[Title of this series of field notes]


Table of Contents

[Title of this series of field notes]
2016.[04].[20], [12]:[00][pm]
2016.[04].[24], [12]:[00][pm]
2016.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]
Name: Nicole Basile & Ludo Touze
Date and Time: April 20, 2017 @12pm

2016.[04].[20], [12]:[00][pm]

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Powdering pyrite and styrax
  1. Preparing the station: To cushion the blow, we decided to place a folded cloth under the material being pounded and another over it. This would also keep any errant pieces from flying out. We used to pillow cases; each one was folded and placed in a plastic bag. Both the pyrite and styrax were then placed in smaller plastic bags. Then, those bags were each places in a large snack-sized bag.
    20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_003 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_037 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_035
  2. The pyrite was pounded first. After only 30 seconds of smashing with the pestle, the pieces broke up easily. Still, we wondered If it would powder up easily. We smashed it a bit more and then open up the bag and placed the pieces in the mortar. At this point, the pyrite gave of a sulfuric scent.
    20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_03320170420_Touze_Against-Gout_032 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_029
  3. After 15 second grinding it with a mortar and pestle, the pyrite began to powder and dust. We continued to grind it for 1 minute. (We could have done this for longer, but we didn’t want to create more dust and were also pressed for time.) Still, we were able to produce a fine powdered mixed with some large granules. We produced 13.3 g. of powdered pyrite.
    20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_02520170420_Touze_Against-Gout_024 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_021
  4. Overall, the pyrite crushed up easily into granular and powdered pieces
    20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_016 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_015
  5. The styrax was the next. Since it is a resin, it is much softer and more easily broken apart. After only 5 seconds of pounding, the styrax easily powdered and became sticky, and resinous. It smelled of a strong vanilla and cinnamon scent.
    20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_013 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_012 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_009
  6. We transferred the styrax to the mortar and ground it for one minute. It crushed up into a fine powder. Resinous particles stuck to the crannies of the mortar and pestle. This was removed easily with an acetone-soaked paper towel.
    20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_008 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_007 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_002 20170420_Touze_Against-Gout_001

Name: Nicole Basile & Ludo Touze
Date and Time: April 24, 2017 @12pm

2016.[04].[24], [12]:[00][pm]

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Distilling, "To relieve the pain of g[out]"
  1. Materials: urine, pyrite, styrax; Tools: scale, hot-plate, ceramic pot, copper sheeting, shallow pint-sized pyrex, plastic spoon, pipette, ice
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_003
  2. Before starting, I took the ph of the urine. It still came in at 6. It was about 3 weeks old.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_002
  3. The hot-plate was placed in the south-side fume-hood. Newspaper was placed around it, to facilitate an easy clean-up. (We also placed the fire blanket and foam fire extinguisher nearby, as a safety precaution.)
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_004
  4. After setting up our mise-en-place, we prepared out “alembic.” The recipe calls for an alembic with a copper head. Our interpretation was to cover the pot lid with copper sheeting (as this would be where the distillate would condense before dropping into the bowl.)
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_005 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_006
  5. In covering the top of the lid, we created a space between the sheeting and the lid. We decided that, during the distillation, we would attempt to place the ice between the sheeting and the lid, in order to get the copper very cold and then aid condensation on the lid.
  6. We had just under 8 oz. of urine. Our recipe gives us specific measurement, so we normalized everything to 1 oz of urine, and then multiplied it by 3. The result was the following: 3 oz. urine; 0.046875 styrax; 0.375 pyrite. We measured the urine with the “AMS” scale. To be as accurate as possible, I used a pipette for the last half an ounce of urine. For the styrax, Ludo carefully tapped a plastic spoonful of the powdered substance onto the scale until reaching the desired amount. We used the smaller scale (that measured to the ten-thousandth of an ounce) for this. Ludo used the same spoon-tapping method and measured out they pyrite. We used the same scale for the pyrite that we did for the styrax.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_01120170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_009 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_01320170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_01020170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_014
  7. Our last step before distilling was to “incorporate well together little by little” the urine, pyrite, and styrax in a glass bowl. Using the same plastic spoon, we started with the styrax. Since it is not water-soluble, it did not dissolve or really incorporate. Most of it floated on the top and let out some oil into the urine. After a bit more stirring it became cloudier.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_01520170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_017 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_021 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_021
  8. We then incorporated the pyrite. This quickly greyed the urine, while much of the styrax seemed to remain white-ish in color. While incorporating, particles of styrax and pyrite began to stick to the bottom and sides of the bowl. While nothing dissolved, as neither material is water-soluble, the ingredients did seem to have incorporated: the mixture was now cloudy and grey.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_026 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_029 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_03020170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_035
  9. We poured this mixture into the pot and placed the pot on the hot-plate. The clean pyrex (into which the distillate should fall) was placed on top of the mixture in the pot. We turned the hot-plate on and put it on 2. The lid was then placed upside down on top of the pot. The seal was not tight, so I held it down to cover the gaps. (We could have also used a weight, but it was not very hot and seemed simpler to do it this way)
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_041 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_047 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_048 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_049 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_050
  10. After 3 minutes, the mixture started to boil (I could feel the pot bubbling with my hands placed on the lid). At this point, we grabbed our two 16-oz cups full of ice and began funneling one cup of ice into the space between the copper sheeting and the lid. Once no more ice fit in the space, we placed the rest on top of the lid.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_05220170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_05520170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_059
  11. The urine started boiling at 62C. With the ice in and on top of the lid, and the lid pressed down on the pot, we allowed the mixture to boil for a full 5 minutes more.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_061
  12. After a total of 8 minutes, we carefully removed the pot lid. The temperature of the mixture went up to 72.5C. We lifted out the pyrex to see a pool of clear, yet slightly-yellow, distillate. We syringed the distillate into a 40 ml vile. The yield was 20 ml.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_06220170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_06420170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_06720170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_06620170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_07320170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_076
  13. The ph had gone up to 7, almost 8. That is, it was closer to water. The places of the copper sheeting exposed to the most heat (around the rim of the pot) became matte in color. The places where the ice pooled, stayed shiny. We realized afterward that the sheeting was copper-coated, not 100% copper.
    20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_07920170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_080 20170424_Basile_Relieve-Gout_083

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2016.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]

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