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.
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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.
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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.
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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.