8 On the Method of Difiilling ut Chatre | 
of the body of the ftill, or jar, expofed to the flame, whett 
the fire came to be lighted; and its bottom, not reaching to 
within two feet of where the fuel was, left a capacious hollow 
between them, whence the wood, ‘that was fhort ‘and dry, 
when lighted, being moftly converted into flame, -and cir- 
culating on fo great a furface of ‘the ftill, gave a much 
ftronger heat than could elfe have been produced from fo 
very little fuel / a confideration well worth the attention of a 
manufacturer, in our country more efpecially, where firing 
is fo dear. There indeed, and particularly as coal is ufed, it 
would be better, no doubt, to have a erate; and that the air 
fhould enter from below. As to the benefit refulting from 
the body of the ftill being of earthen-ware, I am not quite 
fo clear in it. Yet, as lighter fubftances are well known to 
tran{mit heat more gradually and flowly than the more folid, 
fuch as metals, may not earthen veffels, on this account, be 
lefs apt to burn their contents, fo as to communicate an em- 
pyreumatic tafte and fmell to the liquor that is diftilled, fo 
often, and fo juftly complained of with us? At any rate, 
in this country, where pots are made fo cheap, I fhould 
think them greatly preferable, as at leaft much lefs expenfive 
than thofe which the gentlemen engaged in this manufac- 
ture moft commonly employ: though of this they are beft 
able to judge. 
Having thus made their furnace, wid placed the body of 
the ftill in it, as above defcribed, they then luted on, with 
moiftened clay, to its neck, at the opening, what they here 
call an adkur; forming with it, at once, a cover for the body 
of the ftill, with a fuitable perforation in it to let the vapour 
rife through, and the under-part of the alembick. The adkur 
was made with two earthen pans, having round holes in 
their middles of about four inches diameter; and, their bot- 
toms being turned oppofite the one to the other, they were 
cemented together with clay; forming a neck of jun@ion 
thus of about three inches, with the fmall rifine on the 
upper pan. The Jowermoft of thefe was more fhallow, and 
about eleven inches wide, fo as to cover exaGtly the opening 
at the neck of the jar, to which they luted it on with clay. 
The upper and oppefite of thefe was about four inches deep, 
9 and 
