MANUFACTURES.
813
ture- aC " r ^ ABLE ’ showing the Number of Gallons of Beer brewed^ , for public Sale and the Amount of Duty, jrom 1820to 1830, inclusive.
Years.
No. of Barrelsstrong.
No. of BarrelsTable Beer.
No. of Bar-rels inter-mediate.
Duty on all.
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
5,413,001
5,699,277
5,838,339
6,512,645
6,774,938
7,142,446
6,812,131
6,507,929
6,667,933
6,060,247
3,645,594
1,651,297
1,646,141
1,716,112
1,709,377
1,784,004
1,870,934
1,874,988
1,773,605
1,777,862
1,609,853
1,244,273
7,018
15,660
6,160
7,707
17,759
62,617
55,498
41,834
£.
2,513,7132,609,4633,143,3853,221,1733,375,9363,456,0783,316,4913,160,8173,256,1863,055,4532,345,122
^tilling^ inven.by
^■Ueneuve.
P rov ementb V Ada, n .
Different
Jodes of
^'"•illation.
(1130.) The Art of distilling', with a view to the pro-duction of spirituous liquor, seems to have been the in-vention of a Frenchman in the Xlllth Century of thename of Villeneuve, who was a distinguished chemist oralchymist of that date, from which time to the commence-ment of the present century slow but progressiveameliorations were introduced; but since that time theprogress of improvement has been very rapid and im-portant. M. Dubrunfaut, in his Treatise on Distillation ,gives also the honour of the first great step towards themodern practice to another Frenchman, M. E. Adam,whom he states to have been “ an obscure person, unac-quainted with Science , and ignorant of the Art he un-dertook to improve but who, notwithstanding, esta-blished a new system, “ and, with a giant’s pace, arrivedat that point which the most profound geniuses hadnever been able to attain, after the continued labours ofmany centuries.” If, he continues, “ Raymond, Lully ,Aortas , Lavoisier , Meusnier, or Fourcroy had made sucha discovery, one might have admired their genius with-out being surprised at their science ; but that a manwho had not even the first notion of the Art in whichhe was engaged, and who had not the least experience infhe manual operations, should rise all at once, and athis first trial ascend to the acmd of the science, is cer-tainly extraordi nary.”
This great step, according to M. Dubrunfaut, wasjoade in 1801; since which time, however, much haseen done to render still more perfect the Art of distilla-hon, although the principle has remained unchanged.
he processes or modes of distillation may be classedu nder two heads. In one, the method is to cause theevaporation, by means of heat, Of the mixture of twoquids, to receive the vapour that rises from the oneto ° ?, Vesse ^ b) which they are condensed by cold, andmeth ^T uor thus condensed. In the other, the
od consists in causing the same evaporation of theves *? re l ^' e * wo Squids, to receive the vapours in aminft W ”f re ’ ^ the assistance of caloric prudently ad-with' S 6I ™ whole undergoes a complete analysis,one ^? e P a . rat ' on into two distinct parts, whereof thebein^ * C s P' r ituous is collected on one side after
v<?t conc * e,lse d by cold, and the other part, which is
VOL. vii 1
aqueous and condensed during the process, on the other MechanicalThe first mode of distillation was generally followed processes,till about the beginning of the present century, whenthe great revolution in this Art took place by the dis-covery of M. Adam ; which consisted, however, princi-pally in availing himself of Woulfe’s apparatus for the YVoulfe’sdistillation of wines, described in the Phil. Trans, for apparatus.1767, and the economical method of obtaining heatrecommended by Count Rumford . It is necessary,therefore, before we attempt any description of the im-proved method, to make the reader acquainted withwhat is commonly known under the denomination ofWoulfe’s apparatus for distillation; which consists prin-cipally in causing the vapours as they arise to passthrough successive vessels partly filled with water, andto cause the gas to pass through as many such as arerequisite before it is allowed to escape; and even at thelast it may be detained by connecting the tube fromthe last vessel with a gas holder. This had referenceprincipally to distillation in a small way; hut Adam ap- Adam'splied it in the large way for alcohol from beer or wine, of
by bringing a tube from the capital of the still into a 1 a lon ’large copper recipient; by another tube this was joinedto a second recipient through a series of four vesselsarranged according to the plan proposed by VVoulfe.
The last vessel is then made to communicate with theworm of the first refrigerator, by which means the bodyof the still and the two recipients nearest to it arecharged with the wine or fermented liquor, and, whenebullition takes place in the still, the vapour arisingfrom it soon communicates the boiling temperature tothe liquor in the two recipients ; from these the vola-tilized alcohol will rise and pass into the third vessel,which is empty. After imparting a certain heat to it, aportion of the finer or less condensed spirit will passinto the fourth recipient, and thence in a little time intothe worm of the refrigerator. The wine round the wormwill also acquire heat, but more slowly; therefore thevapour, which in consequence may pass uncondensedinto the first worm, is conducted into a second sur-rounded with cold water. Whenever the still is workedoff, it is replenished by a stop-cock from the nearest re-cipient, which in its turn is filled from the second, andthe second from the first worm tub ; it is thus evidentthat, by keeping the third and fourth recipients at acertain temperature, alcohol may be formed of any de-gree of lightness at the remote extremity ot the appa-ratus ; by this means a great economy is effected in theexpenditure of fuel, and the flavour of the spirit muchimproved. Several stills on this principle have beenconstructed at Glasgow for the West-India distillers;but the Excise laws do not permit their employment inthe home trade.
It has been stated that the English distiller is not at Alembicsliberty to avail himself of this form of still; the process describedof distillation in this Country is therefore conducted on adifferent principle to that above mentioned, and it will beproper before we proceed further to give some account ofthe English process. We may observe, generally, that alldistilling vessels are either alembics or retorts; the formerconsists of an internal vessel called a curcubile, designedto contain the matter to be operated upon, and has anupper part fixed to it called the capital or head, in whichlast the vapours are condensed by its contact with thesurrounding air, or by the assistance of cold water, en-closing the head in a vessel called the refrigerator orcooler. From the lower part of the capital or stiil-5 M