“Mary the Jewess” was a name given to an enigmatic, mystical female alchemist. She is referred to as the first female alchemist, and her dates of practice range from 0-200 CE. We know a little about her through the surviving… Read more ›
In December 2022, Jesse from StillIt gave me a heads up that another distiller out there was building the LeFevre (zigzag) apparatus, and had it working. I was very happy to hear about that, but elated to be contacted by… Read more ›
Athanasius Kircher (1602-1683) has been described as “strange and rather fantastical” (Forbes, R. J. E). He is a 17th century Jesuit and professor of mathematics and philosophy. He published the Mundus Subterraneous, his most important work, towards the end of his life. The… Read more ›
Nicasius le Febure, also known as Nicolas le Fèvre, was born in the Ardenns in the early 17th century. He was a Calvinist and held appointments as a scientist in the French court as the “demonstratur for Vallot” and later… Read more ›
ABOVE: Here is Big E with a better view of our Barchusen Apparatus on a 3,000mL boiler. ABOVE: This is what the conduit intersection looks like, viewing the condenser from the side. There is no mixing junction at the intersections,… Read more ›
Adam Lonicer (1528-1586) was the town physician in Frankfort, Germany. He studied medicine and mathematics and taught at the University of Marburg circa 1553. He authored the works Naturalis historie opus novum (1551), and Herbarium (1555), which contained a special… Read more ›
Dr. Herman Boerhaave was born at Voorhout in 1668 and earned his doctorate at Leyden in 1690, teaching theoretical medicine, then practical medicine, then chemistry. He is the scientist who is credited with assigning the word “alcohol” for the spirits… Read more ›
Johann Conrad Barkhausen (Barchusen in the Dutch) was a chemistry teacher in Utrecht around the year 1694. He ascended to professor at the University of Utrecht in 1704, and held that post until his death in 1723. His apparatuses for… Read more ›
“Spinning band” is a distillation process that uses a column with internally moving packing to perform a separation of components, even those with very close boiling points. Spinning band provides a very high degree of separation within a small footprint.… Read more ›
A glass molecular falling film still is an extremely simple apparatus that is useful for cleaning up a distillation run, performing a separation at a precise temperature, or (what we use it for) recovering hearts from the heads fraction. The… Read more ›