Alembic

Alembic is a term with historical and scientific significance referring to a type of distillation apparatus used in alchemy and early chemistry. Traditionally, an alembic consists of a heated vessel (often called the cucurbit or still) with a neck or head where vapors condense, a curved pipe or gooseneck guiding the vapor to a separate receiver, and the collection vessel. By heating a liquid to its boiling point and then condensing the vapor, the alembic enables the separation and purification of components with different volatilities. In medieval laboratories, alembics were associated with attempts to produce refined spirits and with alchemical experiments; as glassware and techniques improved, the design evolved into more specialized distillation equipment, and the word chiefly survives today in historical or traditional contexts.

Separately, Alembic is also the name of a computer graphics interchange framework and file format designed to move complex animated 3D data between software tools. Developed by Industrial Light & Magic and later released as an open-source project, Alembic stores time-sampled geometry, topology, shading, and other scene elements, enabling producers and artists to cache data once and reuse it across applications without re-simulating. This approach supports large datasets and diverse workflows, making it widely adopted in film and visual effects pipelines. Files typically use the .abc extension, and the format emphasizes stable data representation, efficient I/O, and cross-software compatibility.