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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
One of many things the alchemists sought was the universal solvent, the alkahest.
Perhaps it is just as well they never found it, for what could they have stored it in?
alkahest
n.
5Fr < ML alchahest: apparently coined by PARACELSUS the hypothetical universal solvent
sought by the alchemists
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 85 |
If you found something to put it in, then it wouldn't have been the alkahest. I love it. I wonder if they thought about that back in the day.
Though I suppose it could be, if it were something that was mixed on-site for immediate use. I vaguely remember having to mix some things years back, which came with directions to use immediately, because the container you mixed it in wouldn't last very long. Couldn't a substance still be an alkahest, if it didn't matter how *fast* it worked upon the substances it was in contact with?
Ali
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Seian: good to see you posting again. We need all the talent we can get.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what could they have stored it in?
Back then, nothing. Today, with the magic of electromagnetics and ionization, nothing. But today that method could work.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
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If you poured (an, the, some?) alkahest onto the ground would it ever stop sinking, or would it disappear through chemical reaction?
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Posts: 475
addict
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addict
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 475 |
poured it out of what? how could you make it in the first place without it instantly dissolving the beaker, or what ever alchemists use for these things.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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instantly dissolving the beaker
Of course, it wouldn't have to dissolve it instantly. OTOH, what would happen if you were to introduce some thiotimoline into your alkahest?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, a universal solvent would be the ultimate paradox, wouldn't it?...since it would also have to dissolve itself. But that never stopped the alchemists before..."burning metal", "turning lead into gold" (transmutation)... which leads one to believe they must have been onto something else which we can't fathom (or good drugs)...the ol' Philosopher's Stone. Unfortunately, I believe any recorded texts of their earliest work disappeared in the burning of the Library of Alexandria. Perhaps all their ensuing research was an attempt to recapture what was lost there??? Hi shona! 
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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it would also have to dissolve itself.
Naw. Think about what dissolving means and what you'd have left over after something dissolved itself.
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