1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Alembic

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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Alembic

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ALEMBIC (Arab. al, definite article, anbiq, a still; cognate to the • Gr. agOtE, a cup) , an apparatus for distillation, used chiefly by the alchemists, and now superseded by the retort and the worm-still . It varied considerably in form and construction, but consisted essentially of three parts—a vessel containing the material to be distilled and called, from its gourd-like shape, the cucurbit or mattrass; a vessel to receive and condense the vapour, called the head or capital; and a receiver for the spirit, connected by a pipe with the capital . The entire apparatus was sometimes constructed of glass, but it was more usual to make the cucurbit of copper or earthenware; and the capital alone of glass.