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Retort
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a glassware device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated. The neck acts as a condenser, allowing the evaporated vapors to condense and flow along the neck to a collection vessel placed underneath.
In industrial applications, a retort is an airtight vessel in which substances are heated for a chemical reaction producing gaseous products to be collected in a collection vessel or for further processing.
The chamber where a body is placed when being cremated is referred to as a retort.
It is related to alembic.
Retorts were widely used by alchemists, and images of retorts appear in many drawings and sketches of their laboratories. Before the advent of modern condensers, retorts were used by many prominent chemists, such as Antoine Lavoisier and Jöns Berzelius.
In laboratory use, due to advances in technology, especially the invention of the Liebig condenser, retorts have largely been rendered obsolete. However, some laboratory techniques that involve simple distillation and do not require sophisticated apparatuses may use a retort as a substitute for more complex distillation equipment.
In the Bethesda Softworks games Morrowind and Oblivion, retorts would evaporate and condense the arcane properties of alchemical ingredients. Alchemical potions created with a Retort would have higher positive effects, and have no change on the potency of damaging effects.
Agar plate • Aspirator • Autoclave • Bunsen burner • Calorimeter • Colony counter • Colorimeter • Centrifuge • Fume hood • Incubator • Laminar flow cabinet • Magnetic stirrer • Microscope • Microtiter plate • Plate reader • Spectrophotometer • Stir bar • Thermometer • Vortex mixer • Static mixer
Laboratory glassware
Beaker • Boiling tube • Büchner funnel • Burette • Condenser • Conical measure • Crucible • Cuvette • Laboratory flasks (Erlenmeyer flask, Round-bottom flask, Florence flask, Volumetric flask, Büchner flask, Retort) • Gas syringe • Graduated cylinder • Pipette • Petri dish • Separating funnel • Soxhlet extractor • Test tube • Thistle tube • Watch glass