232 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The caustic soda is cast into cylindrical blocks, and, under the name of 

 Condensed Lye, is sold in large quantities. Philadelphia Eclectic Medical 

 Journal. 



GLYCERINE. 



Under a process lately patented in England, this substance is stated to be 

 obtained from spent soap-lees, by forcing dry steam of a temperature of 

 400 Fahr. through them. By this means the glycerine is evaporated and 

 condensed in a separate vessel, upon the common principle of distillation. 

 Glycerine has also been used lately in England, mixed with paper pulp, 

 whereby the paper so made is rendered soft and pliable, and especially use- 

 ful for some kinds of wrapping paper. 



DEODORIZING ALCOHOL. 



In trying to prepare a transparent soap, M. Kletzinsky has made a curious 

 observation, which may be of value in the arts. He found that empyreumatic 

 alcohols, distilled over properly selected soaps, lost their bad odor and their 

 bad taste. A series of experiments, resulting from this first observation, 

 lead to the following results : 



1. Spirits of w r ine, brandy, or alcohol, distilled over soap, lose their empy- 

 reumatic odors and tastes entirely. About 212 the soap retains neither 

 alcohol nor wood-spirit. 



2. The empyreumatic oil which remains in combination with the soap which 

 forms the residuum of the distillation, is can-ied off at a higher temperature 

 by the vapor of water which is formed during a second distillation, the pro- 

 duct of which is a soap free from euipyreuma and fit to be used again for 

 similar purposes. 



3. The concentration of the alcohol increases in this operation more than 

 when soap is not employed, because this compound retains the water, and 

 the alcoholic vapors which pass over are richer. 



4. Thirty-three pounds of soap is enough for one hundred gallons of em- 

 pyreumatic brandy, and direct experiments have shown that under the most 

 favorable circumstances, the soap can retain twenty per cent of empyreu- 

 matic oil. 



5. The soap employed should contain no potassa; it must be a hard or 

 soda soap, and ought to be completely free from any excess of fat acids or 

 fluids; otherwise it may render the product rancid and impure. Common 

 soap, made with oleine and soda, by the manufacturers of stearine candles, 

 has satisfied all the conditions in practice. If this soap is employed, it will 

 be better to add a little soda during the first distillation. 



The hard soda soaps, as exempt as possible from fluid fat-acids, remove 

 completely the empyreumatic odor, and act, for equal weights, much better 

 than any of the other modes heretofore proposed, which disguise rather than 

 correct the fault. 



A new method has also been introduced by Prof. Breton, of Grenoble, 

 which consists in passing the raw spirits through powdered pumice-stone, 

 moistened with olive-oil. It had been found that the fusel-oil is taken up by 

 the fat oil, even if held in solution by alcohol; and on this principle, filters 

 of woollen cloth were constructed impregnated with olive-oil; but there was 

 no means of cleaning them when once saturated with fusel-oil. The pow- 

 dered pumice-stone is easily freed from that impurity by calcination. 



