noun
definition
A sharp or witty reply, or one which turns an argument against its originator; a comeback.
verb
definition
To say something sharp or witty in answer to a remark or accusation.
definition
To make a remark which reverses an argument upon its originator; to return, as an argument, accusation, censure, or incivility.
example
to retort the charge of vanity
definition
To bend or curve back.
example
a retorted line
definition
To throw back; to reverberate; to reflect.
noun
definition
A flask with a rounded base and a long neck that is bent down and tapered, used to heat a liquid for distillation.
definition
A airtight vessel in which material is subjected to high temperatures in the chemical industry or as part of an industrial manufacturing process, especially during the smelting and forging of metal.
definition
A pressure cooker
verb
definition
To heat in a retort.
Examples of retorts in a Sentence
The retorts of the prisoners were notable.
These distilling vessels are called retorts if they are supported only at the ends, and the furnace using them is termed a Belgian furnace.
In the Belgian process the reduction and distillation are carried out in cylindrical or elliptical retorts of fire-clay, from 3 ft.
Some fortysix or more retorts, arranged in parallel horizontal rows, are heated in one furnace.
The furnaces are square and open in front, to allow the outlet ends of the retorts to project; they are grouped together by fours; and their several chimneys are within the same enclosure.
The metal is usually obtained from the flue-dust (produced during the first three or four hours working of a zinc distillation) which is collected in the sheet iron cones or adapters of the zinc retorts.
This is mixed with small coal, and when redistilled gives an enriched dust, and by repeating the process and distilling from cast iron retorts the metal is obtained.
The retorts are charged with molten sulphur from an upper reservoir, which is kept at the requisite temperature by means of the lost heat of the retort fires.
The pyrites is subjected to dry distillation from out of iron or fire-clay tubular retorts at a bright red heat.
After four days' heating the provisional front wall is removed piecemeal, and the retorts, after having been heated to redness, are inserted in corresponding sets.
The charge of the retorts consists of a mixture of 1100 lb of roasted calamine and 550 lb of dry powdered coal per furnace.
With gas-firing the retorts can be arranged in four horizontal rows, all within reach of a man on the furnace-room floor.
Only one compound of hydrogen and fluorine is known, namely hydrofluoric acid, HF or H 2 F 2, which was first obtained by C. Scheele in 1771 by decomposing fluor-spar with concentrated sulphuric acid, a method still used for the commercial preparation of the aqueous solution of the acid, the mixture being distilled from leaden retorts and the acid stored in leaden or gutta-percha bottles.
The amalgam is pressed in linen bags to eliminate a quantity of relatively silver-free liquid mercury (which is utilized as such in subsequent operations), and the remaining solid amalgam is subjected to distillation from iron retorts.
Formerly it was the practice to carry out such operations entirely by hand, men charging the retorts either by means of shovel or hand-scoop, and the coke produced being withdrawn with hand rakes.
The machines charge simultaneously at each end, so that the lids of the retorts may be shut immediately the coal enters.
His temper was irritable, and his hasty utterances exposed him to retorts which he did not readily forgive.
He didn't even bother to search his mental library under pithy, tasteless and nasty retorts.
It consists of a large stone chamber which communicates directly with two slightly slanting tubular retorts of iron.
The kilns are made with either fixed or revolving retorts.
From the drying floor on which the spent char is heaped up it falls by gravitation into the retorts.
The chief improvements in the plant of these processes are concerned with the manufacture of the retorts or muffles, and especially with the introduction of gas-firing.
Even a machine of simple type, like the ordinary drain-pipe machine, in which the retorts are made by forcing the plastic clay mixture through a die, may result in greater economy and uniformity than is possible when retorts are made by hand.
In the United States, Belgian furnaces of type (a) are built to contain 864 retorts; of type (b), to contain 300 to 400 retorts; and of type (c), preferably about 600 retorts.
One man who understands the use of gaseous fuel can regulate the heat of a thousand or more retorts.
The men who charge and empty the retorts, those who draw and cast the metal, and those who keep the furnace in repair, need not know anything about the making or using of gas, and the men who make the gas need not know anything about a zinc furnace.
