ALCH-201 Lessons

Lesson 8 - Laboratory Tools and Their History

Objectives:

• Learn about different types of tools used in laboratories.
• Be able to discuss the importance of these tools throughout history.

Welcome back to your last full lesson of Alchemy 201! We are going to discuss lab tools commonly used in alchemy. Some of this equipment will be used in your labs in upcoming years if you choose to stay with this course. First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you for making it this far. After this lesson, we just have the final. I know you're sad that our time is almost over but it's been a wild ride and I do hope you choose to stay with Alchemy through the upcoming years.

Year Three will have more of a central topic rather than be a broad overview, in particular, we will be looking at different practices of alchemy from around the world. You'll get to learn about how alchemy is practiced in China, India, as well as other cultures throughout time. Get your quills ready because next year is going to be great!

Now that we have discussed that, let's talk about our first lab tool - wands.

As you are aware, wands were discussed in the second lesson of this year. This will be a more in-depth analysis of wands rather than a focus on the wand's use in safety. At this point, you should be familiar with what wands are and where to obtain one. Those who study wands often refer to their studies as wandlore. You can look forward to possibly even a Wandlore course in the future.

Wands are what give us the ability to channel our magic so that we can cast spells. Without wands, we would be finding ourselves attempting to perform magic that would typically backfire or produce no results at all. However, when you become more advanced in your study of magic, eventually you may get to the point where you can perform wandless spells. They are difficult to practice and take great discipline to even use, so at this point you shouldn't try it.

There are a plethora of wand combinations and there are over forty different types of wood alone. If you're keeping up with Herbology this year, you may have gotten to the lessons about wand woods. Each type of wood has a certain characteristic. For example, we have wand woods like Holly, with an aptitude for protection, or Elm, which is capable of producing extravagant charms and spells.

In alchemy, there are common woods that alchemists prefer to use. There is never a perfect wand for a particular area of magic; however, sometimes people who have certain woods have more luck and easier practice than those with wands of another wood. In alchemy, there are four known woods that produce the best results. Alder, Black Walnut, and Ebony are popular wand woods among alchemists. The alchemy properties of the fourth wood, Apple, were found during a pretty ordinary incident. Around the 1700's, a man named François Armand coined the idea that the wood from an apple tree was ideal for alchemy. Respectively, François was a great alchemist in his own right.

Wands can be made with various cores. The core is a magical substance placed within the wand wood. Each core represents something and, like the wood, holds a certain characteristic over the power it dishes out. Do you know the saying, "The wand chooses the wizard"? Wands with certain woods and cores will choose the wizard or witch in which they see the most potential. It's a phenomenon that even people who study wandlore can't explain.

Garrick Ollivander is considered to be one of the most popular wandmakers in the world. He came from a lineage of English wandmakers dating back to 382 B.C.E. He was the one who proposed the three supreme cores: Unicorn Hair, Dragon Heartstring, and Phoenix Feather.

Another famous wandmaker is Mykew Gregorovitch. He was a competitor of Ollivander, who also owned a wand shop in London. This caused both of them to have a small rivalry. However, they both had similar theories on hawthorn wands being quite extreme yet promising. Gregorovitch also possessed the Elder Wand at some point. He started a rumor saying he had it and could replicate its properties in hopes of improving his business. Unfortunately, this led to Gellert Grindelwald breaking into Gregorovitch's house and stealing it, then, many years later, Voldemort tracking Gregorovitch down due to the rumor and inevitably ending his life.

I believe that most of you are familiar with the mortar and pestle. The mortar is the big round bowl while the pestle is the club-shaped object pictured left. There are multiple variants of mortars and pestles in material, shape, and size. They're used to prepare substances by grinding them into a fine paste or powder. They have been used since ancient times; in fact, the earliest known mortar and pestle dates back to 35,000 B.C.E.

Here are some common types of mortars and pestles:

• Wooden - Wooden mortars are often used in cooking. When you use a mortar made from wood, it is usually to crush small ingredients such as fennel. In Potions, you would use this type of mortar for certain potions when it's specifically called for. Usually it is used to help keep a certain taste or smell in mildly effective potions which are used externally (i.e. using lavender / rosemary).
• Clay - Clay was widely used millennia ago. It is often viewed to be the starter mortar even today. Those who practiced medicine would use this form of mortar as there was nothing else to use. However, it often made the medicine and potions taste bitter.
• Stone - Stone pestles are still used today, even in medicine. This mortar is used to grind certain medicines like aspirin. In alchemy, we often find ourselves either using graphite or other types of stone mortars as the stone itself provides a lingering sensation when it comes to the effects of its contents.

The mortar and pestle are very important in alchemy. In Chinese folklore, there is a legend called the Moon rabbit. Judging by the name alone, it's about a rabbit that lives on the Moon. People believed that the markings on the Moon resembled a rabbit. The Chinese portrayed the Moon rabbit as a companion to the Moon goddess Chang'e. The rabbit would constantly pound the Elixir of Life in a mortar and pestle for her. This legend is also apparent in Japanese and Korean folklore, however, instead of the Moon rabbit pounding the Elixir of Life, it's just crushing the ingredients for rice cake.

When you're grinding several ingredients, it's important to keep your mortar and pestle clean so you don't mix the contents. This is no easy feat of course as sometimes the residue will get stuck at the bottom of the mortar or the crushing side of the pestle. Alchemists use a wide range of spells to help keep their mortar and pestle clean. Unfortunately, there wasn't a spell to clean the mortar and pestle perfectly until 1414 C.E. During this year, a witch named Powaga Zoraida created the 'Maybe Mortar Charm.' It is a simple charm which one can use to clean their mortar and pestle perfectly. It leaves no residue, so therefore, it is one of the best cleaning charms.

