Alchemy & Early Chemistry Materials schema for portable furnace, 1689

Alchemy & Early Chemistry Materials schema for portable furnace, 1689. Table of alchemical symbols for various substances, including borax, cobalt and zinc. Illustration from "Tripus Hermeticus Fatidicus" (The Prophetical Hermetic Tripod) by Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682) published in Frankfurt in 1689. Becher is not only famous in the history of chemistry for his theory of combustion but is notable as a technologist, miner, metallurgist and he proposed many economic schemes. He travelled much, spending a year in Cornwall, studying its mines and writing this book. He was the author of a number of books both practical and symbolic and was equally an alchemist and a chemist. Despite its arcane title, this book contains much practical chemistry and mineralogy. ©SSPL/Science Museum