the vapors which it condenses.

Notwithstanding all these precautions, it heats the water in which it is immersed after a length of time; and whatever care may be taken to renew it, all the vapors are not condensed, and this occasions a loss of spirit. I obviate this accident, by adding a second worm to the first: they communicate by means of a wooden pipe like the above. The effect of this second worm, rather smaller than the first, is such, that the water in which it is plunged remains cold, while that of the first must be renewed very often. By these means, no portion of vapors escape condensation. The liquor running from the worm is received into a small barrel, care being taken that it may not lose by the contact of the air producing evaporation.

CHAPTER XIII.

OF FERMENTS.

They are of two kinds; the very putrescent bodies, and those supplied by the oxigen. Animal substances are of the first kind: acids, neutral salts, rancid oils, and metallic oxids, are of the second.

Were I obliged to make use of a ferment of the first class, I would choose the glutinous part of wheat flour. This vegeto-animal substance is formed in the following manner:—A certain quantity of flour is made into a solid dough, with a little water. It is then taken into the hands, and water slowly poured over it, while it is kneaded again. The water runs white, because it carries off the starchy part of the flour; it runs clear after it is washed sufficiently. There remains in the hands of the operator a dough, compact, solid, elastic, and reduced to nearly the half of the flour employed. This dough, a little diluted with water, and kept in the temperature indicated for the room of fermentation, passes to the putrid state, and contracts the smell of spoiled meat. Four pounds of this dough per hogshead, seem to me to be sufficient to establish a good fermentation. A small quantity of good vinegar would answer the same purpose, and is a ferment of the second class.

But are those means indispensable with my process? I do not think so.

1st. The richness of my vinous liquor, and the degree of heat to which I keep it, tend strongly to make it ferment. In fact, the infusion of the grain, by taking from it its saccharine part, takes likewise part of its mucilaginous substance, which is the principle of the spirituous fermentation, which it establishes whenever it meets with the other substance.

2dly. The hogsheads themselves are soon impregnated with a fermenting principle, and communicate it to the liquor that is put into them.

3dly. The rum distiller employs advantageously the residue of his preceding distillation, to give a fermentation to his new molasses: this residue has within itself enough of acidity for that purpose. Might not the residue of the distillation of my vinous liquor have the same acidity? It contains only the mucilaginous substance already acidulated. Some gallons of that residue to every hogshead, would, I think, be a very good ferment.

Lastly. Here is another means which will certainly succeed: it is to leave at the bottom of each hogshead three or four inches of the vinous liquor, when transported into the still for distilling. This rising, which will rapidly turn sour, will form a ferment sufficient to establish a good fermentation.

The intelligent manager of a distillery must conduct the means I indicate, towards the end which he proposes to himself, and must carefully avoid to employ as ferments, those disgusting substances which cannot fail to bring a discredit on the liquor in which they are known to be employed.

CHAPTER XIV.

OF THE AREOMETER, OR PROOF BOTTLE.

This instrument is indispensable to the distiller: it ascertains the value of his spirits, since it shows the result of their different degrees of concentration. I will give the theory of this useful instrument, as it may be acceptable to those who do not know it.

Bodies sink in fluids, in a compound ratio to the volume and the density of those fluids, which they displace. It is from that law of nature, that a ship sinks 20 feet in fresh water, while it sinks only about 18 feet in sea water, which has more density on account of the salt dissolved therein.

The reverse of this effect takes place in fluids lighter than water, as bodies floating in them sink the more, as the liquor has less density. Upon those principles are made two kinds of areometers—one for fluids denser than water; the other for those that are lighter: the first are called salt proof; the second spirit proof. Distilled water is the basis of those two scales: it is at the top for the salt proof, and at the bottom for the spirit proof; because the first is ascending, and the other descending; but by a useless singularity, the distilled water has been graduated at 10° for the spirit proof bottle, and at 0 for the salt proof. We shall only dwell upon the first, because it is the only one interesting to the distiller.

Water being graduated at 10° in the areometer, it results from thence that the spirit going to 20°, is in reality only 10° lighter than water; and the alcohol graduated at 35°, is only 25° above distilled water.

The areometer can only be just, when the atmosphere is temperate; that is, at 55° Fahrenheit, or 10° Reaumur. The variations in cold or heat influence liquors; they acquire density in the cold, and lose it in the heat: hence follows that the areometer does not sink enough in the winter, and sinks too much in the summer.

Naturalists have observed that variation, and regulated it. They have ascertained that 1° of heat above temperate, according to the scale of Reaumur, sinks the areometer 1/8 of a degree more; and that 1° less of heat, had the contrary effect: thus the heat being at 18° of Reaumur, the spirit marking 21° by the areometer, is really only at 20°. The cold being at 8° below temperate, the spirit marking only 19° by the areometer, is in reality at 20°. 2¼ of Fahrenheit corresponding to 1° of Reaumur, occasion in like manner a variation of 1/8 of a degree: thus, the heat being at 78½°, the spirit thus marking 21°, is only at 20; and the cold being at 87°, the spirit marking only 19° by the areometer, is in reality at 20°.

It is easily conceived, that extreme cold or extreme heat occasion important variations. For that reason, there are in Europe inspectors, whose duty it is to weigh spirits, particularly brandy: for that purpose they make use of the areometer and the thermometer. An areometer, to be good, must be proved with distilled water, at the temperature of 55°. Areometers, being made of glass, are brittle, and must be used with great care. This inconvenience might be remedied, by making them of silver; I have seen several of this metal. A good silversmith could easily make them; I invite those artists to attend to that branch of business; it might become valuable, as the distillers will be more enlightened.