Alembic

Analembic(fromArabic:الإنبيق,romanized:al-inbīq,originating fromAncient Greek:ἄμβιξ,romanized:ambix,'cup, beaker')^[1]^[2]^[3]is analchemical stillconsisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used fordistillationof liquids.

Description

The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts:

the "cucurbit"(Arabic:ḳarʿa;Greek:βῖκος,bîkos), the still pot containing the liquid to be distilled, which is heated by a flame
the "head" or "cap" (إِنْبِيق‎,ʾinbīq;Greekἄμβιξ,ambix) which fits over the mouth of the cucurbit to receive the vapors, with an attached downward-sloping "tube" (σωλήν,sōlēn)
the "receiver" (قَابِلَة,qābila;ἄγγος,angosorφιάλη,phialē) container

In the case of another distilling vessel, theretort,the "cap" and the "cucurbit" have been combined to form a single vessel. The anbik^[4] is also called theraʾs(the Arabic wordraʾsmeans "head" ) of the cucurbit. The liquid in the cucurbit is heated or boiled; the vapour rises into theanbik,where it cools by contact with the walls and condenses, running down the spout into the receiver. A modern descendant of the alembic is thepot still,used to producedistilled beverages.

History

Alembics from a 1606 alchemy book

Dioscorides's ambix, described in hisDe materia medica(c. 50 C.E.), is a helmet-shaped lid for gathering condensed mercury. ForAthenaeus(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 ofCleopatra the Alchemist(3rd century C.E.),Zosimos of Panopolis(c. 300 C.E.), andSynesius(c. 373 – c. 414 C.E.). There were alembics with two (dibikos) and three (tribikos) receivers.^[5]According to Zosimos of Panopolis, the alembic was invented byMary the Jewess.^[6]

The anbik is described byIbn al-Awwamin hisKitab al-Filaha(Book of Agriculture), where he explains howrose-wateris distilled. Amongst others, it is mentioned in theMafatih al-Ulum(Key of Sciences) ofKhwarizmiand theKitab al-Asrar(Book of Secrets) ofal-Razi.Some illustrations occur in the Latin translations of works which are attributed toGeber.^[2]

Alembic ofZosimos of Panopolis
Modern alembic
Large "charentais" type alembic for distilling spirits
Copperretort
Glass alembic
Alembic metalwork in the staircase at the Chemical Faculty ofGdańsk University of Technology,1904

Unicode

TheUnicode character setspecifies three symbols for alembics: thepictogram⚗ (U+2697), itsemojivariation ⚗️ (U+2697U+FE0F), and the ancient alchemical symbol 🝪 (U+1F76A).

References

^M. Ullmann (1986), "AL-KĪMIYĀ",The Encyclopaedia of Islam,vol. 5 (2nd ed.), Brill, p. 111b,ISBN 90-04-07819-3
^^a ^bE. Wiedemann;M. Plessner (1986), "AL-ANBĪḲ",The Encyclopaedia of Islam,vol. 1 (2nd ed.), Brill, p. 486a,ISBN 90-04-08114-3
^Henry Liddell;Robert Scott,eds. (1897), "ἄμβιξ",A Greek–English Lexicon(8th ed.), Harper & Brothers, p. 73
^ The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: the "cucurbit" (ḳarʿa), the "head" or "cap" (anbīḳ) and the "receiver" (ḳābila).
^Marcellin Berthelot(1889),Introduction à l'étude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen âge,Steinheil, pp. 132, 135–142, 161–16
^Edmund Lippmann(1919),Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie,Springer, pp. 48–49

External links

The dictionary definition ofalembicat Wiktionary

[1] M. Ullmann (1986), "AL-KĪMIYĀ",The Encyclopaedia of Islam,vol. 5 (2nd ed.), Brill, p. 111b,ISBN 90-04-07819-3

[al-anbik-2] E. Wiedemann;M. Plessner (1986), "AL-ANBĪḲ",The Encyclopaedia of Islam,vol. 1 (2nd ed.), Brill, p. 486a,ISBN 90-04-08114-3

[3] Henry Liddell;Robert Scott,eds. (1897), "ἄμβιξ",A Greek–English Lexicon(8th ed.), Harper & Brothers, p. 73

[4] The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: the "cucurbit" (ḳarʿa), the "head" or "cap" (anbīḳ) and the "receiver" (ḳābila).

[5] Marcellin Berthelot(1889),Introduction à l'étude de la chimie des anciens et du moyen âge,Steinheil, pp. 132, 135–142, 161–16

[6] Edmund Lippmann(1919),Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie,Springer, pp. 48–49

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