Arcadia Discussion Zone

The foreigner gained time to anarchise by gold the government he could not overthrow by arms, to crush in their own councils the genuine republicans, by the fraternal embraces of exaggerated and hired pretenders, and to turn the machine of Jacobinism from the change to the destruction of order; and in the end, the limited monarchy [that Lafayette and Bailly] had secured was exchanged for the unprincipled and bloody tyranny of Robespierre.... The British ... fears of republican France being now done away, they are directed to republican America.... The Marats, the Dantons, and Robespierres of Massachusetts are in the same pay, under the same orders, and making the same efforts to anarchise us, that their prototypes in France did there."[11]

John Quincy Adams later told the U.S. Congress, in his eulogy for Lafayette, "The movements of the insurgent Power were ... guided by secret springs, prompted by vindictive and sanguinary ambition, directed by hands unseen to objects of individual agrandizement."[12]

During early 1789, Jacques Mallet du Pan wrote articles "On the British Constitution" and "On the Declaration of Rights," demanding France adopt the British parliamentary system, with a balance of power among the people, the nobles, and the crown, and an intermediary body of advisors such as the Privy Council, which must assure that authority over the issuance of credit would be kept strictly in the hands of central bankers, independent of the control of an elected government.

Necker and Mallet du Pan had long worked together against the spread of Franklin's American economics and constitutional ideas. Mallet complained that the American Revolution had spawned a "swarm of fanatics" in Europe.

Mallet du Pan's ultimate political theory may be summed up in his outburst in a letter he had written to his teacher Voltaire in 1772: "I shall exhaust all the feeble enlightenment that I owe to you in eradicating the work of St. Boniface."[13] The Eighth-Century missionary Boniface Christianized Germany. Thus, what Mallet means is, "I work to overturn Christianity's original takeover of Europe—this was a catastrophe which hindered the rightful unlimited rule of barbarian warlords."

So Mallet du Pan and Necker diligently collaborated with an "expert" enemy of the nation-state, Joseph de Maistre, a satanic Martinist deep in the lodge circle of Lyons. A Savoy nobleman, de Maistre in 1792 fled upon the advance into Savoy of the French Revolutionary armies. When Mallet du Pan and Necker and their families consulted with him, in Geneva and Lausanne 1792-1793, Necker was "retired" from French office, but deeply involved in managing events within the Revolutionary turmoil, and Mallet du Pan was the principal director of Continental intelligence for the British crown. They put de Maistre onto the world stage as the spokesman for the darkest feudal reaction within the modern era, directing the role he was to play in the creation of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Beast Project, Napoleon
What did Necker and Mallet du Pan want from de Maistre?

Listen to Mallet spin out his scenario, published in January 1789, as Franklin's friends prepared to export the American Constitution to France. Mallet wrote of England's past, to suggest a future to be imposed on France:

The blood of Charles I and ten battles only submitted Parliament and the nation to their own army, which was soon enthralled to its cleverest chiefs. Democracy had destroyed the constitution; this democracy led to an oligarchy of generals; the Protectorate beat down everything, Parliament, army, sects, factions, and Cromwell reigned alone over a people whom frenzy had deprived of its vigor and its reason.[14]


Then, Mallet went on to say, the monarchy was restored and few states have been as free of political troubles as has England since then.

The discussions in the salon of Necker and his daughter, Mme. de Staël, led directly to de Maistre's writing his 1796 Considerations on France. Published the following year, the book transported the imagination of the upstart general Napoleon Bonaparte, who was a ready actor in the horrible order of events foreshadowed in Mallet's scenario.

Most of the themes in de Maistre's book, the evil nature of fallen man, the role of Providence, why the innocent victim must pay for the guilty, are taken from the work of Claude Louis Saint-Martin, high priest of the Martinist order of which de Maistre became the most prominent representative following his two decades of freemasonic work.[15]

It will be seen below, what Napoleon got from de Maistre, and where he went with it.

Corsican-born army officer Napoleon Bonaparte was known as a Jacobin and Robespierrist, a murderer and a bandit, a revolutionary executioner. Thus in 1795, when Paris rebels rose against yet another intended change of regimes, the then-head of the government, Paul Barras, appointed Napoleon to block the rebels' advance. The Corsican directed cannon grapeshot fire, and mowed down the rebellious people in the streets. Barras, who now advanced Napoleon upward in the army, was himself an extravagant corruptionist who took his orders from banker Jacques Necker.

Barras shared his mistress, Josephine de Beauharnais, with Napoleon. She was one of a set of political prostitutes along with Mme. de Staël (known as the "ugly beauty"), ladies on the lookout for available executioner-generals to take charge of French affairs. Napoleon married Josephine and became commander in chief of the French Army in Italy, under the Barras-led French regime called the Directory. The loot from his foreign conquests were shared among the Directory and its banker sponsors. In a notorious 1797 scene of staged female hysteria, recorded in Barras's memoires, Mme. de Staël compelled Barras to make her dissolute plaything, Charles Maurice Talleyrand-Perigord, the foreign minister. Napoleon came back from abroad in 1799 and made himself a dictator. Necker's Talleyrand was Napoleon's intermediary to obtain Barras's resignation, and Napoleon kept Talleyrand as foreign minister.

Talleyrand helped Napoleon conquer Germany and Italy, helped him become Emperor, helped him subdue the Pope, and held him off from invading England. Talleyrand's enormous wealth from bribes and theft was deposited in England. As the slaughter exhausted France and Europe, Talleyrand began moving to the next phase of things, betraying Napoleon—who accurately called him "shit in a silk stocking." The British and European nobility who finally crushed France and restored the monarchy, rewarded Talleyrand by reinstalling him as foreign minister.

Devil de Maistre Whispers to Napoleon
Joseph de Maistre's book Considerations on France appeared in 1797, giving Napoleon some two years to reflect on its message for him, before he seized power. British historian Isaiah Berlin reports, "Napoleon ... was impressed by the brilliance of de Maistre's writings, which he was said to find politically sympathetic." And de Maistre admired Napoleon, whose "clear grasp of the realities of power, his open contempt for democrats, liberals and intellectuals ... but above all the contrast between the stupidity and weakness of the Bourbons [royal line] and the military and the administrative genius of a man who once again lifted France to a pinnacle of glory, could not but appeal powerfully to the apostle of realism and authority."[16]

Through his book, at first published anonymously, de Maistre whispered in Napoleon's ear: I speak for the invisible ruling powers: Providence will adopt you, if you are bold enough to make yourself the Man of Destiny. You may commit all crimes, make limitless war on the world. God himself wants you to commit as many crimes as possible—through them you will become God on Earth.

Let us listen to de Maistre's own words—keeping in mind that the author is regarded today as a Christian authority by Dick Cheney's conservative supporters:

Unhappily, history proves that war is, in a certain sense, the habitual state of mankind, which is to say that human blood must flow without interruption somewhere or other on the globe, and that for every nation, peace is only a respite.... If you ... examine people in all possible conditions from the state of barbarism to the most advanced civilization, you always find war....

Yet there is room to doubt whether this violent destruction is, in general, such a great evil as is believed.... First, when the human soul has lost its strength through laziness, incredulity, and the gangrenous vices that follow an excess of civilization, it can be retempered only in blood.... Mankind may be considered as a tree which an invisible hand is continually pruning and which often profits from the operation. In truth the tree may perish if the trunk is cut or if the tree is overpruned; but who knows the limits of the human tree? What we do know is that excessive carnage is often allied with excessive population.... Now the real fruits of human nature—the arts, sciences, great enterprises, lofty conceptions, manly virtues—are due especially to the state of war. We know that nations have never achieved the highest point of the greatness of which they are capable except after long and bloody wars. [emphasis in the original][17]

Pagan or Christian, God loves human sacrifices! He protects the guilty, not the innocent!

We are continuously troubled by the wearisome sight of the innocent who perish with the guilty. But ... we can consider [this] solely in the light of the age-old dogma that the innocent suffer for the benefit of the guilty.

It was from this dogma ... that the ancients derived the custom of sacrifices that was practiced everywhere.... Christianity came to consecrate this dogma, which is perfectly natural to man although appearing difficult to arrive at by reason. [emphasis in original][18]


In telling Napoleon that destiny explains his success, and that the hand of God is guiding him, de Maistre wrote, "[It is] neither paper money nor the advantage of numbers [that] allows the French to invade Italy without cannons."[19]

(De Maistre's editors explain that "Napoleon in his first Italian campaign in April 1796 was short of artillery because of a lack of horses to move his cannon.")

You can destroy any opposition, de Maistre implied, if you are not squeamish!

Tyrants succeeded one another and the people always obeyed.... Their masters have gone so far as to crush them by mocking them. They told the people, ... 'If you dare to refuse [our law], we will shoot you down with grapeshot to punish you for not wanting what you want.' And they did."[20]

(De Maistre's editors explain that this referred to "the uprising ... which young General Bonaparte put down with grapeshot.")

Does Destiny call your name?

When Providence decrees the more rapid formation of a political constitution, there appears a man invested with an indefinable power: he speaks and makes himself obeyed. But these marvelous men belong perhaps only to the world of antiquity and to the youth of nations.[21]

Take it! Only the Unseen Powers decide who rules.

This is how counter-revolutions are made. God warns us that he has reserved to Himself the establishment of sovereignties by never confiding to the masses the choice of their masters.... Thus the Roman people gave themselves masters while believing they were opposing the aristocracy by following Caesar."[22]

Despite your lowly birth, all History has been waiting for you!

There has never existed a sovereign family to which one can assign a plebeian origin; if this phenomenon should appear it would be epoch-making.... We often hear it said, 'If Richard Cromwell [son of Oliver Cromwell, who seized England—remember Mallet's scenario] had had his father's genius, he would have made the Protectorate hereditary in his family.' How true!"[23]

Napoleon took the advice, to see himself as such a Man of Destiny. By insane wars throughout Europe, and a series of coups, he made himself Emperor, his rule secured by a pervasive secret police, censorship, arrest of dissenters. And though he was short, he made himself God. The Pope was forced to sign a treaty putting Napoleon in charge of the Church in the French Empire. Bishops and priests had to teach as he said, swear loyalty to him, take their pay from him, report political conspiracies to his spies. And he did as Cromwell did not, creating Kings and nobility out of his heirs, family and friends (a Mallet became a French Baron).

'America Is Not Possible!'
The fourth chapter of de Maistre's Considerations, entitled "Can the French Republic Last?", was, according to de Maistre's editors, "apparently a direct response to Benjamin Constant's 'Objections Drawn from Experience Against the Possibility of a Republic in a Large State.'"[24]

Benjamin Constant was the lover of Germaine Necker de Staël from 1794 until 1806. When de Maistre's book was published, Constant and de Staël were in Paris sponsoring Barras, and Constant took part in the 1799 coup establishing Napoleon's rule.

In this fourth chapter, de Maistre insisted that "nature and history together prove that a large indivisible republic is an impossibility ... a large and free nation cannot exist under a republican government." He "proves" this assertion: "If we are told that a die thrown a billion times had never turned up anything but five numbers—1, 2, 3, 4, and 5—could we believe that there was a 6 on one of the faces? NO ... one of the faces is blank or ... one of the numbers is repeated.... Fortune tirelessly throwing the die for over four thousand years. Has LARGE REPUBLIC ever been rolled? No. Therefore that number is not on the die." [emphasis in the original][25]

Note the queerly hysterical cheapness of this argument. He first hints at the real problem: "There is nothing but violence in the universe; but we are spoiled by a modern philosophy that tells us all is good, whereas evil has tainted everything, and in a very real sense, all is evil..." [emphasis in the original].

His editors explain, "de Maistre is castigating the 'best of all possible worlds' optimism that seemed to characterize some Eighteenth-Century thinkers. Of course de Maistre was not alone in this reaction; Voltaire's Candide, for example, included a brilliant satire on philosophical optimism."[26]

"This is the best of all possible worlds," is the loving idea Gottfried Leibniz gave the modern world from Plato and Christ, for which Voltaire mocked him in Candide. This Platonic, Leibnizian heritage, carried through the America of Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin, is the central issue.

