《重返未来:1999》里的星锑(Regulus) 和 牛顿到底有什么关系
* 把自己在微博发的考据搬过来了。
星锑的姓名很值得说一说，很多解说直接把锑和牛顿联系在一起，我认为这种省略很多关键环节的表达容易让读者误会。也看到很多人说"牛顿发现了锑"，"牛顿用Regulus命名了锑"以及"牛顿发现了Regulus"这种说法。我不知道这些说法的来源是哪里，但是根据我个人的搜索，我觉得以上说法都是不正确的，而且还混淆了很多基本概念，所以会用一些篇幅来聊一聊星锑，锑/Antimony，Regulus /轩辕十四 ，regulus 和 star regulus的区别。
有大篇幅的英文引用，不过我都提炼出了基本信息，如果有我理解错误的地方还麻烦纠正我。
先上The Chymistry of Isaac Newton 的定义:
Regulus : The metallic component refined from an ore. Most often applied by Newton and other chymists to metallic antimony or alloys thereof.[1]
Regulus martis : Literally, “regulus of Mars,” often called “martial regulus,” the regulus of antimony produced by refining stibnite with iron.[1]
Regulus stellatus: Martial regulus that has been allowed to crystallize slowly under a thick slag, forming a starlike pattern on its surface.[1]
我们可以看到，regulus是一个核心概念。通过定义可以得知，regulus是一个矿石提炼后得出的金属物质。
那么牛顿跟regulus的关系在哪里呢? 我在[2]里找到这样一段描述:
“Following years of work Newton claimed to have remarkable success developing a
‘philosophical mercury’ for producing gold, and later an effective ‘philosophical
sulphur’. We find a clue to why he saw these as possible from his attraction to the star
regulus of antimony.”
这里涉及到三个问题:
(1) philosophical mercury 是什么?
(2) star regulus of antimony 是什么?
(3) philosophical mercury和star regulus of antimony 的关系是什么?
我们先来看看第一个问题。
那么，这段里面提到的philosophical mercury是什么呢？
“Philosophic mercury was [thought to be] a substance that could be used to break down metals into their constituent parts,” James Voelkel, CHF’s curator of rare books, told Emma Stoye at Chemistry World. “The idea is if you break the metals down, you can then reassemble them and make different metals. [4]”
这段话可以看出，哲学水银是用来分解金属的。当时的炼金术士们认为，只有先了解了金属的构成，才能够更好的生成它们。
这种观点和[3]中对牛顿的描述不谋而合:
“The dissolution of gold, not its multiplication, is what most interested Isaac Newton. He measured the magnitude of his supposed achievement against Boyle’s oft-repeated alchemical dictum: “It is easier to make gold than to destroy it.” In other words, once someone has solved the knotty riddle of what a substance is made of, producing that substance should be comparatively easy, a familiar enough notion to the student of modern chemistry.”
这种观点上的不谋而合使得牛顿在实践种大量借鉴George Starkey的经验并尝试解锁Starkey的实验步骤:
“Newton’s pursuit of the true philosophical mercury had caused him to draw heavily upon the works of George Starkey. Nine of Starkey’s books graced the shelves of Newton’s library when he died. The mediation of special mercuries were set forth in a manner strikingly similar to those expressed by Newton in the “Clavis” manuscript[3]. “
那么，Starkey和牛顿为什么那么看重哲学水银呢? 因为哲学水银是制造哲学家之石的关键成分，而哲学家之石，就是在炼金术师眼里能化普通金属为金的神奇物质。
“George Starkey, outlines a recipe for “philosophic mercury” (or “sophick” mercury for short), which was thought to be a key ingredient in the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone – a mythical substance believed to have the capacity to turn lead, iron, mercury, or copper into gold[4].”
解决了第一个问题，再来看看第二个问题，star regulus of antimony 是什么，为什么牛顿那么执着于这个东西呢?
Antimony是锑元素，那么star regulus指的是什么呢?
“Antimony is a semimetal, occurring naturally as antimony sulphide, now called stibnite. The crystals are long and thin and generally form themselves into patterns like ferns. But under special conditions, which the alchemists discovered, they form pattern radiating from a centre, like stars. It was this star of antimony that fascinated Newton. It was called by alchemists the regulus (‘little king’), probably referring to the star Regulus in the constellation of Leo. In any case, Newton saw a relation between the ‘regulus of antimony’ and the star Regulus. The alchemist Basilius spoke of the ‘star of antimony’ as having: “a spirit which is its strength, which also invades it invisibly, as the magnetic property pervades the magnet”. It seems that this greatly appealed to Newton, leading him to think that by analogy with celestial gravity it would draw the ‘philosophical mercury’ out of other metals. Traditionally, alchemy is closely tied to astrology, as each planet is ascribed a metal: mercury for Mercury, lead for Saturn, tin for Jupiter, copper for Venus, iron for Mars, silver for the Moon, gold for the Sun. Newton looked for alchemical relations between substances and certain stars, especially Regulus. [2]”
这段可以看出，star regulus指的是锑的星状晶体，在炼金术师眼里被认为是极度提纯后的结晶产物。
中间加粗的整句话提到，17世纪的炼金术士以狮子座的轩辕十四星来命名他们发现的锑晶体(没有任何一个描述明确提到了”Newton discovered”，”named by”等等)。
最后一句加粗的话也可以看出，牛顿致力于根据天体引力的类比寻找恒星和物质之间的某种炼金术关系，比如某种物质和轩辕十四的。
现在只剩下第三个问题了，philosophical mercury和star regulus of antimony 的关系是什么?
