The Little Green Book [Solo]

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

4th Fall 511AV Serrif took up his usual desk in the Library. He had just left Lym’s lab with the book she handed him. It had procedures and details involving philtering. It was illustrated and had drawings of several different pieces of glassware, along with their uses. He knew he was a little behind on his glassware and philtering techniques. He knew that if he could further this he could really get himself somewhere in herbalism; he could create better medicine and such. He could also create even more interesting mixtures even without Lym’s help. But he knew he wouldn’t be anywhere near here if it hadn’t been for Lym. He owed her much but he knew he was assisting her more than she could ever imagine as well. He stretched a little readying himself for the read. He knew he would read a ton of material and he would want to take mental notes as well. He opened the book at the first page and well it started out with simple stuff. Just glassware vials. Vials were simple and usually in one shape just straight down with a round shape at the bottom. What was used to make small amounts of a simple mixture. It was also used to measure small amounts of things as well. Sometimes it was used to store the final product of a philtering session. Medicine was usually stored in smaller vials as was concentrated medicine and ingredients. Unconcentrated ingredients weren’t usually stored in smaller vials; because it wasn’t cost effective. Usually to seal a vial a cork was used but it was sometimes possible to roll a cork in wax and seal the vial that way. With the vial sealed the medicine inside was usually safe. But also there were some medicines and such that needed to be stored in glassware that was either tinted or covered because sunlight would damage the medicine inside. A good thing to know. Another piece of glassware that was good to have were flasks. Flasks came in several sizes but most held about ten to a hundred times more than a single vial. They were used to store large amounts of a mixture. The rounded bottom they had helped when they needed to be heated up to a boil. Most flasks were triangular shaped with a rounded bottom and corners. This allowed the flask to be set easily on a flat surface. But there were flasks that had more than one neck coming into the flask, most of the time in the case of the triangular flasks the second neck leading in was much much smaller than the other larger one that lead in on the top of the flask. The smaller neck was usually on the side of the flask on the larger neck sticking out at a 90 degree angle from it. It was used sometimes when a smaller mixture needed to be added in from a glass tube and another source…like a vial. These types of flasks were know as filter flasks, because they were often used to filter something when they were boiled. That was the function that the smaller port served. But there were also flasks that had a rounded bottom that were used for boiling as well. These were used usually in conjunction with several other glassware pieces and not usually by themselves because they were completely round with a neck on them. These flasks weren’t used alone because they were not easily set down on a tabletop because they would roll over and spill contents everywhere. These flasks were usually used in elaborate glassware mechanisms. These flasks sealed using cork seals or sometimes even wax seals as well. But wax wasn’t commonly used especially when the mixture was warm, this was because the warm mixture would heat up the wax and cause the glassware to drop off the other glassware it was attached to. Cork was a much better alternative. There were also several different types of round bottom flasks that had several necks, to allow for multiple mixtures to flow both in and out of them in these created philtering mechanisms.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

