صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

46,500 gallons each. The two low-wines' receivers contain 15,395 gallons; two low-wines' chargers, 20,705; two feints' receivers, 8936; one spirit recciver, 5729; and three spirits' store-casks containing 22,902 gallons. In a period of four days, (the time occupied in distilling,) 35,000 gallons of spirits are manufactured, and two hundred and forty tons of coals are consumed in thirteen days, the usual time occupied in brewing and distilling. This establishment works about eighteen periods in the year, so that 630,000 gallons of spirits are produced and 4320 tons of coals are consumed. The machinery is worked by two steam-engines, one of twenty-six, and the other of fourteen horse power. There are warehouses on the premises for bonding spirits, capable of containing 1600 puncheons, and the concerns occupy a space of nearly five acres in extent.

In one of the large concerns worked in the city of Dublin, the capacity of the stills worked, are two for the distillation of wash, 17,456 gallons, two for that of low-wines, 9,022 gallons each; besides these, there are four coppers for brewing, containing 59,832 gallons, with two mash-tuns, holding 9,118 bushels of grain. In these are usually mashed 3000 bushels at one brewing; the underback contains 8,321 gallons, and there are four coolers that hold at one inch in depth, 5,893 gallons. The tun for making bub, contains 2,790 gallons, and there are thirteen backs capable of receiving 432,414 gallons of wash at a time. The jack-back contains 2,065 gallons, the wash charger, 26,938; the two low-wines' receivers, 14,887; the spirit receiver 4,695, two feints' receivers, 9,431; two low-wines and feints' chargers 18,695; three store-casks for spirits 11,902 gallons. In one brewing period 15,290 bushels of malted and unmalted corn are mashed, producing 262,747 gallons of wash at 60° of gravity, which is completed in six working days; and in six succeeding days, the entire is distilled, producing, at an average attenuation, 31,150 gals. of proof spirits, the duty on which, at 2s. 4d. per gallon, amounts to £3,634 3s. 4d. The coal consumed for the twelve days occupied in brewing and distilling is 200 tons, and there are 30 men constantly employed in the concern. The barm alone for one period, stands the proprietor £360, while the produce of the grains and hog-wash brings in return £400. In one year this establishment completed eighteen distilling periods, turning out 60,730 gallons of proof spirits, and yielding a revenue of £65,415. Taking this as a fair standard, on which to found a calculation of what may be the expense attending the manufacture of spirits in Ireland, it does not appear to exceed 2s. 6d. for every gallon distilled.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

On this principle it is easy to calculate what the price of whiskey should be, to make the trade of a distiller an object worthy of speculation.

Few countries afford better means or facilities for conducting this business than Ireland, grain being plentiful, fuel cheap, water in abundance, workmen numerous, and eager for employment, with a ready market always to be had for the disposal of the commodity. In estimating the qualities of grain for distilleries, much depends on the soil, climate, and season; hence calculations founded on any given data, without considerations of this kind, might lead to erroneous results, the relative proportions of mucilage, sugar, gluten, and nutritive, or soluble matter, varying in different countries. The grain of the south of Europe excels that of the north, owing to the different influence of heat, dryness, and moisture. It must, therefore, be valuable to the distiller, brewer, or experimentalist, to be presented with the following tabular view of the chemical analysis of the principal articles from which spirits, or other liquors, are, or may be, extracted, as given by Sir Humphrey Davy and other eminent philosophers.

Names of Articles.

of Meal.

nutritive

or

[blocks in formation]

In parts Soluble or Mucilage Saccha-Gluten Matter in

or soluble in Albu-evapora

rine

matter

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The basis of all spirits and vinous fermentation is sugar, and no intoxicating beverage can be obtained from any substance, which does not contain a portion of this material; nor is there any substance, which contains it, that is not productive of the alcoholic principle to a greater or less degree, either in proportion to the saccharine quantity, or to its combination with other matter. Chemists are divided as to

Cabbages were in common use among the ancients, and Cato wrote volumes descriptive of their nature and value. The Indians had such veneration for cab bages that they swore by them, and were, in that respect, as superstitious as the Egyptians, who paid divine honors to leeks and onions for the great benefit, which they conceived, they derived from them.