Spell Practice:

Name: Maybe Mortar Charm

Incantation: Lava Quoid (LAH-va COO-ahd)

Wand Movement: Make a counter-clockwise circle around the mortar with the pestle inside of it.

Once the spell is cast, a greenish-blue smoke will appear around the mortar. When the smoke is lifted, both mortar and pestle will be clean and pristine.

Now here's something you probably haven't heard of before. It's the Essential Oil Steam Distiller.

It does exactly as its name implies: it can extract essential oils from steam. Witches and wizards rarely use this due to the fact that we can use magic for certain aspects of distilling oils from steam. However, it's still pretty important to know what these are and how to use one if the situation calls for it.

Distillation was practiced during ancient times. Zosimos of Panopolis, who we learned about earlier this year, actually wrote about distilling divine water and panacea. A crude form of distillation was used during the Middle Ages to collect fragrant water for perfumes, tonics for digestion, trade, and everyday cooking. In 900 C.E., a child prodigy from Persia named Avicenna wrote about the uses of plants and refined the distillation process. Today, distillation is very common in extracting oils.

There are three different methods involving the steam distiller that can be used to separate the oils:

The first method - Water Distillation

This process involves direct contact of an aromatic plant of your choice with water. Place the plant material in boiling water. The oils from the plant are captured in the steam, which then travels throughout various tubes until the oil is separated and ready to be collected.

Flowers are commonly used with this method. Direct steam passing through flowers can make the flowers clump together, which in turn makes it difficult for the steam to get through. It's just better to dump them directly in the water. Clove oil is also extracted using water distillation.

The second method - Water and Steam Distillation

For this method, the plant material and water are again in the same chamber. The water is usually at the bottom while the plant material sits on top of a grate above the water. An indirect steam is introduced into the main chamber, pushing through the plant and water. The steam will rise with the oils, be separated, and then the oil is ready to be collected and used.

Herbs and leaves are typically used with this method. Nutmeg oil is collected from water and steam distillation.

The third method - Straight Steam Distillation 

This is the most common method as well as the most gentle and productive. The plant material isn't touching the water at all and instead is in a different chamber. Subtle aromas can be altered at high temperatures, so having the plant touch the water would not be good for certain plants like lavender. The water is boiled at a higher temperature than the two methods mentioned above because there are two separate chambers to push the steam through. The low-pressure steam is pushed into the chamber with the plant material, collecting the oils. It will then travel through a spiral tube in another chamber where hot water is introduced at the top and cold water is channeled in at the bottom (both outside of the spiral tube with the steam). This condenses the steam into a liquid. At the end of the tube, the essential oil mixed with water ends up in a tank known as an Essencier. The oil and fragrant water will separate by density and then the oil is ready to collect!

Next, we are going to discuss the crucible. No, I'm not talking about the play by Arthur Miller.

Crucibles are containers that are used to melt their contents and can withstand high enough temperatures so that they don't melt themselves. They are commonplace in the alchemy field. Even witches and wizards often find themselves using crucibles more than any magical tool that's been created. There are a few different variants of crucibles. If you remember correctly, we discussed the graphite crucible in an earlier lesson, which is known to withstand extremely high temperatures.

There are several others too, of course. However, there's one in particular that suits the fancies of multiple alchemists. This is called the hessian crucible. This crucible was made around the Middle Ages to the Renaissance era in the Hesse region of Germany. Many millions of these were sold throughout the country and the world. What makes the hessian crucible so fascinating? It was way before its time! It could withstand very high temperatures, handle rapid temperature changes, and could take strong reagents. Basically, this thing was almost impenetrable. The hessian crucible was made of mullite - an aluminum silicate that was made by firing kaolinitic clay.

Crucibles that are made from substances such as platinum are also known to be really good. Platinum is a very powerful element that is often resistant when it comes into contact with high temperatures. We know this from the noble metals lesson! However, as we also know, platinum is extremely rare so many choose to transmute it rather than own a platinum crucible. Another notable crucible is the Gooch crucible. It is actually used as a filtration device rather than to melt metals, therefore it isn't used for alchemy. I won't go much further into it, but it's quite interesting to look up in your free time.

It's also best not to add certain elements into a crucible under high temperatures. Elements like aluminum will cause the crucible to overheat and eventually crack or tarnish the crucible itself. Remember to always take care of your crucibles like any other lab tool!

The final thing we will discuss today is an item that is known as the sand bath. In Arabic it's known as qadr and in Latin it's called balneum arenosum.

It's a funny looking contraption as you can see in the picture to the right. There is a container of matter that sits in this container of sand. The sand container is used to heat the inner container. . The sand will act as a conduit with the heat that is placed under the sand bath via a hotplate, a fire, or even a spell. The purpose of a sand bath is to evenly distribute certain temperatures throughout the compartments. The heating usually ranges from 550 - 1500° C.

There are many alchemical scripts about sand baths as it's one of the oldest laboratory tools used in alchemy. The sand bath process is one of what alchemists call the Four Degrees of Fire. It is a graded heating system developed by the ancients that's used with common fire. Here are the degrees in order:

• First degree: Balneum Marie (Bath of Mary) - water bath
• Second degree: Balneum Cinerus - ash bath
• Third degree: Balneum Arena - sand bath
• Four degree: Balneum Ignis - flame bath

Fire is a very complex subject in the world of alchemy. There are several different types of fire and this is only one small part of a bigger picture. We will save this discussion for another time in the future.

There's more to tools than you originally thought, right? This is your last week of normal assignments before your final. There is a short quiz on what we just learned as well as an extra credit assignment where you get to discuss your thoughts about the lessons.

As for the final, I would suggest studying your notes as well as your past assignments. This is a cumulative final so do make sure that you're prepared before diving right in. Happy studying everyone!