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11 a Clear Proof That Nitre and Salt Are in Air and in All Things in the World
Chapter outline
The light of heaven is explained as evidence of an extremely volatile nitre.
Thunder, lightning and hail are attributed to the interaction of upper and lower principles.
The author invokes explosive laboratory comparisons; operational preparation and intensification are locally omitted.
The conclusion extends the claim of nitre and salt from air to earth and water.
Since we cannot ascend into heaven but must chiefly know its substances from lower things, we say in one word: heaven is full of light, and light is an effect and product of fire. Saltpeter, however, is pure fire. We therefore conclude that heaven is an extremely volatile nitre which, descending continually, becomes bodily and more fixed. Enough has been said of heavenly nitre. Now for air. Lightning, thunder and hail visibly demonstrate that nitre and salt are in air. Here on earth we find no other substance that fulminates, flashes, thunders and hails in this fashion except saltpeter and saline things. Nitre is born volatile from heaven, becomes spiritually volatile within air, and in water and earth is brought into a thick, visible and tangible body. We shall first prove theoretically, through physical reasoning, how it ignites in air and produces hail, lightning and thunder, and then mechanically through practice.
Nitre does not fulminate unless an opposing agent is brought to it and awakened by heat. The more volatile and subtle the nitre, the more violently it strikes and ignites. Likewise, the subtler and more volatile its opposing agent, the more violently the two act upon each other. As stated, heaven’s light, life and fire are caught and concentrated in air, becoming a subtle, volatile nitre, which must have an opposing agent to bring its action into effect. To supply that opposite, an equally subtle, volatile body rises to meet it from the sphere of earth and water, in the form of vapour, mist and smoke: a volatile earth and volatile salt, a volatile alkaline salt. When these come together and the sun’s rays move and heat them, they act and heat one another increasingly until they ignite, fulminate, hail and thunder, causing terrible blows in the air, as is amply experienced on hot summer days. Conversely, if the sun does not reach too hot a degree, they come together—the subtle nitre and volatile alkali unite—but without striking, as can plainly be seen and observed in winter, moisture and cold. Moisture and cold prevent them from heating and igniting in that manner.
[Passage omitted: operational preparation and intensification of explosive compounds.]
We hope by this to have sufficiently demonstrated in theory and practice that saltpeter and salt are present in air, though volatile, and that the fulminating effect proves the presence of both. As stated above, they are then displayed bodily from rainwater through putrefaction. We shall now pass from air to earth and water and examine their substances as well, to see whether nitre and salt are found within them as the generators and corrupters, preservers and destroyers, and renewed regenerators of all things.