Survival Techniques of Alchemists

[BeautifulEvil]

Let's list some of our alchemical tricks and tips that might be useful for surviving in the wild. The topics should involve natural medicine, obtaining water, making fire, gathering food, artificial light, and working with plants. Let's hear how creative some of you can be.

For instance, one technique of obtaining water involves making a crude distillation system. Let's say you're stranded on an island with coconut trees / gourds and bamboo. Gather a small piece of bamboo. Look for something along the lines of a quarter of an inch total diameter, and cut this to length of approximately 6 to 12 inches. Get a dried out coconut or a gourd and punch a small hole in the side (the same diameter as your bamboo). The idea is to insert the bamboo into this, and it should fit fairly tightly. The liquid can be poured into this opening, but you'll have to take the bamboo arm off each time, or you can make a separate opening. Use a heat stone or a sand bath to heat the coconut/gourd in order to prevent it from burning.

If you can build a crude distillation system then you'll be able to do many things!

I'd like to hear of a few tricks to create fire via chemical means. The ingredients must be readily found in nature, and the process to create fire should only involve the combination of a few ingredients. I know of the potassium permanganate / glycerin trick, but these things are not readily found in nature. Any thoughts?

Something else that would prove to be useful is artificial light via chemiluminescence or phosphorescence. This would be useful in situations where light is needed, but fire is unavailable. Again, we should use readily available substances in the creation of said stone/powder.

[theFool]

If you make fire, you can make many things. First you can isolate potassium carbonate from the ashes by dissolution in water, filtering and evaporation. 4-5 wood logs, can give at least 15 grams of carbonate. Then, with that carbonate, you can start alchemy. Like isolate m-state from the sea to fertilise your plants and eat, or gather moisture from the air by deliquescence and distill it in order to drink. (ok I'm going too far here, hehe, you could just distill sea water).

Making niter from composted organic matter using sea shells and carbonate is another possibility. It goes like this: crush and heat sea shells (CaCO3 --> CaOH). Mix CaOH + water with the composted organic matter, filter and you obtain clean CaNO3 solution. Then add potassium carbonate, you get CaCO3 as a white insoluble powder and niter is left into solution. Evaporate in order to get it in salt form. The CaCO3 left, can be recycled. The most difficult thing here would be to find the correct volumes of potassium carbonate to react with CaNO3 solution. Without glassware and modern vessels it would be very difficult to filter, evaporate and even keep water solutions.
Niter helps a lot to make fire; one spark is enough to ignite a piece of cloth that was immersed in niter solution (and the water evaporated after). Who knows if the same is possible with CaNO3 only, which you can obtain easier.

Something else that would prove to be useful is artificial light via chemiluminescence or phosphorescence. This would be useful in situations where light is needed, but fire is unavailable. Again, we should use readily available substances in the creation of said stone/powder

Maybe the best is to make the powder/stone from your urine and use it, but yet, we don't know what it is able to do and how. What if you multipy it till it glows so you have light ?

[Salazius]

I would try fishing, and taking phosphor from fishes, after that I would fix it in K2CO3 or else. Then at night there is a glowing, but I don't know how to have phosphor from fishes, maybe by boiling it and reducing it, then at night taking the phosphor.

You can find clay, and make a oven and crucible, potteries, (retorts, aludels and alembics). etc etc. A better house.

Trying to find some pyrite for sulfur. You can make dynamite with niter, burned wood, and sulfur and start digging in the mountain to find more metals, etc. With metal, you can try to make a boat. Also weapons for hunting. And alchemy of course.

Making a bigger oven, you can gather sand, flints and fixed alkali K2CO3 or else, and make glass but, how to shape it ?

With niter, water and sulfur, you can make nitroglycerin, putting it in dynamite or charcoal, even better to dig the mountain ! You can make all acids you need, with sea salt, an niter together you even have aqua regia.

With that you can make a coco beer for alcool, by chewing the coco pulp, and spitting it in a coco nut or jar. Waiting for fermentation, than distilling it etc. You can then heal yourself, disinfect you mouth, wounds ... You can also do "coprah", or coconut oil by letting the coco pulp at sun, drying, and then pressing it.

You can take the coco tree fibers and make a lot of thing with it. Filters also.

To distill without alembic, you put a little jar with sea water, in a bigger closed, exposed at sun heat. You have pure water.

You can also use corals for remedies.

But, I guess that after taking philosopher stone several times, you can "astravel" (astral traveling, with your physical body), and the soma feeds you. So, the Stone is the Gate !

Taking Urina for the stone is a good idea. But the process is long. Should try something shorter. I have my idea but it's dangerous and you need a crucible very strong....

[Sponsored content]