De Maistre lets the underlying rage of his faction spill out in a way that shocks us across the centuries:

Not only do I doubt the stability of the American government, but the particular establishments of English America inspire no confidence in me. The cities, for example, animated by a hardly respectable jealousy, have not been able to agree as to where the Congress should meet; none of them wanted to concede the honour to another. In consequence they have decided to build a new city to be the capital. They have chosen a very favourable location on the banks of a great river and decreed that the city should be called Washington. The sites of all the public buildings have been marked out, the work has begun, and the plan of this queen city has already made the rounds in Europe. Essentially these is nothing in all this that surpasses human power; a city may easily be built. Nevertheless, there is too much deliberation, too much humanity in this business, and one could bet a thousand to one that the city will not be built, that it will not be called Washington, and that the Congress will not meet there. [emphasis in the original][27]

The madness and wreckage that the defeated Napoleon left behind, kept the American model out of Europe for the time being. But de Maistre was not an accurate forecaster on the destiny of nations. The United States survived a Civil War, 1861-1865, despite sponsorship of the insurgent slaveowners by the British and their French junior partner under Bonaparte's nephew, Napoleon III.

Not only survived: Did the impossible! Abraham Lincoln's radically nationalist economics transformed America into the world's greatest industrial power within 20 years. The example of America's Promethean success, under high tariffs and huge public investments, was deliberately placed before Bismarck's Germany, Alexander II's Russia, Meiji Japan, Sun Yat-sen's China, Arthur Griffith's Ireland, M.G. Ranade's India, Carlos de Olagíbel's Mexico, Rafael Nuñez's Colombia. The impending end of peasant backwardness, the age of electricity, steel mills, and powered transport, under explicitly anti-imperial politics, meant the coming end of world power for the old financier oligarchs.

In this global showdown, three U.S. Presidents were shot down: Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley. And America's European enemies assembled a new version of the assault weapon earlier employed in France. Joseph de de Maistre's work was the glue for the imperial bankers' politics—including his insistence that the executioner (or assassin) is all that holds society together; and his demand for the Church to rule a world from which Reason and Progress have been banished—a world under Higher Powers which are, candidly, the opposite of God.

The new imperial techniques of that era were built upon the array of manipulation that had gone into the beast-project, Napoleon. A Martinist magician cohort of de Maistre's named Fabré d'Olivet had been hired as a top official of Napoleon's war department. As occult advisor, he too whispered to Bonaparte on Providence and the Triumph of the Will.

As the influence of America's sovereign-nation success began transforming Germany, in 1878, the students of d'Olivet and de Maistre were formed into the distinctive movement which was to become known as Synarchism. Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, in his book, Mission des Souverains, continued de Maistre's attack, calling the 1648 Peace of Westphalia "an anarchistic Republic of powers armed against each other, ... that the fundamental law of the sovereignty of force obliges, under penalty of death, to function in this fashion, until the abrogation and replacement of this law by a better one."[28] The "better law", Synarchism, is the dissolution of nations in the night of bankers' dictatorship.

George W.F. Hegel put his admiration for Bonaparte's evil at the center of his concept of the "end of history."

Robespierre set up ... Virtue and Terror [as] the order of the day.... This tyranny could not last; for ... all interests ... revolted against this terribly consistent Liberty ... [in] so fanatical a shape. An organized government is introduced, analogous to the one that had been displaced; [further coups] proved ... the necessity of a governmental power. Napoleon restored it as a military power, ... establishing himself as an individual will at the head of State: he knew how to rule, and soon settled the internal affairs of France.... But the antithesis of [Good Feeling] and Mistrust made its appearance.... Thus agitation and unrest are perpetuated." [emphasis in the original][29]

For Hegel, the cycle—witless Jacobin mobs, tyrants, and again, when necessary, new mobs—was now to be the permanent form of governing powerless mankind. (The pathetic Francis Fukuyama directly revived Hegel's end-of-history filth for today's neo-conservatives.)

Friedrich Nietzsche called the one whom de Maistre, d'Olivet, and Hegel summoned to bring order out of the chaos, the Superman. By acting without any humanity, the absolute, brilliant Beast soars above the contemptible ant-like rabble, in Nietzsche's nightmare fantasy.

These were the wells of experience and craft for the architects of Hitler and Mussolini: Bank of England Governor Montagu Norman; Lord Halifax; Lord Beaverbrook; the Warburgs; Lazard Frères; the French-Swiss banking axis; J.P. Morgan; Brown Brothers Harriman; Hjalmar Schacht; Richard Koudenhove-Kalergi.

This was the personal tradition of University of Chicago fascist Leo Strauss; his mentor, Hitler's jurist Carl Schmitt; and the Parisian Synarchist Alexandre Kojève. And it is the life model for Strauss, Schmitt, and Kojeve's followers—today's Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Ashcroft berserkers—and the guide for their religious fundamentalist, actually pagan supporters. Unless they are removed from power, the city of Washington will be unbuilt, and the devil will win his bet.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] H. Graham Lowry, How the Nation Was Won: America's Untold Story, Vol. I (Washington, D.C.: EIRNS, 1988).

[2] Bernard Mandeville, essay added into the 1723 re-issue of his Fable of the Bees.

[3] Richard B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), p. 28.

[4] Shelburne to Richard Price, Sept. 5, 1779, quoted in Maurice R. O'Connell, Irish Politics and Social Conflict in the Age of the American Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 124.

[5] O'Connell, op. cit., p. 191.

[6] Morris, op. cit., pp. 100-104.

[7] Morris, op. cit. p. 35.

[8] Morris, op. cit., pp. 85-86.

[9] Morris, op. cit., p. 80.

[10] April 8, 1782, New-York Packet, No. 5 in Hamilton's series called "The Continentalist."

[11] Feb. 14, 1815, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-1904), Vol. XIV, pp. 246-251.

[12] Oration, Dec. 31, 1834 (Washington, D.C.: Duff & Green, 1835).

[13] March 21, 1772; quoted in Frances Acomb, Mallet du Pan (Durham: Duke University Press, 1973), p. 23.

[14] Mallet du Pan, in the Mercure, 1789, no 3. (Jan. 17), pp. 119, 122; quoted in Acomb, op. cit., p. 201.

[15] His sources could have included Saint-Martin's documentation later published in The Ministry of the Man-Spirit, 1801; Saint-Martin's Letter on the French Revolution, 1794; Saint-Martin's Man of Desire, 1790: and Saint-Martin's theme, the "desire for recognition" which became the favorite theme of 20th-Century Synarchist Alexandre Kojève.

[16] Isaiah Berlin, "Joseph de Maistre and the Origins of Fascism," in The Crooked Timber of Humanity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf), 1991, pp. 146-147.

[17] Joseph de Maistre, Considerations on France, translated by Richard Lebrun (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 23-29.

[18] De Maistre, Considerations, op. cit. p. 30.

[19] Ibid, p. 22.

[20] Ibid, p. 23.

[21] Ibid, p. 51.

[22] Ibid, p. 80.

[23] Ibid, p. 101.

[24] Editorial note in de Maistre, Considerations on France, op. cit., p. 32.

[25] Considerations, op. cit. p. 33.

[26] Ibid, p. 31.

[27] Ibid, pp. 60-61.

[28] Saint-Yves, Mission des Souverains, Paris: Nord-Sud, 1948, p. 272.

[29] The Philosophy of History, translated by J. Sibree (New York: Dover Publications, 1956), pp. 450-452.

Recent research has increasingly focused on the political aspects of N.K. Roerich's expeditions to Central Asia from 1925-1928 and from 1934-1935.[3] This new interpretation of Roerich's background and motives has sparked off an ongoing polemical debate in Russia and has let to bitter divisions within the Roerich movement and its followers. Especially the Moscow-based Mezdunarodnyj Centr Rerihov under vice-president L.B. Saposnikova has vowed to defend the legacy against any "traitors" from within the movement and "liars' and "slanderers" from outside. First the MCR staged a witchhunt against the view that Nicholas Roerich might have been an active spy for the Soviet intelligence in Central Asia.[4]

[3] Oleg A. Siskin: Bitva za Gimaliai: NKVD - magija i spinaz.Moskva 1999, 2nd printing 2000; Vladimir A. Rosov: Nikolaj Rerih; Vestnik Avenigorada. Ekspedicii N.K. Reriha po okrainam pustymi Gobi. Kniga 1: Velikij plan. Sankt Peterburg 2002; Kniga 2 Novaja strana Sankt-peterburg, Moskva 2004. For a bigger geopolitical and diplomatic context see: Aleksandr I. Andreev: Soviet Russia and Tibet; The Debacle of Secret Diplomacy, 1918-1930s. Leiden, Boston 2003; Aleksandr I. Andreev: [i]Okkul'tist Strany Sovetov: Taj doktora Barcenko. Moskva 2004.[/i]

[4] Roerich was always under suspicion by the British SIS. Recently, this has been taken up by Siskin 2000 and his articles in Segodnja929 October 1994; 19 November 1994; and 10 December 19994); and Anton Pervusin: okkul'tnye tainy NKVD i SS. Moskva 1999. See for example the refutal by A.V. Stecenko: Byl li Nikolaj Rerih sotrudinkom specsluzb? Roavada, 6 June 2003, <http://www.pravda.ru/print/science/planet/human-being/31713-shambabla-O>.

All this tells me, Rain, that its biz as usual. The saying,... everyday the same old, tired, worn out shit, still goes on, nuthin' new here.

Roerich’s Pact


Roerich’s Pact also Pax Cultura ("Cultural Peace" or "Peace through Culture") is the motto of the cultural artifact protection movement founded by Nicholas Roerich, and is symbolized by a maroon on white emblem consisting of three solid circles in a surrounding circle.

According to the Roerich Museum, "The Banner of Peace symbol has ancient origins. Perhaps its earliest known example appears on Stone Age amulets: three dots, without the enclosing circle. Roerich came across numerous later examples in various parts of the world, and knew that it represented a deep and sophisticated understanding of the triune nature of existence. But for the purposes of the Banner and the Pact, Roerich described the circle as representing the totality of culture, with the three dots being Art, Science, and Religion, three of the most embracing of human cultural activities. He also described the circle as representing the eternity of time, encompassing the past, present, and future. The sacred origins of the symbol, as an illustration of the trinities fundamental to all religions, remain central to the meaning of the Pact and the Banner today." [1]


Signing of the Roerich’s Pact (in centre: Franklin Delano Roosevelt)On April 15, 1935 an international treaty known as the Roerich Pact was signed by the United States and 20 Latin American nations, agreeing that "historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions" should be protected both in times of peace and war, and identified by their flying a distinctive flag, the Banner of Peace, bearing the Pax Cultura emblem. The Soviet Union signed the treaty in 1959. The scheme was to be a cultural analog to the Red Cross for medical neutrality.

The Roerich Pact sign was superseded by the distinctive marking of cultural property as defined by the Hague Convention of 1954. However, the emblem of the Roerich Pact is still a valid protective sign in the relations between states which are bound by the Washington Treaty of 1935 but not by the convention of 1954. As of 2007, this applies to Chile and the United States.

[edit] See also
Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict
Protective sign
[edit] External links
Roerich’s Pact Urgency in Today’s World L. Shaposhnikova “Roerich’s Pact Urgency in Today’s World” Published in magazine “Cultura i Vremya” (“Culture and Time”) No. 4, 2005.
International Centre of the Roerichs
Nicholas Roerich Museum.
Pact and Banner Of Peace Through Culture on the Website of the Nicholas Roerich Museum.

As the slaughter exhausted France and Europe, Talleyrand began moving to the next phase of things, betraying Napoleon—who accurately called him "shit in a silk stocking."

WASHINGTON: The CIA hired America's most famous magician to write a manual on the arts of trickery, concealment and secret communication during the Cold War.

John Mulholland was paid the then princely sum of $US3000 for tips on slipping a pill into the drink of the unsuspecting, tying shoelaces to give signals and on the ''surreptitious removal of objects by women''.

Though it was believed every copy of his report had been destroyed in 1973, one survived and has been turned into a book, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, by Keith Melton, an espionage historian, and Bob Wallace, a former director of the CIA's office of technical services.

Mulholland's guidance from the 1950s was part of a larger CIA effort, called MK-ULTRA, developed to counter Soviet mind-control and interrogation techniques.

The scheme later involved dosing unsuspecting suspects with LSD, and wilder plots such as planting an explosive in Fidel Castro's cigar.

