185 / 230
INSTRUMENT
FOR
TESTING
WINES.
185
The
point
most
embarrassing
was
the
refrigeration,
or
cooling,
necessary
to
condense
the
vapours.
The
common
mode
required
a
vessel
larger
than
the
whole
of
the
new
intended
apparatus
;
in
this,
only
a
little
water
was
want-
ing.
However,
this
difficulty
being
got
over,
it
was
found
practicable,
with
a
small
lamp,
to
obtain
a
sufficient
quantity
of
brandy
in
the
course
of half
an
hour.
A
glass
vessel
which
served
as
a
recipient,
by
a
very
simple
operation,
was
filled
with
a
mixture
in
arithmetical
proportion
with
the
difi'erent
wines
contained
in
a
number
of
tuns
of
various
capacities.
This
instrument,
which
would
admit
of
the
distillation
of
even
a
glass
of
wine,
and
afford
the
product
in
half
an
hour,
was
found
to
be
such
that
it
might
be
repeated
at
pleasure
many
times
in
a
day.
It
was
observed
that
peo-
ple
who
had
orange-trees,
and
who
could
only
collect
a
few
of
the
flowers,
had
now
an
opportunity
of
amusing
themselves
in
drawing
distilled
waters.
They
had
nothing
more
to
do
than
to
put
the
water
into
the
little
alembic,
and
then
to
lay
the
flowers
upon
the
two
gratings,
across
which
the
water
was
to
pass
in
a
vapour
in
order
to
be
condensed
in
the
receiver.
People
might
also
make
similar
experiments
in
distil-
ling
rose
water,
mint,
peppermint,
&c.
At
the
same
time
it
was
observed
that a
great
number
of
exotic
vege-
tables
cultivated
in
green-houses
contained
volatile
oils
and
aromatic
qualities
scarcely
known
till
a
short
time
since,
because
their
leaves,
flowers,
seeds,
roots,
and
barks
were
too
small
to
be
distilled
in
the
ordinary
manner
but,
with
this
little
alembic
for
the
trial
of
wines,
re-
peated
distillations
might
be
made
at
the
difi'erent
epochs
16*