Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, France
elements
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Bismuth
- Some confusion
- remains regarding
- the confusion
- of bismuth
- with lead, tin,
- antimony, and zinc
- in ancient times.
- We believe
- the Egyptians
- used it as
- a cosmetic.
- Bismuth is one
- of the sixteen
- elements known
- to alchemists
- and we don’t
- know what they
- thought of it.
- It’s hard
- to find mention
- of it elsewhere
- and of course
- they didn’t
- call it bismuth.
- Early Europeans
- mined it for use
- in pigments.
- Bismuth vanadate
- is a bright
- yellow pigment.
- Today bismuth
- oxychloride is in
- pearlescent
- cosmetics, and
- bismuth subsalicylate
- in Pepto-Bismol®
- and Kaopectate®.
Atomic number 83
- Bismuth was known by alchemists and metallurgists
- before the first millennium.
- Paracelsus described bismuth and zinc
- and gave zinc its name in 1526.
- Georgius Agricola described bismuth
- in De Natura Fossilium in 1548.
- Johann Heinrich Pott, Carl Wilhelm Scheele,
- and Torbern Olof Bergman worked on the problem.
- Claude François Geoffroy, in 1753,
- was the first to prove it was a separate element.
Too soon
- At the bismuth mines
- near the town of Schneeberg
- in Erzgebirgskreis (the mountainous
- ore district in Saxony),
- miners around 1477
- were familiar with ores
- for silver and three kinds
- of lead—ordinary lead,
- “white lead,” that is, tin,
- and tectum argenti,
- or “silver being made,”
- that is, bismuth.
- The alchemists taught
- the transmutation of elements,
- that all metals tended
- toward gold, the ideal, so that
- these three metals were
- tending toward silver
- in that order—lead,
- tin, bismuth, then silver.
- Consequently, when
- finding a vein of bismuth,
- the miners would sadly
- shake their heads and say,
- “Alas, we have come too soon.”
Work in progress
- It’s ancient, but still
- a work in progress.
- Many are patient;
- others impatient patients.
- One can only try.
- Past behavior
- is not indicative
- of future performance
- but no one’s waiting
- for the end.
- I’m evolving
- as fast as I can.
- In the meantime,
- in between time,
- I could use
- a bit of luck.
The alchemists identified magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, arsenic, silver, tin, antimony, platinum, gold, mercury, lead, and bismuth. Only a hundred or more elements were left.
See also in The book of science:
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