His mind recalled the mushroom sedative that he had found in the book Lym wrote. He would need one of the rounded bottom boiling flasks. As well as one of the normal triangular shaped flasks for the finished product. But as far as how he would connect all of it he was unsure. He figured by using glass passageways and connections he would be able to connect the correct areas. The notes detailed that the best way to connect these implements was glass sealed tubes and the likes. Anything else that would be used could end up contaminating any of the mixtures made, and react. Making any of the finished products useless or worse… toxic. That was not what a practitioner of medicine and healing should aim for by any means. He also noticed that the rounded boiling flasks also had another interesting feature. They were rounded, in the notes it was said that a boiling mixture tended to roll inside the flask. So by making the flask rounded the mixture inside boiled more evenly and heated better and more uniform than in a triangular flask. The rounded flask was also nearly twice or more times thicker than a normal vial or tube. This allows for them to be exposed to immense temperatures and still not warp or get destroyed. Or possibly even shatter. Normal vials were thin walled and even some normal flasks were thinner walled to help and save on costs of expensive and high quality glassware. Thicker glassware was usually harder to make as well. This meant that thinner walled glassware was by default easier to obtain. Also there was a name scribbled beside the triangular flasks. Vacuum flask, he paged over and there was the triangular flask with the small tube leading off at a 90 degree angle. It was noted here that these pieces of glassware were usually thicker pieces of glassware than normal triangular flasks. This was because they could be used in a closed system or it was rumored they could be used to create an absence of air within the thick flask and create a vacuum. This hadn’t been done before successfully but the removal of air within one of these flasks was rumored to allow unique chemical reactions to take place inside them. But one had to get rid of most if not all of the air to allow for these reactions to take place. This was also used in conjunction with a special funnel that would form an air tight seal with this flask. It was said that then if air could be pulled through the side opening of the flask through maybe a tube the filtrate in the flask would be pulled through a filter into the flask. This procedure was much faster and effective then allowing gravity to do the work, however creating the vacuum was difficult. Then there was a very precise tool used to measure dispensing of liquid into a closed system. The name in the book was measuring burette. It was a vertical piece of glassware that sometimes had markings all the way up on it. Then at the bottom the glass looked more like the longer thinner end of a fine funnel with a tap on it. The tap could be turned to dispense liquid in measured amounts through the long thin portion of the glassware. This allowed for precise and accurate control of agents into a mixture. Measurement was obviously key here, especially when dealing with more advanced medicines and concoctions later. This burette was only to be used for liquid though. Powders wouldn’t pass well through it at all, and may end up doing damage to the precision tap that was accurately and painfully installed in this precise measuring piece of equipment. Also these tools came in different sizes much like flasks did. Some had more accurate measurements and could measure smaller samples easily while larger ones were used when precision wasn’t necessarily a big deal. He could only imagine the amount of glassworking that was required to make such precision instruments.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Some mixture produced a gas that if condensed formed crystals. Thwe produced a unique problem because condensers were very fragile and intricate pieces of equipment. And carving crystals off of their internal surfaces could and usually did damage them. So instead the mixture could be put in a boiling flask and then a cold finger with an appropriate stopper inserted into the boiling flask. These cold fingers were thicker and vial like. Cool water would be circulated through them and then on their internal surface inside the flask the crystals would condense on the cool surface. These came in many types. Some were just simply a vial and cool water would be added to it. Others were a sealed system with an in and out tube allowing for water to be easily and almost constantly circulated through it during the entire process. These were extremely useful in a variety of circumstances but none that he could envision right now. But they were supposedly very useful. The condenser was an ornate and possibly one of the most delicate pieces of glassware in a lab setting. It was extremely difficult to make correctly and even more difficult to find one that was perfect. The condenser consisted of a long tube like piece of glass that had two openings for water to flow through. Water would flow in one and out the other. But what was really interesting was the fact that the water would wrap around another internal passageway. This passageway was where the gas was fed through from a boiling mixture. The cool water around the internal passageway would cool the gas and cause it to become a liquid, a truly interesting invention by someone much smarter than he was. He examined it thoroughly and noticed that it was indeed a very interesting piece of glassware. One that likely was a real pain to find and use correctly. He could imagine that for a gas to condense it would have to be cooled consistently, and cool water would have to be fed through it the entire process. The next item was a retort. It functioned much like a condenser but was much easier to manufacture because it didn’t require nearly the same amount of skill as a condenser did to create. A retort is a glassware device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated. The neck acts as a condenser, allowing the evaporated vapors to condense and flow along the neck to a collection vessel placed underneath. He imagined that this device was actually more common than a condenser was in most labs, mainly because it was easy to use and didn’t require you to stand there and watch it the entire time filling it with cooled water. However this came at a price, it didn’t cool substances as well or as fast as a condenser did. And he imagined there were some substances it wouldn’t be able to cool fast enough and then a condenser would have to be used.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

