One of Joe Biden's most ardent supporters

[The Magistrate]

49. I Enjoy Old Science Books, Sir

Ages ago I bought a book which had apparently been re-titled to present it as related to alchemy, but what it turned out to be was a nineteenth century examination of the history of chemistry, of encyclopeadic quality with a special emphasis on chemical knowledge and practices of antiquity. It was fascinating. The nearest it got to anything alchemic, aside from occasions where some historical figure important in development of chemistry had alchemical interests, was a discussion of various ways, starting with practices in ancient Egypt, by which people had contrived to pass off brass or bronze as gold, or to make heavily alloyed gold pass for pure. Means to color quartz and such to pass for precious gems were also recounted. There was a lot of sound information on how things were mined and the ores refined, and, since most alloys were at the time made by mixing ores, there was a great deal of information on impurities to be expected, and that were associated with particular sources of various ores.