Mulholland supplies instructions on making and concealing droppers for liquids, how to handle small items before pocketing the vital one, and how to pick up a document with a book by using wads of wax.

John McLaughlin, a former CIA deputy director, writes in a foreword that the drink-spiking techniques ''were never actually used'', to the best of his knowledge.

Telegraph, London

Allen Welsh Dulles

5th Director of Central Intelligence
In office
February 26, 1953 – November 29, 1961
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Preceded by GEN Walter Bedell Smith, USA
Succeeded by John McCone

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born April 7, 1893
Watertown, New York
Died January 29, 1969 (aged 75)

Allen Welsh Dulles (April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian and the longest serving (1953–61) director of central intelligence (de facto head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) and a member of the Warren Commission. Between stints of government service, Dulles was a corporate lawyer and partner at Sullivan & Cromwell. Allen W. Dulles was one of the directors of the J. Henry Schroder bank.

Contents [hide]
1 Early life and family
2 Background in intelligence
3 CIA career
4 Later life
5 In the media
6 Bibliography
7 Further reading
8 References
9 External links
10 See also


[edit] Early life and family
Allen Dulles was born on April 7, 1893, in Watertown, New York, and grew up in a family where public service was valued and world affairs were a common topic of discussion[citation needed]. Dulles was one of five children born to Presbyterian minister Allen Macy Dulles and his wife Edith (Foster). He was five years younger than his brother John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower's Secretary of State and chairman and senior partner of Sullivan & Cromwell, and the grandson of John W. Foster, another Secretary of State and brother to diplomat Eleanor Lansing Dulles. His paternal grandfather, John Welch Dulles, had been a Presbyterian missionary in China. His uncle (by marriage) Robert Lansing also was a U.S. Secretary of State.[1] His nephew, Avery Dulles, was a Roman Catholic cardinal, Jesuit priest and noted theologian who taught at Fordham University.

Allen Dulles graduated from Princeton University, and in 1916 entered the diplomatic service. Dulles was serving in Switzerland and was responsible for reviewing and rejecting Vladimir Lenin's application for a visa to the United States.[citation needed] In 1920 he married Clover Todd, daughter of a Columbia University professor; their only son, Allen Macy Dulles Jr., was wounded and permanently disabled in the Korean War when a mortar fragment penetrated his brain. In 1926 he earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School and took a job at the New York firm where his brother, John Foster Dulles, was a partner. He became a director of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1927, becoming the first new director since the Council's foundation in 1921. He was the Council's secretary from 1933.[2]

[edit] Background in intelligence
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Dulles was appointed by William J. Donovan to become head of operations in New York for the Coordinator of Information (COI), which was set up in Room 3603 of Rockefeller Center, taking over offices staffed by Britain's MI6. The COI was the precursor to the Office of Strategic Services, renamed in 1942.

During the 1930s Allen Dulles gained much experience in Germany. An early foe of Adolf Hitler, Dulles was transferred from Britain to Berne, Switzerland for the rest of World War II, and notably was heavily involved in the controversial and secret Operation Sunrise. He is featured in the classic Soviet TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring for his role in that operation. Dulles became the station chief in Berne, Switzerland, for the newly formed Office of Strategic Services (the precursor to the CIA), a logical one. Dulles supplied his government with much sensitive information about Nazi Germany.

Dulles worked on intelligence regarding German plans and activities. Dulles established wide contacts with German émigrés, resistance figures, and anti-Nazi intelligence officers (who linked him, through Hans Bernd Gisevius, to the tiny but daring opposition to Hitler in Germany itself). Although Washington barred Dulles from making firm commitments to the plotters of the 20 July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler, the conspirators nonetheless gave him reports on developments in Germany, including sketchy but accurate warnings of plans for Hitler’s V-1 and V-2 missiles.

Dulles's career was jump-started by the information provided by Fritz Kolbe, a German diplomat and a foe of the Nazis. Kolbe supplied secret documents regarding active German spies and plans regarding the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. In 1945, he played a central role in negotiations leading to the unconditional capitulation of German troops in Italy.

After the war in Europe, Dulles served for six months as the OSS Berlin station chief. In 1947, Congress created the Central Intelligence Agency. Dulles was closely involved with its development.

In the 1948 Presidential election, Allen Dulles was Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey's chief advisor. The Dulles brothers and James Forrestal helped form the Office of Policy Coordination. Under President Eisenhower, Dulles became CIA director.

[edit] CIA career
In 1953, Dulles became the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence, which had been formed as part of the National Security Act of 1947; earlier directors had been military officers. The Agency's covert operations were an important part of the Eisenhower administration's new Cold War national security policy known as the "New Look". Under Dulles's direction, the CIA created MK-Ultra, a top secret mind control research project which was managed by Sidney Gottlieb. Dulles also personally oversaw Operation Mockingbird, a program which influenced American media companies as part of the "New Look".

At Dulles' request, President Eisenhower demanded that Senator Joseph McCarthy discontinue issuing subpoenas against the CIA. In March, McCarthy had initiated a series of investigations into potential communist subversion of the Agency. Although none of the investigations revealed any wrongdoing, the hearings were still potentially damaging, not only to the CIA's reputation but also to the security of sensitive information. Documents made public in 2004 revealed that the CIA had broken into McCarthy's Senate office and intentionally fed disinformation to him in order to discredit him.[3] In fact, the CIA had been seriously compromised and "duped by Soviet and Chinese intelligent services" from its inception. Dulles discredited McCarthy, knowing that revelations of these facts would lead to the agency's destruction[3] as well, presumably, as that of his own career and reputation.

In the early 1950s the U.S. Air Force conducted a competition for a new photo reconnaissance aircraft. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's Skunk Works submitted a design number called the CL-282, which married sailplane-like wings to the body of a supersonic interceptor. This aircraft was rejected by the Air Force, but several of the civilians on the review board took notice, and Edwin Land presented a proposal for the aircraft to Dulles. The aircraft became what is known as the U-2 'spy plane', and it was initially operated by CIA pilots. Its introduction into operational service in 1957 greatly enhanced the CIA's ability to monitor Soviet activity through overhead photo surveillance. Ironically, the aircraft eventually entered service with the Air force, who still operate it today.

In 1953, Dulles was also involved in the covert operations that led to the removal of Mohammad Mossadeq, prime minister of Iran, by the Shah. Rumors of a Soviet takeover had surfaced due to the recent nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. In actuality, British diplomat Christopher Woodhouse had pitched the idea of a coup to President Eisenhower to try and regain British control of the oil company. He would later say, "Not wishing to be accused of using Americans to pull British chestnuts out of the fire, I decided to emphasize the communist threat [to Iran].

At the direction of President Eisenhower, Dulles established Operation 40, comprising 40 officials and agents whose primary area of operations was the Caribbean region, including Cuba. On 4 March, 1960, La Coubre, a ship flying a Belgian flag, exploded in Havana Bay. It was loaded with arms and ammunition destined for the armed forces of the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The explosion killed 75 people and over 200 were injured. Fabian Escalante, an officer of the Department of State Security (G-2), later claimed that this was the first successful act carried out by Operation 40.

Operation 40 not only was involved in sabotage operations but also, in fact, evolved into a team of assassins. One member, Frank Sturgis, claimed: "this assassination group (Operation 40) would upon orders, naturally, assassinate either members of the military or the political parties of the foreign country that you were going to infiltrate, and if necessary some of your own members who were suspected of being foreign agents... We were concentrating strictly in Cuba at that particular time."

Over the next few years Operation 40 worked closely with several anti-Castro Cuban organizations including Alpha 66. CIA officials and freelance agents such as William Harvey, Thomas G. Clines, Porter Goss, Gerry Patrick Hemming, E. Howard Hunt, David Sánchez Morales, Carl Elmer Jenkins, Bernard Barker, Barry Seal, Frank Sturgis, William Robert Plumlee ("Tosh" Plumlee), and William C. Bishop also joined the project.

Dulles went on to be successful with the CIA's first attempts at removing foreign leaders by covert means. Notably, the elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran was deposed in 1953 (via Operation Ajax), and President Arbenz of Guatemala was removed in 1954. The Guatemalan coup was carried out under the CIA code-name Operation PBSUCCESS. Dulles was on the board of the United Fruit Company. Dulles saw these kind of clandestine activities as an essential part of the struggle against communism.

During the Kennedy Administration, Dulles faced increasing criticism. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion and several failed assassination plots utilizing CIA-recruited operatives from the Mafia and anti-Castro Cubans directly against Fidel Castro undermined the CIA's credibility, and pro-American but unpopular regimes in Iran and Guatemala that he helped put in place were widely regarded as brutal and corrupt. The reputation of the agency and its director declined after the Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco; he and his staff (including Deputy Director for Plans Richard M. Bissell, Jr. and Deputy Director Charles Cabell) were forced to resign (September 1961). President Kennedy did not trust the CIA, and he reportedly intended to dismantle it after the Bay of Pigs failure. Kennedy said he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds."[4]

[edit] Later life
Dulles published the book The Craft of Intelligence (ISBN 1-59228-297-0) in 1963.

On November 29, 1963, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Dulles as one of seven commissioners of the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of the U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Despite his knowledge of the several assassination plots by the CIA against Castro, he is not documented to have mentioned these plots to any investigating authorities during the Warren Commission.

In 1969 Dulles died of influenza, complicated by pneumonia, at the age of 75. He was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

[edit] In the media
In the film The Good Shepherd, William Hurt portrays the fictional head of the CIA, Phillip Allen, who appears to be based on Dulles.

In the film JFK, Jim Garrison suspects Dulles as having a role in John Kennedy's assassination and attempts to subpoena him.

[edit] Bibliography
The Craft of Intelligence: America's Legendary Spy Master on the Fundamentals of Intelligence Gathering for a Free World ISBN 1-59228-297-0
From Hitler's Doorstep: the wartime intelligence reports of Alan Welsh Dulles ISBN 0-271-01485-7
Germany's Underground ISBN 0-306-80928-1
Marshall Plan ISBN 0-85496-350-2
The Secret Surrender: The Classic Insider's Account of the Secret Plot to Surrender Northern Italy During WWII ISBN 1-59228-368-3
Classic Spy Stories ISBN 1-59228-484-1
[edit] Further reading
Dulles, Allen. Craft of Intelligence (New York: Harper & Row, 1963; Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2006)
Dulles, Allen. The Secret Surrender (New York: Harper & Row, 1966; Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2006)
Dulles, Allen. From Hitler’s Doorstep : The Wartime Intelligence Reports of Allen Dulles, 1942-1945 / edited with commentary by Neal H. Petersen. (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996)
Grose, Peter. Gentleman Spy, The Life of Allen Dulles (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1994)
Srodes, James, Allen Dulles: Master of Spies (Washington: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1999)
Audio stream of Lecture given by Dulles: 'The Role of Intelligence in Policy Making'[5]
[edit] References
^ "Allen Welsh Dulles - CIA director". CNN. http://web.archive.org/web/200801071012 ... en.dulles/. Retrieved 2007-08-17.
^ "The Council on Foreign Relations from 1921 to 1996 - Historical Roster of Directors and Officers". http://www.cfr.org/about/history/cfr/appendix.html.
^ a b Weiner, Tim (2007). Legacy of ashes: the history of the Central Intelligence Agency. New York: Doubleday. pp. 105-106. ISBN 978-0-385-51445-3
^ "CIA: Marker of Policy or Tool? survey finds widely feared agency is tightly controlled" New York Times. April 25, 1966
^ http://www.blackopradio.com/black252b.ram
[edit] External links
Allen Dulles - Political Friendster
[edit] See also

I asked for the colonel's permission to include in this book his views on the Guatanamo story, and he replied:

Not sure what you mean by the Guantanamo story. My take on this whole thing is much bigger. IMHO [In my humble opinion] World War X is on, and it is religious. We are now faced with a problem of how to handle prisoners caught in a war that never ends. Nobody has asked that before. The traditional response (over millennia) is to kill them or put them into slavery. Tough to do in today's enviroment.

It seemed obvious to me what his alternative was, knowing what I did about this area of expertise. If you couldn't kill your adversaries, or keep them imprisoned forever, there was surely only one option left in the Colonel Alexander canon: you change their minds.

