OT; Wikipedia & Aqua Regia

Hi,

when gathering some more information on my "quest" of dissolving platinum wire (got 25 grams now, it's getting worthwhile..;-)..) I came across the following (from the Wikipedia), it's OT but it's very intersing nevertheless..(perhaps it's a well known fact, but not for me):

"Hydrochloric acid was first discovered around the year 800 by Arabian alchemist Jabir Ibn Hayyan (Gaber), by mixing common salt with vitriol (sulfuric acid). Jabir's invention of gold dissolving aqua regia, consisting of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, contributed to the effort of alchemists to find the philosopher's stone.

When Germany invaded Denmark in World War II, the Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy dissolved the gold Nobel Prizes of Max von Laue and James Franck into aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. He placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. After the war, he returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The Nobel Society then recast the Nobel Prizes using the original gold."

Best,

Cor
Received on Tue Oct 25 01:35:50 2005