Distillation

Distillation is necessary when separating liquids from solutions, which are liquids with a solute inside, like sea water mixed with salt.

For Simple Distillation, first, we must get 2 beakers, one with an offshoot and one without, and connect a glass pipe to it with a water sleeve. 

Stab a thermometer through a bung or cork atop the beaker, and seal the beaker, on the offshoot we put a pipe which is known as the condenser.
And then we put a cold water sleeve surrounding the condenser, and we put a Bunsen burner below the beaker.

Once the water starts to heat up it starts going into the condenser pipe and starts getting cold by the cold water sleeve and condenses on the walls of the condenser turning into liquid and going off into the offshoot and going into a separate beaker that the condenser is pouring into.

But some liquids like: Methanol, Ethanol, and Propanol have similar boiling points, when we heat them up more than one will be separated, so it is very hard to separate them into pure substances. 

For these elements, we need to use Fractional Distillation, which is similar to simple distillation. However, we use a glass filter in the beaker, so when the liquid boils, it filters through the glass.
So let's go back to methanol with a boiling point of 65°c, ethanol at 78°c, and propanol at 97°c.  
So if we start heating up, we will get to 65°c, and then the methanol will start to heat up, boil, and rise up the fractal collum filled with glass rods. It would then go into the condenser and water sleeve and condense into liquid methanol, which would be collected in the beaker at the end of the condenser.

But maybe some of the ethanol and propanol might also follow the vapour of the methanol but since they would get in contact with the cool glass rods, they would condense back into their liquid forms.
Now for the ethanol, firstly lets change the beaker for a fresh and empty one. And now we heat up the solution up to 78°c and once again a bit of the propanol might follow but once it hits the glass it goes back to being liquid. 
Lastly, for the propanol, you must turn the heat up to 97°c, and then the propanol goes into the water sleeve and condenses