In message <001e01c45580$ad764280$4acdfc3e@oemcomputer>, "norman.lee1" <norman.lee1@virgin.net> writes >You're talking glass here, aren't you? Glass was at a premium the further >back you go. Have you any idea of what a non glass alembic may have looked >like? Don't people do things a bit like that with tin cans or metal drums? Glass blowing was feasible a lot earlier than making a shaped semi enclosed vessel in metal with no impurities to damage the product(until smelting improved, principally C18) Subject a loosely rivetted metal vessel to heat for distillation would result either in leakage or explosion -- Eve McLaughlin Author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society