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Mary the Jewess lived in the first century CE in Alexandria. She discovered the formula for hydrochloric acid. She invented many tools for handling chemicals, one of which is still known today as the ban marie - the water bath (the double boiler), Marianbad in German. It is also the prototype for the modern autoclave. She also invented a still called the tribikos, which may have been the first device for distillation. Once, while experimenting with sulfur vapor, she synthesized a metal alloy coated with black sulfide, a compound still known as Mary's Black. The saying from alchemy that "One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth." has been attributed to her and was called the Axiom of Maria.