Chemicals · Vol. IV|Distillation|c. 8th–9th century (mature stills)

Distillation

c. 8th–9th century (mature stills)

Heat a mixture, catch the vapor, cool it back to liquid. Different substances boil at different temperatures, so a still is a sieve made of heat. Medieval chemists in the Islamic world refined alembics for alcohols, acids, and perfumes. Distillation is how you get a concentrated essence from a messy mash — the ancestor of oil refining as well as of spirits.

Scholars in the Islamic world (Jabir tradition and later) · West Asia and the Mediterranean

Distillation — Original plate drawn for this atlas. Not a photograph of a museum object or a copyrighted portrait.

How the mechanism is arranged

Boil a mixture; the vapour is richer in the more volatile part; condense it. Repeat to purify.

How it works

Boil the mixture in a vessel.
Lead vapor through a cooled neck or coil so it condenses.
Collect fractions; repeat if you need higher purity.

Why it mattered

Produced strong acids used in later chemistry and metallurgy.
Gave a general method for separating liquids.
Scaled, much later, into petroleum refining.

What it unlocked

For further study

al-Hassan and Hill, Islamic Technology. Stills and laboratory apparatus.
Forbes, A Short History of the Art of Distillation. Long survey.

Check

Why can a still separate alcohol from water?