hit reduced hy the Scotch Tiijlillcrs. l6^ 



who attends the difcharge cock turns it about, and the fpent 

 vvafh runs hiftantly off; which done, he gives the fignal to 

 the man on the top of the furnace, who having opened the 

 fight-hoIe, turns the charging cock, and fills the ftill as before 

 with frefh wafh ; the furnace-man dafhing in coals, and the 

 other man turning all the time the iron-work round; and the 

 fame procefs goes on again day and night, and the difcharg- 

 ing the fpent wafh, and renewing the charge, is done in a 

 few feconds. 



The low wine ftill is wrought much in the fame way, with 

 this difference, that the fore-fhot, as it is called, which is the 

 firft of the fpirits that come off, is kept from the fpirits, and 

 returned back into the next or fomc fucceeding operation, as 

 are alfo the faints or fpent low wines ; the difcharge of the 

 fpirits is likewife attended by a ball-man, who moves a cock 

 placed in a receiver for receiving each feparate kind, and 

 which is done in the twinkling of an eye. 



" It has been propofed," fays Dr. Jeffrey, " to adapt a 

 fteam-engine to a ftill. There is no difficulty in effecting 

 this : it may be faid to be already accompliflied, for Mr. 

 Cartwright's fteam-engine is a ftill and fteam-engine con- 

 joined ; and it may be alfo obferved, that a fteam-engine 

 fitted to a Scotch faft -going ftill would have great power ; 

 for the quantity of fteam that rifes from thefe ftills in a given 

 time is prodigious. Such an engine could grind the malt, 

 turn the mafti-ftirring machine, work the pumps, &c. and 

 it i:;, I think, likewife obvious, that under furvey it would 

 aid the excife in dete£ting frauds ; for it would fliow when 

 the ftill was at work. But however convenient and econo- 

 mical fuch a ftcam-engine-ftill might be in England, where 

 the diftiller may work when and how he picafes, it never can 

 be profitably uled in Scotland, where the diftiller works againft 

 time. For, as the fteam would be pent up in the ftill during 

 the half of the time the beam of the engine makes a ftroke, 

 the diftiller would lofe that time : befides, as the heat accu- 

 mulates in the walh when the fteam is not allowed to efcape, 

 it is to be feared that the fedimcnt would be frequently 

 finged, and that of courfethefjarit produced would be tainted 

 with cinpyrcuuiu." 



XII. On 