In their case, the alchemical process couldn't have been only a symbolic one, because the two scientists were perfectly aware of the difference; and anyway, if it was only a symbolic thing, Boyle shouldn't have to use a code and Newton wouldn't have kept his papers in secret. Perhaps alchemists discovered techniques that the orthodox science didn't still develop, but that Boyle and Newton came to know.
Is it really possible that the repeated distillation or the heating of an object for a long period of time can produce such changes in an element or in a compound as to literally transform it in a product with extraordinary powers? And did the modern science ever succeeded in proving the existance of such a thing? The answer, even if it's bashfully given, it's yes.
After the slump of the Soviet Union and the weakening if its strict centralized power, Russian criminal organization assumed an ever-growing control on the country, also trying to contact foreign organizations. Since 1991 there were high-level meetings with the godfathers of the mafia, the camorra and the 'ndrangheta. The ties that the Russian criminality established with the Italian one made more simple the recycling of black money and the traffic of drugs and of illegal nuclear materials, "easily to find on the market thanks to the amministrative chaos and to the lack of funds that occur in the nuclear industry and in Soviet armed forces". Funds that, contrarily, certainly didn't lack to regimes interested to the purchase of these materials.
At the end of 1993 a rather worrying new element came into the scene. Russian criminal groups began to put on the market a substance unknown in Western countries until that moment and known simply as "red mercury". It was said that it was a secret product of the Soviet nuclear industry. On December, 23th 1993, five Moldavian citizens tried to take in Rumania a certain quantity of pure uranium, together with a substanced called, exactly, red mercury, and that was destined for the nuclear black market (The Times, December, 24th 1993, page 9). West scientists, worried about this fact, tried to discover if the substance really existed and to establish what it was. But in 1994, the Ministry of the Energy of the United States and the International Agency for the atomic energy declared that the red mercury was an "invention", another fraud perpetrated by the mafia at the expenses of probable purchasers of illecit nuclear material. But some west nuclear physicists had good reasons to think the countrary, and they suspected that the accusations of fraud were motivated by the desire to hide a troublesome truth.
In June 1994, in an article appeared on the International Defense Review, the nuclear physicist Frank Barnaby reported the conversation he had with a Russian physicist who remained anonymous. According to the scientist, the red mercury was a fundamental component of a new type of a Russian nuclear warhead; the substance showed itself to be a very effective catalyst in the detonation, so much that it was possible to produce nuclear bombs smaller and lighter than the west ones". Dr. Barnaby explained that thanks to this red mercury they could produce nuclear warheads that weighted from two to three kilograms, that could easily be placed in the center of a city and then explode. His major fear was that this very dangerous substance could fall in the hands of some terrorist. Moreover, he was informed that Israel, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Pakistan had obtained it through illegal ways and intended to begin the production of weapons. It's known that some of these countries support terroristic groups of various kinds, and they could give them either the raw substance or the finished product. The method of production of the red mercury has evident similarities with alchemical processes. If an alchemist worked inside a Russian military complex, and if he had access to modern equipment, certainly he could succeed in inventing something similar to this substance. Basing on informations supplied by the Russian scientist, the substance is produced in this way:

Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
Tracts Written by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Containing New Experiments, Touching the Relation Between Flame and Air. And About Explosions ...
London, 1672 [from Henry Marshall Leicester and Herbert S. Klickstein, A Source Book in Chemistry 1400-1900 (New York: McGraw Hill, 1952)]

The First Title.
Of the Difficulty of Producing Flame without Aire.

Experiment I.
A Way of Kindling Brimstone in vacuo Boyliano Unsuccessfully Tried. We took a small earthen melting Pot, of an almost Cylindrical figure, and well glaz'd (when it was first bak'd) by the heat; and into this we put a small cylinder of Iron of about an inch in thickness, and half as much more in Diameter, made red hot in the fire; and having hastily pump'd out the Air, to prevent the breaking of the Glass; when this vessel seem'd to be well emptied, we let down, by a turning key, a piece of Paper, wherein was put a convenient quantity of flower of Brimstone, under which the iron had been carefully plac'd; so that, being let down, that vehement heat did, as we expected, presently destroy the contiguous paper; whence the included Sulphur fell immediately upon the iron, whose upper part was a little concave, that it might contain the flowers when melted. But all the heat of the iron, though it made the Paper and Sulphur smoke, would not actually kindle either of them that we could perceive.

Experiment II.
An Ineffectual Attempt to Kindle Sulphur in Our Vacuum Another Way
Another way I thought of to examine the inflammability of Sulphur without Air; which, though it may prove somewhat hazardous to put it in practice, I resolved to try, and did so after the following manner:
Into a glass-buble of a convenient size, and furnish'd with a neck fit for our purpose, we put a little flower of Brimstone (as likely to be more pure and inflammable than common Sulphur;) and having exhausted the Glass, and secured it against the return of the Air, we laid it upon burning coals, where it did not take fire, but rise all to the opposite part of the glass, in the form of a fine powder; and that part being turned downward and laid on coals, the Brimstone, without kindling, rose again in the form of an expanded substance, which (being removed from the fire) was, for the most part, transparent, not unlike a yellow varnish.


Advertisement.
Though these unsuccessful attempts to kindle Sulphur in our exhausted Receivers, were made more discouraging by some more, that were made another way; yet judging that last way to be rational enough, we persisted somewhat obstinately in our endeavours, and conjecturing that there might be some unperceived difference between Minerals, that do all of them pass, and are sold for common Sulphur, I made trial, according to the way hereafter to be mentioned, with another parcel of brimstone, which differ'd not so much from the former, as to make it worth while to set down a description o it, that probably would not be useful.
But in this place, it may suffice to have given a general intimation of the possibility of the thing. The proof of it you will meet with under the third Title, when I come to tell you what use I endeavour'd to make of our sulphureous Flames.


Experiment III.
Shewing the Efficacy of Air in the Production of Flame, without Any Actually Flaming or Burning Body.
Having hitherto examin'd by the presence of the Air, what interest it has in kindling of Flame; it will not be impertinent to add an Experiment or two, that we tried to shew the same interest of the Air by the effects of its admission into our Vacuum. For I thought, it might reasonably be supposed that if such dispositions were introduc'd into a body, as that there should not appear any thing wanting to turn it into Flame but the presence of the Air, an actual ascension of that body might be produced by the admitted Air, without the intervention of any actual Flame, or Fire, or even heated substance; the warrentableness of which supposition may be judged by the two following Experiments.
When we had made the Experiment, ere long to be related in its due place, (viz. Title II. Exper. the 2nd) to examine the presumption we had, that even when the Iron was not hot enough to keep the melted Brimstone in such a heat, as was requisite to make it burn without Air, or with very little, it would yet be hot enough to kindle the Sulphur, if the Air had access to it: to examine this (I say) we made two or three several Tryals, and found by them, that if some little while after the flame was extinguished, the Receiver were removed, the sulphur would Presently take fire again, and flame as vigorously as before. But I thought it might without absurdity be doubted, whether or no the agency of the Air in the production of the flame might not be somewhat less than these trials would perswade; because that, by taking off the Receiver, the Sulphur was not only exposed to fresh Air, but also advantaged with a free scope for the avolution of those fumes, which in a close Vessel might be presum'd to have been unfriendly to the Flame.

How far this doubt may, and how far it should, be admitted, we may be assisted to discern by the subjoined experiment, though made in great part for another purpose; which you will perceive by the beginning of the Memorial I made of it, that runs thus;


Experiment IV.
A Differing Experiment to the Same Purpose with the Former.
Having a mind to try, at how great a degree of rarefaction of the Air it was possible to make Sulphur lame by the assistance of an adventitious heat, we caused such an experiment as the above mention'd to be reiterated, and the pumping to be continued for some time after the flame of the melted flowers of Brimstone appeared to be quite extinguished, and the Receiver was judged by those that managed the Pump (and that upon probable signs) to be very well exhausted. Then, without stirring the Receiver, we let in at the stop-cock very warily a little Air, upon which we could perceive, though not a constant flame, yet divers little flashes, as it were, which disclosed themselves by their bleu [sic] colour to be sulphureous flames; and yet the Air, that had suffic'd to re-kindle the Sulphur, was so little, that two exsuctions more drew it out again, and quite depriv'd us of the mentioned flashes. And when a little Air was cautiously let in again at the stop-cock, the like flashes began again to appear, which, upon two exeuctions [sic] more did again quite vanish, though, upon the letting in a little fresh Air the third time, they did once more reappear.
Whether and how far such experiments as these may conduce to explicate what is related of Fires suddenly appearing in long undisclosed Vaults or Caves to those that first broke into them, I may perchance elsewhere consider; but shall not here, enquire, especially being not fully satisfied of the truth of the matter of fact. ...


The Second Title.
Of the Difficulty of Preserving Flame without Air
Since it is generally, and in most cases justly, esteemed to be more easie to preserve Flame in a body that is already actually kindled, than to produce it there at first; we thought fit to try, whether at least bodies already burning might not be kept in that state without the concurrence of Air. And though in some of our formerly published Physico-mechanical experiments it happen'd that actually Flame would scarce last a minute or two in our large Pneumatical Receiver; yet because it seem'd not improbable, that mineral bodies once kindled might afford a vigorous and very durable flame; we thought fit to devise and make the following tryals: Whence probably we might receive some new information about the Diversities, and some other Phenomena of Flame, and the various degrees, wherein the Air is necessary or helpful to them.

Experiment I.
Reciting an Attempt to Preserve the Flame of Brimstone without Air
We put upon a thick metalline place a convenient quantity of flowers of Sulphur; and having kindled them in the Air, we nimbly conveyed them into a Receiver, and made haste to pump out some of the included Air, partly for other reasons, and partly that the cavity of the Receiver might be the sooner freed from smok [sic], which would, if plentiful, both injure the flame, and hinder our sight. As soon as the Pump began to be plied, or to be lessen'd at every exsuction of the Air; and in effect, it expir'd before the Air was quite drawn out. Nor did it, upon the early removal of the Receiver, do any more than afford, for a very little while, somewhat more of the smoak in the open Air, than it appear'd to do before.
The reiteration of this experiment presently after, afforded us nothing new, worth mentioning in this place.


Experiment II.
Relating a Tryal about the Duration of the Flame of Sulphur in vacuo Boyliano.
To vary a little the foregoing Experiment, and try to save some moments of time, which on these occasions is to be husbanded with the utmost care; having provided a Cylinder of ion larger than the former, that it might be its bulk, being once heated, both contribute to the asccension [sic] of the Sulphur, and to the lasting of its flame, we made a tryal, that I find registred to this effect:
We took a pretty big lump of Brimstone, and tied it to the turning-key; and having got what else was necessary in a readiness, we caus'd the iron-plate to be hastily brought red-hot from the fire, and put upon a Pedestal, that the flame might be the more conspicuous; and, having nimbly cemented on the Receiver, we speedily let down the suspended Brimstone, till it rested upon the red-hot iron, by which being kindled, it sent up a Pump, till we had, as we conjectur'd, emptied the Receiver; which we could not do without withdrawing together with the Air much sulphureous smok, (that was offensive enough both to the eyes and nostrils.) But notwithstanding this pumping out of the Air, though the flame did seem gradually to be somewhat impaired; yet it manifestly continued burning much longer, than by the short duration of other flames in out Receivers (when diligence is us'd to withdraw the air from them) one could have expected. And especially one time, (for the experiment was made more than once) the flame lasted, till the Receiver was judg'd to be well exhausted; and some thought it did so survive the exhaustion, that it went not out so much for want of Air, as Fuel; the Brimstone appearing when we took off the Receiver, either to have been consum'd by the fire that fed on it, or to have casually run off from the Iron, whose heat had kept it constantly melted.

In case you should have a mind to prosecute Experiments of the nature of this and the precedent, it may not prove useless, if I intimate to you the following Advertisements.

1. For the red-hot iron above mentioned, we thought it not amiss to provide, instead of the melting-pot imploy'd in the first experiment, a Pedestal (if I may so call it) made of a lump of dryed Tobacco-pipe-clay, that the vehement heat of the iron might neither fill the Receiver with the smok of what it lean'd on, nor injure the engine, if it should rest immediately upon that; And this Pedestal should be so plac'd, that the iron may be as far, as you can, from the sides of the Receiver, which else the excessive heat would endanger.

phosphorus (P)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


White phosphorus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A highly-reactive, poisonous, nonmetallic element (see nonmetal) that occurs naturally in phosphates, notably apatite (Ca3(PO4)2). It was discovered by Hennig Brandt in Hamburg in 1669. The name comes from the Greek phosphoros, meaning "bringer of light," because it glows in the dark. It is the eleventh most common element in the Earth's crust.

