The Zigzag Still

A tall pipe folds back on itself in sharp zigzags from a furnace up to a round glass head.

Work: Von der Universal Tinctur (author's holograph manuscript)
Artist / creator: Christian Wilhelm von Krohnemann (d. 1686)
Origin & date: Bayreuth, 1677
Held by: Wellcome Collection, London

Format

The full-resolution color-managed file — yours to print, study, and keep.

Size

Sized to protect print quality — this scan’s resolution supports sizes up to 12x16 cleanly.

$24.00

The story

A tall column rises from a small square furnace, folding back on itself in sharp zigzags before it reaches a round glass head at the top. Beside it stands a slender pillar on a scrolled iron foot, holding up a dish. The drawing is in grey wash with almost no colour, and a short German note at the upper right explains it. Krohnemann made this book in Bayreuth in 1677 as his own fair copy, and the Wellcome describes its fifty drawings as furnaces, apparatus and flasks. The zigzag is a cooling path: the longer the vapour travels, the more of it comes back as liquid. It is drawn here with the patience of a craftsman proud of his work.

About this reproduction

Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wellcome Collection, London’s open-access release.
Printed to order on archival cotton-rag stock, pigment inks rated 100+ years.
Color-managed to the source scan.
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Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London, licensed CC BY 4.0.

In situ