The Hardwood Distillation Industry in New Yorh 37 



When the alcohol has been distilled off in the lime lee 

 stills, the residue or acetate solution is forced by steam or air 

 pressure to a settling pan located over the carbonizing ovens. 

 After the impurities settle and are drawn off the acetate 

 liquor is run into a large shallow steam jacketed steel pan, 

 and boiled down to the consistency of mortar; it is then 

 shoveled out and spread on brick, steel or concrete kiln floors 

 over the ovens and thoroughly turned and dried; it is then 

 shoveled into sacks for shipment as acetate of lime. 



The alcohol liquor from the lime lee still is drawn from 

 the storage tanks previously mentioned into a steel alcohol 

 still provided with copper steam coils, and distilled off 

 through a copper fractionating column consisting of a series 

 of baffle plates having a tubular water cooled separator at 

 the top. By this process the lower proof products are thrown 

 back for further distillation, while the more volatile vapors 

 pass over through a condenser, the distillate being sold to the 

 refineries as finished crude alcohol of 82 per cent proof. 



Plant Equipment. 



The equipment of a modern hardwood distillation plant 

 demands a comparatively large initial investment. They are 

 usually located with reference to a large available supply of 

 hardwoods which can be brought to the factory at a compara- 

 tively low cost per cord. From 10 to 40 acres are usually 

 required for the plant and its adjoining storage yards and 

 trackage facilities. The modem plant has from 2 to 8 oven 

 retorts which are usually 52 feet long and housed in a retort 

 house ; open space for two sets of cooling ovens ; a shed for 

 the cooling and shipment of charcoal and the still house and 

 power plant which are usually separate from the retort house. 

 Most of our modern wood distillation plants in 'New York 

 cost from $50,000 to $500,000 for the initial investnaent. 



