A. K. Wiliams Basement Chemistry. Great reading for prospectors.

[4Strokes1Pick&Poke]

Good reading material. Very handy info that is broke down to terms most people can follow. Be safe using iodine, it has about 15 other reactions going on he doesn't mention. Mercury as well. Use saftey equipment and check with laws in your area on chemicals laws have changed since book was published. Enjoy


Basement Chemistry for the Prospector

 

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[austin]

I taught Chem for 30 years in high school. I'm guessing that there is a nice warm jail cell and 3 meals per day for using a great deal of this in today's environment. Not to mention that some of it is a bit hard to obtain, at least here...

 

[kcm]

Operations like that in a basement? That's begging for trouble.

Chemical means should NOT be used by anyone who does not know and understand the dangers involved and who takes every precaution possible. Even so....a basement?!?!? AK Williams needs to change that to "Front Yard Chemistry"!

This guy seems to have years of experience. Putting this kind of info and the temptation in front of inexperienced and/or untrained persons is a really, REALLY bad idea!!

 

[4Strokes1Pick&Poke]

Yeah right I know. It's more of a FYI on the assaying and the process. You have to pick some info and leave some from it using common sense. Boy times have changed. Can you imagine all miners knee deep in all the chemicals back in the gold rush? Probably common knowledge back then, compared to the average prospectors today. The Mercury charging cell is interesting for pulling gold from black sands and consitrates. The way K. C. talks about cyanide and how harmless it is I don't agree with, best leave it to professionals unless your licensed. Geared towards older miners with a little experiance.
I remember playing with Mercury as a kid rubbing it on coins to make them shinny. We didn't know the effects it was no big deal, my dad let me play with it from his consitrates! Can you imagine letting your kid play with that now!

 

[4Strokes1Pick&Poke]

Operations like that in a basement? That's begging for trouble.

Chemical means should NOT be used by anyone who does not know and understand the dangers involved and who takes every precaution possible. Even so....a basement?!?!? AK Williams needs to change that to "Front Yard Chemistry"!

This guy seems to have years of experience. Putting this kind of info and the temptation in front of inexperienced and/or untrained persons is a really, REALLY bad idea!!

Kids today learn everything on YouTube with video! Are you kidding me this is old material. K. C. Was the leading SORCE of info for us older miners. Kids today find anything they want on YouTube! You would have to start a campaign on fighting YouTube if you this this is bad! They get more ideas from the average YouTube video with 2 million hits than this old time reading material. This is old reaserch. If you haven't heard of K. C. Williams I'm surprised. If you think this is bad for kids to know, then you don't know your kids or what they are look at on the computer! They are smarter these days with more resources than they know what to do with and know where to find anything they want. We didn't have World Wide Web when I grew up, this is history of prospecting and methods in America.

 

[kcm]

In past days, you actually had to go into a store in person in order to buy most of those chemicals. Most people wouldn't know what to buy without some amount of tutelage. Now, the info is out there for any yahoo to get himself into trouble with. And while chemistry is taught in school, most schools that I know of don't teach anything about extracting metals from hard rock. Maybe in mining states, but not in SE Texas!! So in this day and age, it's a bit irresponsible to post such info for anyone to get ahold of without further instruction - ESPECIALLY when they're talking about doing it in your basement!! I haven't read through the text, but just advertising this being done in a basement suggests to people that there is no danger at all, and that if it's safe enough for a basement, it should be safe enough to do anywhere - ventilation or not.

 

[4Strokes1Pick&Poke]

Silver mining documentary. How silver is mined, reformed and refined. History Video.

Hope this isn't too offensive to someone they show explosives in a operating mine, good lord cover the kids eyes! I rather have my kids watch a learning show than "adult swim" and "Comedy Central" on TV. Same methods and info as what was posted above by K. C. Wiliams.

https://youtu.be/CFl8NLVo6ss

 

[kcm]

Offensive? No. Irresponsible? Not when combined with further study/understanding.

 

[austin]

Relax. It is a GREAT text, nothing wrong with reading it and you will find though that most kids want to build bombs of any sort and would probably never read the book anyway. Most, if not all of those chemicals are never in a high school lab. Even here in South Central Texas, we do teach what the chemicals are/were used for.Since I also had a master's in Spanish Borderlands History, had been a geology major, was certified to teach ALL sciences in the Texas schools and could out bs any other science teacher, I gave the lecture on mining every year. Don't worry about our kids. They tend to be free thinkers these days and will surprise you with their intelligence, honesty and responsinility...

 

[kcm]

**ROFL** Hey Austin, you got it right there, boy!! "responsinility"