Native as well as manufactured nĂtrum is mixed in vats with urine
and boiled in the same caldrons; the decoction is poured into vats in which
are copper wires, and, adhering to them, it hardens and becomes chrysocolla,
which the Moors call borax. Formerly nitrum was compounded with
Cyprian verdigris, and ground with Cyprian copper in Cyprian mortars, as
Pliny writes. Some chrysocolla is made of rock-alum and sal-ammoniac.8
and boiled in the same caldrons; the decoction is poured into vats in which
are copper wires, and, adhering to them, it hardens and becomes chrysocolla,
which the Moors call borax. Formerly nitrum was compounded with
Cyprian verdigris, and ground with Cyprian copper in Cyprian mortars, as
Pliny writes. Some chrysocolla is made of rock-alum and sal-ammoniac.8