Editing Alcohol (chemistry) (section)

==History==
The flammable nature of the exhalations of wine was already known to ancient natural philosophers such as [[Aristotle]] (384–322 BCE), [[Theophrastus]] ({{circa|371}}–287 BCE), and [[Pliny the Elder]] (23/24–79 CE).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Berthelot|first1=Marcellin|author1-link=Marcellin Berthelot|last2=Houdas|first2=Octave V.|year=1893|title=La Chimie au Moyen Âge|volume=I–III|location=Paris|publisher=Imprimerie nationale}} vol. I, p. 137.</ref> However, this did not immediately lead to the isolation of alcohol, even despite the development of more advanced distillation techniques in second- and third-century [[Roman Egypt]].<ref>{{harvnb|Berthelot|Houdas|1893|loc=vol. I, pp. 138–139}}.</ref> An important recognition, first found in one of the writings attributed to [[Jabir ibn Hayyan|Jābir ibn Ḥayyān]] (ninth century CE), was that by [[Salt-effect distillation|adding salt]] to boiling wine, which increases the wine's [[relative volatility]], the flammability of the resulting vapors may be enhanced.<ref>{{cite book|last1=al-Hassan|first1=Ahmad Y.|author-link=Ahmad Y. al-Hassan|year=2009|chapter=Alcohol and the Distillation of Wine in Arabic Sources from the 8th Century|title=Studies in al-Kimya': Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry|location=Hildesheim|publisher=Georg Olms Verlag|pages=283–298}} (same content also available on [http://www.history-science-technology.com/notes/notes7.html the author's website]).</ref> The distillation of wine is attested in Arabic works attributed to [[Al-Kindi|al-Kindī]] ({{circa|801}}–873 CE) and to [[Al-Farabi|al-Fārābī]] ({{circa|872}}–950), and in the 28th book of [[Al-Zahrawi|al-Zahrāwī]]'s (Latin: Abulcasis, 936–1013) ''Kitāb al-Taṣrīf'' (later translated into Latin as ''Liber servatoris'').<ref>{{harvnb|al-Hassan|2009}} (same content also available on [http://www.history-science-technology.com/notes/notes7.html the author's website]); cf. {{harvnb|Berthelot|Houdas|1893|loc=vol. I, pp. 141, 143}}. Sometimes, sulfur was also added to the wine (see {{harvnb|Berthelot|Houdas|1893|loc=vol. I, p. 143}}).</ref> In the twelfth century, recipes for the production of ''aqua ardens'' ("burning water", i.e., alcohol) by distilling wine with salt started to appear in a number of Latin works, and by the end of the thirteenth century, it had become a widely known substance among Western European chemists.<ref>{{cite book|last=Multhauf|first=Robert P.|author-link=Robert P. Multhauf|year=1966|title=The Origins of Chemistry|location=London|publisher=Oldbourne|isbn=978-2-88124-594-7}} pp. 204–206.</ref>

The works of [[Taddeo Alderotti]] (1223–1296) describe a method for concentrating alcohol involving repeated [[fractional distillation]] through a water-cooled still, by which an alcohol purity of 90% could be obtained.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Holmyard|first1=Eric John|author1-link=Eric John Holmyard|date=1957|title=Alchemy|location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-486-26298-7}} pp. 51–52.</ref> The medicinal properties of ethanol were studied by [[Arnald of Villanova]] (1240–1311 CE) and [[John of Rupescissa]] ({{circa|1310}}–1366), the latter of whom regarded it as a life-preserving substance able to prevent all diseases (the ''[[aqua vitae]]'' or "water of life", also called by John the ''[[Aether (classical element)|quintessence]]'' of wine).<ref>{{cite book|last=Principe|first=Lawrence M.|author-link=Lawrence M. Principe|year=2013|title=The Secrets of Alchemy|location=Chicago|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-10379-2}} pp. 69–71.</ref>