384 CHEMISTRY. 



go on beyond this some of the sugar will be lost by being 

 converted into vegetable fibre. The malt for so this sug- 

 ared barley is called after being dried, is bruised and put 

 into the mash-tun with water in the requisite quantity, 

 which is gently warmed. Here the sugar and diastase 

 are dissolved, the latter at the same time converting the 

 remaining starch of the seeds into grape-sugar. The liquor, 

 or wort, as it is called, is now put into the boiler, and 

 boiled with the hops, which not only give to the liquor its 

 bitter taste, but also help to clarify it. The boiled liquor 

 is run off into shallow vats, where it is cooled, and then it 

 is poured into the fermenting tun, where, with the addition 

 of yeast, the requisite fermentation is produced. In like 

 manner in making whisky from the potato the starch must 

 first be converted into sugar to prepare for the alcoholic 

 fermentation. 



544. Distillation. In the operations of which we have 

 spoken alcohol is obtained mingled with a large amount 

 of water. By the process of distillation this amount of 

 water can be much diminished, giving us the stronger spir- 

 ituous liquors called by the common names of distilled 

 liquors and ardent spirits. Brandy, for example, is distill- 

 ed from wine, and has from 50 to 54 per cent, of alcohol, 

 while the strongest wine has but 25 per cent. In rum, dis- 

 tilled from fermented molasses, there is from 72 to 77 per 

 cent, of alcohol. A common form of apparatus for distill- 

 ing brandy and spirits of wine is represented in Fig. 116 

 (p. 385). It consists of a copper still, A, having a dome- 

 shaped head, B, which by a tube, C, communicates with 

 the worm, D. Heat being applied to the still by the 

 Bunsen burner, the alcohol passes over to the worm more 

 freely than the water because it is more volatile. For the 

 purpose of condensing the vapor as it passes into the worm, 

 the worm is inclosed in a cylindrical vessel, E, which is full 



