Celandine Stone effects

So after about five months in incubation I finally took out my celandine stone and bottled it in a sealed vial. This was made using a method given to me by a fellow alchemist and friend. I took a dose about the size of a wheat kernel and chased it with about an ounce of wine. In only a few minutes I started to feel lightheaded. A warmth gathered in my solar plexus and just kept growing and growing, radiating outwards. It grew in intensity and finally when the warmth hit my head I passed out - I slept for about two hours. I didn't remember any of what I dreamed about, but when I woke I felt quite refreshed, although still a little groggy. Even now, about nine hours after taking it, I still feel its effects somewhat.

Getting into Glassblowing

I'm in the process of ordering glassblowing equipment including a torch, hoses, and work area equipment. I intend on making much of my own lab equipment this way, including philosophical Eggs (see a previous post on my failed attempts at this - inadequate equipment), condensers, circulatory vessels, and maybe even learn to make retorts. I might also play around with glass art, like flowers, animals, etc, of an alchemical nature/motif. All this equipment will be bought from sundanceart.com, a company based in California. I just hope I don't torch my house - I've had some good luck so far with the regular propane torch in not burning anything, including myself. A small torch like that is very limiting though. I'll post pictures and such as I progress in this.

Distilling methanol

As a favour for a friend, I did an experiment to see if methanol (ie a byproduct of fermenting wine, which is quite poisonous, as opposed to the good alcohol which is ethanol or ethyl alcohol) can be eliminated via regular distillation using simple equipment. Surprisingly I found it quite difficult.
Methyl distills at roughly 65C, ethyl at 78C, and water at 100C. I got very close to the boiling point of the ethyl (75C) and yet nothing would distill over. I even used aluminum foil as a thermal barrier to help the methyl be carried over to the condenser, and still nothing. Either this means that no matter what a small amount of methanol will be present in distilled/purified alcohol, or somewhere I made a mistake with my setup.

Leaching

More leaching, more calcining. Almost done purifying the Salt of Sulfur for my Opus Minor of John Reid project. Soon I'll be moving on to imbibing/incubating.

Leaching

Not much going on today in the lab. I'm still drying that potassium carbonate and also leaching the Salt of Sulphur for my work on John Reid's Minor Opus.

Trying to Make a Philosophical Egg

Today I made perhaps my fifth attempt at making my own Philosophical Egg - this is basically a small flask with a really long neck. I tried making one out of pyrex glass tubing, and test tubes. All failed because a small hole would pop its way through. I really think it's my torch, that it's not strong enough. I'm using a propane torch, whereas glassblowers typically use oxy-acetylene torches (they cost about $400, which I don't have). I've read online that you can use propane, but it's very limiting. I think there's one website that sells special torch heads for propane tanks geared for glass blowing, so I might try that.

Drying pot. carb., calcining

Today I'm retrieving old potassium carbonate and distilling alcohol from when I made absolute alcohol a few weeks ago. This helps cut down on costs and reuses a lot, as a lot of material is used in this process. You can see in the picture what the goopy potassium carbonate looks like when it's dried. Because it tends to spit a lot, getting everything around it covered with potassium carbonate, I use a cylinder made out of flashing for roofs as a shield to help with this. Stirring when it's closer to being completely dry helps as well, as it otherwise is very difficult to scrape out of the pyrex dish. The distillation is just a normal distillation in a water bath. Usually the alcohol ends up being at around 90%.
I'm also calcining some caraway for both Salt and Salt of Sulphur. Every time I calcine Salt of Sulphur it always takes more heat and longer periods of time and regular Salt (of Salt). Maybe because of the increased amount of organic compounds in the Salt of Sulphur.

Spring Projects Planned

I have a few projects planned for this year, most of which I'll be starting once it warms up in the spring. I'll be starting the Fire Stone via the Kermes method, as well as restarting my Wet Path project using galena. Both of these need to be done outside, as toxic smoke is released and no one wants that inside.

Circulatum Minus Project

Well, after all that effort, the Circulatum I made is a bust. As you can see from the picture, even after a day there was no real Separation. I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and try again.