There were plenty of steps and walkthroughs stepping through simple lab philtering setups. A good one was a simple condensation setup. There were obviously several ways to set this up as the notes detailed. A simple setup needed only one retort and a flask preferably a rounded boiling flask. The retort would be placed on a heating element of some kind it didn’t matter what. And the mixture would be placed inside of the retort to boil. The mixture’s smoke would travel down the long slanted neck of the retort to the rounded boiling flask. Now there were several ways here that the flask could be prepared to quicken the condensation process. One could just set it on a table connected to the retort. But that was ineffective at times. A better option was to submerge the boiling flask partially in cool water to bring down the ambient temperature of the flask. Another way was to pack ice around the flask and add water. But the retort wasn’t very precise and was useful really only if you weren’t very well versed in philtering. A better way to do this involved two normal boiling flasks and a condenser. Using a glass elbow joint the flask was attached to the condenser. Then the condenser was attached to another flask that would hold the finished product. It was helpful to have the flask with the finished product lower than the other flask. This way the material would drip out of the condenser when it turned into liquid and drip down into the other flask. It was a simple operation really but it involved cycling cool water through the condenser, which was just one more extra step that Serrif didn’t want to have to worry about really. Another interesting setup was the dual drip system. Two setups were made just like the before mentioned setup only both boiling areas dripped into the same double necked flask. This mixed both of the mixtures together at the end. He wasn’t sure if this was just more complex then needed or if it actually served some purpose. To him it seemed like it was more complexity then needed. Why would anyone go through the trouble of such complexities when they could just do the same process twice? Yes he understood that it would take a little longer but it would help evade failure. He was sure such a setup required in the least 3 people to monitor properly, and keep cool water running through the condensers. As for his uses…well that setup seemed much more useless than useful. He would be happy if he could just get a retort working much less some monster of glassware and insanity. He would much rather just have something simple that worked than something complex that he couldn’t understand at all. He was all for practicality. And to him a retort seemed much more practical to him. And practicality was a good thing. He looked through and there were all kinds of glassware monsters detailed here. What happened to simplicity…Well he supposed the simple machines didn’t need to be written down; because they were simple. But some of these monsters did because they were nowhere near easy to envision. And even harder to begin to write down. But they were here. Simple or not for him to look over and ponder. He didn’t get any ideas from these complex machines. No it all just showed him how far he could take this skill If he wanted. But right now he was far from any of those monsters of philtering. He just wanted simple machines with simple purposes…He flipped over and found the simple machines. That was good; Lym did detail come of the easier mechanisms.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Here among the easier procedures there were also interesting notes about procedures. One shouldn’t let glassware boil out completely or it could break. Even if the glassware didn’t break right then little micro fractures could form and the glasswares structure would be compromised even if it couldn’t be seen. Even if fractures didn’t occur sometimes the glassware could just simply warp from the heat. Thicker glassware could help and prevent these things from happening. It was also not good to add too much cool liquid to glassware when it was being heated. The sudden temperature difference could cause the glassware to fracture, or sometimes the mixture could burn to the glassware inside. So adding liquid had to be done gradually or the glassware and the mixture could be compromised. Sometimes boiling a mixture was needed to create salves. These salves were usually created by mixing herbs with water or distilled alcohol. Then after mixing thoroughly some of the liquid sometimes had to be boiled out leaving a thicker ointment behind. This ointment could be used to help heal skin ailments and such. These could also be used to just sooth skin if it was irritable for any reason. On the next page there was a process for making cocoa butter. It was supposedly very good for the skin and perfectly biodegradable as well. It was somewhat easy to make as well; but had several steps involved in the process. The mixture required the person to obtain whole cocoa beans. They were then fermented, roasted then separated from their hulls. The fermentation process usually involved finding the perfect mixture of cocoa beans and yeast mixed with water to make the beans ferment perfectly. This mixture was very precise and Lym had here her mixture ratio, and he was beginning to believe that he would need a method of writing things down for posterity. Then after the fermentation and roasting the mixture is ground up and passed through a series of filters. The first filter was very coarse and was meant to catch bits of anything that wasn’t supposed to be there. The second filter was a very fine filter that would catch wax on it and the cocoa butter. The ruminants of this process could also be used as well. The leftovers could be passed through a series of even finer filters and refined for taste. Leaving behind after a grueling process fine smooth chocolate liquor. But this was the more involved process of getting the cocoa butter from the beans. An easier method that took slightly more time was to hand the cocoa beans in a warm room. The cocoa wax and butter mixture would then drip off of the beans onto the floor. Then that could be scooped up and refined to make cocoa butter. But this process was less refined and a little rougher than the first process. And it also yielded less than the more refined method. He wondered what process he should use. If he used the first one he would doubtlessly need more help than he thought. But if he used the second method he could do it alone but yield less than he would if he had the help. He pondered for a few moments on what he wanted to do and eventually came to the conclusion that he didn’t really know. But maybe he could question Lym about it.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Requests : Skills Philtering (Major) Medicine (Minor) Poison (Minor) Herbalism (Minor) Lores Creating Cocoa Butter Philtering Glassware(basic) Glassware Usage (basic)

[Archelon]

Thread Award "I must report this to Master Turtle- I mean Master Splinter. What world are we in again? " And the Results!!!!: Serrif : SkillName 1-5 How/why? Philtering 5 Medicine 1 Poison 2 Herbalism 2 Cosmetology 1 Lores: Herbalism: Creating Cocoa Butter Medicine: Cocoa Butter and it's uses in dermatology conditions(basic) Cosmetology: Cocoa Butter is good with skin Philtering: Glassware and Tools(basic) Philtering:Glassware Usage (basic) Would you like some extra turtle sauce ? : All in all a good read,and the story flowed right. Now, the turtle is wondering what exactly the knowledge of cocoa butter is going to be used for: medicine... or to give some konti woman a suntan on one of serrif's many dates *_*.