Of the Method of Distilling, as practised by the Natives at Chatra in Ramgur, and other Provinces, with very little variation.

THE body of their still is a common, large, unglazed, earthen jar, nearly globular, about twenty-five inches in diameter at the widest part, and twenty-two inches deep to the neck, which rises two inches, and is eleven inches wide at the mouth. This jar was nearly half filled with fermented Máhwah flowers, that swam in the liquor to be distilled.

The jar was placed in a furnace, not the most artificial, though seemingly not ill adapted to give great heat, with very little fuel. The furnace was made by digging a round hole in the ground, about twenty inches wide, and three feet deep; an opening was cut in the front, sloping down to the bottom, about nine inches wide, and fifteen long, to admit the wood, and form a passage for the air. On the side, another small opening was cut, about four inches by three; the jar, when properly placed, formed one side of this aperture, which served as a passage for the smoke. The bottom of the earth was rounded in the form of a cup. The jar was then placed in this, and covered above, all round, with clay, except at the two openings, till within about a fifth of its height; when their furnace was completed.

In this way, a third of the surface of the body of the still, or jar, was exposed to the flame when the fire was lighted; and its bottom being two feet from the fuel, a capacious hollow was left between them; when the wood, which was short and dry, was lighted, it was nearly all converted into flame, which, circulating on so great a surface of the still, gave a much stronger heat than could otherwise have been

so little fuel; a produced from consideration well worth the attention of a distiller, in our country, where firing is so dear. Here, indeed, particularly where coal is used, it would be better, no doubt, to have a grate; and to allow the air to enter from below. Some benefit might also result from making the body of the still of earthenware. Lighter substances, indeed, are well known to transmit heat more gradually and slowly than the more solid, such as metals; and may not earthen vessels, on this account, be less apt to burn their contents, so as to communicate an empyreumatick taste and smell to the liquor that is distilled, a circumstance so often, and so justly, complained of in this country?

Their furnace being thus made, and the body of the still placed in it, a vessel, called an adkur, was luted on to its neck, with moistened clay this formed a cover for the body of the still, with a suitable perforation to let the vapour ascend from the under part of the alembick. The adkur was made with two earthen pans, having round holes in the middle about four inches diameter; and their bottoms being opposed to one another, were cemented together with clay; thus forming a neck of junction of about three inches, with the small rising on the upper pan. The lowest of these was made shallower, and about eleven inches wide, so as to cover exactly the opening at the neck of the jar, to which it was luted on with clay. The upper pan was about four inches deep, and fourteen inches wide, with a ledge round the perforation in the middle, about half an inch high, forming a gutter to collect the condensed spirit as it fell down; to allow the spirit to escape, a hole was made in the pan,

to which a small hollow bamboo, about two feet and a half in length, was luted on, to convey it to the receiver below. The upper pan had also another hole in it, about an inch square, at a quarter of its circumference from the former one, below it, to let off the water employed in cooling.

Their adkur being thus fitted to the jar, they completed the alembick by taking a copper pot, such as we use in our kitchens, about five inches deep, eight wide at the mouth, and ten at the bottom, which was nearly flat; and, turning its mouth downwards, over the opening in the adkur, they luted it on to the inside of the pan with clay.

For their cooler, they raised a seat at the back of the furnace, about a foot higher than the bottom of the copper pot. In its side, they made a round hole, about half an inch in diameter, to which they luted on a short tube of a like bore; they then placed the pot, and directed its spout, so that, when filled with water, it threw a constant and uniform stream, from the centre of the bottom of the copper pot, whence it was diffused, pretty completely, over its whole surface; and, the water falling into the upper part of the pan of the adkur, it was thence conveyed through the square hole, by a trough luted on to it for that purpose, to a cooling receiver a few feet from the furnace; from which they took water to supply the upper pot, as occasion required.

As their stock of water, however, in this sort of circulation, was small, being only about eight gallons, it became hot too soon; yet, in spite of this disadvantage, which might have been so easily remedied, as well as the shortness of the conducting tube, which had nothing but the common air to cool it, there ran a stream of liquor from the still,

with very little vapour rising from it; which was superior to stills of a much larger size, fitted with a worm and cooler. In about three hours after lighting the fire, they drew off fifteen bottles of spirit; which is more than could have been obtained, in our way, from a still of twice the dimensions.

The convenience of a worm and cooler, which are expensive, has been often experienced; and if these could be avoided in this simple way, which might easily be improved, the hints here offered may be of some use. The thin metal head is certainly well adapted to transmit the heat to the water, which is constantly renewed; and which must absorb in the fastest possible manner; whereas, in our mode, the water being confined in a tub, which, from its porous nature, must in a considerable degree rather retain than disperse the heat; whence the heat soon accumulates in the tub, and renders it very hot; and, though renewed pretty often, it never cools the vapour in the worm so expeditiously and effectually as is done by their more simple and less expensive appa

ratus.

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Of the superior excellence of metal, in giving out heat from itself, and from vapour contained in it, we have a very clear proof in what is daily performed on the cylinder of the steam engine; for, cold water being thrown on it when loaded, the contained vapour constantly condensed; whence, on a vacuum being thus formed, and the weight of the atmosphere acting on the surface of the piston attached to the arm of the balance, it is made to descend, and to raise the other arm that is fixed to the pump; but, this being somewhat heavier, immediately sinks again, which carries up the piston, while the cylinder is again filled; and

thus, by alternately cooling and filling it, is the machine kept in motion; the power exerted in raising the pump-arm being always in proportion to the diameter of the cylinder, or to the surface of the piston, which is exactly fitted to it, and on which the pressure acts.

