Projection (alchemy)
Image:Alchemik Sedziwoj Matejko.JPG|thumb|300px|Depiction of Sedziwój performing a transmutation for Sigismund III by Jan Matejko, 1867
Projection was the ultimate goal of Western alchemy. Once the philosopher's stone or powder of projection had been created, the process of projection would be used to transmute a lesser substance into a higher form; often lead into gold.
Typically, the process is described as casting a small portion of the Stone into a molten base metal.
Claims and demonstrations
The seventeenth century saw an increase in tales of physical transmutation and projection. These are variously explained as examples of charlatanism, fiction, pseudo-scientific error, or missed metaphor. The following is a typical account of the projection process described by Jan Baptista van Helmont in his De Natura Vitae Eternae.Other reports include:
- Elias Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum lists an account of Edward Kelley making projections from lesser metals into both gold and silver. Kelley's success is also recorded by John Dee.
- Alexander Seton was reported to have projected a heavy yellow powder onto a mixture of lead and sulphur resulting in a button of gold.
- A variety of accounts are given of Sendivogius performing public transmutations.
- In legend, Nicolas Flamel makes a projection of the red stone onto mercury, making gold.