[hbobbswherescalvin]

its bimuth and antimony most likely.

i have a question that pertains to the idea of making a white glowing powder from metals.

i have found that when i melt antimony and place a piece of ruthenium in the molten mass. after a certain amount of time a white crystalin structure begins to appear aroubnd the rim of the reaction. and when i cool it.. the crystals cover the now solid piece of antimony.

after vaporizing all of the antimony from the reaction the ruthenium weighs less then when i put it in the reaction.. could the antimony be breaking down the ruthenium into a crystal structure?

or is my reaction contaminated some how

[vmelkon]

its bimuth and antimony most likely.

i have a question that pertains to the idea of making a white glowing powder from metals.

i have found that when i melt antimony and place a piece of ruthenium in the molten mass. after a certain amount of time a white crystalin structure begins to appear aroubnd the rim of the reaction. and when i cool it.. the crystals cover the now solid piece of antimony.

after vaporizing all of the antimony from the reaction the ruthenium weighs less then when i put it in the reaction.. could the antimony be breaking down the ruthenium into a crystal structure?

or is my reaction contaminated some how

Why would bismuth + antimony glow?

And for your experiment, antimony can form the oxide which is quite toxic.
As for your ruthenium weighting less, it is certainly possible that it combined with the antimony. Ruthenium antimonide or ruthenium stibnide.

[AndersHoveland]

While this topic has wasted too much of our time, and everyone can be forgiven for presuming that this alleged substance is completely baseless, I think I might be able to shed some light on the mystery.

There are several "glow in the dark" substances, known as phospors. In a different chemistry forum, someone discoved that CaO fused in B2O3 strongly glowed for several seconds after being exposed to UV light.

"Calcium sulfide with strontium sulfide with bismuth as activator, (Ca,Sr)S:Bi, yields blue light with glow times up to 12 hours, red and orange are modifications of the zinc sulfide formula. Red color can be obtained from strontium sulfide."

Since arsenic is in the semiconductor family, it would not be surprising if some little known, or even unknown
phosphor composition could have been discovered by these "alchemists".

Here is NickDC's site:
http://www.lost-academy.com/t4-the-glowing-white-philosophical-mercury
(It is very frustrating trying to read anything he writes, because of athe alchemist terminology and a very unclear confusing writing style)

Here is a list of alchemical terminology, if anyone wants to waste their time:
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/al_term1.html

There ar, however, a few interesting compounds discovered by alchemists:
Cadet's fuming liquid (Cadet's liquid): heavy brown liquid first prepared by the French chemist Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt. Cadet's liquid is highly toxic, smells strongly of garlic, and spontaneously bursts into flame when exposed to air. It is mainly cacodyl oxide ([(CH3)2As]2O) with other cacodyl compounds such as dicacodyl ([(CH3)2As]2).

As for the talk about "taking away the poison", this almost certainly refers to antimony, which is found in nature mixed with arsenic. Antimony was frequently used as a medicine, but the arsenic contaminants, which are difficult to separate out, caused unnecessary poisonings.

Here is an relevant quote that I recently found:
"People will only accept facts if they resemble what they already believe to be the truth."--Andy Rooney

[AndersHoveland]

There were some interesting reactions discovered by alchemists:

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/reference/chemProd.do

http://www.labyrinthdesigners.org/alchemy-laboratory/aqua-regia-fulminating-gold/