Phosphorus forms phosphorous (trivalent) and phosphoric (pentavalent) compounds. It burns in air to give the trioxide and the pentoxide, and also reacts with the halogens, sulfur, and some metals. Phosphorus pentoxide (P4O10) is a white powder and very deliquescent (forming phosphoric acid), and is used as a dehydrating agent.


Allotropes of phosphorus

Phosphorus occurs in several allotropic forms, the most common of which are white phosphorus and red phosphorus. The former is a waxy, yellowish-white, very inflammable, and poisonous solid. It can only safely be kept under water. Red phosphorus is a non-poisonous, dark red powder that is not very inflammable.

White and red phosphorus are monotropic allotropes – the latter is stable at all temperatures up to its melting point. However, at ordinary temperatures the conversion of the white allotrope into the red form is extremely slow. But the standard method for preparing phosphorus by heating together calcium phosphate, silica, and coke yields the white form.


Structures of red phosphorus (left) and white phosphorus (right)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The red allotrope must then be obtained from the white. This is done by heating the white variety for several days at a temperature of 270°C. Since white phosphorus is highly inflammable even at room temperatures, great care has to be taken to avoid explosions. The white allotrope is placed in a cast iron or steel pot with a close fitting lid which incorporates a safety pipe. Air is excluded from the pot. After four or five days, the temperature of the pot is raised to 400°C so that the unchanged white allotrope may be distilled off. After cooling, the hard red cake left behind is ground under water and then boiled with caustic soda to remove any residue of the white allotrope. Red phosphorus is finally washed with hot water, filtered, and dried under vacuum.

There is a third, rare, allotropic form of phosphorus, which can be made by heating the red form under pressure. This is called black phosphorus.


atomic number 15
relative atomic mass 30.9738
electron configuration 1s22s22p63s23p3
atomic radius 93 pm
oxidation states 5, 3, -3
relative density 1.82 (yellow), 2.20 (red)
melting point 44.14 °C(white), 390–400°C (red)
boiling point 280.5°C (white)


Phosphorus and life

Phosphorus is an element essential to life as we know it. It is present in all DNA and RNA. Also, calcium phosphate is the primary constituent of animal bones. For more on the biological and medical significance of phosphorus, see phosphate. For information about phosphorus poisoning, see below.

In some forms of alien biology, phosphorus could conceivably play an even more central role. See phosphorus-based life.


Discovery of phosphorus

In the 17th century alchemists (see alchemy) used many materials in their search for the "philosopher's stone," a supposedly magical substance that would turn base metals into gold. In 1669, while trying to make the philosopher's stone Hennig Brandt discovered phosphorus. It dripped from his retort in waxy, yellow drops which astonished him by catching fire when warmed slightly, and which glowed in the dark.

News of Brandt's discovery must have spread rapidly, and although he tried to keep it a secret, enough information leaked out about the method of obtaining it for the alchemist Kinkel to duplicate his experiment. A few years later the English scientist Robert Boyle also managed to prepare phosphorus. Apparently Brandt sold his secret to Johann Krafft, of Dresden, and Boyle certainly taught the method to a London chemist called Godfried Hankwitz. For many years only Hankwitz managed to make phosphorus in any quantity, and he supplied the precious material to the whole of Europe under the name of "English Phosphorus." In 1737 a better method of obtaining phosphorus, from urine, was developed in France, but it was not until 1775 that phosphorus became plentiful when the Swedish chemist Scheele discovered that it could conveniently be made by distilling bones with sand and charcoal.

Later investigators showed that phosphorus could be obtained from many of its compounds, such as phosphate rock, by heating them to very high temperatures with silica and coke (carbon).


Matches

In 1831 the Frenchman Charles Sauria invented a "strike-anywhere" match, the head of which contained a mixture of white phosphorus, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch. These matches ignited when they were rubbed on a rough surface. Sauria unfortunately didn't realize how poisonous white phosphorus was, and many thousands of match-makers were killed or crippled as a result of absorbing phosphorus into their bodies.

Modern "safety matches," invented in 1844, still use phosphorus, but it is coated on the side of the box and consists entirely of the red allotrope. The match head is composed of antimony(III) sulfide and potassium chlorate, and the striking surface is composed of powdered glass and red phosphorus. The act of striking converts some of the red phosphorus to white by friction heat. This small amount of white phosphorus then ignites and starts the combustion of the match head.


Phosphorus poisoning

Yellow phosphorus is readily absorbed by the body and is highly poisonous. Red phosphorus cannot be absorbed and is nontoxic. Most cases of phosphorus poisoning occur in industrial workers who accidentally ingest the chemical or inhale its vapor. Acute poisoning, due to absorption of comparatively large amounts of phosphorus over a short period, causes damage to the liver, kidneys, central nervous system, and other organs.

Symptoms of acute phosphorus poisoning include burning abdominal pain, an odor of garlic on the breath, nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, jaundice, and symptoms of liver and kidney failure. In severe cases, or untreated milder ones, delirium, seizures, unconsciousness, and death may occur within about 48 hours of initial poisoning.

Chronic poisoning, due to taking in small amounts of phosphorus over a relatively long period. may cause gradual destruction of the jawbones (a condition known as phosphonecrosis), cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney damage. This is now very uncommon.

Treatment of acute poisoning consists of washing out the stomach with copper sulfate, along with injections of calcium and treatment for liver and kidney failure.

Date: October 24
Take Arsnick 1 part Nitre 2 parts Let them flow together & <then> calcine for about 8 houres. Then take out the remaining mass & mix it well with its weight of fresh Nitre, keep them againe in calcination for 6 or 8 houres, soe that the mixture be ready to flow & the crucible or pot <all the while> red-hot; Then take out the matter & once more mix therewith its weight of fresh Nitre & let them calcine as before for 6 or 8 h. Then the matter (being now altogether fixd) must be taken out & with very well rectifyd spirit of wine swiming to the height of 5 or 6 fingers above it, must be distilld in Balneo, yet soe that the spirit of wine may boyl upon it. The same abstracted spirit of wine may be us'd often times, only now & then some fresh [d] must be added to it to recruite it, & the phlegme which may be produc'd must be cast away. This destillation of spirit of wine from the fixd Ars: must be reiterated at least 20 times, & if it be repeated 30 it will be soe much the better. The medicin must be kept in the forme of a powder, & must be strowed upon the Ulcer of the party affected to the thickness of a kniffe, once in 48 h: or if the necessity be great once in 24. any ordinary fit plaister may in the meane time be kept on to cover & defend the part. If there be noe Ex Ulcerationum when the powder is 1st to be applyd, there must be a hole made <with> a Caustick. This Medicin will mortify & make as seperationum of all that is malignant & leave the lips of the ulcer fresh & red, soe that the cure may be afterwards perfected with ordinary healing plaisters.

Red mercury

Red mercury is a mythical substance of uncertain composition purportedly used in the creation of nuclear bombs, as well as a variety of unrelated weapons systems. Samples obtained from arrested would-be terrorists invariably consisted of nothing more than various red dyes or powders of little value, which some suspect was being sold as part of a campaign intended to flush out potential nuclear smugglers.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Nuclear "sting" operations
3 Explanations
3.1 Background
3.2 Red Mercury is a ballotechnic
3.3 Shortcut to fissionable material
3.4 Red Mercury is weapons material
3.5 Stealth paint
3.6 Red Mercury myth amongst communities in southern Africa
3.7 Saudi Arabia
4 Usage in fiction
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links


[edit] History
The story of red mercury apparently began when in 1991 Urals Regional Economic Committee appealed to the government asking for permit to export red mercury. President of Russian company Promekologia, situated in the Urals Sadykov wrote a letter to then-president of Russia Boris Yeltsin asking permission to sell the red mercury abroad which, he claimed, could solve Russian economic troubles. In the early 1992 Boris Yeltsin signed a decree giving Promekologia monopoly to sell 3 tonnes of red mercury a year during 3 years. In 1993 the affair became known to the Russian Supreme Council which led to investigation and speculations in press.[1]In 1992 a special parliamentary commission was instituted to investigate the red mercury affair[2]

Former Russian Prosecutor-General Yuriy Skuratov said in an interview that in 1992 the Prosecutor's office had a version that the red mercury legend was invented to finance Russian privatization through state secretary of Russia Gennady Burbulis. He said "red mercury" was used to cover up exports of strategic materials from Russia.[3]

According the other sources a substance named "oxyde of red mercury" was officially listed as a substance prohibited from export from the USSR other than to "socialist countries" as early as 1990.[4]

References to red mercury began to appear in major Russian and western media sources in the late 1980s. The articles were never specific as to what exactly red mercury was, but nevertheless claimed it was of great importance in nuclear bombs, or that it was used in the building of boosted fission weapons. Almost as soon as the stories appeared, people started attempting to buy it. At that point the exact nature of the substance started to change, and eventually turned into anything the buyer happened to be interested in. As New Scientist reported in 1992, an Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory report outlined that:

When red mercury first appeared on the international black market 15 years ago, the supposedly top secret nuclear material was 'red' because it came from Russia. When it resurfaced last year in the formerly communist states of Eastern Europe it had unaccountably acquired a red colour. But then, as a report from the US Department of Energy reveals, mysterious transformations are red mercury's stock in trade.

The report, compiled by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, shows that in the hands of hoaxers and conmen, red mercury can do almost anything the aspiring Third World demagogue wants it to. You want a short cut to making an atom bomb? You want the key to Soviet ballistic missile guidance systems? Or perhaps you want the Russian alternative to the anti-radar paint on the stealth bomber? What you need is red mercury.[5]

A key event in the history of the red mercury story was an article in the daily Russian newspaper Pravda in 1993. Claiming to be based on leaked top secret memos, they noted that red mercury was:

[A] super-conductive material used for producing high-precision conventional and nuclear bomb explosives, 'Stealth' surfaces and self-guided warheads. Primary end-users are major aerospace and nuclear-industry companies in the United States and France along with nations aspiring to join the nuclear club, such as South Africa, Israel, Iran, Iraq, and Libya.[6]

Red mercury was offered for sale throughout Europe and the Middle East by Russian businessmen, who found many buyers who would pay almost anything for the substance even though they had no idea what it was.

A study for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1997 has perhaps the best summary of the topic:

The asking price for red mercury ranged from $100,000 to $300,000 per kilogram. Sometimes the material would be irradiated or shipped in containers with radioactive symbols, perhaps to convince potential buyers of its strategic value. But samples seized by police contained only mercury oxide, mercury(II) iodide, or mercury mixed with red dye — hardly materials of interest to weapons-makers.

[edit] Nuclear "sting" operations
One televised report indicated that the Soviet Union, which had a vested interest in nuclear non-proliferation, encouraged the KGB and GRU to arrange sting operations for the detection of those seeking to deal in nuclear materials. The Soviet intelligence services created a myth of the necessity of "red mercury" for the sorts of nuclear devices that terrorists and rogue governments might seek. This would provide a neat explanation for the sudden "appearance" of red mercury in the press, but it also seems difficult to understand why they would then publicly discount red mercury in what would appear to be a successful programme.

The substance found is a mere pigment devoid of properties suitable for nuclear weapons; it is speculated to be mercury sulphide (cinnabar), mercury(II) iodide, mercury antimony oxide (Hg2Sb2O7) or any other red-coloured mercury compound. Possession of this substance as the result of undercover deals with Soviet law enforcement was an obvious ground for immediate arrest and likely conviction in criminal courts, with severe punishment following conviction.

