Great Britain and Ireland. 27 



versally used in the distilleries, not merely in these islands, 

 but also on the continent of Europe, and in the West Indies; 

 and the process consisted of repeated distillations, in order 

 to bring the alcohol to a sufficient degree of purity. It is 

 true that philosophical men, long before that period, saw 

 that the apparatus admitted of improvement, and that the 

 process, as ordinarily carried on, wasted much time and 

 fuel. There are suggestions, in the older chemical books, 

 of plans for obtaining alcohol of a high strength by a single 

 distillation ; but it was not until the year 1801 that the idea 

 was carried into effect in the large way, by Edward Adam, 

 a distiller at Montpellier, in the south of France, who, in 

 that year, invented a distilling apparatus which was imme- 

 diately adopted in a great number of the French distilleries. 

 This invention was followed, shortly afterwards, by another, 

 brought forward by Isaac Berard, also a distiller in the 

 south of France. Berard's apparatus was devised for the 

 same purpose as that of Adam, namely, the production of 

 strong spirits by a single distillation ; and, being less com- 

 plicated, and less expensive in its construction, it was by 

 many preferred, although it did not, by any means, econo- 

 mise fuel to the same extent as the apparatus of Adam. 



The introduction of these two improvements, in a manu- 

 facture of so much commercial importance to France, im- 

 mediately drew the attention of many ingenious individuals ; 

 and, during the first twenty-five years of the present cen- 

 tury, from 1800 to 1825, an immense number of inventions 

 were brought forward for improved distilling apparatus. Dr. 

 Solimani, Curaudau, Cardonel, Chaptal, Clement, and other 

 eminent men, lent themselves to the task, and an apparatus 

 was at length perfected, and very generally adopted, which 

 combined the advantages of both Adam's and Berard's in- 

 ventions, and performed the process of extracting the purest 

 alcohol, in a single distillation, with great economy of fuel. 



At the same time that these modifications of Adam's and 

 Berard's principles were carrying into effect, a distiller at 

 Bourdeau, named Baglioni, conceived the idea of making 

 an apparatus which should work continuously, that is to say, 

 should be constantly receiving a stream of wine, or wash, 

 at one end, which would constantly flow off, boiling hot, 

 and exhausted of its alcohol, at the other; the alcohol, at 



