34 On the Process of making Spirits in 



every part of the wash in which they are immersed. These 

 perforated pipes are not shewn in the drawing. 



Mode of action. — When commencing an operation, the 

 wash-pump is first set in motion to charge all the zig zag 

 pipes m m m, until the wash passes over into the analyzers 

 at n. The pump is then stopped, and the steam let into the 

 bottom of the apparatus by the pipe b b. The steam passes 

 up through the chambers B B , and by the pipe z into the 

 analyzers, from whence it descends through i i to the bottom 

 of the rectifier at N. It then rises through the chambers 

 k h, enveloping the zig zag pipes, and rapidly heating the 

 wash contained in them. 



When the attendant perceives, by feeling the bends III, 

 that the wash has been heated in several layers of these 

 pipes, perhaps, eight or ten layers, (but the number is not 

 of much moment,) he again sets the pump to work, and the 

 wash now boiling hot, or nearly so, (and always in rapid 

 motion) flows from the pipe m at n, and passes down from 

 chamber to chamber through the dropping pipes, in the 

 direction shewn by the arrows in a few of the upper cham- 

 bers. It may be here observed, that no portion of the wash 

 passes through the small holes perforated in the diaphragms 

 which separate the chambers. These holes are regulated 

 both in number and size, so as to be not more than suffi- 

 cient to afford passage to the vapour upwards under some 

 pressure. The holes, therefore, afford no outlet for the 

 licpior, which can only find its way down in the zig zag 

 course indicated by the arrows. It is, therefore, obvious, 

 that the wash as it passes down is spread into strata, as many 

 times as there are diaphragms, and is thus exposed to the 

 most searching action of the steam constantly blowing up 

 through it. As it descends from chamber to chamber, its 

 alcohol is abstracted by the steam passing through it, agree- 

 ably to the 3rd and 4th preliminary principles we have 

 laid down, and by the time the wash has reached the large 

 chamber B, it is in the ordinary course of the operation, 

 completely deprived of its alcohol. 



The wash as it descends from the analyzer accumulates 

 in the upper large chamber B', until that chamber becomes 

 nearly filled, which, when the attendant perceives to be the 

 case, by the inspection of the glass tube, he opens the valve 



