What is "Gold Trisalyt" ?

[mauricefinegold]

Puzzle for the chem wizards.
There exists a cracked bottle of now-hardened "67%+ Gold Trisalyt pat.#693387". I believe it is a PGC-type of powder made by "Roessler&Hasslacher" (German owned) US company in the 1920's. The patent on the label is odd. Perhaps the "xxxx87" was transposed from #xxxx78 a triple salt patent. That patent shows a Copper triple salt example -> Cu2Cy2 4 KCyK2SO3.
The web also shows a similar triple salt formula for Gold as being -> Au2Cy2 2 KCyK2SO3.
Okay. so you know that I am not a chemist, but I do read these forums and have learned alot. I have read (here) how to use zinc to supplant gold from like-plating solution, but I would rather see the smarter guys in hoods dancing around with cyanides.
Anyway, assuming the cracked bottle did leak and its powder was exposed to household air over 90+ years,

are the contents in anyway now explosive (or could one safely scrape out a test sample)?

The local refiner won't accept Cyanide compounds. And as read (here) PGCs are worth more anyway - if chemically good.
Also, does anyone know if XRF (x-ray flourescense) might correctly decipher this powder and its goodness?
Unfortunately XRF guns seem like really cool tools but are way beyond my toy budget $0).
Thanks in advance for any sage guidance.

 

[Acid_Bath76]

I did a little looking out of curiosity. I don't think a powder would be an issue with XRF. From the site, it looks like having a very homogenous sample is the key.

http://www.panalytical.com/index.cfm?pid=723

So... didn't really provide a real answer, but you could probably call them and get it straight from the horses mouth.

 

[mauricefinegold]

Thankyou for the XRF info. I can only imagine (drool while thinking) about all the uses for an $30k x-ray gun.
Quicky alternative to stannous test, mud/melt/alloy purity, treasure hunting & mining rock identification, panning. Yahoooo !!!
Oh, and chemical analysis as in this case too.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Don't take this as gospel but, if it is 67% gold, I would make a guess that it is PGC, KAu(CN)2. Pure PGC is 68.3% Au, but bottles of it are sometimes labeled 67%, since they contain small amounts of excess KCN from the crystallization process. The formula you gave, Au2Cy2 2 KCyK2SO3, figures out at about 44% Au, if pure. In a search, all mention of "gold trisalyt" says it's 40%, which is in the same ball park. These lower figures could have to do with an inability to produce pure salts 100 years ago.

Makes sense to me, but I really have no idea what exactly is in your bottle.

 

[mauricefinegold]

Thankyou for the math. I owe you a book's worth.
Chemistry equations lost me somewhere after the banana bond class.
Why the 90 year old bottle label says 67%+ for a 40%+ gold weight is odd. Maybe the competition was the higher 68% PGC Could also explain the nearly full bottle years later. Dupont bought the Co. in 1930.
If you have a TIFF-capable browser the patent office search page is
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm
patent 693378 shows the original 1899 formula/process for triple salts.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Don't need TIFF on Google Patents. Just type in the patent# (or, whatever) here.
http://www.google.com/advanced_patent_search

Click on the 1st entry.

Either read it or download it - upper right.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=cB9EAAAAEBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=patent:693378&source=bl&ots=ZSrcmqfaAD&sig=8JCPE8V8SP8u2FlIkDy9-nRmxDA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2i3-T47VCuqQ2AXe-fnKDw&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA

Much easier than USPTO