Following the arrest of several men in Great Britain in September 2004, on suspicion that they were trying to buy a kilo of red mercury for £300,000, the International Atomic Energy Agency made a statement dismissing claims that the substance is real. "Red mercury doesn't exist," said the spokesman. "The whole thing is a bunch of malarkey."[7] When the case came to trial at the Old Bailey in April 2006, it became apparent that News of the World's "fake sheikh" Mazher Mahmood had worked with the police to catch the three men, Dominic Martins, Roque Fernandes and Abdurahman Kanyare. They were tried for "trying to set up funding or property for terrorism" and "having an article (a highly dangerous mercury based substance) for terrorism". According to the prosecutor, red mercury was believed to be a material which could cause a large explosion, possibly even a nuclear reaction, but whether or not red mercury actually existed was irrelevant to the prosecution.[8] All three men were acquitted in July 2006.[9]

[edit] Explanations
Red mercury was described by many commentators, and the exact nature of its supposed working mechanism varied widely among them. The most popular explanation is that it was a highly energetic explosive-like chemical known as a ballotechnic, although the popularity of this particular explanation appears to be due largely to the popularity of its main supporter, Samuel Cohen. Other claims include that it is used as a shortcut to the extraction of fissile material, that it is in fact weapons grade material being sold under a code name, or that it is completely unrelated to nuclear devices at all, and is in fact a stealth coating for aircraft. In general, however, none of these explanations appear to be scientifically or historically supportable.

[edit] Background
Traditional staged thermonuclear weapons consist of two parts, a fission "primary" and a fusion/fission "secondary". The energy released by the primary when it explodes is used to (indirectly) compress the secondary and start a fusion reaction within it. Conventional explosives are far too weak to provide the level of compression needed.

The primary is generally built as small as possible, due to the fact that the energy released by the secondary is much larger, and thus building a larger primary is generally inefficient. There is a lower limit on the size of the primary that can be built, known as the critical mass. For weapons grade plutonium, this is around 10 kg. This can be reduced through the use of neutron reflectors or clever arrangements of explosives to compress the core, but these methods generally add to the size and complexity of the resulting device.

Due to the need for a fission primary, and the difficulty of purifying weapons-grade fissile materials, the majority of arms control efforts to limit nuclear proliferation rely on the detection and control of the fissile material and the equipment needed to obtain it.

[edit] Red Mercury is a ballotechnic
Cohen, the "father of the neutron bomb", has been claiming for some time that red mercury is a powerful explosive-like chemical known as a ballotechnic. The energy released during its reaction is enough to directly compress the secondary without the need for a fission primary. He claims that he has learned that the Soviet scientists perfected the use of red mercury and used it to produce a number of softball-sized "pure fusion" bombs weighing as little as 10 lb (4.5 kg), which he claims were made in large numbers.[10]

He goes on to claim that the reason this is not more widely known is that elements within the US power structure are deliberately keeping it "under wraps" due to the scary implications such a weapon would have on nuclear proliferation. Since a red mercury bomb would require no fissile material, it would seemingly be impossible to protect against its widespread proliferation given current arms control methodologies. Instead of trying to do so, they simply claim it doesn't exist, while acknowledging its existence privately. Cohen also claims that when President Boris Yeltsin took power, he secretly authorized the sale of red mercury on the international market, and that fake versions of it were sometimes offered to gullible buyers.[10]

Cohen's claims appear to be difficult to support scientifically. The amount of energy released by the fission primary is thousands of times greater than that released by conventional explosives, and it appears that the "red mercury" approach would be orders of magnitude smaller than required. Furthermore, ballotechnic materials are those that do not explode, so it is difficult to understand how their energy could be used to produce compression at all.

Additionally, it appears there is absolutely no independent confirmation of any sort of Cohen's claims to the reality of red mercury. The scientists in charge of the labs where the material would have been made have publicly dismissed the claims (see below), as have numerous US colleagues, including Edward Teller.

According to Cohen,[10] veteran nuclear weapon designer Dr. Frank Barnaby conducted secret interviews with Russian scientists who told him that red mercury was produced by dissolving mercury antimony oxide in mercury, heating and irradiating the resultant amalgam, and then removing the elemental mercury through evaporation.[11] The irradiation was reportedly carried out by placing the substance inside a nuclear reactor.[12]

[edit] Shortcut to fissionable material
Another theory popular in the mid-1990s was that red mercury facilitated the enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade purity. Conventionally, such enrichment is usually done with precision centrifuges, and takes several years. Red mercury was speculated to eliminate this costly and time-consuming step. Although this would not eliminate the possibility of detecting the material, it could escape detection during enrichment as the centrifuges normally used in this process are very large and require equipment that can be fairly easily tracked internationally. Eliminating such equipment would greatly ease the construction of a clandestine nuclear weapon.

[edit] Red Mercury is weapons material
Another common claim is that Red Mercury is in fact nothing more than a code name for high-quality uranium or plutonium, extracted from any number of Soviet weapons labs and being offered on the open market.

Russian weapon designers have reported (1993) that red mercury was the Soviet codename for Lithium-6, which has an affinity for mercury and tends to acquire a red colour due to mercuric impurities during its separation process.[13] Although details remain secret, lithium-6 deuteride still apparently plays a role in modern nuclear weapons, as a fusion material.

[edit] Stealth paint
As mentioned earlier, one of the origins of the term "red mercury" was in the Russian newspaper Pravda, which claimed that red mercury was "a super-conductive material used for producing high-precision conventional and nuclear bomb explosives, 'stealth' surfaces and self-guided warheads." Any substance with these sorts of highly differing properties would be suspect by most, but the stealth story continued to have some traction long after most had dismissed the entire story.

[edit] Red Mercury myth amongst communities in southern Africa
Organisations involved in landmine clearance and unexploded ordinance disposal noted a belief amongst some communities in southern Africa that Red Mercury may be found in certain types of ordnance. Attempting to extract Red Mercury, purported to be highly valuable, was reported as a motivation for people dismantling items of unexploded ordnance, and suffering death or injury as a result. In some cases it was reported that unscrupulous traders may be deliberately promoting this misconception in an effort to build a market for recovered ordnance.[14]

[edit] Saudi Arabia
In April 2009 it was reported from Saudi Arabia that rumors that Singer sewing machines contained "red mercury" had caused the prices of such machines to massively increase in the Kingdom, with some paying up to SR 200,000 for a single machine which could previously have been bought for SR 200. Believers in the rumor claimed that the presence of red mercury in the sewing machines' needles could be detected using a mobile telephone; if the line cut off when the telephone was placed near to the needle, this supposedly proved that the substance was present.

In Medina there was a busy trade in the sewing machines, with buyers seen using mobile phones to check the machines for red mercury content, while it was reported that others had resorted to theft, with two tailors' shops in Dhulum broken into and their sewing machines stolen. At other locales, there were rumors that a Kuwait-based multinational had been buying up the Singer machines, while in Al-Jouf, the residents were led to believe that a local museum was buying up any such machines that it could find, and numerous women appeared at the museum offering to sell their Singer machines.

There was little agreement among believers in the story as to the exact nature or even color of the red mercury, while the supposed uses for it ranged from it being an essential component of nuclear power, to having the ability to summon jinn, extract gold, or locate buried treasure and perform other forms of magic. The official spokesman for the Riyadh police said that the rumors had been started by gangs attempting to swindle people out of their money, and denied the existence of red mercury in sewing machines.[15]

[edit] Usage in fiction
In the 1936 novel The Ultimate Weapon by John W. Campbell scientists trying to harness atomic energy creates a strange red crystalline substance from mercury in an experimental reactor. This red mercury becomes the key to atomic power, and while it is never specifically called "red mercury" in the story it may in fact be the source of all later speculation on the substance.
Red Mercury is a 1996 novel by Max Barclay.
Red Mercury Blues is the first Artie Cohen mystery written by Reggie Nadelson. Published 1995. Reissued in 2006.
Storylines based on the sale and terrorist applications of red mercury have appeared in episodes of two BBC drama series. Bugs contained an episode during its second series concerning a large quantity of Red Mercury being held by international arms dealers and being traded to fictional middle-eastern factions. In the BBC thriller series Spooks Series 3, Episode 2, "The Sleeper", a Nobel winning chemist is coerced into participating in an MI5 sting of a terrorist group in possession of plutonium who are seeking a short-cut to a bomb. It suggested that red mercury was a myth.
There is a brief mention of red mercury being used as a weapon (along with "foam-phase hydrogen" warheads) in the novel Redemption Ark.
Red Mercury bombs are used in the 7th Son trilogy by J.C. Hutchins.
In the Dark•Matter role-playing game, red mercury does exist, and the player characters may find themselves having to hunt down terrorists who may want to use it for weapons of mass destruction. In keeping with the conspiracy theory and unidentified flying object (UFO) themes of the game, while red mercury is indeed usable as a seemingly impossibly potent nuclear fuel, it's actually originally meant to be a foodstuff for a bizarre alien race. The red mercury on Earth arrived when that species visited, and humans have been trying to duplicate it (with very limited success) since.
The video game Warhawk also featured red mercury as a central component of its plot. In the game red mercury is an extremely powerful weapon as well as a vaguely alluded-to serum that is exploited by the primary antagonist and megalomaniac, Kreel.
The video game Shadow Ops: Red Mercury's plot revolves around hunting down a terrorist that controls two red mercury nuclear bombs.
Red mercury also plays a central role in the plot of the videogame Splinter Cell: Double Agent, when Emile Dufraisne, head of John Brown's Army, seeks to acquire some in order to build a bomb capable of destroying the greater NYC area.
In an episode of the American spy-fi television series Alias (#1.22, "Almost Thirty Years"), a character refers to an explosive device as a "red mercury charge with a mechanical fuse". When the device explodes later, it acts similarly to a conventional explosive such as C-4.
The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, a novel by Mario Acevedo (HarperCollins, 2006, ISBN 978-0-06-83326-8), uses red mercury as a MacGuffin.
It also appears in the thriller Dead water Deep, by Terence Strong: described as a "highly pure rare-earth element" it is claimed to be the basis of a "structural bond energy release" (SBER) device. This potent fictional technology ("...two kilos of the stuff give you a ten-kiloton explosion") is said to have originated in the Soviet Union.
Red Mercury is also used as a plot device in the novel "The Double Tap" by Stephen Leather, where an arms dealer is attempting to purchase the substance from a Russian salesman.
In Scepticism Inc., a novel by Bo Fowler, red mercury is described as "mercury antimony oxide dissolved into mercury and then left to irradiate in a nuclear reactor for twenty days". A bomb made of red mercury is used to destroy the Sceptic Tower, headquarters of the metaphysical betting company Scepticism Inc.
Yet another appearance is in the thriller Bunker 13 by Aniruddha Bahal where it is described (by a Russian mafia arms-dealer) as being in the nose of a "Swift arrow" missile, creating a "super-high-temperature blowtorch" that can burn its way through "three feet of steel armour."
In science-fiction stories Samolot von Ribbentrop (Von Ribbentrop's plane) and Atomowa Ruletka (Nuclear Roulette) by Polish writer Andrzej Pilipiuk, "red mercury reactors" are used as highly efficient power sources, although no further information about either the substance or said reactors is given.
In the last episode of Galileo (Japanese television drama), this substance is said to be "a legendary alloy that reflects 100% of neutrons" and "an urban legend among scientists". Nonetheless it's actively and covertly researched by the main character's antagonist (and seemingly successfully, as it's used to create a small bomb with enough nuclear yield to wipe out half of Tokyo).
Red mercury appears in the novel Blood is Dirt, by Robert Wilson, as a nuclear material sought by a corrupt West-African tribal chief.
In the season 4 premiere episode of Criminal Minds, called Mayhem, after an explosive device was used to destroy a Federal SUV, SSA Dr. Spencer Reid says, "[The device] was likely made using oxidizing agents including chromates, peroxides, perchlorates, chlorates, and red mercury all jammed into a device no larger than a cell phone."
The title of two films: Red Mercury (film), a 2005 UK film about terrorists making a bomb and Finish Line (2008), released as Red Mercury on DVD in Australia, which purports to be on a similar subject but instead spends most of the running time on race car drivers.
[edit] See also
Ballotechnics
Samuel Cohen
Nuclear isomer
[edit] References
Croddy, Eric; Wirtz, James J. (2005). Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopaedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History. ABC-CLIO. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-8510-9490-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZzlNgS ... =RA1-PA313.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg1 ... erous.html
Notes
^ http://www.inauka.ru/blogs/article33242/print.html News of science
^ http://gazeta.aif.ru/online/aif/1280/19_01?print Arguments and facts
^ http://gazeta.aif.ru/online/aif/1280/19_01?print Arguments and facts
^ http://www.inauka.ru/blogs/article33242/print.html News of science
^ New Scientist: Only fools still hunt for elusive red mercury
^ Yeltsingate
^ BBC News - What is red mercury? - BBC News, 25 April 2006
^ BBC News: Three men accused of trying to buy red mercury - BBC News, 25 April 2006
^ Trio cleared of red mercury plot -BBC News 25 July 2006
^ a b c Cohen, Sam; Douglass, Joe (11 March 2003), The nuclear threat that doesn't exist - or does it?, Financial Sense Editorials, http://www.financialsense.com/editorial ... /0311.html
^ Barnaby, Frank (1994), "Red mercury: Is there a pure-fusion bomb for sale?", International Defense Review (6): pp. 79–81
^ Adam, David (30 September 2004), "What is red mercury?", The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/ ... questions1
^ Hibbs, Mark (22 July 1993), "'Red mercury' is lithium-6, Russian weaponsmiths say", Nucleonics Week (10)
^ Landmine Action (2003) Unexploded ordnance & post-conflict communities
^ Al-Maqati, Abdullah (14 April 2009), "‘Red mercury’ rumors gain ground", Saudi Gazette, http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cf ... 14/04/2009
[edit] Further reading
Peter Hounam, Steve McQuillan, The Mini-Nuke Conspiracy: How Mandela Inherited a Nuclear Nightmare, Viking Adult (October 1, 1995) ISBN 0-670-86925-2. This book made the claim that South Africa had made red mercury, and used it to construct a thousand miniature tactical nuclear weapons, that were now in the hands of non-governmental South African right-wing elements.
Henry Stevens, Hitler's Suppressed and Still-Secret Weapons, Science and Technology ISBN 978-1-931882-73-6. in Chapter 21, citing sources from above, Stevens makes a case that Germany may have developed technology of Red Mercury during World War II.
[edit] External links
BBC News: What is Red Mercury?
About.com: What is Red Mercury?
NTI: A short history of scams involving Red Mercury and Osmium - 187
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_mercury"

