Fusio

Operations instruments and practitioners · A Chymical Dictionary

At a Glance

The word. An operation defined by melting and flow in fire.

In the book. Colliquation gives melting through the example of metals.

A place to read. The historical definition below, 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 23; facsimile PDF page 351.

Historical Definition

Fusio is melting, or making a thing flow in fire.

Meaning

The second clause explains the first through a subject’s behaviour in fire. The entry names a change of condition rather than a particular product. It does not state a material, temperature or vessel.

“Flow” is useful when reading a passage whose interest is the resulting mobility of a substance. It should remain distinct from a description of a thing dissolved by another liquid or made to descend from gross matter.

Use in the Book

Colliquation gives melting through the example of metals. Deliquium describes cold dissolution of coagulated bodies, while Descensorium concerns equipment in which liquid falls downward from gross matter. These comparisons clarify why becoming liquid can be described through several operations without the words being universal synonyms.

Places to Read

Colliquation. Melting understood through the example of metals.

Deliquium. Dissolution of a coagulated body in a cold setting.

Descensorium. A furnace characterised by downward separation of liquid.

In This Edition

The edition keeps the entry’s simple operational description. It does not impose a modern classification of the subject’s composition or a measured melting point.

Historical source: 1650 dictionary, unnumbered definition page 23; facsimile PDF page 351 — Facsimile

Sources. A Chymicall Dictionary 1650, s.v. Fusio

See also. Colliquation; Deliquium; Descensorium