A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customes of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors : with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East, as substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood.

  • Morewood, Samuel.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customes of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors : with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East, as substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    the liquor is drawn off as before. A second quantity of water is then added, amounting to about 44 gallons, the whole is stirred, left to drain, and the liquid thus obtained,is also sent to the fermenting tun. This treatment cools the liquid considerably, but to cool and exhaust the pulp of all the fermentable matter, which it may still contain, from 44 to 66 gallons of cold water are thrown over it, which on draining through is received into the fermenting vat with the liquid extracts. By this time the pulp on the false bottom is nearly exhausted, but retains almost three-fourths of a liquid charged with fermentable matter, which may be used to feed cattle, or may undergo another draining. In the routine of these operations the fermentable liquid is gradually cooled, till, at the end of the process, it acquires a temperature very suitable to the commencement of fermentation with a specific gravity of 1.035. To convert the starch of potatoes into a sirup, or saccharine con- sistence, is the first consideration in preparing it for distillation. Kirchoff, a Russian chemist, discovered, in 1811, that sulphuric acid best effected this important purpose, by diffusing a certain quantity of the starch through water rendered pungent by a suitable proportion of the acid. The mixture is then boiled for 36 hours, stirring it carefully during the first hour, to prevent its settling at the bottom. At the expiration of that time, it becomes almost entirely fluid, and only requires stirring at intervals ; accordingly, as the water evapo- rates, it ought to be replaced. When the liquid is sufficiently boiled, pulverized chalk is added to saturate the sulphuric acid; after cooling and settling, it possesses a sweet agreeable taste : being clarified and having evaporated to the consistence of sirup, it acquires an intense saccharine flavour and yields, on cooling, crystals of sugar. In this process, Kirchoff employed common starch, and after his experiments became public, many chemists were engaged in varying and improv- ing the discovery. Lampadius substituted the starch of potatoes for that of wheat, and altered the process of Kirchoff in other respects, for, instead of a vessel of metal, he used one of wood heated by steam from an adjoining boiler, and conveyed through pipes descending perpendicularly to the mixture at the bottom. Sir George Tuthill put into an earthen vessel a pound and a half of potato starch, a quarter of an ounce of sulphuric acid, and six pints of distilled water at a boiling heat. These he kept stirring for thirty-eight hours* adding a supply of fresh water to keep the mixture in a degree of uniform fluidity. At the expiration of twenty-four hours, it became sweet, and increased in saccharine quality during the remainder of theprocess. When it had boiler! for thirty-four hours an ounceof finely