Again, in direct-fired furnaces there are commonly seven or eight rows of retorts, one above another, so that to serve the upper rows the workman must stand upon a table, where he is exposed to the full heat of the furnace and requires a helper to wait upon him.
Furthermore, with the large furnaces which gas-firing makes possible mechanical appliances may be substituted for manual labour in many operations, such as removing and replacing broken retorts, mixing and conveying the charge, drawing and casting the metal, charging and emptying the retorts, and removing the residues and products.
For dry distillations the retorts are generally horizontal cylinders, the bottom or lower surface being sometimes flattened.
Horizontal cylindrical retorts, holding from 200 to 1200 tb of amalgam, are used in the larger Californian mills, pot retorts being used in the smaller mills.
The bullion left in the retorts is then melted in black-lead crucibles, with the addition of small quantities of suitable fluxes, e.g.
In the liquation process the ore is heated in inclined cylindrical retorts, and the molten metal is tapped at the lower end; the residues being removed from the upper end.
It is manufactured by distilling wood in iron retorts at about 50o C., when an aqueous distillate, containing methyl alcohol, acetone, acetic acid and methyl acetic ester, is obtained.
The commercial salt is known as salvolatile or salt of hartshorn and was formerly obtained by the dry distillation of nitrogenous organic matter such as hair, horn, decomposed urine, &c., but is now obtained by heating a mixture of sal-ammoniac, or ammonium sulphate and chalk, to redness in iron retorts, the vapours being condensed in leaden receivers.
Animal charcoal (bone black) is prepared by charring bones in iron retorts.
The disadvantage in this process is that the by-products, such as pyroligneous acid, acetone, wood spirit, &c., are lost; as an alternative method, wood is frequently carbonized in ovens or retorts and the volatile products are condensed and utilized.
The product obtained after burning is known either as kelp or varec. Another method of obtaining kelp is to heat the seaweed in large retorts, whereby tarry and ammoniacal liquors pass over and a very porous residue of kelp remains.
The precipitate is washed and then distilled from iron retorts.
To produce the alkali metal, a calcined mixture of sodium carbonate, coal and chalk was strongly ignited in flat retorts made of boiler-plate; the sodium distilled over into condensers and was preserved under heavy petroleum.
In this process the ammonium chloride is volatilized in large iron retorts lined with Doulton tiles, and then led into large upright wrought-iron cylinders lined with fire-bricks.
The product is then distilled from Stourbridge clay retorts, arranged in a galley furnace, previously heated to a red heat.
The second consideration is the form of the vessels; these may be open pans or dishes, or closed retorts, or combinations of both.
The majority of acid makers, however, prefer retorts made entirely of platinum, preferably provided by the Heraeus process with a dense, closely adherent coating of gold, including the top or "dome."
This furnace is also very well adapted for impure acids, unsuitable for platinum or platinum-gold stills on account of the crusts forming at the bottom of the retorts; and it is more and more coming into use both in Great Britain and on the Continent.
Condensation is a comparatively easy task in the case of platinum apparatus, but with glass or porcelain beakers or retorts it presents great difficulties.
Fuming or Nordhausen Oil of Vitriol, a mixture or chemical com pound of H 2 SO 4, with more or less S03, has been made for centuries by exposing pyritic schist to the influence of atmospheric agents, collecting the solution of ferrous and ferric sulphate thus formed, boiling it down into a hard mass ("vitriolstein") and heating this to a low red heat in small earthenware retorts.
On submitting a complex substance of this character to destructive distillation, it will be found that the yield and quality of the products will vary very considerably with the temperature existing in the retorts, with the size of the charge of coal used, with its distribution in the retort, with the length of time the distillation has been going on, and with an infinity of other factors of a more or less complex nature.
The retorts in which the coal is carbonized are almostluniversally made of fire-clay, and in all but small country works the old singleended retort, which was about 9 ft.
The retorts are heated externally and are set in an arch, the construction depending upon the number of retorts, which varies from three to twelve.
The arch and its retorts is termed a bed or setting, and a row of beds constitutes a bench.