These four letters I.N.R.I. forming the word are placed on the Cubic Stone on the altar; the Candidate is presented with a rose, invested with the collar and jewel of the Order, and sealed with the “seal of perfection “—symbols of the “hidden truths known only to the perfect Mason.” The signs are given,’ and the Herald proclaims the Candidate King of the Pelican and Eagle and a Prefect and Puissant Prince of the Rose Croix of Heredom.

The concluding ceremony is the Third Point, or “Feast of Fraternal Affection “, which though outwardly professing to be a mere agape or love-feast, has in its close context with Calvary a possible interpretation far more sinister. A wafer is first consumed. The Most Wise Sovereign presents a piece to the Prelate, both dip their fragments into salt and eat them. The Prelate then communicates his next neighbour in like manner, and so on. The Most Wise Sovereign then partakes of the chalice of wine with the Prelate, who replies with the sign of the Good Shepherd, exchanging the words. The second part of this sign accompanied by the words pax vobiscum, it may be noted, is not unlike the Pax ceremony in the Latin Mass but given with the arms crossed. The Prelate then drinks with his neighbour on his left, accompanied by the same exchange of signs and words, and so on till all have communicated.

The Most Wise Sovereign, then says "all is consumed “, to which reply is made Gloria in excelsis Dec et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

The four cards on which the letters of the word are inscribed are then removed from the Altar, “that it be not exposed to the eyes of the profane but be consumed according to ancient custom “, and the Prelate burns them in a second chalice which the 1891 edition of the ritual specifies should contain “spirits of wine with chloride of strontium “,‘ and pronounces the words consummatum est. Strontium compounds are used. as every pyrotechnician knows, in rockets and other fireworks where a vivid rose-red flame is required. Its use at this culminating point in a solemn religious ceremony is dramatic and doubtless (to a certain type) emotionally impressive. Indeed only the most captious of critics would venture to suggest that these red flames might in themselves be a Masonic symbol of the origins of this strange parody of Christian worship.

(′strän·tē·əm ′klör′īd)
(inorganic chemistry) SrCl2 Water- and alcohol-soluble white crystals, melts at 872°C; used in medicine and pyrotechnics and to make strontium salts.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
English▼
English▼ Deutsch Español Français Italiano Tagalog Search unanswered questions...
Browse: Unanswered questions | Most-recent questions | Reference library.
Enter question or phrase...Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Browse: Unanswered questions | New questions | New answers | Reference library ..5min Related Video: Strontium chloride
Top




Wikipedia: Strontium chloride
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > WikipediaStrontium chloride

IUPAC name Strontium chloride
Other names Strontium(II) chloride
Identifiers
CAS number 10476-85-4 Y,
10025-70-4 (hexahydrate)
Properties
Molecular formula SrCl2
Molar mass 158.53 g/mol (anhydrous)
266.62 g/mol (hexahydrate)
Appearance White crystalline solid
Density 3.052 g/cm3 (anhydrous, monoclinic form)
2.672 g/cm3 (dihydrate)
1.930 g/cm3 (hexahydrate)
Melting point 874 °C (anhydrous)
61 °C (hexahydrate)

Boiling point 1250 °C (anhydrous)

Solubility in water anhydrous:
53.8 g/100 mL (20 °C)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hexahydrate:
106 g/100 mL (0 °C)
206 g/100 mL (40 °C)
Solubility ethanol: very slightly soluble
acetone: very slightly soluble
ammonia: insoluble
Refractive index (nD) 1.650 (anhydrous)
1.594 (dihydrate)
1.536 (hexahydrate) [1]
Structure
Crystal structure Deformed rutile structure
Coordination
geometry octahedral (six-coordinate)
Hazards
EU Index Not listed
Main hazards Irritant
Flash point Non-flammable
Related compounds
Other anions Strontium fluoride
Strontium bromide
Strontium iodide
Other cations Magnesium chloride
Calcium chloride
Barium chloride
Y (what is this?) (verify)
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa)
Infobox references

Strontium chloride (SrCl2) is a salt of strontium and chloride. It is a typical salt, forming neutral aqueous solutions. Like all compounds of Sr, this salt emits a bright red colour in a flame and in fact is used as a source of redness in fireworks. Its chemical properties are intermediate between those for barium chloride, which is more toxic, and calcium chloride.

Contents [hide]
1 Preparation
2 Structure
3 Uses
3.1 Dental care
4 References
5 External links

Preparation
Strontium chloride can be prepared by treating strontium hydroxide or strontium carbonate with hydrochloric acid:

Sr(OH)2 + 2 HCl → SrCl2 + 2 H2O
Crystallization from cold aqueous solution gives the hexahydrate, SrCl2·6H2O. Dehydration of this salt occurs in stages, commencing above 61 °C. Full dehydration occurs at 320 °C.[2]

Structure
The solid adopts a deformed rutile structure.[3] In the vapour phase the SrCl2 molecule is non-linear with a Cl-Sr-Cl angle of approximately 130°. [3] This is an exception to VSEPR theory which would predict a linear structure. Ab initio calculations have been cited to propose that contributions from d orbitals in the shell below the valence shell are responsible.[4] Another proposal is that polarisation of the electron core of the strontium atom causes a distortion of the core electron density that interacts with the Sr-Cl bonds.[5]

Uses
Strontium chloride is the precursor to other compounds of strontium, such as yellow strontium chromate, which is used as a corrosion inhibitor for aluminium. The precipitation proceeds analogously to the related, isostructural sulfate: [2]

SrCl2 + Na2CrO4 → SrCrO4 + 2 NaCl
Strontium chloride is often used as a red colouring agent in pyrotechnics. It imparts a much more intense red colour to the flames than most other alternatives. It is employed in small quantities in glass-making and metallurgy. The radioactive isotope strontium-89, used for the treatment of bone cancer, is usually administered in the form of strontium chloride. Sea water aquaria require small amounts of strontium chloride, which is consumed in the production of the exoskeletons of certain plankton.

Dental care
SrCl2 is useful in reducing tooth sensitivity by forming a barrier over microscopic tubules in the dentin containing nerve endings that have become exposed by gum recession. Known in the US as Elecol and Sensodyne, these products are called "strontium chloride toothpastes," although most now use potassium nitrate instead which works as a nerve calming agent rather than a barrier.[1]

References
1.^ Pradyot Patnaik. Handbook of Inorganic Chemicals. McGraw-Hill, 2002, ISBN 0070494398
2.^ a b J. Paul MacMillan, Jai Won Park, Rolf Gerstenberg, Heinz Wagner, Karl Köhler, Peter Wallbrecht "Strontium and Strontium Compounds" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 2005, Wiley-VCH: Weinheim. DOI 10.1002/14356007.a25 321
3.^ a b Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, A. (1997), Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.), Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 0-7506-3365-4
4.^ Ab initio model potential study of the equilibrium geometry of alkaline earth dihalides: MX2 (M=Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba; X=F, Cl, Br, I)Seijo L.,Barandiarán Z J. Chem. Phys. 94, 3762 (1991) doi:5.^ Ion model and equilibrium configuration of the gaseous alkaline-earth dihalides Guido M. and Gigli G. J. Chem. Phys. 65, 1397 (1976); doi:10.1063/1.433247

phosphorus ← sulfur → chlorine
O
↑
S
↓
Se






16SPeriodic table


Appearance
Lemon yellow crystals.

General properties
Name, symbol, number sulfur, S, 16
Element category nonmetal
Group, period, block 16, 3, p
Standard atomic weight 32.065(5) g·mol−1
Electron configuration [Ne] 3s2 3p4
Electrons per shell 2, 8, 6 (Image)
Physical properties
Phase solid
Density (near r.t.) (alpha) 2.07 g·cm−3
Density (near r.t.) (beta) 1.96 g·cm−3
Density (near r.t.) (gamma) 1.92 g·cm−3
Liquid density at m.p. 1.819 g·cm−3
Melting point 388.36 K, 115.21 °C, 239.38 °F
Boiling point 717.8 K, 444.6 °C, 832.3 °F
Critical point 1314 K, 20.7 MPa
Heat of fusion (mono) 1.727 kJ·mol−1
Heat of vaporization (mono) 45 kJ·mol−1
Specific heat capacity (25 °C) 22.75 J·mol−1·K−1
Vapor pressure
P/Pa 1 10 100 1 k 10 k 100 k
at T/K 375 408 449 508 591 717

Atomic properties
Oxidation states 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, -1, -2
(strongly acidic oxide)
Electronegativity 2.58 (Pauling scale)
Ionization energies
(more) 1st: 999.6 kJ·mol−1
2nd: 2252 kJ·mol−1
3rd: 3357 kJ·mol−1
Covalent radius 105±3 pm
Van der Waals radius 180 pm
Miscellanea
Crystal structure orthorhombic
Magnetic ordering diamagnetic[1]
Electrical resistivity (20 °C) (amorphous)
2×1015Ω·m
Thermal conductivity (300 K) (amorphous)
0.205 W·m−1·K−1
Bulk modulus 7.7 GPa
Mohs hardness 2.0
CAS registry number 7704-34-9
Most stable isotopes
Main article: Isotopes of sulfur
iso NA half-life DM DE (MeV) DP
32S 95.02% 32S is stable with 16 neutrons
33S 0.75% 33S is stable with 17 neutrons
34S 4.21% 34S is stable with 18 neutrons
35S syn 87.32 d β− 0.167 35Cl
36S 0.02% 36S is stable with 20 neutrons

This box: view • talk • edit
Sulfur or sulphur (pronounced /ˈsʌlfər/ SUL-fər, see spelling below) is the chemical element that has the atomic number 16. It is denoted with the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Sulfur, in its native form, is a bright yellow crystalline solid. In nature, it can be found as the pure element and as sulfide and sulfate minerals. It is an essential element for life and is found in two amino acids: cysteine and methionine. Its commercial uses are primarily in fertilizers, but it is also widely used in black gunpowder, matches, insecticides and fungicides. Elemental sulfur crystals are commonly sought after by mineral collectors for their brightly colored polyhedron shapes. In nonscientific contexts, it can also be referred to as brimstone.

Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Spelling and etymology
2 Characteristics
2.1 Allotropes
2.2 Isotopes
2.3 Occurrence
3 Extraction and production
3.1 Extraction from natural resources
3.2 Production from hydrogen sulfide
3.2.1 Chemically
3.2.2 Biologically
4 Chemistry
4.1 Inorganic compounds
4.2 Organic compounds
5 Applications
5.1 Specialized applications
5.2 Historical applications
5.3 Fungicide and pesticide
6 Biological role
6.1 Traditional medical role for elemental sulfur
7 Precautions
7.1 Environmental impact
8 See also
9 References
10 External links


History

Rough sulfur crystal
Sulfur crystal from Agrigento, Sicily.Sulfur (Sanskrit, sulvari; Latin Sulphurium) was known in ancient times and is referred to in the Torah (Genesis).

