I came across this commercial image for different sulfur products—powder, granule, pastile, lump—and I can't get over how the image somehow makes the sulfur look almost delicious. (we do have a dragon member, Pim, who has a lot of sulfur chemistry going on; maybe she wants to snack on some.) the "granule" form looks like some kind of lemon candy in little spheres. the "pastile" form looks like chocolate chips except they're yummy yellow sulfur.
it makes me think of how the alchemists, beginning the study of what we now call chemistry, must have been fascinated with sulfur all by itself—its different allotropes and crystal forms, the way its color and viscosity all change drastically with heat, the fact that sulfur is capable of combining with just about anything. there is not just one "sulfur" but hundreds and thousands of varieties, because sulfur atoms are capable of connecting up with themselves in so many different configurations. I feel like I can glimpse just why those early workers could have felt that there was something almost supernatural about sulfur, like it wasn't just any old substance, but the vessel for some formidable principle of existence.
~Chara
