Chemist's Basilisk

The element bismuth (#83 on the periodic table) was also known as the chemist’s basilisk. I learned this reading Peter Wothers’ book on the naming of chemical elements, aptly titled Antimony, Gold, and Jupiter’s Wolf. What is a basilisk? If you’ve read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, you’d know that it was a serpent that turned you into stone if you looked into its eyes. Hermione cleverly figures out that this king of serpents was making use of pipes (or the plumbing system) to travel through Hogwarts.

 

Why would bismuth be connected to the basilisk? Turns out that artisans making pewter would mix bismuth with tin “that it may confer splendor and hardness to it… bismuth hardens and gives a shine to tin”. That’s why bismuth was also known as tin-glass. The German chemist Rudolf Glauber referred to bismuth as a Demogorgon, “named after the dreadful snake-haired sisters whose look turns the beholder to stone.” (This is not to be confused with the Demogorgon of Stranger Things, although it is likely related.) Apparently, bismuth also strengthens silver (with the side effect of turning it black) and apparently also hardens gold. Glauber, who lived in the 17^th century, apparently suggested that “Great Princes also might have Armour and Arms made of this hardened Sol, which would be much better than any of Iron or Steel, which easily take rust, to which Sol is not subject.”

 

You’ve likely guessed that Sol refers to the sun. Indeed, in the ancient world, the seven known metals were associated with the seven known heavenly bodies. In the Earth-centric astronomy of the day, from closest to furthest, these would be the Moon (silver), Mercury (mercury), Venus (copper), the Sun (gold), Mars (iron), Jupiter (tin), Saturn (lead). Way back then, shiny liquid mercury was called quicksilver. The alchemists, in their secret recipes for the philosopher’s stone, would allude to the ingredients in a cryptic manner. Thus, one would read allusions to the sun or the moon or the gods, when what they were really referring to was chemical substances.

 

I also learned from Wothers’ book that metallic bismuth and antimony share with water the rare property that the liquid form is denser than the solid form. Just like ice floats on water, solid bismuth floats on liquid bismuth. For the vast majority of substances, the solids are denser than the liquids, and thus the solids sink. Antimony (#51) is in the same column and just above bismuth on the periodic table. It was often confused with bismuth because of their similar chemical properties. Antimony has the symbol Sb referring to the Latin stibium – apparently related to an Egyptian word that refers to eyeliner. Scarily, it was in ancient times as an eye dilator, part of beauty preparations for women. That sounds like a bad idea to the chemist in me.

 

Antimony was used to purify gold. In another 17^th century text, antimony is known as the ‘Wolf of Metals’ because it ‘devours all Metals but God’. I take this to mean that it preferentially reacts with other metals in a mixture that contains gold, thus allowing the gold to separate from the mixture. Once again, the alchemists couch this in cryptic language: “Take the most ravenous grey Wolf, which by reason of his Name is subject to valorous Mars, but by the Genesis of his Nativity he is the Son of old Saturn, found in Mountains and in Vallies of the World: He is very hungry, cast unto him the Kings, body that he may be nourished from it; and when he hath devoured the King, make a great fire, into which cast the Wolf, that he be quite burned, then will the King be at liberty again.” Wothers provides the picture of a 17^th century engraving.

 

Lead (#82) is just to the left of bismuth in the periodic table. In ancient times, it was also used to purify gold. Wothers describes the process “known as cupellation, the impure gold would be roasted with lead in a porous vessel known as a cupel. Remarkably, this process, relatively unchanged over the centuries, is still carried out today during the assaying of gold. Perhaps through analogy with Saturn consuming his children, the lead is said to devour all the metallic impurities. In the high temperatures of the assay furnace the lead and impurities form molten oxides which are absorbed into the cupel itself, leaving the gold behind.” Saturn is the Roman name for the Greek Titan Kronos, father of Zeus. Jupiter is the Roman name for Zeus. I’m not sure exactly how antimony is Jupiter’s Wolf in particular. Zeus did not eat Kronos. Before dispatching Kronos, Zeus feeds him an emetic so that all those who were previously eaten are disgorged. Yuck. Turns out antimony is an emetic because it’s poisonous and therefore your body tries to get rid of it. You could add powdered antimony oxide to wine (it was known as vinum emeticum) or you could make an antimony glaze on your cup (known as the ‘emetic cup’) to help you vomit.

 

That’s probably more than you wanted to know about antimony. Turns out there are many other speculatory guesses about where it got its name. Besides the eyeliner theory, there is the monk-killer theory, the ‘enemy of solitude’ translation, and more. But for all this wonderful detail, I’d recommend you read Wothers book. It’s a little dry in parts, and not as engaging as Periodic Tales. But for someone like me who’s interested in the alchemical connections, I’m enjoying Antimony, Gold, and Jupiter’s Wolf.