Crossword clues for alembic
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Alembic \A*lem"bic\ ([.a]*l[e^]m"b[i^]k), n. [F. alambic (cf. Sp. alambique), Ar. al-anb[=i]q, fr. Gr. 'a`mbix cup, cap of a still. The cap or head was the alembic proper. Cf. Limbec.] An apparatus formerly used in distillation, usually made of glass or metal. It has mostly given place to the retort and worm still.
Note: Used also metaphorically.
The alembic of a great poet's imagination.
--Brimley.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., from Middle French alambic (13c.), via Old Spanish, from Arabic al-anbiq "distilling flask," from Greek ambix "cup," of unknown, possibly Semitic, origin. Often spelled limbeck 15c.-17c.
Wiktionary
n. An early chemical apparatus, consisting of two retorts connected by a tube, used to purify substances by distillation
WordNet
n. an obsolete kind of container used for distillation; two retorts connected by a tube
Wikipedia
An alembic ( Arabic الأنبيق (al-anbīḳ) from Greek ἄμβιξ (ambix), "cup, beaker") is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for distilling chemicals.
Alembic is an interchange file format for computer graphics used by visual effects and animation professionals. It was announced at SIGGRAPH 2011, and has been widely adopted across the industry.
Its primary focus is the interchange of geometry (models) between different groups working on the same shots or same assets. This is often different departments in the same company or different studios working on the same projects. Alembic supports the common geometric representations used in the industry, including polygon meshes, subdivision surface, parametric curves, NURBS patches and particles. Alembic also has support for transform hierarchies and cameras. With the latest version comes initial support for materials and lights as well. Alembic is very specifically NOT concerned with storing the complex dependency graph of procedural tools but instead stores the "baked" results.
Alembic was developed as an open source library primarily by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Lucasfilm.
Alembic was a poetry magazine established by Peter Barry, Ken Edwards, and Robert Gavin Hampson, which appeared eight times during the 1970s. The first issue appeared in 1973: it was a collection of poems by Barry, Edwards, Hampson and Jim Stewart with graphic work by John Simpson, Robert Snell and Sibani Raychaudhuri. The work was printed on different colours and sizes of paper - and contained in a plastic bag. It was sold at the Edinburgh Festival of 1973, where Hampson was working with the Liverpool-based multimedia group Zoom Cortex. (See Adrian Henri, Events and Happenings, Thames and Hudson, for Zoom Cortex.)The second issue maintained the same format (a collection of loose pages in a plastic bag) but with an increased number of poets. Richard Kostelanetz's assemblages have been described by the editors as their model for this mode of publication. With the third issue, the magazine adopted the standard little-magazine format of the time: A4 pages, card cover, stapled. Alembic 3, 4 and 5 also marked a more self-conscious engagement with contemporary London-based experimental poetry. Alembic 3 (Spring 1975) announced the intention to engage with ''one area of contemporary creative practice' in each issue in order to represent the range of poetry being written in the UK. This issue focused on contemporary work that had its roots in surrealism. It included Lee Harwood's essay 'Surrealist Poetry Today', which had been a talk given at the Poetry Society, and it included work by Harwood, Paul Matthews, Jeff Nuttall, Heathcote Williams and others. Alembic 4 was edited solely by Hampson and was dedicated to open field poetry and the idea of place. Allen Fisher was the featured poet: in addition to work by him, there was also an interview with him conducted by Barry and Edwards. This issue also included work by Roy Fisher, Eric Mottram, and a small number of American poets, including Alan Davies, who was to be associated with LANGUAGE poetry. Alembic 5 (Autumn 1976)was edited solely by Edwards and focused on experimental prose, including work by Paul Buck, Opal Nations, Jeff Nuttall, Maxim Jakubowski, David Miller, the Canadian writer Greg Hollingshead and James Sherry, who was also associated with LANGUAGE poetry. This issue was also the first to be offset. (Like Alembic 4. it had a wrap around cover rather than card.) Alembic 6 (Summer 1977)was again solely edited by Hampson. It included further work by contributors to earlier issues. The featured poet was the Australian poet David Miller: as well as poems and essays by Miller, there was also poetry by Robert Lax and a reprint of work by Charles Madge, on both of whom Miller had written. In addition, there was also work by Rosmarie Waldrop, Tom Leonard, Elaine Randell and Barry MacSweeney. Alembic 7 (Spring 1978), edited by Edwards and Hampson out of Lower Green Farm, was the 'Assemblage Issue', assembled by inviting a range of poets and visual artists to provide the contents. It included work by Jeremy Adler, Paul Buck, Herbert Burke, Paula Claire, cris cheek, Bob Cobbing, Glenda George, Robert Sheppard, E. E. Vonna-Michel, Lawrence Upton and others. A particular feature of this issue was that every cover was different: they were hand-printed by Vonna-Michel with a rubber-stamp used for the title. Alembic 9 (to be edited by Hampson) was promised, but never appeared: Edwards had begun to publish Reality Studios as a slimmer, faster and more frequent publication. This eventually metamorphosed (through an amalgamation with Wendy Mulford's Street Editions) into Reality Street, which has been a major publisher of experimental poetry and prose since the 1980s.
Usage examples of "alembic".
Ialdabaeoth burst from the alembic in a shattering of glass and a sulfurous stench, already the size of a bear and still growing as it reared up, fanged jaws agape.
Spilled coals were scattered across the paving slabs and atop the rumpled velvet, burning holes in the rich pile, and the glass alembic was now a jagged splash of greenish shards.
It happened in the middle of an end-of -year bargain sale, when all of them had been trying to get the only bronze alembic left in a bin.
All the other customers had been thrown hundreds of yards away in every direction, and the merchandise had exploded into its component ions, except for the alembic, which sat in the center of the circle shining like an atomic pile.
We do not turn from it--no, we enter into it freely, as the alembic of our own Transformation, the power nexus of our change.
Glen, I think Change uses an alembic big enough for a man as part of their process of transformation.
She loathed the idea of doing nothing, but she knew without question that if she were to stay on with this investigation, she had to accept that Steven had the right, not to lock Jason into the alembic, but to ask Jason to submit to it.
His family went hungry, his clothes turned to rags, while he stared into the glass alembic and waited for the nigredo to give way to the peacock colors of transformation, through the white albedo to the glorious red of the final stage.
It would all be worth it if he could only reduce the universe, all the millennia of creation, into this alembic in front of him.
That this change had taken place despite the trauma of the alembic was eloquent testimony to his strength of spirit and the incomprehensible workings of the human mind.
Steven had used to refer to the alembic of transformation in which he had locked Jason, but that connection was too thin to build much on.
She knew Jonas had to have a human-sized alembic in the cellars, behind one of those three locked doors.
Something as explosive on the outside of the alembic as what was due to go on in the inside?
And think about it: Jonas wanted her voluntarily, which meant that he either had no wish to drag her into the alembic with him or, more likely, he could not envision the necessity.
She needed to see the basement, to examine the alembic itself and to see if there was any sign of a nitrate bomb.