21st century technology cracks alchemists' secret recipe

EurekAlert! ^ | November 22, 2006 | Judith H Moore et al

[SunkenCiv]

Now, writing in Nature, the researchers reveal using petrographic, chemical and X-ray diffraction analysis that Hessian crucible makers made use of an advanced material only properly identified and named in the 20th century. Dr Marcos Martinón-Torres, of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, who led the study, explains: "Our analysis of 50 Hessian and non-Hessian crucibles revealed that the secret component in their manufacture is an aluminium silicate known as mullite (Al6Si2O13)... This material was only first described in the 20th century, though Hessian crucible makers were already taking advantage of this peculiar aluminium silicate 400 years earlier: they synthesised mullite by manufacturing their crucibles with kaolinitic clay and then firing them at temperatures above 1100 degrees. Mullite is extremely resistant to thermal, chemical and mechanical stresses, and that's what made the crucibles so fit for their functions. It is thanks to the availability of Hessian crucibles that the discovery of some elements and their thermochemical behaviour could take place. Crucible makers were not aware of mullite, but they mastered a very successful recipe, and that's why they kept it constant, and secret, for centuries."

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks to ArchaeoBlog for having the link to this one.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[Ciexyz]

Most interesting.

[Blind Eye Jones]

Herman Hesse would be very please with the alchemy of this century... the bowel of the body and the manifest fires of personality distill wonders yet untold.