Sublimation and distillation have a long history dating back to the 3rd millenium B.C. The cementation of the oxides of volatile metals (notably arsenic and zinc) with copper to produce alloys has an equally long history. By the end of the first millenium B.C. the principle of distillation by descending was being applied to the production of mercury and possibly zinc as well. The development of zinc production from an old chemist's curiosity to a commercial product seems to have taken place within India, such that by the 14th century detailed descriptions of its production exist. The intact distillation units excavated at Zawar in Rajasthan, dating from the 15th-19th centuries closely resemble the earlier descriptions. The inspiration for the principle of zinc smelting by using distillation probably came from the apparatus used in mercury preparation, but the form of the specialized furnace or <i>Kosthi</i> probably derives from the humble pottery kiln. From the 16th century, European vessels carried Indian zinc to both East and West, and where local production commenced, the apparatus usually reflected at least in part, the local transitions of distillation. China seems to have adopted the Mongolian still. In Britain, which had the closest links with India, the principle of Champion's process was probably derived indirectly from the Zawar process. Even here the furnace was an adaptation from the local glasshouses. The inspiration for the other European processes was partially from the Champion or English process, but here also the much earlier European and even Islamic distillation process could have influenced the design of plants used throughout the 19th and well into the 20th century for the production of zinc. -- AATA