262 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



The greatest number of the attempts that were made were 

 based upon the fundamental idea, that alcoholic vapor could 

 not be condensed at so low a temperature as steam. The 

 apparatus of Edward Adam was immense and very costly ; 

 others sought to reduce the dimensions, and thus to place it 

 within the power of a greater number. 



Isaac Berard of Grand-Gallargues (department of Gard) 

 produced, a short time after, a more simple apparatus 

 than that of Adam, and which obtained the preference over 

 his : instead of covering the boiler with a cap, as had been 

 formerly done, he surmounted it by a cylinder, the interior 

 of which was divided into several compartments communi- 

 cating with each other by small openings : the vapor aris- 

 ing from the boiling wine was transmitted into these cltam- 

 bers, where the aqueous particles, being condensed, were 

 carried back into the boiler by channels for that purpose, 

 whilst the alcoholic vapor passed into a condensing cylin- 

 der which was immersed in a v/ater bath : this cylinder 

 was divided transversely, by plates of copper, into four or 

 five chambers, communicating with each other by open- 

 ings, so that the vapor might be made either to pass 

 through all of them before entering the worm, or it might 

 be conducted thither after having gone through two or 

 three. The vapor was so far purified in its passage through 

 these chambers, that, when at length condensed in the 

 worm, the alcohol marked from 36° to 38°, (= specific 

 gravity of 0,847 to 0.842,) whilst that which was carried in- 

 to the worm without going through the chambers, when con- 

 densed, marked only from 20° to 25°, {=: sp. gr. of 0.935 to 

 0.906 :) all the intermediite degrees were obtained at pleas- 

 ure according to the number of chambers through which the 

 vapor was made to pass. 



The apparatus of Berard appeared so simple and so ad- 

 vantageous, that it was generally adopted : Edward Adam 

 attacked the author of it as a counterfeiter ; the expensive 

 and tedious suits which he was obliged to sustain against 

 Berard and many others, turned him aside from his busi- 

 ness, and this man, to whom we owe nearly all the art of dis- 

 tilling, died almost in poverty, a prey to disappointment and 

 chagrin. 



Nearly at the same period M. Cellier, of Blumenthal, con- 

 ceived the happy idea of economizing time and fuel by 

 multiplying indefinitely the surface of wine submitted to 

 distillation : to effect this, he caused the vapor which es- 



