360 WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. [1855 



ACCOUNT OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE ALLEGED SPONTANEOUS 



SEPARATION OF ALCOHOL AND WATER. 



(Proceedings American Association Adv. of Science, vol. ix, pp. 140-14-4.) 



August 20, 1855. 



At the last meeting of the American Association a notice 

 was given of a new process for procuring alcohol, for which 

 a patent had been granted. The weak spirit, left to itself 

 in a vessel of great height, was said to separate spontane- 

 ously into a strong alcohol, which rose to the top of the 

 column, and into a weaker spirit which was found at the 

 bottom. 



For the following statement and remarks relative to grant- 

 ing the patent I am indebted to Dr. Leonard Gale, one of 

 the principal examiners of the Patent Office: 



"When the alleged invention was presented much doubt 

 was expressed as to the working of the plan, and the author 

 was requested to answer the following questions to satisfy 

 the office on the subject: '^' 



" * Have you employed this device for purifying alcohol or 

 whiskey? If so, please state what kind, what size, and what 

 proportioned apparatus you have used on a working scale, 

 and what results you have obtained.' 



" To this the applicant replies — 



"'I have used this device as a mode of separating alcohol 

 from whiskey for several months. Thecolumn was of wrought 

 iron about one hundred feet high, and twelve inches in 

 diameter. It was elevated from the cellar through and 

 above the building; the whiskey was forced in from the 

 upper room of the building through an iron pipe leading 

 over the top of the column, and down the inside about fift}^ 

 feet. This sized column will, I find, separate about two 

 hundred gallons of alcohol from the water in the space of 

 twelve hours. The larger the diameter the more rapid the 

 process of separation.' 



"It had been stated by the party in correspondence that 

 he had been led to the trial of the experiment by noticing 



