duced is generally rather over than under the quantity estimated from the wash; but that the estimate is a very near approximation as a general average. If the spirit in the receiver is over-proof,' an increased rate of duty is not charged, but the spirit is hypothetically increased in quantity to the requisite dilution, and then the duty applied. Suppose, for example, there is one hundred gallons of spirit 25° over-proof; this implies that if twenty-five gallons of water were added the mixture would be at proof; the distiller is thereupon charged duty on one hundred and twenty-five gallons of proof-spirit.

From the spirit-receiver, the spirit passes to the store-warehouse, a long building situated in the western part of the distillery. Here are ranged seven or eight large store-vats, numbered (as most of the vessels are required by law to be in a distillery) and inscribed with their liquid capacity. This store-room is provided with the requisite conveniences for filling casks from the store-vats, and for despatching them from the distillery. As spirit does not, like beer, improve by being kept in store for a considerable period, there is no necessity for that vast array of vats which forms such an object of wonder at the great porter-breweries; and as spirit is, bulk for bulk, twelve or fifteen times dearer than porter, a small establishment of barrels, waggons, horses, &c. will be adequate for the business of a large distillery.

RECTIFYING AND COMPOUNDING.

Let us now recapitulate the steps through which we have traced the production of spirit. In the first place the grain-consisting of any of the usual varieties, and either raw or malted-is crushed or ground, as a means of allowing hot water to act more readily on the farinaceous ingredient. In the next place this grain is mashed with water till a heavy liquid called 'worts' is extracted. Then the 'worts' are fermented, by which the saccharine principle is converted into alcohol; and lastly, this alcohol is, by repeated distillations, separated from the greater portion of the water with which it had been combined. The result is called 'plain British spirits.' But we have not yet done with it; we have yet to trace it through the hands of another manufacturer.

The liquid so highly valued in science as 'spirit of wine,' the various forms of spirituous liquors known as hollands, whiskey, gin, British brandy, &c., and the cordials known as peppermint, cloves, aniseed,

&c., are produced by the Rectifier from plain spirit purchased by him from the Distiller. This is a distinction which we have not hitherto had an opportunity of explaining. As a means of preventing any surreptitious proceedings in respect of duty, the excise laws prohibit the carrying on of two distilleries, or one distillery and a rectifying establishment, within a quarter of a mile of each other. They also limit the quantity of spirit which the distiller may sell to a minimum of eighty gallons at one time, with which must be given a 'permit.' As a general rule we may state that British spirit (we exclude mention of Scotch and Irish whiskey, as, although plain malt-spirit, they are regulated by clauses in the act applying specially to them) is but little known in the form in which it leaves the distillery, since it receives from the hands of the rectifier the peculiar properties by which it is rendered familiar. The person's name often attached to spirituous liquors, as a guarantee for the quality, is the name not of the distiller, but of the rectifier. There are only six distilleries in the vicinity of London, and, we believe, no more than nine in the whole of England; all the other establishments called by that name, being places where the spirit, made from the malt or grain by the distiller, is redistilled, ' rectified' or purified, and compounded with various vegetable substances to impart flavour.

Among the rectifying distilleries in the metropolis we have availed ourselves of permission to visit that of Messrs. Stephen Child and Son, in Trinity Street, Southwark, a peculiarly elegant and scientific establishment, in which the resources of modern science are brought to bear on the particular branch of manufacture with much tact and discrimination. This distillery has been recently erected on a plot of ground belonging, we believe, to the Trinity House; and in virtue of a stipulation that the building should be an architectural ornament to the spot, the exterior has been made one of the most highly decorated in that part of the metropolis: indeed its façade would bear comparison with most of the West-end club-houses.

This distillery consists of a square court-yard surrounded by buildings. The eastern, western, and southern sides comprise various offices and buildings of a subsidiary character, such as warehouses, waggonsheds, stables, harness-rooms, &c.; while the northern side comprises the building in which all the operations of the distillery are carried on. This latter is surmounted by an ornamental chimney, which is likely long to retain its cleanly appearance, for nearly all the smoke

produced by the furnaces is consumed; a principle, the further adoption of which in our manufactories would be a step of incalculable benefit. We shall best describe the arrangement of the various parts of the building by tracing the progress of the spirit through them.

The raw spirit is sold by the distiller to the rectifier in two different strengths, viz. 25° over-proof, and 11° over-proof, both of which are rigorously fixed by the legislature. The spirit is brought to the rectifier in casks belonging to the distiller, with an excise permit; and an officer visits the rectifying distillery to see that all the spirits received there have paid duty: beyond this point the excise laws do not control the rectifier, except in one or two minor points. Supposing a cask of raw spirits to be conveyed to Messrs. Child's establishment, it is hoisted into a large square room called the warehouse, lined on two sides with rows of store-vats, and opening into the still-room. The cask is rolled upon a weighing-machine, which is connected to a very ingeniously constructed steelyard, whereby the weight of the spirit and cask is determined. The empty cask being afterwards weighed, affords the means of determining the exact weight of the spirit; after which a reference to a thermometer and to a printed table shows the exact number of gallons of spirit. The weighing-machine being level with, and indeed forming part of the floor, and the steelyard being portable, the necessity for heavy scales is wholly obviated.