the constituent parts of sugar; all, however, agree that it is composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, but no experiments have yet determined the exact proportion of each; and a recent analysis has proved that the difference between the composition of starch and that of sugar is trifling, and that the former principle is easily converted into the latter by natural, as well as artificial operations, and that this occurs as well in the germination of seeds as in the process of malting: hence it is evident why those fruits, roots, and seeds, or grain, which contain the largest proportion of starch, yield the greatest quantities of alcohol or spirits. The quantity of saccharine matter contained in any grain, or edible plant, will be found by making a tincture of the vegetable to be assayed in rectified spirits of wine, which, when saturated by heat, will deposit the sugar by standing in a cool place.

The following table exhibits the quantity of alcohol, (sp. gr. .825 at 60° Fahrenheit) in several kinds of wines and other liquors, as ascertained by the experiments of Mr. Brande.

Per cent. per measure.

Port, average of six kinds....23.48 Hock....

Do.

Do.

highest,...........25.83 Palm wine,....
lowest,............21.40 Vin de Grave,.

Sherry, average of four kinds 17.92 Frontignac,............

Do.

Do.

Per cent. per measure.

8.88

4.70

.12.80

.12.79

..12.32

....17.26

....18.11

........18.25

highest,...........19.83 Coti Roti.....
lowest,.............13.25 Rousillon,.....................

Claret, average of two kinds 14.42 Cape Madeira,..............

Calcavella,.....

Lisbon......

Malaga,.

.........18.10 Cape Muschat,.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

...15.52 .....15.28 ....14.63

.. 9.88

..25.77

..18.11

..20.55

[blocks in formation]

Burgundy,..

Do.

.11.95 Ale,.....

[blocks in formation]

... 6.80

.... 8.88

....53.39

.....53.68

....51.60

From the preceding table, it appears that port, madeira, marsala, raisin, and currant wines, contain the greatest bulk of alcohol, so that

a person after taking a bottle of any of those, will have swallowed nearly an half pint of alcohol, or almost a pint of pure brandy, without experiencing those intoxicating effects, which either alcohol, or brandy, would produce separately. In wine, the alcohol is so blended with other matter as to prevent it acting with such vigour on the stomach, until its influence is changed by the powers of digestion, and, by this combination, its activity on the system is completely modified.

To what intoxication may be attributed, whether to the alcohol, or pure spirits, incorporating with the blood, or to the sympathy of communication between the stomach and the head, has not yet been clearly ascertained.. But if conjecture be admitted, the most plausible hypothesis seems to be, that the heat of the stomach acting on the volatile principle of the fluid, causes it to ascend to the brain, and to affect it through the medium of the nerves. A case is recounted of a person brought dead into Westminster Hospital, after having drunk a quart of gin for a wager, within the lateral ventricles of whose brain a quantity of clear fluid was found, strongly impregnated with gin.* In support of a contrary hypothesis, it is urged from the experiments of Majendie, that the blood of a dog, which had been made to swallow some diluted alcohol, exhaled a strong odour of the spirit; but by what means it makes its way to the seat of reason may still remain one of those secrets, into which the eye of the philosopher can never penetrate

Observation and experiment have recently proved, that persons accustomed to the drinking of ardent spirits are subject to spontaneous combustion—a proof that the blood must be strongly impregnated with the alcoholic principle. A case of this kind was lately described in the New York Courier, in the instance of an old man, who had drunk a large quantity of rum. Having been bled, and a lighted taper applied to the blood, it burned blue, and continued to blaze freely for thirty seconds: every toper, therefore, should be cautious of coming in contact with any ignited material, since he is as liable to blow up as a cask of French brandy.

The growing magnitude of distillation in Ireland led, as before remarked, to the passing of numberless acts of parliament for its regulation. Still, however, the ingenuity of the distillers baffled the provisions of any enactment, by which the trade was governed, and

Pharmacologia of Dr. Paris, vol. i. p. 142.

« السابقةمتابعة »