Coffee. 36f) 



Pilatre de Rosier was exposed. Besides, those balloons 

 were gilt j which might attract the electricity of the clouds. 

 Balloons, gilt or silvered over, are very dangerous. Zam- 

 beccari, who employed those means, sustained several acci- 

 dents, and it is only surprising that he escaped at last." 



COFFEE. 



M. Tussac, a colonial refugee from St. Domingo, has 

 discovered the method of e.xtracting from the pulp of coffee- 

 berries a spirituous liquor similar to rum, and remarkable 

 for a peculiar flavour which indicates its origin. This dis- 

 covery will be very useful in the colonies, as the pulp, 

 when separated from the berries, was hitherto used only as 

 dung ; and also because it may be substituted, to good ac- 

 count, in place of the rum and the tassia in common use. 

 M. Tussac has sent a bottle of this liquor to the Museum of 

 Natural History at Paris, and all who tasted it have de- 

 clared that it was excellent. 



He sent at the same time the model of a machine called a kiln, 

 with the assistance of which the same quantity of coffee grains 

 may be dried in three days, as could have been dried in six 

 weeks if spread upon hurdles. This machine is a species 

 of barrel or cylinder, the sides of which are constructed of 

 brass wires, fastened to iron rods ; it admits of being easily 

 seen through ; it is divided into six or eight compartments, 

 and a wooden axle runs through its whole length, to the ex- 

 tremity of which is adapted a handle. It is placed in a stove 

 some feet above the surface, then half filled with coffee 

 grains, and turned round by means of a horse or water mill. 

 As this large box turns round, the coffee grains contamed m 

 it keep continually moving about ; the partitions or com- 

 partments in it prevent the coffee from going too much to 

 one side; the warm air of the stove passes through the in- 

 tervals, the humidity is dissipated, and the dried clay or 

 sand is easily separated. 



M. Tus'.^ac has it in contemplation to publish a history of 

 the vegetables of the Antilles, in which he purposes to give 

 the process of distilling spirits from coffee, as well as a de- 

 scription and a drawing of the above kiln lor drying the 



crain. 



Vol. 24. No. yP. May isofi. A ^i miscella- 



