3100 BCE

Antimony

• Antimony, the brittle metalloid,
• confused with lead,
• was available as stibnite
• (the sulfide of antimony)
• to predynastic beauties
• of the upper Nile
• to paint the contours of the eyes.
• Pliny the Elder proscribed it
• as a disinfectant.
• Pedanius Dioscorides suggested roasting it
• in a current of hot air.
• In India, people applied it
• to the eyes of children after birth
• to prevent the evil eye.

Atomic number 51

• Vannoccio Biringuccio,
• was the first to describe, in 1540,
• metallic antimony, that is,
• distinct from the sulfide of antimony,
• as “very white and almost more shining than silver”
• and “much more brittle than glass.”
• He said that the alchemists
• favored “the kind with long thin fibers
• like a bundle of bristles.”
• Clearly, the discovery of metallic antimony
• predates Biringuccio
• since his alchemist friends knew of it.

The lost art

• The lost art
• of rendering antimony malleable
• is only fantasy.
• Like the philosopher’s stone
• it never existed
• although smart people
• have wasted effort
• and lost time.