当然是因为regulus本身很重要啦，提纯后的star regulus就更重要啦。
那么，regulus到底重要在哪里呢?
“When the regulus is poured into the warmed mold the metal sinks down. … Because the regulus of antimony combines readily with gold (the king of metals) it became important to the process of refining the precious metal and an object of considerable experimental interest to seventeenth-century adepts. The regulus was also separated from stibnite by the introduction of various metallic reducing agents, in which case it became the regulus of Venus (copper), the regulus of Jupiter (tin), the regulus of Saturn (lead), or most importantly, the regulus of Mars (iron). … It was thought, quite erroneously, that the “seed” of the metal used to reduce the regulus from the ore remained embedded in the regulus itself, thus raising all sorts of tantalizing possibilities in Newton’s mind.what the alchemists called the regulus of antimony[3].”
这段可以看出，锑的regulus可以在炼金术中和其他的金属还原剂发生作用以产生置换反应，从而锑的regulus就变成了其他的金属化合物，比如铁，锡啊之类的。也就是说，为了炼金，我们需要能和金稳定结合的锑的regulus，而要把锑的regulus从锑辉矿中提取出来，需要在原矿石中加入金属还原剂以产生置换。但是当时的炼金术师们有一个错误的认知，他们认为，置换反应会让金属和锑的regulus变得难以分离提纯，因为金属的种子(那个”seed”)会遗留在regulus里。
然后就像下面这段说的一样，炼金术师们需要找到这颗种子，在孵化器里提纯，蒸馏，生成philosopical mercury。
“Seeding can be done with the seed contained in the scoria of the first fusion or with live mercury, with animated cinnabar, with native gold, the black powder, or live sulfur. The seed of course is in the scoria and also in minute quantity in the metals applied in the work. The seed is the sperm of the metals and Newton probably knew that he was to locate this seed and to cultivate it; sew it in the Duplex or animated, philosophic mercury.[3]”
那么问题就来了，star regulus 不过就是regulus的一种形态，用regulus 不就行了，非要星形的干什么呢?
嗯，因为牛顿是一个有追求的科学家。就像[3]中所说:
“It was not extracting philosophic mercury from common metals that Isaac Newton was after, but THE Philosophic Mercury or amalgam that would make the little trees of tiny crystalline branches grow, the sophic gold, so that he could bathe his gold in it, to multiply it, and animate it, for its magical properties.”
在牛顿的眼里，只有在这种形成了星状物质的贡化合物，才能成为金的培养基。
我们这么一步步看下来，其实牛顿对于regulus, star regulus, philosophic mercury 和 The Philosophic Mercury的追求可以一步步地对应到开篇所提的Starkey的实验室实验过程里:
“Starkey’s laboratory practice, which Newton wanted to understand and reproduce, consisted first of reducing metallic antimony from its ore, stibnite, by heating the ore at high temperature with bits of iron. Further refinements would create crystalline “rays” on the surface of the metallic antimony, hence it was called the star-regulus of antimony. Starkey then fused the star-regulus with silver or copper, which allowed him to amalgamate the antimony with quicksilver. Eventually, he produced a “sophic mercury” in which gold could be made to dissolve and “vegetate”—forming tree-like growths. Starkey, and Newton, believed this “vegetation” was evidence that sophic mercury was a key to producing the ultimate agent of transmutation—the philosophers’ stone.[5]”
第一步，从锑辉矿中还原金属锑; 第二步，提炼呈现星状射线的锑结晶; 第三步，金属置换，使金属的seed留存于star regulus这个培养基中; 最后，产生”sophic mercury[6]”。然后，就可以美美地在sophic mercury里面种下金子等它跟树一样长大啦~~~~
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天哪我本来准备考据一下星锑的人设，没想到光一个名字就写了这么多。
附录:
Alchemical Glossary on The Chymistry of Isaac Newton
Good as Gold: Sir Isaac Newton’s Alchemy
Newton And Flamel On Star Regulus Of Antimony And Iron
ScienceAlert: Isaac Newton’s Recipe For The Mythical ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ Has Just Been Rediscovered
A Guide to the Alchemical Manuscript by Bill Newman
因为不同文献术语上的混乱，我个人的理解是，sophic gold = sophic mercury = The Philosophical Mercury
