lower end of which is in contact with the ahenum, so that, if necessary, fresh water can be poured through it. In close proximity to the ahenum, this vessel has a kind of twist upon which a perforated plate something like a diaphragm is placed, containing the vessels. It sometimes happens that more things require to be digested than can be contained in one vessel, whence it is necessary, in order to supply this deficiency, that a second and even a third vessel should be added, according to the need of the moment, and the number of things to be digested. We fix on the top of the vessel a copper lid, which fits exactly, lest any vapour should escape. But when we wish to abstract anything by means of the vapour bath, we do not need this vessel. A cucurbit is placed in a deeper ahenum, care being taken that no water shall reach the glass. It is necessary, however, that the vapour should surround and heat it. As a further precaution, let the lid itself have a cover.

A Descending Furnace is that whereby we drive the moisture downward, and so dissolve the matter. Walls are erected for the ashpan, that the containing vessel may be sheltered from the violence of the fire. Upon the ashpan a grate is arranged with a circular aperture in the centre, through which the orifice of the upper vessel may pass. The walls are continued to form the oven, where also the ergasterium is constructed, and in this the vessel is put reversed. Then, a fire of the required temperature being sustained, dissolution takes place.
Composite Furnaces are those in which one fire is used for all. Such are the Athanor and Acediae (time-saving) Furnaces.
The Time-Saving Furnace is that where many furnaces are sustained by one fire with very little trouble. It takes its name from idleness, and is called "Idle Henry" by the Germans. A round or square tower is erected in the fashion before described, and we leave apertures over the grate which conduct the heat to the side furnaces. There may be three, four, or five of them. Iron stoppers must be provided, by which the heat can be cut off or communicated. By the means of these separate holes another furnace may be closely connected. Nevertheless, it is necessary that each furnace should have its own particular ash-pan and pyreterium, with a separate grate and chimney. By the help of these time-saving furnaces almost any purpose can be accomplished.
FURNUS PANIS: Rulandus: A Heated Oven.
FURNUS SABULI: Rulandus: A Heated Sand-furnace.
FUSI: Rulandus: Spindle, Windlass. Perhaps also a Pulley over which a rope runs.
FUSIO: Rulandus: is Liquation by Heat.
FUSION: Rulandus: by Antimony is that process by which we separate true gold not only from imperfect metals, but also from silver, and it is performed in this manner. I take gold combined with other metals, and mix with it three parts of pulverized antimony. I then place it inside a crucible which will withstand fire, and this vessel I place in a blasting furnace. Afterwards (if necessary, with the help of the bellows) I transfer the duly liquefied substance into a heated pyramid, then, having struck the sides with a mallet, the regulus containing the gold will settle itself at the top, and we strike off the top with a mallet. The residual antimony contained in the pyramid I again put to the fire and proceed as before, up to the third time, so that all the gold may be taken from the antimony. Each metal regulus thus obtained, having been put into an earthen vessel, and coals having been piled on the top, I set a light to them just like the fire of a furnace, and keep up the flame until all the antimony being evaporated, there is a residue of pure unalloyed gold, which instantly solidifies.
FYADA: Rulandus: i.e., Mercury, White Smoke.

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Alchemical Dictionary - F

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