The contrivance, too, of making the under part of the alembick, or upper part of the adkur, of earthen-ware, (where the condensed vapour is collected,) of such a great thickness, and of course at so great a distance from the heat in the body of the still, is well calculated to keep the spirits as cool as possible, when collected and running off.

By thus cooling and condensing the vapour, likewise, as soon as it rises, a constant vacuum is made, and that steam rises faster, and water boils with much less heat, when the pressure is taken away from its surface, is an axiom in chemistry too well known to need any illustration; the latter boiling in a vacuum, when the heat is only at seventy degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer; whereas, in the open air, under the pressure of the atmosphere, it requires no less a heat than that of two hundred and twelve, ere it can be brought to the boiling point.

We may farther observe, the superior excellence of their method of condensing the vapour so effectually and speedily in the alembick, to our method, in a worm and cooler, not only from the reasons already adduced, but from the small stream of vapour that can be forced into the worm, when it is condensed gradually as it descends; and above all, from the nature of vapour itself, with respect to the heat contained in it, which was proved, by the very ingenious Dr. Black, to be greater, by far, than was imagined, before his discoveries.

For

he has shown that vapour is in the state of a new fluid, where water is dissolved by heat: and all fluids, as he has clearly demonstrated, on their becoming such, absorb a certain quantity of heat, which becomes what he very properly calls latent heat; because this heat does not appear either to the senses or to the thermometer while they remain in that liquid state: but shows itself immediately by its effects upon their changing their form from a fluid to a solid; as on water becoming ice, or metals fixing, and the like. In the solution of salts, also, there is an absorption of heat, as we daily experience in the cooling of our liquors, by dissolving saltpetre in water; and this he has found to be the case with water itself, and other fluids, when passing into a state of vapour by boiling. From the most accurate and judicious experiments, indeed, he inferred, that the heat thus concealed in vapour, raised by boiling from any given bulk of water, would be fully sufficient, if collected in a piece of iron of the like size, to make it perfectly red-hot. What then must be the effect of so much heat communicated in our way of distilling to the worm, and the water in the tub, will be sufficiently evident from what has been said, to prove that we have hitherto employed a more defective method than we might have done, with respect to cooling at least, both in making of spirits, and in other distillations of the like kind, where a similar mode is adopted.

The

poor ignorant Indian, indeed, while he with wonder surveys the vast apparatus of European distillers, in their immense large stills, worms, tubs, and expensive furnaces, and finds that spirits thus made by them are more valued, and sell much dearer than his own, may very naturally conclude, and will have his competitors join with him in opinion,

that this fact alone must surely be owing to their better and more judicious manner of distilling with all those ingenious and expensive contrivances, which he can no ways emulate; but in this, it would appear, they are both equally mistaken; imputing the effects, which need not be controverted perhaps, to a cause from which they by no means proceed; the superiority of their spirits not at all arising from the superior excellence of these stills and furnaces, nor from their better mode of conducting the distillation in any respect; but chiefly from their greater skill and care in their right choice, and proper management of the materials they employ in fermentation; and, above all, as I apprehend, from the vast convenience they have in casks, by which, as well as from their abilities in point of stock, they are enabled to keep their spirits for a certain time, whence they are mellowed and improved surprisingly both in taste and salubrity.

With respect to the latter improvement, it in general seems to have been but too little attended to, where a due attention to it might be of the greatest use. For nothing is more hurtful to the body, and to the nerves especially, than fresh drawn ardent spirits; and this is owing evidently to the principle of inflammability, or alcohol, of which, with water, they are mostly made up; and which being then in a more loose and detached state, is less assimilated with the other principles than it afterwards becomes in course of time. By time, indeed, it is gradually not only more assimilated, but at length changes its nature altogether, so as to become, instead of what was at first so pernicious, a benign cooling liquor. When the spirit is strong, the change, it is true, goes on more slowly and imperceptibly; yet, as

a partial alteration is only wanted to mellow it for use, a few years keeping would be sufficient to answer the purpose; and to prevent any other from being sold than that which had been kept a certain time, is a regulation well worth the consideration of the legislature.

That the noxious quality of fresh drawn spirits is chiefly owing to the cause assigned, a little attention, and comparison of the effects that are uniformly produced by the principle of inflammability, wherever it is met with in a loose and weakly combined state, as it is in them, will easily convince us; whereas, when fully 'assimilated either in spirits or with any other body, it becomes entirely inert and useful, more or less, either for food or physic. Thus we find it in putrid animal substances, when it lately formed part of a healthy body, being now detached, or but weakly united with air, exhibiting a most offensive and pernicious poison; though this absorbed again by a living plant, is presently changed into good and wholesome nourishment. In like manner, sulphur, which is a compound of this principle alone, united to a pure acid, the most destructive to all animal and vegetable substances, yet, it being here perfectly inert also, may be taken into the body with safety; when, if loosened either by heat, or by an alkaline salt uniting with the acid, its noxious quality is presently made perceivable.

Many other instances of a like nature might easily be added, but every one's experience will sufficiently evince the propriety and utility of putting an entire stop, if possible, to the sale of what ought to be so justly prohibited; and this, in its consequences, may even help to lead to other more effectual means of correcting, in a great measure, the