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Der Athanor des Heinrich Khunrath
Beschreibung, Funktionsweise und Einordnung
Heinrich Khunrath’s publication Warhafftiger Bericht vom Philosophischen Athanore from 1599 and 1603 is an advertising brochure for a laboratory furnace, full of promotive wording, but describing essential technical details only vaguely. This deficiency is amended by Daniel Sennert, who, a few years after Khunrath’s death, gives a detailed and matter-of-fact description of this furnace including illustrations of all its parts in his book Institutionum Medicinae Libri V from 1611. It is a low-maintenance capsuled laboratory furnace fed with spirit of wine, with a wick made from gold filaments or asbestos fibres, working so cleanly that it can even be operated in domestic premises. It is the precursor of the alcohol burners used in chemical laboratories of the 19th or even 20th century.
