1^4 Account of fijiue Improvements 



with wool and greafe, held down by the plate and fcrewa 

 formerly dclcribed ; "v, general fteani-efcape pipe, or head. 



Fig. 3. alterations propofed to be made in the form of the 

 apertures to facilitate the efcape of the fteam, by taking away 

 a great part of the fhoulders on which it muft otherwife im- 

 pinge : a, the verge of the flioulder ; b, the central aperture ; 

 c, the lateral apertures; J, the fpaces between them. It is 

 hardly neceflary to add, that as the lateral apertures are very 

 large at their bafe, the pipes muft contract more cjuickly near 

 the bafe than higher up. 



The following defcription of the mode of carrying on the 

 proccfs of diftillation at Cannon Mills,- near Edinburgh, in 

 1798, before the improvements had been carried to their 

 prefent pitch, will ferve to give our readers fome idea of the 

 expertnefs and fteady regularity of the people employed : — 



In this work there are two flills generally ufed for diftilling 

 wafli ; thcfe ftills contain fifty-five or fifty-fix gallons in the 

 body, at)d twenty-nine in the head of each; are charged with 

 waili up to the fight -hole, which may be within four or five 

 gallons of the full content of the body. A very ftrong fire is 

 put into the furnace below the ftills ; there are a quantity of 

 iron chains affixed to a fpindle, which a man, who ftands on 

 the lop of the furnace, turns round, and the chains fweep 

 round on the bottom of the infide of the ftill all the time 

 that the wafh is coming to boil, and when the fpent wafli is 

 running otf. If the wafli fliould rife up too far in the aft of 

 boiling, and which is known by a man who keeps ftriking 

 the head of the ftill with a (tick, he gives the alarm to an- 

 other man, whofc fole bufinefs is to attend the furnace, and 

 who infiantly dailies a pailfull of cold water on the bottom of 

 the ftill, and on the fire, which caufes the wafh to fall down ; 

 the fire is then ftirred up to a very flrong heat, and this pro- 

 ccfs goes on till the fteam is condenfed, and the low wines 

 run oft" clear. There is another man who attends at the end of 

 the worm, where the low wines run oft" into a receiver, who 

 is called the ball-man^ and who, with an inftrument, exa- 

 mines the lew wines as they run off) and when he finds there 

 is no more fpirit remaining in them, calls out let go, upon 

 vvhicii every 4j,.an employed about the ftill is at his poft. He 



who 



