Alembic still
Alambique perfeccionado
- Date
- c. 800 · confidence low
- Place
- Kufa / Baghdad, Iraq (Jabir ibn Hayyan, al-Razi)
- Credited to
- Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), al-Razi (Rhazes)
- People
- 👤 Yabir ibn Hayyan721–815
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A glass or copper distillation apparatus with a cucurbit, a still-head (al-anbiq) and a cooled tube that separates liquids by their boiling point. A fundamental instrument of Islamic alchemy and chemistry.
The word comes from the Greek ambix via the Arabic al-anbiq.
What it led to
- rose water, perfumes and essential oils as an industry
- mineral acids and alcohol
- the chemical laboratory, with its Arabic vocabulary (alembic, alkali, alcohol, elixir)
Built on
- Perfumery and essence extractionc. 1200 BCE
- Glassblowingc. 50 BCE
- Alchemical distillation and the alembicc. 300
- Alexandrian ambix (Maria the Jewess, Zosimos)
Made possible
- Distilled perfume / rose waterc. 850
- Kerosene by distillation of petroleum (white naft)c. 900
- Isolation of alcohol (aqua vitae)c. 1150
- Distillation of alcoholc. 1150
- Mineral acids and aqua regiac. 1300
- Distillation of alcohol
- Mineral acids and aqua regia
- Distilled perfume / rose water