An alembic (from ar, الإنبيق, al-inbīq, originating from grc, ἄμβιξ, ambix, 'cup, beaker') is an

alchemical Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

still A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been use ...

consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for

distillation Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heat ...

of liquids.

Description

The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: the "cucurbit" (Arabic: ; Greek: , ), the still pot containing the liquid to be distilled, which is heated by a flame; the "head" or "cap" (, ; Greek , ) which fits over the mouth of the cucurbit to receive the vapors, with an attached downward-sloping "tube" (, ); and the "receiver" (, ; , or , ) container. In the case of another distilling vessel, the

retort In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated. The ...

, the "cap" and the "cucurbit" have been combined to form a single vessel. The anbik is also called the raʾs (head) of the cucurbit. The liquid in the cucurbit is heated or boiled; the vapour rises into the anbik, where it cools by contact with the walls and condenses, running down the spout into the receiver. A modern descendant of the alembic is the pot still, used to produce

distilled beverages Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard l ...

History

Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of '' De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vo ...

's ambix (described in his ) is a helmet-shaped lid for gathering condensed mercury. For

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...

(≈225 C.E.) it is a bottle or flask. For later chemists it denoted various parts of crude distillation devices. Alembic drawings appear in works of

Cleopatra the Alchemist Cleopatra the Alchemist (Greek: Κλεοπάτρα; fl. c. 3rd century AD) was a Greek alchemist, author, and philosopher. She experimented with practical alchemy but is also credited as one of the four female alchemists who could produce the P ...

, Synesius, and

Zosimos of Panopolis Zosimos of Panopolis ( el, Ζώσιμος ὁ Πανοπολίτης; also known by the Latin name Zosimus Alchemista, i.e. "Zosimus the Alchemist") was a Greco-Egyptian alchemist and Gnostic mystic who lived at the end of the 3rd and beginning ...

. There were alembics with two (dibikos) and three (tribikos) receivers. According to Zosimos of Panopolis, the alembic was invented by

Mary the Jewess Mary or Maria the Jewess ( la, Maria Hebraea), also known as Mary the Prophetess ( la, Maria Prophetissa) or Maria the Copt ( ar, مارية القبطية, Māriyya al-Qibṭiyya), was an early alchemist known from the works of Zosimos of Panop ...

. The anbik is described by Ibn al-Awwam in his (''Book of Agriculture''), where he explains how rose-water is distilled. Amongst others, it is mentioned in the (''Key of Sciences'') of

Khwarizmi Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī ( ar, محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي, Muḥammad ibn Musā al-Khwārazmi; ), or al-Khwarizmi, was a Persian polymath from Khwarazm, who produced vastly influential works in mathematics, astronom ...

and the (''Book of Secrets'') of al-Razi. Some illustrations occur in the Latin translations of works which are attributed to Geber. Image:Zosimosapparat.jpg, Alembic of

Image:Alembic (PSF).jpg, Modern alembic Image:AlambicCharentaisChalvignacPrulhoDistillation.jpg, Large "charentais" type alembic for distilling spirits Image:Alambique 056.jpg, Copper

Image:Alembic.jpg, Glass alembic Image:Chemical Faculty of TUG, staircase.jpg, Alembic metalwork in the staircase at the Chemical Faculty of

Gdańsk University of Technology The Gdańsk University of Technology (Gdańsk Tech, former ''GUT''; pl, Politechnika Gdańska) is a technical university in the Wrzeszcz borough of Gdańsk, and one of the oldest universities in Poland. It has eight faculties and with 41 fie ...

, 1904

Metaphorical reference

Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

ically, an alembic is something that refines as if by distillation.

Unicode

The Unicode character set specifies three symbols for alembics. The

pictogram A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and ...

s ⚗, ⚗️, and the ancient alchemical symbol 🝪. The latter is part of the newer UCS-4 addition that includes other ideographs like emojis and thus may not appear correctly on older browsers.

References

External links