ATDDTA(10) I've Got That Zinc-ing Feeling [275]

Thu May 31 00:28:29 CDT 2007

[275:3ff] "The procedure up here with ordinary local zinc blende had  
been straightforward"

"There are zinc mines throughout the world, with the largest  
producers being Australia, Canada, China, Peru and the U.S.A. Mines  
and refiners in Europe include Umicore in Belgium, Tara, Galmoy and  
Lisheen in Ireland, and Zinkgruvan in Sweden. Zinc metal is produced  
using extractive metallurgy. Zinc sulfide (sphalerite) minerals are  
concentrated using the froth flotation method and then usually  
roasted using pyrometallurgy to oxidise the zinc sulfide to zinc  
oxide. The zinc oxide is leached in several stages of increasingly  
stronger sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Iron is usually rejected as Jarosite  
or goethite, removing other impurities at the same time. The final  
purification uses zinc dust to remove copper, cadmium and cobalt. The  
metal is then extracted from the solution by electrowinning as  
cathodic deposits. Zinc cathodes can be directly cast or alloyed with  
aluminium."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc

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[275:10-11] "---different elements came off at different  
temperatures, so there were matters of distillation to address."

The art of distillation originated in alchemy, including extracting  
zinc by a distillation process:

Zinc is silvery white in colour, hard and brittle owing to its  
closely packed hexagonal crystal structure. In the 17th and 18th  
century Germans called this metal 'Caunterfeitum' or mock-silver  
because of its silvery white lusture. Its boiling point is 907°C. The  
main minerals of zinc in nature are calamine and sphalerite and  
mostly these occur in combination with the minerals of copper, lead,  
silver and iron. There is confusion about early occurrence of zinc  
and its extraction by the distillation process. The regular zinc  
production by distillation started in India around 12th century AD  
and in China it is not earlier then 16th century AD. As early as the  
12th century AD, India produced the metallic zinc by the  
sophisticated distillation process at Zawar in Rajasthan. This  
technology of zinc manufacture is also described in several Indian  
alchemical works of the mediaeval period including the 13th century  
Rasa Ratna Samuccaya. The word used in this document to describe the  
distillation process involved is tirakpatnayantra, which translated  
literally, means "distillation by descending". Various zinc-smelting  
processes were also described in the Sanskrit works of medicinal  
chemistry and alchemy, viz., Rasarnavam Rastantram (500-100 BC),  
Rasratnakar (2nd century AD) and Rasprakash Sudhakar (12th century  
AD). In China zinc was first reported in the 16th century by the  
excavation in Gui-Zhan region of Yun-han, but the new research by the  
Chinese scholars gives a clear indication that zinc smelting began in  
China in the Jiajung period (1552-1566 AD) of the Ming dynasty. In  
17th century China exported zinc to Europe under the name of totamu  
or tutenag. Tutenag possibly has its origin in the word Tutthanagaa  
maening zinc in South Indian languages.
http://tinyurl.com/36rthg

Regarding alchemy and distillation in general:

I shall not stand here to show where the art of distillation had its  
origin, as being a thing not easily to be proved and, if known, yet  
little conducing to our ensuing discourse. But let us understand what  
distillation is, of which there are three principal and chief  
definitions or descriptions:

1. Distillation is a certain art of extracting the liquor, or the  
humid part of things by virtue of heat (as the matter shall require)  
being first resolved into a vapor and then condensed again by cold.
2. Distillation is the art of extracting the spiritual and essential  
humidity from the phlegmatic, or of the phlegmatic from the spiritual.
3. Distillation is the changing of gross thick bodies into a thinner  
and liquid substance, or separation of the pure liquor from the  
impure feces.

I shall treat of distillation according to all these three  
acceptions, and no otherwise, hence I shall exclude sublimation and  
degrees of heat there are, and which are convenient for every  
operation, and they are principally four.
The first in only a warmth, as is that of horse dung, of the sun, of  
warm water, and the vapor thereof, which kind of heat serves for  
putrefaction and digestion.
The second is of seething water and the vapor thereof, as also of  
ashes, and serves to distill those things which are subtle and moist,  
as also for the rectifying of any spirit or oil.
The third is of sand and filings of iron which serves to distill  
things subtle and dry, or gross and moist.
The fourth is of a naked fire - close, open or with a blast which  
serves to distill metals and minerals and hard gummy things, such as  
amber, etc. I do not say serves only to distill these, for many  
former distillations are performed by this heat, as the distilling of  
spirits and oils, etc., in a copper still over a naked fire; but  
these may be distilled by the two former degrees of heat. But  
minerals and such like cannot but by this fourth degree alone.

      --from _The Art of Distillation_ by Alchemist, John French
        http://www.levity.com/alchemy/jfren_1.html

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[275:12] "faro players"

"Faro is a card game, a descendant of Basset. It enjoyed great  
popularity during the 18th century, particularly in England and  
France, and in the 19th Century in the United States, particularly in  
the Old West, where it was practiced by faro dealers such as Doc  
Holliday. It has since fallen out of fashion and is only practiced by  
dedicated Old West enthusiasts and Civil War reenactors. Its name is  
believed to be a corruption of pharaoh and refers to the Egyptian  
motif that commonly adorned French-made playing cards of the period."