English translations of the Bible commonly referred to burning sulfur as "brimstone", giving rise to the name of 'fire-and-brimstone' sermons, in which listeners are reminded of the fate of eternal damnation that await the unbelieving and unrepentant. It is from this part of the Bible that Hell is implied to "smell of sulfur" (likely due to its association with volcanic activity), although sulfur, in itself, is in fact odorless. The "smell of sulfur" usually refers to either the odor of hydrogen sulfide, e.g. from rotten egg, or of burning sulfur, which produces sulfur dioxide, the smell associated with burnt matches. The smell emanating from raw sulfur originates from a slow oxidation in the presence of air. Hydrogen sulfide is the principal odor of untreated sewage and is one of several unpleasant smelling sulfur-containing components of flatulence (along with sulfur-containing mercaptans).

According to the Ebers Papyrus, a sulfur ointment was used in ancient Egypt to treat granular eyelids. Sulfur was used for fumigation in preclassical Greece;[2] this is mentioned in the Odyssey.[3] Pliny the Elder discusses sulfur in book 35 of his Natural History, saying that its best-known source is the island of Melos. He also mentions its use for fumigation, medicine, and bleaching cloth.[4]

A natural form of sulfur known as shiliuhuang was known in China since the 6th century BC and found in Hanzhong.[5] By the 3rd century, the Chinese discovered that sulfur could be extracted from pyrite.[5] Chinese Daoists were interested in sulfur's flammability and its reactivity with certain metals, yet its earliest practical uses were found in traditional Chinese medicine.[5] A Song Dynasty military treatise of 1044 AD described different formulas for Chinese black powder, which is a mixture of potassium nitrate (KNO3), charcoal, and sulfur. Early alchemists gave sulfur its own alchemical symbol which was a triangle at the top of a cross.

This section requires expansion.

In 1777, Antoine Lavoisier helped convince the scientific community that sulfur was an element and not a compound. In 1867, sulfur was discovered in underground deposits in Louisiana and Texas. The overlying layer of earth was quicksand, prohibiting ordinary mining operations; therefore, the Frasch process was developed.

Spelling and etymology
The element has traditionally been spelled sulphur in the United Kingdom (since the 14th century),[6] most of the Commonwealth including India, Malaysia, South Africa, and Hong Kong, along with the rest of the Caribbean and Ireland, but sulfur in the United States, while both spellings are used in Canada and the Philippines. IUPAC adopted the spelling “sulfur” in 1990, as did the Royal Society of Chemistry Nomenclature Committee in 1992.[7] The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority for England and Wales recommended its use in 2000.[8]

In Latin, the word is variously written sulpur, sulphur, and sulfur (the Oxford Latin Dictionary lists the spellings in this order). It is an original Latin name and not a Classical Greek loan, so the ph variant does not denote the Greek letter φ. Sulfur in Greek is thion (θείον), whence comes the prefix thio-. The simplification of the Latin words p or ph to an f appears to have taken place towards the end of the classical period.[9][10]

Isotopes
Main article: Isotopes of sulfur
Sulfur has 25 known isotopes, four of which are stable: 32S (95.02%), 33S (0.75%), 34S (4.21%), and 36S (0.02%). Other than 35S, the radioactive isotopes of sulfur are all short lived. 35S is formed from cosmic ray spallation of 40argon in the atmosphere. It has a half-life of 87 days.

When sulfide minerals are precipitated, isotopic equilibration among solids and liquid may cause small differences in the δS-34 values of co-genetic minerals. The differences between minerals can be used to estimate the temperature of equilibration. The δC-13 and δS-34 of coexisting carbonates and sulfides can be used to determine the pH and oxygen fugacity of the ore-bearing fluid during ore formation.

In most forest ecosystems, sulfate is derived mostly from the atmosphere; weathering of ore minerals and evaporites also contribute some sulfur. Sulfur with a distinctive isotopic composition has been used to identify pollution sources, and enriched sulfur has been added as a tracer in hydrologic studies. Differences in the natural abundances can also be used in systems where there is sufficient variation in the 34S of ecosystem components. Rocky Mountain lakes thought to be dominated by atmospheric sources of sulfate have been found to have different δS-34 values from lakes believed to be dominated by watershed sources of sulfate.

Occurrence

A man carrying sulfur blocks from Kawah Ijen, a volcano in East Java, Indonesia (photo 2009)Elemental sulfur can be found near hot springs and volcanic regions in many parts of the world, especially along the Pacific Ring of Fire. Such volcanic deposits are currently mined in Indonesia, Chile, and Japan. Sicily is also famous for its sulfur mines. Sulfur deposits are polycrystalline, and the largest documented single crystal measured 22×16×11 cm3.[16][17]

Significant deposits of elemental sulfur also exist in salt domes along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and in evaporites in eastern Europe and western Asia. The sulfur in these deposits is believed to come from the action of anaerobic bacteria on sulfate minerals, especially gypsum, although apparently native sulfur may be produced by geological processes alone, without the aid of living organisms (see below). However, fossil-based sulfur deposits from salt domes are the basis for commercial production in the United States, Poland, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.


Sulfur recovered from hydrocarbons in Alberta, stockpiled for shipment in North Vancouver, B.C.Sulfur production through hydrodesulfurization of oil, gas, and the Athabasca Oil Sands has produced a surplus — huge stockpiles of sulfur now exist throughout Alberta, Canada.

Common naturally occurring sulfur compounds include the sulfide minerals, such as pyrite (iron sulfide), cinnabar (mercury sulfide), galena (lead sulfide), sphalerite (zinc sulfide) and stibnite (antimony sulfide); and the sulfates, such as gypsum (calcium sulfate), alunite (potassium aluminium sulfate), and barite (barium sulfate). It occurs naturally in volcanic emissions, such as from hydrothermal vents, and from bacterial action on decaying sulfur-containing organic matter.

The distinctive colors of Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io, are from various forms of molten, solid and gaseous sulfur. There is also a dark area near the Lunar crater Aristarchus that may be a sulfur deposit.

Sulfur is present in many types of meteorites. Ordinary chondrites contain on average 2.1% sulfur, and carbonaceous chondrites may contain as much as 6.6%. Sulfur in meteorites is normally present as troilite (FeS), but other sulfides are found in some meteorites, and carbonaceous chondrites contain free sulfur, sulfates, and possibly other sulfur compounds.[18]

Extraction and production
Extraction from natural resources
Sulfur is extracted by mainly two processes: the Sicilian process and the Frasch process. The Sicilian process, which was first used in Sicily, was used in ancient times to get sulfur from rocks present in volcanic regions. In this process, the sulfur deposits are piled and stacked in brick kilns built on sloping hillsides, and with airspaces between them. Then powdered sulfur is put on top of the sulfur deposit and ignited. As the sulfur burns, the heat melts the sulfur deposits, causing the molten sulfur to flow down the sloping hillside. The molten sulfur can then be collected in wooden buckets.

The second process used to obtain sulfur is the Frasch process. In this method, three concentric pipes are used: the outermost pipe contains superheated water, which melts the sulfur, and the innermost pipe is filled with hot compressed air, which serves to create foam and pressure. The resulting sulfur foam is then expelled through the middle pipe.[19]

The Frasch process produces sulfur with a 99.5% purity content, and which needs no further purification. The sulfur produced by the Sicilian process must be purified by distillation.

From the Lendit5 that lord Louis, the father, had given to Saint-Denis, we
took in 300 sous in full peace and tranquility, 35 from the tax on the tools of the
bread-makers in the Panetière that we had allocated to the pittance6 for the
brothers on the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul [June 29]; 10 sous from my
nephew Gérard, 5 for his house and 5 sous for the toll for madder [red dye].

Monday, November 03, 2008
Weld, madder and woad
posted by Chet at 12:21 PM UTC


During the academic year 1968-69, I lived with my young family in London as I studied history of science with A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall at the Imperial College. Our apartment was snuggled in the midst of the South Kensington museums: the Museum of Natural History, the Science Museum, the Geology Museum, and the Victoria and Albert. What a place to live! I dare say I learned more during nine months by browsing those wonderful institutions than during any ten years of my life.

Our back wall abutted the rear of the V&A, only feet away from the gallery where hung the Devonshire Hunting Tapestries, four huge Flemish tapestries from the mid-15th century -- from about the time Gutenberg started printing with movable type. To reach the gallery, one had to walk a block or so from Prince's Gate Mews to the side entrance of the V&A on Exhibition Road, then wend through various rooms. I loved the tapestries, as did my daughter Margaret. Sometimes we'd stop by on the way home from her preschool and sit alone in that lovely room with those stunning depictions of life in the late-Middle Ages. The details of plants, animals and costume were endlessly engaging. It has been suggested that the tapestries were originally designed for the marriage in 1444-5 of Margaret of Anjou and Henry VI of England, and although this is disputed by some experts, I played it up for my own Margaret.

The colors, of course, are faded from their original brilliance, but still rich and inviting. The threads are presumably wool and silk. I haven't been able to track down confirmation on the web, but I assume the dyes were weld (Reseda luteola, yellow), madder (Rubia tinctorum, red), and woad (Isatis tinctoria, blue), three plants whose cultivation and commerce were important in the Middle Ages. You want green? First dye with woad, then weld. And so on. Rather like the three artificial dyes that color the inks of your printer: yellow, magenta and cyan.

On Saturday mornings all three kids would go to the Museum of Natural History, where for the deposit of one big old-style English penny (now long out of circulation) they got a folding stool, a clipboard with sheets of paper, and a fistful of colored pencils, which they took off into the bowels of that voluminous building to sketch whatever took their fancy. I wonder if the same service is available to children today?

Rubia


Common Madder (Rubia tinctorum)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae

(unranked): Angiosperms

(unranked): Eudicots

(unranked): Asterids

Order: Gentianales

Family: Rubiaceae

Subfamily: Rubioideae

Tribe: Rubieae

Genus: Rubia
L.
Species
See text.

Rubia is a genus of the madder family Rubiaceae, which contains about 60 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and sub-shrubs native to the Old World, Africa, temperate Asia and America. The genus and its best known species are also known as Madder, Rubia tinctorum (Common Madder), Rubia peregrina (Wild Madder), and Rubia cordifolia (Indian Madder).[citation needed]

The Common Madder can grow to 1.5 m in height. The evergreen leaves are 5-10 cm long and 2-3 cm broad, produced in whorls of 4-7 starlike around the central stem. It climbs with tiny hooks at the leaves and stems. The flowers are small (3-5 mm across), with five pale yellow petals, in dense racemes, and appear from June to August, followed by small (4-6 mm diameter) red to black berries. The roots can be over a metre long, up to 12 mm thick and the source of a red dye known as rose madder. It prefers loamy soils with a constant level of moisture. Madders are used as food plants for the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Hummingbird hawk moth.

Madder Root, Powder
This root has been used for as a dye for at least 3000 years. The earliest example of madder dyed linen was found in Tutankhamen’s Tomb (from 1350 BC), and it is considered to have been used in prehistory. Popular with the Vikings, and during the Middle Ages, it was in the 19th Century Madder was finally into a longer lasting pigment which we know as “Madder Lake” (the dyestuff is known as Alizarin).
According to Culpepper's herbal, the plant is ruled by Mars and has an opening quality, and will bind and strengthen afterwards........ interesting eh? But back to soaping!!

Madder Root is the best natural red dye to use for soap and fabrics. The depth and strength of red will vary from palest pink, to rosy pink to a deep earthy red depending on the amount used. The powdered root is the easiest to use in soap because you will achieve consistent results.

BBC three part series on Gladio from 1992 - The Puppeteers
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Episode two - The Foot Soldiers
Part 2 Episode two
Part 3 Episode two
Part 4 Episode two
Part 5 Episode two
Episode three - The ring masters
Part 2 Episode three
Part 3 Episode three
Part 4 Episode three
Part 5 Episode three
Back in the good old days when the BBC wasn't afraid to tell the truth.