Turn on the condenser water. Turn on the thermowell and warm the flask for
about 5 minutes. Leave the thermowell on throughout the distillation. Open the screw
clamp on the steam trap, then carefully turn on the steam valve. When the water turns to steam, push the bleed tube down so that it extends almost to the bottom of the round bottom flask. Be very careful—steam is hot! Slowly close the screw clamp, and adjust the flow of steam with the valve so that it is low enough that water does not splash over into the condenser due to excessive turbulence, and high enough that water does not back up into the bleed tube. If steam is coming out of the vacuum adapter, it should be turned down. Contrary to simple or fractional distillation, the water should be running through the condenser at a fairly rapid rate. Check the steam trap often to see if it is filling up with water, and open the screw clamp to drain it when necessary.