The hidden structure.
- Videocassette (VHS)(ca. 55 min.) : sd., col. 1/2 in.
Early alchemists in the Middle Ages inspired all those who watched them with a classical experiment. They took the red dye, sinobar, a sulphide of mercury, and heated it. The heat drove off the sulphur and left behind an exquisite pearl of the mysterious silver liquid metal, mercury, to astonish and strike awe into the patron. It was not an important experiment in itself although it happens that sulphur and mercury are the two elements of which the alchemists thought the universe was composed. But it does show one important thing- that fire has always been regarded not as the destroying element but as the transforming element.
Science--Philosophy.
Science--History.
Science and civilization.
Early alchemists in the Middle Ages inspired all those who watched them with a classical experiment. They took the red dye, sinobar, a sulphide of mercury, and heated it. The heat drove off the sulphur and left behind an exquisite pearl of the mysterious silver liquid metal, mercury, to astonish and strike awe into the patron. It was not an important experiment in itself although it happens that sulphur and mercury are the two elements of which the alchemists thought the universe was composed. But it does show one important thing- that fire has always been regarded not as the destroying element but as the transforming element.
Science--Philosophy.
Science--History.
Science and civilization.