An alembic (from , originating from , 'cup, beaker') is an

alchemical Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

still A still is an apparatus used to distillation, distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively Boiling, boil and then cooling to Condensation, condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic Distillation#Laboratory_procedures, ...

consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for

distillation Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

of liquids.

Description

The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: * the "" (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" (, ) * 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 sphere, spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heat ...

, the "cap" and the "cucurbit" have been combined to form a single vessel. The anbik is also called the ''raʾs'' (the Arabic word ''raʾs'' means "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 A pot still is a type of distillation apparatus or still used to distill liquors such as whisky or brandy. In modern (post-1850s) practice, they are not used to produce rectified spirit, because they do not separate congeners from ethanol as ...

, used to produce

distilled beverages Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. While the ...

History

Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides (, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (in the original , , both meaning "On Materia medica, Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic phar ...

's ambix, described in his (c. 50 C.E.), is a helmet-shaped lid for gathering condensed mercury. For

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

(c. 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 (3rd century C.E.),

Zosimos of Panopolis Zosimos of Panopolis (; also known by the Latin name Zosimus Alchemista, i.e. "Zosimus the Alchemist") was an alchemist and Gnostic mystic. He was born in Panopolis (present day Akhmim, in the south of Roman Egypt), and likely flourished ca. 3 ...

(c. 300 C.E.), and

Synesius Synesius of Cyrene (; ; c. 373 – c. 414) was a Greek bishop of Ptolemais in ancient Libya, a part of the Western Pentapolis of Cyrenaica after 410. He was born of wealthy parents at Balagrae (now Bayda, Libya) near Cyrene between 370 and 3 ...

(c. 373 – c. 414 C.E.). 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 (), also known as Mary the Prophetess () or Maria the Copt (), was an early alchemist known from the works of Zosimos of Panopolis () and other authors in the Greek alchemical tradition. On the basis of Zosimos's commen ...

. 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 and the (''Book of Secrets'') of

al-Razi Razi () or al-Razi () is a name that was historically used to indicate a person coming from Ray, Iran. People It most commonly refers to: * Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (865–925), influential physician, alchemist and philosopher, also known b ...

. Some illustrations occur in the Latin translations of works which are attributed to Geber. File:Man Paris, Grec 2327 fol 83v.jpg, Alembic of

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

File:Alembic.jpg, Glass alembic File:Chemical Faculty of TUG, staircase.jpg, Alembic metalwork in the staircase at the Chemical Faculty of Gdańsk University of Technology, 1904

Unicode

The Unicode character set specifies three symbols for alembics: the

pictogram A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

⚗ (), its

emoji An emoji ( ; plural emoji or emojis; , ) is a pictogram, logogram, ideogram, or smiley embedded in text and used in electronic messages and web pages. The primary function of modern emoji is to fill in emotional cues otherwise missing from type ...

variation ⚗️ (), and the ancient alchemical symbol 🝪 ().

References

External links

* {{Authority control Alchemical tools Arab inventions

Description

History

Unicode

See also

References

External links