In a chemistry laboratory, 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.

In the chemical industry, a retort is an airtight vessel in which substances are heated for a chemical reaction producing gaseous products to be collected in a collection vessel or for further processing. Such industrial-scale retorts are used in shale oil extraction and the production of charcoal. A process of heating oil shale to produce shale oil, shale gas, and spent shale is commonly called retorting.

In the food industry, pressure cookers are often referred to as retorts, meaning "canning retorts".

Contents

• 1 History
• 2 Role in analytical chemistry
• 3 See also
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Noun

retort (plural retorts)

1. A sharp or witty reply, or one which turns an argument against its originator.
2. (chemistry) A flask with a rounded base and a long neck that is bent down and tapered, used to heat a liquid for distillation.

   • 1893, A large curved retort was boiling furiously in the bluish flame of a Bunsen burner, and the distilled drops were condensing into a two-litre measure. — Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Naval Treaty’ (Norton 2005, p.670)

3. A container in which material is subjected to high temperatures as part of an industrial manufacturing process, especially during the smelting and forging of metal.

retort (third-person singular simple present retorts, present participle retorting, simple past and past participle retorted)

1. To say something sharp or witty in answer to a remark or accusation.
2. To make a remark which reverses an argument upon its originator.
3. To heat in a retort.