Analembic (fromArabic:الإنبيق,romanized: al-inbīq, originating fromAncient Greek:ἄμβιξ,romanized: ambix, 'cup, beaker')[1][2][3] is analchemicalstill consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used fordistillation of liquids.
The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts:
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 wordraʾs means "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.
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-Awwam in hisKitab al-Filaha (Book of Agriculture), where he explains howrose-water is distilled. Amongst others, it is mentioned in theMafatih al-Ulum (Key of Sciences) ofKhwarizmi and theKitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets) ofal-Razi. Some illustrations occur in the Latin translations of works which are attributed toGeber.[2]
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TheUnicode character set specifies three symbols for alembics: thepictogram ⚗ (U+2697), itsemoji variation ⚗️ (U+2697U+FE0F), and the ancient alchemical symbol 🝪 (U+1F76A).
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