Alchemy: ancient and modern : being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in physical science on the other hand ; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists / by H. Stanley Redgrove.

  • Herbert Stanley Redgrove
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Alchemy: ancient and modern : being a brief account of the alchemistic doctrines, and their relations, to mysticism on the one hand, and to recent discoveries in physical science on the other hand ; together with some particulars regarding the lives and teachings of the most noted alchemists / by H. Stanley Redgrove. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    attained. On examining spectroscopically the gas obtained by the action of the emanation on water, after the removal of the ordinary gases, a most sur¬ prising result was observed—the gas showed a brilliant spectrum of neon, accompanied with some faint helium lines. A more careful experiment was carried out later by Sir William Ramsay and Mr. Cameron, in which a silica bulb was employed instead of glass. The spectrum of the residual gas after removing ordinary gases was successfully photographed, and a large number of the neon lines identified ; helium was also present. The presence of neon could not be explained, in Ramsay’s opinion, by leakage of air into the apparatus, as the percentage of neon in the air is not sufficiently high, whereas this suggestion might be put forward in the case of argon. Moreover, the neon could not have come from the aluminium of the elec¬ trodes (in which it might be thought to have been occluded), as the sparking tube had been used and tested before the experiment was carried out. The authors conclude: “We must regard the transforma¬ tion of emanation into neon, in presence of water, as indisputably proved, and, if a transmutation be defined as a transformation brought about at will, by change of conditions, then this is the first case ofi transmuta¬ tion of which conclusive evidence is put forwardl9 However, Professor Rutherford and Mr. Royds have been unable to confirm this result. They describe 20 attempts to obtain neon by the action of emanation 19 Journal of the Chemical Society, vol. xciii. (1908), p. 997. 20 E. Rutherford, F.R.S., and T. Royds, M.Sc. : “The Action of Radium Emanation on Water,” Philosophical Magazine [6], vol. xvi. (1908), pp. 812 et seq.