The works of the highly experienced and famous chymist, John Rudolph Glauber

by Johann Rudolf Glauber

A True and Perfect Description of Extracting good TARTAR from the LEES of WINE, &c.

First of all, we must know what Dregs are, or what is their Essence and Nature, how they are resolv’d into Parts, and the Good separated from the Unuseful, because without the knowledge of the thing we can’t give a right judgment of it, but must erre: Therefore it is necessary that we know what we have in our hands, that we may the safer handle it. For this cause I shall shew the Ignorant what are properly Dregs, and which way the better part may be extracted, that hereafter so great a Good may not by ignorant sluggishness be laid aside, but converted to the profit of all.

All thick matter, whether it be of Wine, Beer, Vinegar, or the like, when it has stood a little, sends the earthy, heavy, and more thick part of it, to the bottom, which we call Dregs or Lees, upon which the clearer part flows, to be separated from the impurity, as in the making of common drinks may be seen.

There was no use of these Dregs heretofore, except the making Brandy with ’em, and the rest to be thrown out of doors, in which was much Virtue, which Men did not think of: But that all things are not unprofitable which the Vulgar pronounce so, and that there may be great Virtue in ordinary Matter, I shall demonstrate by this Excrement of Wine.

When the Juice out of the Winepress is put into Hogsheads, that there working, the dregs falling to the bottom, the clean Wine may come out, the superfluous Salt of new Wine, while it is squeez’d out of the Grapes, with the same labour is separated, part sticking to the sides of the Vessel, which we call Tartar; but the greater part of this Salt or Tartar, imply’d in the turbid dregs like Sand, sinks to the bottom. Besides, this is the property of Salts, that by a hot humour they make a thin water, the humour growing cold, not being able to keep all the dissolv’d Salt that is compell’d to separate, which excluded the Vehicle, seeks a new place. If you put into the Solutions Sticks or Strings, that Crystalline Salt, in a cubical or angular figure agreeable to its nature, will stick to them; or otherwise it cleaves to the sides of the Vessel.

’Tis beyond all Controversie, that the Grape above all Vegetables has much Salt, not sensible, unless it is fermented with a minute heat, which working by Nature, endeavours a separation, while the purer and more liquid part retains so much Salt as the Wine has need of, the thicker Salt being exturbated, part of which incrustates the sides of the Vessel, part of much thickness sticks, and subsiding with them, gets the appellation of dregs, from which the vulgar are wont to destil a Spirit or Brandy Wine: But these dregs are not a useless matter, as they have been hitherto thought, for much Tartar may be extracted out of ’em with little cost.

But he that shall search more narrowly into the thing, will find a way whereby poor and decaying Wine may be made good.

In some places, as suppose in Franconia, Alsatia, Austria, and the Rhenish Tract, most fruitful for store of wine, these lees of wine are made nothing of, but are given to Swine and other Cattel to drink, by which means the Tartar in it so purges ’em, that they are soon fat; they seldom try to draw the spirit thence. Otherwhere, where wine is not made, especially where they fetch their wine a great way, they are much esteemed of, not only because wine may be drawn from ’em, but also put in small Hempen sacks, are pressed in adapted Presses, a good mixt wine flowing thence saleable to others; yet this being but a small wine, many have destinated it for Vinegar, to which it best agrees; but he that knows how to restore to it what it lost in pressing, may make a palatable strong wine, not inferiour to what it was at first: But this Secret belongs to another place, I shall here only treat of Vinegar and Spirit of Wine.

In Holland, France, Italy, this pressing of the dregs and preparation of Vinegar is of frequent use, and very profitable to many, who get nothing but what they squeeze out of the dregs they have of the Vintners, and convert the Wine into Vinegar; the residue of the dregs they put into Barrels, and sell it to Hatters, which being boil’d in water, they thicken rough Hats with it; for Wool is brought into a little compass by hot water, and by how much the hotter that is, the Hats are made the thicker by it: For since it is the nature of Tartar to make the water wherein ’tis diluted hotter than fire, and since there is much Tartar in the dregs, by virtue of which, water acquires a more intense degree of heat, which the ignorant Hatters ascribe to the limosity of dregs, rather to be attributed to the inherent Tartar, hence they put so much dregs in every pot as they know to be needful to the constipation of the wool.

And this is the use to which prest Lees are put, but if they have a greater quantity than the Hatters use, sometimes they are corrupted, part turns to Worms, and afterward to a most stinking dirt fit for nothing. When they sell them to the Hatters, then the Vinegar made of the wine prest out of them, which cost them little, brings ’em great profit, otherwise they would not gain much by their own Art, if they were not eas’d by the Hatters taking the residue.