Involved in the making of the stone and why would the stone turn other metals into them?

As far as rarity goes: silver is reasonably common, whereas gold is more rare. However, in antiquity silver

and gold were worth almost the same. Gold was always worth more than silver, except in some rare

circumstances, but the difference was not nearly as much as it is today.

The reason why gold and silver are valuable, and the most popular metals is because the Stone makes gold

and silver. Not that the Stone happens to make those metals which are valuable. They are valuable because

the Stone can make them.

This goes all the way back 12,000 years to when the Stone was first hidden from the multitude. The

Philosopher-Kings of the time chose gold and silver to be the currency for their nations since it was so

easily controlled by them. They could make it, whereas the common people could not make it. Therefore is

was a perfect currency, much more secure than pieces of paper with lots of little lines on them (like we have

now.)

Is there an approximate shelf life to urine?

Probably. But you never need to store it as urine, only as salt or distillate.

I understand about the reason for the low temperature distilling, but the first distillation is well above

body temperature. Why dosen't that destroy the life force so that all the other distillations are

working with liquid without the life force present?

The first distillation, during the First Part is only at <80°C, which is not yet high enough to destroy the lifeenergy.

In the Second Part (White->Black->White->Red) you are only circulating the moisture, and so you use heat

around body temperature as this is best for allowing the moisture to evaporate and condense. Using 80°C

here would mean the moisture would never condense.

In the Red Stage you use high heat again, but now the Stone is already fermented with silver, so it can stand

the high heat.

In the blackness phase, you don't specify exact temperature.

Actually you do not want to follow any set instructions concerning the exact temperature at the black stage,

or any stage following. The required temperature is variable depending on the amount of matter, size of

vessel, ambient temperature and other factors. You will just need to use common sense to optimize the

temperature so that the moisture ascends and descends efficiently - that is so that the matter is continuously

watered and dried but is never always dry or always wet.

I do not have the time now to perform it.

For most of it you are just making sure the heat is at the right temperature, and there are only 4 adjustments

of the heat. So that's only one adjustment every 6 months or so. The rest of the time the water bath is just

running on electricity all happy by itself. In the First Part of the Great Work you have to do more, but still it

takes 1 week to distil the urine and you have to do this 10 times, so that's only doing something once a

week.

I think that if I tackled this project I would probably get it right on the 3rd or 4th attempt. Lets say I

get really good at making sure all the variables are precise so 7 years the first time, 4-6 the second and

maybe 2-4 the following 1 or 2 attempts.

You can't go wrong as long as you don't burn it. The Stone might not develop any further if you do

something wrong, but will always continue once you have corrected your mistake. This is where 5 or 8

years comes from. But that means that it is still only 5 or 8 years total even if you make a mistake. As long

as you don't burn it that is, but the old alchemists didn't have electricity and so had to use coals. We are

using an electric water bath which has temperature control. So there's probably not too much risk of

burning it.

How much does it cost to buy all the aparatus?

The glassware costs only a few dollars. The retorts are maybe $50. The water bath is the most expensive,

they range from $100 - $1000. You might be able to get a cheap one on ebay. Silver is not expensive. The

gold will costs maybe $100 - $500, though you could sell silver you've transmuted to buy the gold.

Could I make a few batches in case one goes wrong?

It might be a good idea, but then if you put them in the same water bath you would not be able to adjust the

heat independently, in which case you may as well just have one batch. Several water baths would be

expensive and use a lot of power. The Stone can only really go wrong if you burn it, but it might be an idea

to have a batch where you try to use a higher degree of heat, and a batch where you are very conservative

with the heat.

What if I have added too much water in the Second Part? Should a small amount of liquid be poured

off or the vessel opened to evaporate out?

If it's only a little too much water then you can just turn up the heat accordingly. If it is quite a bit too much

then better not to evaporate it off, or you may lose the best part of it. In this case you would want to use a

pipette to carefully remove the excess. Though it is much better to be very careful not to add too much

water, it could seriously increase the time it takes to get the Stone.

Would it work better to filter the urine first?

Filtering the urine won't make any difference. The urine has already been filtered by your body, now it

needs to be distilled and calcined. Filtration works only for visibly large particles, but we are dealing with

something very small.

What sort of location should be used to carry out the work? Space is at a premium for me, the only

place I have availible with power to carry this out is in a small office type room in the upstairs of my

house.

For the most part it can even be done in a cupboard, a locked cabinet would be perfect. Not that much space