£iO method of distilling 



all round, with clay? except at the two openings, till 

 within about a fifth of its height; when their furnace 

 was completed. 



In this way I reckon there was a full third of the 

 furface of the body of the {till, or jar, expofed to the 

 flame, when 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 circulating on fo great a fur- 

 face of the flill, gave a much ftronger heat than could 

 elfe have been produced from fo very little fuel ; a con- 

 sideration 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 grate, and that the air 

 mould enter from below. As to the benefit refulting 

 from the body of the flill being of earthen-ware, I am not 

 quite fo clear in it. Yet, as lighter fubftances are well 

 known to tranfmit heat more gradually and flowly than 

 the more folid, fuch as metals, may not earthern veffels, 

 on this account, be lefs apt to burn their contents, fo as 

 to communicate an empyreumatick tafle and fmell to 

 the liquor that is diftilled, fo often, and fo juftly, com- 

 plained 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 thole which the Gentlemen engaged in this manu- 

 facture moft commonly employ : though of this they 

 are bell able to judge. 



Having thus made their furnace, and placed the 

 body of the Mill in it, as above defcribed, they to this 

 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 (till, with a 

 fuitable perforation in it to let the vapour rife through, 

 and the under part of the alembick. The adkur was 



made 



