What we did: sand bath was heated to a stable temperature of approx. 140 C. 1.3 mL of cyclohexanol was added to the bulb flask, along with three drops of sulfuric acid, and some cooking stones.

the Hickman column was placed on the bulb flask, and the system was attached to a stand, approx. two cm deep in the sand. As the mixture began to boil, the bulb connector was covered in aluminum foil, to insulate heat, before a dropper was used to suck up the liquid on the side of the Hickman column. This liquid was transferred to a dram glass, and further, a small test tube with caustic soda. The mixture was then allowed to stand until the phases were separated. Then we sucked up the bottom phase, the water phase. The product that remained, in the uppermost phase, was the cyclohexene.

draw a reaction mechanism for this experiment