2 
NEW  APPARATUS  FOR   RECTIFYING  SPIRITS. 
through  a  stratum  of  coarsely  powdered  wood  charcoal  in  large 
tubs  called  "leeches."  Those  who  are  most  careful  in  this  pre- 
paratory " leeching  "  always  produce  the  "cleanest"  alcohol. 
The  more  dilute  the  crude  spirit  is,  the  more  perfectly  it  is 
cleansed  in  the  leeches.  Hence  the  more  careful  rectifyers  "  re- 
duce "  or  weaken  their  whiskey  before  leeching. 
The  charcoal  used  by  the  most  successful  manufacturers  is  that 
made  from  twigs  and  small  branches.  This  charcoal  they  re- 
burn  in  kilns  of  their  own,  and  then  grind  it  into  coarse  powder, 
commonly  with  iron  balls  in  a  revolving  sheet-iron  cylinder. 
The  fine  powder  being  separated  and  rejected,  the  coarser  is 
spread  between  folds  of  blanket  upon  a  false  bottom  in  the 
"  leeches,"  to  the  thickness  of  six  or  eight  inches,  and  held  in 
place  by  stones.  The  dilute  whiskey  is  then  poured  upon  it  and 
made  slowly  to  percolate  it.  The  cleansed  portions  of  the  per- 
colate are  then  distilled. 
In  applying  the  method  of  vapor  purification,  of  course  all 
this  tedious,  troublesome  and  expensive  "leeching"  would  be 
done  away  with,  and  the  result  be  better  secured.  The  experi- 
ment appeared  worthy  of  trial,  and  consequently  a  model  ap- 
paratus was  set  up,  and  worked  with  the  anticipated  result, 
cleaning  all  the  alcohol  from  ten  gallons  of  common  new  whiskey 
at  one  process  of  distillation  with  about  eighteen  ounces  of  com- 
mon unprepared  wood  charcoal,  and  effecting  the  cleaning  so 
perfectly  that  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver  gave  no  precipitate  or 
blackening  after  standing  with  the  alcohol  exposed  to  sunlight 
during  many  days.  A  spirit  so  entirely  free  from  oils  is  only 
rarely  obtained  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  then  constitutes  but  a 
very  small  portion  of  the  "run"  of  any  given  "charge." 
Following  this  result,  (now  some  five  months.)  A  much  larger 
apparatus  was  erected,  and  from  this  larger  apparatus  the  fol- 
lowing figures  and  description  are  given  : 
The  apparatus  consists  of  a  still,  a,  column,  b,  upright  cooling 
worm  or  "  goose,"  c,  two  purifiers  d  and  d',  and  a  final  condens- 
ing worm.  The  scale  of  the  centre  section  drawing  is  i  inch  to 
the  foot. 
The  still  is  of  tinned  copper  of  about  eighty  gallons  capacity, 
and  works  a  charge  of  two  barrels  at  a  time.  It  is  furnished 
with  a  steam- heating  coil  of  f  inch  brazed  copper  pipe,  tinned 
