issue 3 | page 7 20. january 2008 AD
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Practice of Alchemy


Image Source: Bilkent

The term and study of Alchemy has existed since ancient times, evolving independently in China, India and Greece however over time the practice slowly become superstition and was no longer continued for many years.
It survived however after migrating to Egypt where it was taught as a scholarly discipline.

Alchemy in the Middle Ages was a mixture of science, philosophy and mysticism.
medieval alchemists approached their craft with a holistic attitude; they believed that purity of mind, body and spirit was necessary to pursue the alchemical quest successfully.

At the heart of medieval alchemy was the idea that all matter was composed of four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
With the right combination of these elements, it was theorized, any substance on earth might be formed.
This included precious metals as well as elixirs to cure disease and prolong life.
Alchemists believed that the "transmutation" of one substance into another was possible, in particular the ultimate goal of Alchemists to locate the Philosopher's Stone, and the ability to transform a simple metal into Gold.

Medieval alchemy was just as much art as science, and practitioners preserved their secrets with an obfuscating system of symbols and mysterious names for the materials they studied. These symbols were directly in relation to symbols used for astrology at the time.


Image Source: Wikipedia - Alchemy

The raise of Alchemy in Europe arose in the 12th century when some scholars translated some old Arabic scripts into Latin, the rediscovered writings of Aristotle inparticular, and by the end of the 13th Century it was discussed all across Europe by Philosophers, Scientists, and Theologians - all of which had two common goals in mind.

To discover the relationship of man to the cosmos and take advantage of that relationship to the betterment of mankind, and to locate the Philosopher's Stone, an elusive substance that was believed to make possible the creation of an elixir of immortality and the transmutation of common substances into gold.
In the late Middle Ages it was also used as a method to mix ingredients to create new medicines, or improve their effectively.

A number of different tools were used for Practising Alchemy, and many are still used today in the more modern form of Chemistry,
or even Cooking to grind ingredients into powder.
 
Alembic

An alembic is an alchemical still consisting of two retorts connected by a tube. Technically, the alembic is only the upper part, while the lower part is the cucurbit, but the word was often used to refer to the entire distillation apparatus.

The alembic was developed circa 800 AD by the Persian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan. It's typical purpose was the same as a retort, however was used to separate one liquid from another using different temperatures since one substance would evaporate quicker then the other, in effect purifying both liquids.
 

Retort

Retorts were widely used by alchemists, and images of retorts appear in many drawings and sketches of their laboratories.

They are small glass devices used during the distillation of substances. A liquid was poured inside, and heated to remove any contamination with anything within the liquid.

The heat would evaporate the liquid inside, sending the gas down a small tube made on the glass which acted as a condenser cooling the gas back to a liquid form to be collected into a bottle or separate glass at the end for final use, or further processing.
 

Pestle and Mortar

A pestle and mortar is a tool used to crush, grind, and mix substances. The pestle is a heavy stick whose end is used for pounding and grinding, and the mortar is a bowl.
The substance is ground between the pestle and the mortar to turn it into a fine powder.

Both were traditionally made of Stone to begin with, and later Granite or Porcelain, among other materials.
Each of these had a particular downside, most notably with Stone as sometimes small pieces would break away during the grounding process which could cause extreme damage to a persons teeth when bitten into.

Often when emptying the contents older ingredients may be stuck inside the mortar, and leave a strong flavour when starting on the next. This often caused contamination between two ingredients when grinding ingredients for medicines.
 

Thanks to such devotion from alchemists in the Middle Ages we still continue to use such equipment today in more modified forms, as well as many procedures to create, or separate materials.

Medieval Alchemists discovered, and produced chemicals such as hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, potash, and more famously,
Sodium Carbonate which is one of the prime ingredients used to create Glass.
They also identified elements such as arsenic, antimony, and bismuth.

Roger Bacon was one such Alchemist in the late Middle Ages, and the first European to describe the process for making gunpowder.

© Therian

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