- Distillation
Alcohol distillation precedes that of water.
Distillation is not a process confined to spirit production; it is a method of separating chemical substances by their volatility. Chemicals are separated from solutions by heating them until they boil and turn into gas. The gas is then collected and cooled, when it condenses into a liquid. As different chemicals boil at different temperatures, it is possible to separate them by controlling the heating temperatures.
There is evidence of the distillation of alcohol dating back to the second millennium B.C.E, although recent evidence from Pakistan demonstrates that it was not until 400 B.C.E. that the process was well understood. The idea of boiling water and collecting it as steam, which separates out dirt, salts, and bacteria, seems to have come 800 years later, when Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 350-415 C.E.) invented the first apparatus for distilling water. However, it was not until the eighth century C.E. that pure chemical substances were obtained by distillation. The alembic still was invented by Persian chemist Jabir lbn Hayyan. Later, in the ninth century, petroleum was distilled to produce kerosene by another Muslim chemist, al-Razi, and the extraction of essential oils by steam distillation was invented by Avicenna in the eleventh century.
SEE ALSO: CONTROLLED FIRE, ALCOHOLIC DRINK, WATER FILTER, INSTANT COFFEE
- Fired Brick
Fired bricks are developed in the Middle East.
In ancient times, brick houses were made first by compacting together wet mud and clay into slabs and leaving them to dry in the sun. Once solid, the bricks were piled up to fashion a basic building. However, the major problem with sun-dried bricks is that rainy weather can revert them to wet mud. It took brick makers a long time to arrive at a solution-buildings were constructed from dried mud blocks for more than 5,000 years before the fired brick appeared.
Using a combination of clay, sand, and water, brick makers in the Middle East formed a pliable mass of matter called a clot. The clot was shaped in a wooden mold to create what is known as a “green” (that is unfired) brick. This was placed in a kiln and baked at nearly 3,600°F (2,000°C), before being allowed to cool down into a permanently hard, more durable brick.
The fired brick enabled the construction of the first truly permanent structures-buildings much more resilient than those of mud bricks to harsh climates, changes in temperature, and weathering.
Fired bricks have been refined since they were first invented, the chemical ingredients of the clot mixture having been altered and optimized. Advances in technology have also made mass production possible. However, the premise behind the brick-making process remains exactly the same.
SEE ALSO: BUILT SHELTER, POTTERY, OVEN, DRIED BRICK, PLASTER, REINFORCED CONCRETE