6  NEW  APPARATUS  FOR  RECTIFYING  SPIRITS. 
chamber.  This  pair  of  diaphragms  and  cells  represent  the  whole 
of  the  remainder  of  the  column,  and  they  rest  one  upon  another 
throughout  the  whole  column,  except  that  the  diaphragm  nearest 
the  lower  end  of  each  of  the  three  divisions  of  the  column  is 
soldered  fast  in  its  place  to  prevent  any  crushing  effect  upon 
the  wire  cloth  cylinder,  and  to  facilitate  the  taking  down  and 
setting  up  of  the  column.  In  these  distillations  and  washings  of 
the  vapor  in  its  tortuous  passage,  and  its  percolations,  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  oils  and  impurities  is  separated  and 
drained  back  into  the  still  with  the  water,  so  that  the  alcohol 
vapor,  with  a  comparatively  small  portion  of  impurity  and  watery 
vapor,  passes  up  the  three  inch  tinned  copper  tube  into  the  up- 
right cooler  or  goose,  c. 
This  goose  is  made  from  three  inch  copper  pipe,  tinned  inside 
and  out.  It  consists  of  12  pairs  of  erect  pipes  and  bends,  and 
contains  about  50  feet  of  the  pipe.  Its  arrangement  is  not  pre- 
cisely as  shown  in  the  drawing,  as  that  would  not  adapt  it  to  a 
circular  tub.  But  its  form  is  that  of  a  compressed  or  flattened 
spiral,  the  ends  being  brought  together  to  form  a  circle.  From 
the  lowest  point  of  each  lower  bend  a  half  inch  pipe  passes  down- 
ward into  an  inch  receiving  pipe.  The  half  inch  pipes  are  all  of 
different  and  diminishing  length,  and  are  "picked  up"  in  turn 
by  the  larger  pipe  as  it  passes  from  the  shortest  of  these  round 
the  circle  to  its  place  of  exit,  from  the  side  of  the  tub  near  the 
bottom,  on  its  way  to  return  to  the  column  and  still.  By  this 
arrangement  the  goose  is  kept  free  from  condensed  water  and 
weak  spirit,  these  latter  being  drained  back  for  re-distillation. 
The  water  of  the  tub,  in  which  this  goose  is  immersed,  is,  by  a 
carefully  regulated  flow  of  cold  water,  kept  steadily  at  a  tem- 
perature of  172°  to  180°.  This  regulation  of  the  temperature 
is  of  great  importance  as  it  regulates  the  strength  of  the  alcohol 
resulting,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  much  difficulty,  particularly  when 
a  varying  pressure  of  steam  in  the  steam  boiler,  or  the  varying 
height  and  strength  of  the  charge  in  the  still,  causes  the  still  to 
work  irregularly.  To  effect  the  object  of  regulating  this  tem- 
perature more  perfectly,  without  trouble  or  attention,  the  writer 
has  arranged  an  automatic  contrivance  on  the  principle  of  the 
thermometer,  as  sketched  in  figure  4.  A  piece  of  common  one 
inch  iron  steam  pipe,  of  a  length  corresponding  to  the  depth  of 
