Around 2000 BC, in some places where mercury was present, humans were aware of the miscibility of gold and mercury. In China, the discovery and use of sand long before the water silver. The sacred clan that lived in the Han River basin during the Shang and Zhou dynasties had the “traditional unique technology†of collecting Dansha. During the reign of the two Jin Taikang years, from the tomb of the squadron of the Warring States of the Warring States, the King of the Kings (276-242 BC), there was a "Shu people to Dansha" to Zhou Chengwang (Ji Yu, about 11 BC) The record of the tribute of the century.
Natural mercury is a product of long-term natural oxidation of mercury sulfide minerals in the surface oxidation zone, and most of them are lost in rock cracks. According to the [Southern Song Dynasty] Zhou went to the "Ling outside the answer, Jin Shimen", Guangxi Youjiang Daxiu 圩 "have a hole, ... there is a stone wall in the hole, people first chisel, square two three inches Xu, with a medicine Painted, there are, the real mercury naturally dripping, each take less than half a hand." The mercury used by the ancients may first come from natural mercury.
However, in some ancient ancestors, there are often records of a large amount of mercury in the emperor's tomb. For example, in the early Spring and Autumn Period, Qi Gonggong (died in 642 BC) was buried in the south of Linyi City. "Jin Yongjia people made it, the first version, the second time the mercury pool" {[Tang] Wei Wang Li Tai, "Zhoudizhi (below)"} Wu Wangxuan (dead in 495 BC), burial "... Tiger Hill, around Dianchi Lake, deep in the water; æ¤ three heavy, pouring water for the pool, Chiguang sixty steps" ([East Han] Zhao Wei "Wu Yue Spring and Autumn"). In the Qin dynasty, the emperor was buried in the mountain. In the tomb, “the mercury is the river of the river, the river is infused, the astronomy is inscribed, and the geography is underneath†(Sima Qian, “Historical Records of Qin Shihuangâ€). In the pre-Qin and Qin dynasties, so much mercury was used in the tombs, and there were also gold plates for the production of mercury. It is impossible to take natural mercury from the chiseling hole. The massive excavation of mercury and gold plates in these tombs is undoubted. This can only be invented in the early spring and autumn of China (770 BC ~ 476 BC) or earlier in the Dansha mercury refining technology, and produced more mercury. It is thus inferred that the invention of the Dansha smelting mercury technology in China should be around the 10th century BC, and the known literature records about 800 to 1000 years later.
It is known in the literature, the tube 1 century AD "Shen Nong" is a description of the "kill mercury ...... ...... molten tin silver copper complex further Dan" reversible chemical reaction, and then refining cinnabar liter mercury technique is described in detail From the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Lonely Gang's "Hardware Powder Map". This method is a seal "under-fire coagulation method" which is improved from the unsealed "low temperature oxidation roasting method". I.e., with two or soil quality iron kettle, with salt mud down interlocking solid sealing, cinnabar present kettle charcoal after heating, i.e. liters fly mercury condensed on the inner wall of the vessel. The mercury invented method of low-temperature oxidative roasting in the air, which was invented in the early days, may have already diverged. Nowadays, it is only described in [Tang] "The Yellow Emperor Jiuding Shendan Jingyu" has a short description.
As for the earliest record of the application of gold amalgam, it also comes from Fox Gangzi. In his "The Gold Mine Catalogue", except for the description of the use of gold and vein gold, it is smelted into "thin (foil), mud-coated ornaments (gold paste). In addition to the method of making medicinal gold powder by amalgam method, it also describes the method of making medicinal gold powder by amalgam method.
There are two ways for fox to make gold powder: one is to add stalactite grinding method, and the other is amalgam method. The amalgam method is regarded as a classic by later alchemists and pharmacies. The method is to make the gold into a foil, cut it thinly, and take about "one gold or two, with silver six or two, plus wheat and rice, half a glutinous rice, and water. In the iron shovel, smashing thousands of scorpions, waiting fine, pouring into the pot, Take the water and sand (Amoy) to go to the stone, check the intentions in detail, do not let the gold (amalgam) go with the stone. Take the two weights, twist off the semi-liquid (liquid) mercury. Take the residual mercury in the porcelain (milk), At the end of the white salt, the step is less, the grinding is broken, and the salt can be used until the end of the day. The mortar, the coarse mesh, the finer the grinding, the rushing in the earthen kettle, the cover (cover) to the end of the salt, fly (Distillation) for half a day, fly to mercury, sand (washed) to salt, that is, naturally into powder." This law was later improved slightly, and in [éš‹] Su Yuanlang, "Taiqing Stone Wall", "Tang", "Lingbao Rejuvenation Dan Law", "Song", "Family God Dan Law" and [Ming] Li Shizhen It is recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica.
[Tang] Su Jing and other "Newly-made Herbs" in the "making silver shavings", apparently also inherited the amalgam method of the fox. He said: "Fang (medical) household silver shavings, when you see (now) into a silver foil, use mercury to eliminate mud, combine saltpeter and salt, research into powder. Burn off mercury, scouring salt stone, for powder fine".
It can be seen from the above that the amalgam of Fox Gang has been used until the end of the Ming Dynasty. Since then, because medical scientists have refrained from taking gold and silver powder, this method has disappeared from the book of Chinese medicine.
Sheet metal is also a technique for applying gold amalgam, starting in the late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period. It is developed on the basis of the gold-plating and gold-drawing process. It is a major invention of the metal processing technology in the pre-Qin period in China, and it has accumulated experience for the amalgamation of gold.
