Alchemy & Early Chemistry Islamic sublimation and alembic apparatus (alambic et cucurbite), 10th-12th century

Alchemy & Early Chemistry Islamic sublimation and alembic apparatus (alambic et cucurbite), 10th-12th century. This glass apparatus, including an alembic (top left), is some of the oldest to survive from the West or Near East. Used by early chemists, the apparatus was central to the processes of distillation and sublimation. The liquid to be distilled is heated and the resulting vapour condenses on the inside of the dome shape of an upper vessel, the alembic. The consensed vapour runs down into the internal gutter and out through the alembic's spout or delivery tube, into a collecting vessel. Persian chemists also used distillation to make essential oils and perfumes. Distillation apparatus remains essentially the same today. The vessel on the right, a cucurbit, was used for sublimation, the process whereby a solid substance is changed directly into a vapour when heated. ©SSPL/Science Museum