Fulminating Gold and Silver

This Essay deals with the fascinating and highly explosive compounds fulminating gold and fulminating silver, which are easily made by treatment of gold dissolved in aqua regia with ammonia, and by reaction of silver oxide or silver salts with ammonia, respectively. Fulminating gold in particular captivated the alchemists in the 16th to 18th centuries. Numerous preparations were described, as well as numerous attempts to make volatile, sublimable or distillable gold, and to use the products so obtained (which were most likely gold chlorides) to make the sought‐after tincture, which would “heal” the “impure” metals and transform them into gold, and equally be a panacea to cure all human illnesses. The painting Explosion in the alchemist's laboratory by Justus van Bentum (1670–1727) might depict a detonation of fulminating gold, giving off ruby‐red fumes. The Essay describes the history of preparation and uses of fulminating gold and silver from the late 1500s onward.