(Assumes one input is fixed.)

===== No. 855 =====

= Servin's Filter =

This production cabinet was the first iteration among several developed at the University after the discovery of quintessence. By depositing a small sample of cardinal essence and providing a ready supply of elemental salt, this machine can filter from an elemental slurry precisely the cardinal atoms whose essence match the sample, converting the matching atoms into quintessence.

Filtration cabinets like this one were initially used for janitorial purposes. Clumsy or mischievous students would mix elemental reagent vials together, and a filtration cabinet would be used to separate them again. However, it soon became apparent that such "filters" were useful for loftier pursuits, by way of pipelining the result of the filter into another engine for further transmutation.

Although such uses are beyond the scope of this book, there are other writings in the budding field of "information alchemy" that the interested Reader can peruse.

- Fontenelle's Alchemical Observations, 2nd Edition