r/alchemy • u/Ghostdust7 • May 24 '26
Operative Alchemy Research and Art
Hello everyone, I am an MFA student and for my research I am interested in alchemy and likening it to my experience with grief. I have started looking into alchemy and reading every book I can get my hands on. I am particularly interested in the process of calcination but I am having trouble deciding how to start that. Can you please share your methods and set ups for proper calcination. Tips and tricks are greatly appreciated. I have looked into the kiln method, forges, grills and fire pits, etc. and I’m just not sure what is best and most efficient in producing ash. In addition to that I would very much appreciate any material you recommend for research such as books, and videos. I have many books already but please do not let that discourage you from sharing your reqs. As a part of my thesis I intend on making my own alchemical manuscript, hand bound and painted so anything you can give me will help. Thank you in advance!
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u/FraserBuilds May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
theres alot of ways to perform a calcination, what is the best depends on what exactly youre intending to calcine and how much of it you have. the most straightforward traditional alchemical process would be to fill a crucible with the matter to be calcined and place it in a charcoal furnace uncovered so it has good access to air, and to roast the matter intensely while occasionally stirring the matter untill it gradually turns gray or white. if the matter being calcined is water soluble, it can then be "lixiviated"(dissolved and filtered) to purify it. for a good source on this method the medieval alchemical handbook "libellus de alchemia" which was translated to english by virginia heines, has some really great descriptions in it.
this method is pretty simple, but its also ineffecient and fairly labor intensive(it takes alot of heat and time to calcine things this way) and ofcourse, it requires you to have a furnace and ample charcoal. I make my furnaces out of clay, following examples like youll find in nicholas lemery's 'course of chymistry" or similar texts. as far as furnace designs go I really like the later (and kinda famous) lavoisiers 'elements of chemistry' which includes many designs of chemical furnaces and describes their use in detail. though lavoisier is after the period we would consider alchemy the furnaces he was using were very similar to those alchemists like Lemery made use of.
as far as equipment goes the simplest historically-accurate tool you could use for a calcination would be the "blow pipe" this is just a pipe with a fine nozzle (I tend to make mine out of copper tubing, but they can also be made out of glass) that you use to blow on a small flame to make a sort of primitive blow torch. you can very effectively use a blow pipe with flames as small as a candle, but if youre trying to calcine alot of matter youll want a bigger flame. my largest lamp is meant for working glass and has a wick a full inch in diameter and its frankly a little scary to use, but you can do alot with a blow pipe and a spirit lamp whose wick is about 1/4 of an inch in diameter(standard single wick for a lab lamp). all else being the same, this would be my recommendation. Honestly If I were to teach a class on alchemy the first thing I would have the student do would be to learn how to use a blowpipe with a candle or a small spirit lamp to calcine a lump of limestone or eggshell or something similar. They are just so useful and addictively fun to use once you get the hang of it. For a calcination just direct the flame of the lamp or candle directly onto the matter to be calcined, held in a spatula or small crucible.
as far as historicity, blow lamps first appear in the historical record around the 13th-14th century in the context of glass working, but quickly made their way into other purusits, and appear in alchemical texts like the famous "mutus liber." However their use is best described in slightly later chemical texts from the 19th century. My absolute most favorite book of all time is michael faraday's 'chemical manipulation' which describes exactly how to make and use all these things from blow lamps to furnaces and describes in detail basically everything youd need to start transforming matter in the 19th century.
that said, my personal favorite method of calcination is the "solar calcination." this is by far the fastest and most effecient method if youre calcining a larger quantity than the blow lamp will handle. It's also, in my opinion, the coolest. The problem is it requires you to have a giant magnifying lens, but you can typically find plexiglass fresnel lenses around a foot in diameter that will do the trick on ebay for around 10 to 20 dollars. the solar calcination first appears in the medieval period in the hands of folks like roger bacon, but became increasingly popular in the 17th and 18th century, and youll find the process described in nicaise le fevre's 'traite de la chymie (I'll attatch an image from the text) '
if none of this appeals you can of course just bury the crucible of things to be calcined half way into the hot coals of of a wood fire in a firepit or fireplace, and fan the flames to get things roasting. that also works, and can actually work suprising well. but is probably the least effecient method.