Bromine from Bittern: Frank's Still with Manganese Ore and Sulphuric Acid

Bromine is the dark red liquid left hidden in bittern, the bitter liquor that stays behind when sea salt crystallises; Balard found it there in 1826. Chlorine pushes it out: MgBr2 + Cl2 = MgCl2 + Br2. Frank's still, as Thorpe (1912) describes it, makes the chlorine inside the liquor from manganese ore and sulphuric acid, and live steam drives the bromine over into a cooled bottle. Bromine vapour is poisonous and the liquid burns skin: full protection, outdoors, never alone. The picture: bromine sealed in an acrylic cube (Wikimedia Commons).