When the full cask has been weighed, it is rolled over an opened trap-door in the floor, the bung is removed, an air-vent is opened, and the spirit flows out into a store-vat placed in the room beneath for its reception. This trap-door is provided with means for saving any alcoholic vapour which may rise from the spirit beneath. We next proceed to the underground vaults, where we see a range of store-vats for the reception of raw spirit, preparatory to the rectifying processes; and from thence we trace the spirit, by means of pipes, to the stillroom, an apartment small in dimensions, but full of scientific appliOn one side of this room we see a large iron tank, about thirty feet long and ten high: this is divided into four compartments, and serves as a worm-tank for containing the cold water with which the

ances.

* A society, having for its object the furtherance of Metropolitan improvements, is at the present time laudably engaged in impressing this most important subject on the attention of manufacturers; and, it is to be hoped, with a prospect of ultimate success.

spirit is condensed. Immediately in front of this is a range of four stills, one for gin, one for spirit of wine, one for British brandy and British rum, and one for cordials. These stills are not heated by open fires, but by steam; a layer or thin stratum of steam being allowed to act on the lower half of each still, something on the principle of a sugar-boiler. The steam for this purpose is generated in two large cylindrical boilers, heated by smoke-consuming furnaces in which Merthyr Tydvil coals are burned, the steam-pipes being covered with non-conducting substances to prevent the loss of heat.

Supposing the spirit is to be converted into gin, one of the stills is seven-tenths filled from the store-vats, and steam is admitted to act on the still. The contents ascend in vapour, which is afterwards condensed in the worm-tanks. This distillation is the rectifying of the spirit, by which a certain portion of essential oil is removed from it. Then ensues the compounding, which is a re-distillation with certain herbs, berries, and seeds, in order to impart the particular flavour whereby the liquid is known. Whatever may be the strength of the spirit when it comes into the hands of the rectifier, he reduces it, when in the form of gin, to a strength not greater than 17° underproof.

If spirit of wine is to be made, the crude spirit is pumped into a still whose upper part consists of a vertical cylinder, containing a large number of pipes. The vapour ascending these pipes, and the pipes being surrounded by water at about 180°, the arrangement effects (on the principle we have before explained) so extensive a separation between the alcoholic and aqueous vapour, that spirit can be obtained as high as 62° over-proof. It must, by law, be as strong as 43° over-proof; but the saleable strengths are from about 54° to 60o.

If British brandy, British rum, or cordials are to be made, the spirit is redistilled with various vegetable substances calculated to impart the requisite flavour. By an ingenious arrangement, patented, we believe, by Messrs. Pontifex, the alcoholic vapour, instead of condensing in the worm-tank, passes into a flavouring-vessel containing the ingredients, so as to imbibe the qualities of those ingredients while condensing: it is again converted into vapour, and then passes through the worm-tank, to be finally condensed in the usual way.

All the various liquors, as condensed in the worm, are conducted by pipes into store-vats contained in a different part of the building; but in their way thither they pass through hollow vessels

:

called safes,' similar in object and in principle to those employed at Messrs. Smith's, but differing in construction. In the still-room is also kept a powerful hydraulic press, capable of exerting a pressure of a hundred and fifty tons: this is employed for pressing some of the fruits used in the preparation of cordials, such as raspberry and cherrybrandy. In the upper part of the building is a store-room for the cinnamon, peppermint, cloves, aniseed, juniper-berries, and various berries, seeds, and fruits used in the preparation of cordials, and in flavouring the various kinds of spirit, together with the requisite apparatus for preparing them for the still.

In every part of this establishment the arrangements for the economising of heat are very complete. We have said that the furnaces consume nearly all their own smoke. This is effected by supplying fuel in such a manner, that the smoke from the new coal must pass over highly heated fuel before it can reach the chimney, whereby nearly all the carbon is brought into profitable employment. The stills, too, are not only heated by steam, brought from boilers in pipes covered with non-conducting substances, but the heat of this steam when condensed is even saved. A small apparatus called a 'condensing-box' is placed in the still-room for this purpose, and acts as follows:-As fast as the steam, admitted into a hollow jacket round the bottom of each still, becomes condensed into water by the lower temperature of surrounding bodies, this hot water flows into a cylindrical cavity in which a heavy circular stone moves up and down. This stone is exactly balanced by a weight at the other end of a lever, so that a small power suffices to move the stone. The hot water, filling the space beneath the stone, gradually raises it, and in so doing acts upon a catch which opens a valve, and allows all the water to descend into the boiler in the room beneath. Thus all the heat contained in the condensed steam is effectually preserved.

The boilers, steam-engines, and pumps, employed in the various operations of the establishment, are all of the most modern forms, and are arranged with singular economy of space, each being placed within a very few feet of the spot where its power is to be practically applied.