"Charles James Fox preferred faro to any other game, as did 19th  
century American con man Soapy Smith. It was said that every faro  
table in Soapy's Tivoli Club in Denver, Colorado, in 1889 was gaffed  
(made to cheat). Indeed, the famed scam artist Canada Bill Jones  
loved the game so much that when he was asked why he played at one  
game that was known to be rigged, he replied, "It's the only game in  
town.""

http://tinyurl.com/3czl57

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[275:13-15] "and sometimes shadowy figures could be seen kneeling,  
reaching out to touch one of these slag piles, reverently as if, like  
some counter-Christian Eucharist it represented the body of an  
otherworldly beloved."

Alchemy is a mirror reflection of Christianity in that the goal of  
alchemy is to redeem the spirit trapped in matter, while the goal of  
Christianity is to redeem matter by infusing it with the Holy Spirit.  
In alchemy, Mercurius is locked in matter and must be freed. In  
Christianity the divine Son empties Himself and becomes matter.  
Mercurius (an otherworldly beloved) and Christ are polar (parallel?)  
opposites on the flip sides of these philosophick coins.  Carl Jung  
deals with these themes throughout his works. Most relevant here are  
_Psychology and Alchemy_ (Vol. 12 of the Collected Works) in its  
entirety, and the essay 'Transformation Symbolism in the Mass' in  
_Psychology and Religion: West and East_, (Vol. 11) which goes on at  
some length regarding the relationship (symbolically) between alchemy  
and the Eucharist.

"The point is that alchemy is rather like an undercurrent to the  
Christianity that ruled on the surface. It is to this surface as the  
dream is to consciousness, and just as the dream compensates the  
conflicts of the conscious mind, so alchemy endeavors to fill the  
gaps left open by the Christian tension of opposites."  (Psychology  
and Alchemy, p.23)

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[275:16] "Wren Provenance"

Due to its usage in V., GR, and M&D, 'wren' is etymologized here:
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/extra/eti.html#wren

The Wren family in V. (including Victoria Wren) were entangled in  
political intrigue characterized by erotic complications and  
anarchist sub-plots.

Any thoughts about the usage here, coupled with 'Provenance?'

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[275:17] "Radcliffe College"

"Probably in all the history of colleges in America there could not  
be found a story so full of colour and interest as that of the  
beginning of this woman's college. The bathroom of the little house  
was pressed into service as a laboratory for physics, students and  
instructors alike making the best of all inconveniences. Because the  
institution was housed with a private family, generous mothering was  
given to the girls when they needed it."

It was chartered as Radcliffe College by the Commonwealth of  
Massachusetts in 1894 (the Boston Globe reported "President of  
Harvard To Sign Parchments of the Fair Graduates"). It is named for  
Lady Ann Mowlson, born Radcliffe, who established the first  
scholarship at Harvard in 1643. The first president was Elizabeth  
Cary Agassiz, widow of Harvard professor Louis Agassiz. Radcliffe  
built its own campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from that  
of Harvard.

By 1896, the Globe could headline a story: "Sweet Girls. They  
Graduate in Shoals at Radcliffe. Commencement Exercises at Sanders  
Theatre. Galleries Filled with Fair Friends and Students. Handsome  
Mrs. Agassiz Made Fine Address. Pres Eliot Commends the Work of the  
New Institution." The Globe said "Eliot stated that the percentage of  
graduates with distinction is much higher at Radcliffe than at  
Harvard" and that "although it is to yet to be seen whether the women  
have the originality and pioneering spirit which will fit them to be  
leaders, perhaps they will when they have had as many generations of  
thorough education as men.""

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radcliffe_College

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[275:25-26] "That shape [pyramid] is common to a lot of old cultures.  
Secret wisdom--different details, but the structure underneath is  
always the same."

The pyramid reference begs for wild goose chasing (see links below),  
but the point that there is a structure underlying the various outer  
manifestations of things is the important point for me here. This  
'underlying structure' may be the 'invisibility' things are coming in  
and out of throughout this book, in particular, and Pynchon's novels,  
in general. The repetition of themes and dynamics in this book are to  
the pyramids what the underlying structure is to the invisibility.  
Noam saying?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Providence

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[275:27-33] Now we move back in time to when Frank first met Wren in  
Denver, to the sound of spoons and banjos.

http://tinyurl.com/yrcbon

http://tinyurl.com/2l3yxd

Wren opts for Frank when her Harvard buddies get a yen for some  
action in the Chinese sector, hopefully taking the advice for some  
Bear Paw in Octopus Ink.

http://www.nicemeal.com/doufu/doufu07.html

"It also reminded me of this very scary dish that Hawaiians and  
Japanese eat. They take the 'delicious' octopus ink and use it to  
flavor pasta. While people are eating it, their teeth, tongue and  
lips are colored...you guessed it...black. It's pretty gross to see.  
I watched Roy dig into it once (he was digusted but swallowed a bowl  
full to be polite) and swore that would be the last time we ever  
kissed.'
http://thelosthawaiian.blogspot.com/2005_08_01_archive.html

I find the p-wiki entry unconvincing:

"Bear Paw
An almond-flavored yeast-raised pastry shaped shaped like an  
irregular semicircle resembling a bear's claw. Octopus Ink seems to  
be a joking reference to the coffee."

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[275:34-36] sparks and shadows

Wren invites Frank to Denver Row, the red light district (on what was  
initially Holladay Street, later named Market Street), with a spark  
in her eyes which signaled a shadowy interest in non-bourgeois spark- 
dulling opiated sexuality.

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