Alchemy

This is the first few drops of dry copper acetate. It takes over 400 degrees Celsius to cause the copper acetate powder to first liquefy and then boil, causing vapours to ascend into the condenser. The first few drops are light blue, but then they get a bit darker. The blue colour is the "oil" that comes off the copper salt.

This is dry copper acetate getting ready for a dry distillation. I made this myself using copper wire, a torch, and concentrated vinegar.

In the literature, sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) needs to be sublimated three times before it can be used. With impurities, sal ammoniac will turn a red colour, but if you use laboratory-grade ammonium chloride it will only slightly discolour. Sublimation is the act of heating a substance such that it turns directly from a solid to a gas (in this case, ammonia and chloride gas, very unhealthy and dangerous if you don't know what you're doing!). Only certain chemicals have this property.