Please excuse my naivety as I am learning still at nearly 70. I welcome anyone who wants to respond. Have been following with interest several of the threads on this site and only recently applied and was accepted into the forum. I purchased the inexpensive alembic distillation setup from Mountain Home Biological posted above because I think it could be made to work, but it is not the ideal system that I had searched for. The items arrived in great shape in only a few days. I accidentally dropped the bend adapter and it shattered, so had to purchase a replacement which also was quickly shipped and arrived in great shape. My problem is that I have never worked with such an apparatus or any such glassware for that matter, and the pics do not show how the clamps go together on the reverse side. Also, I have read numerous books regarding the Great Work but none have adequately covered the aspect of actually finalizing the product in a fashion I can understand. The concept is easy enough to understand after one grasps the differences in ancient wording and meanings as opposed to today's definitions which in some cases are really quite different, such as male and female mercury, etc. So here I sit perhaps in the beginning of the final stage but despite unique inspiration do not know how to go forward. With this apparatus there is the bottom heated flask with top larger flask, and the side flask. Assuming we are able to construct the apparatus using several more hands than I have, what material actually diverts into the side flask - is it the white residue in slightly liquid purified state? Is it necessary to add a suction to the bend adapter to facilitate such diversion? It seems to me as I recall that none of the ancient pics used a three chamber flask system, but I could be wrong? Then too, I wonder how long to run this solution within, after experimenting with the temperature - do I just run it until all the liquid is gone in the heating flask?
My final product was both begun and later settled by accident. During a group of mining, edible-leach, solution experiments, I had run low on containers so decided to empty and clean several older ones that had been sitting around for several years. When I opened the 4th container it was a very colorful peacock and I had been reading about alchemy for several years, sort of as a hobby. I quickly closed the container and then reviewed my notes as to what was originally included, then decided this was possible that I had somehow brought this to an early stage of the first major stone stage. Unfortunately this solution was contained in a roundish "plastic" container but I proceeded anyway. I ran this for several months in the 100 degree F and kept it sealed, eventually increasing temps slightly until I could go no more before the plastic would start to melt. After multiple color changes etc., I came to the conclusion that this was completed as far as it could be until I could transfer it to borosilicate glass. It had gone through things I had never before witnessed nor expected, including a strange putrefaction and copulation that seemed to go on for a very long time, several months. At that point, I did not have a further apparatus to try to move this all into. I simply transferred this volume into a clean, new, quart jar in which it completely just fit, and forgot about it or nearly gave up on it. It then sat on a shelf for several years looking like a solid grayish black liquid. One day I entered this small building for a tool and glanced at the jar, noticing that it was beginning to settle and separate. After a few more months, there was the pure black material, about an inch on the very bottom, around a half inch of yellowish white buttery substance above the black, and the liquid above that is a sweaty pinkish red tint. It seems that I should carefully try to remove the liquid and buttery substance and place them into the alembic system, probably in thirds as that volume would then approximately coincide with 1/4 the volume of the heating chamber. I want to run this to the end on each third, as an experiment, just to see what happens. If it fails, then I will start over with original elements as I understand them rather than what is now there. As it sits now, the original complex ore that was originally being tested contained many things, any or all of which could have residue within the existing resulting contents. I do think that the black matter settled on the bottom is fecal waste, but the other two items, the stable buttery yellow white and the volatile liquid seem to be identical to detailed descriptions of the final major stage, just prior to the purification by alembic distillation which hopefully will also remove any undesirables.
Anyone who is able to instruct me on putting together and operating this apparatus, and going forward with this experiment, I would appreciate your input. Overall this has been going on for around ten years, and while exciting at times, it has also been slow. As a Vietnam Veteran, I am primarily interested in the health aspects but all and all this is the most amazing project I have ever come upon.
