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History of the Alembic
History, External sources ·Dioscorides’ ambix (described in his De materia medica) is a helmet-shaped lid for gathering condensed mercury. For Athenaeus (~ 225 C.E.) it is a bottle or flask. For later chemists it denotes various parts of crude distillation devices.
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Description of an Alembic
General, External sources ·The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: the “cucurbit” (Arabic ḳarʿa, Greek βίκος), the still pot containing the liquid to be distilled, which is heated by a flame; the “head” or “cap” (Arabic anbiḳ, Greek ἄμβιξ) which fits over the mouth of the cucurbit to receive the vapors, with an attached downward-sloping “tube” (Greek σωλήν), leading to the “receiver”...