The invention of sheet metal surgery in China should be earlier than the middle and late spring and autumn. The sheet metal that had been released was originally in the late Spring and Autumn Period and was also called the middle of the Warring States and the middle and late Warring States or earlier. In the Han Dynasty, the manufacture of sheet metal was very prosperous, and the unearthed cultural relics were almost all over the country. Only 500 pieces of gold and metal objects were unearthed in the tomb of Mu Wang Liu Chang of the Han Dynasty in Hebei Province. Among the many pre-Qin dynasties unearthed in Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Shanxi, Anhui, Zhejiang and other provinces, such as the Jinjin Cars and Horses of the Changzhi Watershed Warring States Tomb in Shanxi, and the gold-plated hooks of the Changtai Guanchu Tomb in Henan Xinyang, etc. It is confirmed as a sheet metal product by modern spectral qualitative analysis and electron probe measurement. The gold and bronze cuts of the Changyang Guanchu Tomb in Xinyang, the gold bronze hooks of the Changsha Chu Tomb, and the gold wares of the Chu Tomb on the 4th of the Chaoyang Caipo, due to the fall of the gold layer, some people think that it may be a gold plate. The documentary of the sheet metal technique is known as the "Shenxian Jinjing Sutra" which was originally from [Jin] Ge Hong (283-363 AD). It is used in the "golden" of the two (two), and the water is twelve. (Grinding) for shavings, throwing water in the middle of the order. Difficult to smash the crumbs difficult to crucify [broken] iron, calcined (forged) gold into thin as a scorpion, reamer smashed, so that such as leeks Xu, to cast in the water. This is the world In the (people), the method of applying the stick (the nickname of the red copper) is made. The gold and silver must be turned into mud, and the gold (mercury is white) is not yellow. His records show that folks used this method for gold, which is at least 700 years later than the invention of gold.
The gold powder and amalgam method produce gold powder, which is the same as the amalgamation gold extraction technique. Although the production of mercury in the pre-Qin and Qin-Han dynasties was still very small, it was possible to use so much mercury to inject into the tomb and use it to produce sheet metal and gold powder (ancient medicine), because it was used by emperors and dignitaries. It is not possible to use more mercury for mercury production. Even so, there are always people who use this technology to produce gold. Therefore, it can be inferred that the earliest use of the amalgamation method in China should be the same period or later in the invention of sheet metal. In 1987, from the early Tomb of the Warring States period, Mr. Zenghou Yi (about 433 BC), the "郢爰" gold coin, one of the two pieces tested by the Wuhan University Analysis and Testing Center, contains 7.3% mercury, and the other contains no HG. There is also no mercury in the tomb. The gold of this gold coin may be one of the small amounts of gold produced by the amalgamation method during the Spring and Autumn Period. Among the mercury produced by mercury amalgamation, mercury has a much lower boiling point than gold and is easier to distill. However, since gold and mercury are solid solids, even with modern distillation technology, the amount of residual mercury in the produced sponge gold is often as high as 1% to 18%. After melting the ingot, the amount of residual mercury in the gold ingot is still 0.01%. ~0.1% or more, more than 2%. Under ancient technical conditions, the amount of residual mercury after mercury gold distillation will be higher. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the gold coin is cast by the remaining amalgam produced by the sheet metal. This is subject to further research.
As the forerunner of chemical experiments, alchemy has recorded many gold and silver metallurgical techniques in many Dan scriptures, but it has been found in the literature that the exact record of early application of mercury amalgamation has not been found. Although the ancestors and the alchemists have long known that gold can be dissolved in mercury to form amalgam, and can be used to remove impurity minerals by panning to obtain pure gold amalgam and ascending mercury, the amalgam method can be widely used. In gold production, it is only possible to use the closed sublimation mercury refining technology to extract more mercury from the dansha.
Amalgamation, the ancient method of recovering gold, in modern metallurgy, to some extent, although it has been replaced by cyanidation and flotation, it recovers the dissociated monomeric natural gold (especially coarse Grain gold), it still has its own uniqueness, so it is still one of the important methods for recycling gold at home and abroad. Under normal circumstances, the amalgam method is used to treat the vein gold ore suitable for amalgamation. The recovery rate of gold is about 60% to 80%, and the gold content in the tailings is still high. For this reason, in addition to sand deposits, modern amalgamation methods rarely become separate operations, and it often forms a joint process with other methods to increase the recovery rate of gold. Therefore, in most cases, the amalgamation method is only used as an auxiliary method for the vein gold mine. Practice has proved that the use of amalgamation method in the vein gold ore gold selection process to preferentially extract part of the gold (mostly coarse gold) can greatly reduce the loss of gold in the tailings.
Since gold is mainly produced by monomeric natural gold and silver-gold ore in gold vein gold ore, only a few of them exist in the form of compounds. Therefore, the amalgamation method can recover some of the gold in the treatment of various gold-bearing ores. In China, the mixed pump method has long been used as an important gold extraction method for gold mines. In the vein gold mines, it is mostly used in the grinding cycle and recovers part of the gold from the re-election concentrate.
Mercury amalgamation is usually divided into two types: internal mixed mercury and external mixed mercury. The former mainly adds mercury to crushing equipment such as mining machines and grinding machines, and performs amalgamation operations while crushing ore. The latter is amalgamation in equipment other than crushing equipment.
Powering up the amalgamation process, connecting the cathode of the circuit to the mercury surface, it reduces the surface tension of mercury, activates the performance of mercury, and enhances the wetting ability of mercury to gold. Therefore, the electric amalgamation method has been applied to foreign industrial production.
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