Gröning undertook this investigation in order to employ the thermometer as an alcoholmeter in the distillation of spirits; for which purpose he thrust the bulb of the thermometer through a cork, inserted into a tube fixed in the capital of the still. The state of the barometer ought also to be considered in making comparative experiments of this kind. Since, by this method, the alcoholic content may be compared with the temperature of the vapour that passes over at any time, so, also, the contents of the whole distillation may be found approximately; and the method serves as a convenient means of making continual observations on the progress of the distillation.
The temperature, corresponding to a certain per centage of alcohol in vapour, suggests the employment of a convenient method for obtaining, at one process, a spirit as free from water as it can be made by mere distillation. We place over the top of the capital a water-bath, and lead up through it a spiral pipe from the still, which there passes obliquely downwards, and proceeds to the refrigeratory. If this bath be maintained, by a constant influx of cold water, at a certain temperature, only the alcoholic vapour corresponding to that temperature will pass over, and the rest will be recondensed and returned into the still. If we keep the temperature of the water at 174°, for example, the spirituous vapour which passes over will contain 90 per cent. of absolute alcohol, according to the preceding table. The skilful use of this principle constitutes the main improvement in modern distilleries. See [Distillation] and [Still].
Another method for concentrating alcohol is that discovered by Sömmering, founded upon the property of ox bladders to allow water to pass through and evaporate out of them, but not to permit alcohol to transpire, or only in a slight degree. Hence, if an ox’s bladder is filled with spirit of wine, well tied at the mouth, and suspended in a warm place, the water will continually exhale, and the alcohol will become nearly anhydrous; for in this way alcohol of 97 or 98 per cent. may be obtained.
According to Sömmering, we should take for this purpose the bladder of an ox or a calf, soak it for some time in water, then inflate it and free it from the fat and the attached vessels; which is to be also done to the other surface, by turning it inside out. After it is again inflated and dried, we must smear over the outer side twice, and the inner side four times, with a solution of isinglass, by which its texture is made closer, and the concentration of the alcohol goes on better. A bladder so prepared may serve more than a hundred times. It must be charged with the spirits to be concentrated, leaving a small space vacant, it is then to be tightly bound at the mouth, and suspended in a warm situation, at a temperature of 122° Fahr., over a sand-bath, or in the neighbourhood of an oven. The surface of the bladder remains moist with the water, as long as the sp. gr. of the contained spirit is greater than 0·952. Weak spirit loses its water quicker than strong; but in from 6 to 12 hours the alcohol may be concentrated, when a suitable heat is employed. This economical method is particularly applicable in obtaining alcohol for the preparation of varnishes. When the alcohol is to serve for other purposes, it must be freed, by distillation, from certain matters dissolved out of the bladder. Alcohol may likewise be strengthened, as Sömmering has ascertained when the vessel that contains the spirit is bound over with a bladder which does not come into contact with the liquid. Thus, too, all other liquors containing alcohol and water, as wine, cider, &c., may be made more spirituous.
To procure absolute alcohol, we must take chloride of calcium recently fused, reduce it to coarse powder, and mix it with its own weight of spirit of wine, of sp. gr. 0·833, in a bottle, which is to be well stoppered, and to be agitated till the salt is dissolved. The clear solution is to be poured into a retort, and half of the volume of the alcohol employed, or so much as has the sp. gr. 0·791 at 68° Fahr., is to be distilled off at a gentle heat. Quicklime has also been employed for the same purpose, but it is less powerful and convenient. Alcohol, nearly free from water, may be obtained without distillation, by adding dry carbonate of potash to a spirit of wine, of sp. gr. 0·825. The water combines with the potash, and falls to the bottom in a dense liquid, while the pure spirit floats on the surface. This contains however a little alkali, which can only be separated by distillation.
Anhydrous alcohol is composed by weight of 52·66 carbon, 12·90 hydrogen, and 34·44 of oxygen. It has a very powerful attraction for water, and absorbs it from the atmosphere; therefore it must be kept in well-closed vessels. It also robs vegetable and animal bodies of their moisture; and hence common alcohol is employed for preserving anatomical preparations. Alcohol is a solvent for many substances: resins, essential oils, camphor, are abundantly dissolved by it, forming varnishes, perfumed spirits, &c. The solution of a resin or essential oil in alcohol becomes milky on the addition of water, which, by its attraction for alcohol, separates these substances. Several salts, especially the deliquescent, are dissolved by it, and some of them give a colour to its flame; thus, the solutions of the salts of strontia in alcohol burn with a crimson flame, those of copper and borax green, lime reddish, and baryta yellow.
When water is mixed with alcohol, heat and a condensation of volume are the result; these effects being greatest with 54 per cent. of alcohol and 46 of water, and thence decreasing with a greater proportion of water. For alcohol which contains 90 per cent. of water, this condensation amounts to 1·94 per cent. of the volume; for 80 per cent., 2·87; for 70 per cent., 3·44; for 60 per cent., 3·73; for 40 per cent., 3·44; for 30 per cent., 2·72; for 20 per cent., 1·72; for 10 per cent., 0·72. Hence, to estimate the quantity of alcohol in any spirit it is necessary that the specific gravity be ascertained for each determinate proportion of alcohol and water that are mixed together. When this is done, we may, by means of an areometer constructed for liquids lighter than water, determine the strength of the spirit, either by a scale of specific gravities or by an arbitrary graduation corresponding to certain commercial objects, and thus we may determine the per centage of alcohol in whisky or brandy of any strength or purity. An areometer intended for this use has been called an alcoholmeter, in particular when the scale of it is so graduated that, instead of the specific gravity, it indicates immediately the per centage of anhydrous alcohol in a given weight or volume of the liquid. The scale graduated according to the per centage of pure alcohol by weight, constitutes the alcoholmeter of Richter; and that by the per centage in volume, the alcoholmeter of Tralles and Gay Lussac.
As liquors are sold in general by the measure, not by the weight, it is convenient, therefore, to know the alcoholic content of the mixtures in the per centage by volume. Tralles has constructed new tables upon the principles of those of Gilpin, in which the proportion is given by volume, and anhydrous alcohol is assumed for the basis; which, at 60° Fahr., has a specific gravity of 0·7939 compared with water at its maximum density, or a specific gravity 0·7946 compared with water of the temperature of 60° Fahr. Gilpin’s alcohol of 0·825 contains 92·6 per cent. by volume of anhydrous alcohol.
The following table exhibits the per centage of anhydrous alcohol by volume, at a temperature of 60° Fahr., in correspondence with the specific gravities of the spirits, water being considered at 60° Fahr. to have a specific gravity of 0·9991.