1860 A Treatise on the Manufacture , Imitation, Adulteration and Reduction of Foreign Wines, Brandies, .

170

· DISTILLATION.

verized charcoal, distributed through a series of cylindrical casks, placed so that the liquor may run evenly through the charcoar and other material, care having been taken in properly mixing the raw iohislcey and water; otherwise the water would pass through first, from the fact of the high wines containing such a quantity of oil as to render them much lighter than the water, :vhich, unless thoroughly 1nixed, would remain on top. Any number of casks rnay be used; each one must have a double bottom, the false one being perforated with conical or round holes about one-half inch in diameter, and placed_ a few inches above the true. Upon this perfo– rated bottom, a layer of clean chopped straw, or cleanly carded cotton, or a ·woolen blanket is laid, and over the straw, woolen blanket, or cotton, a stratum of clean gravel, the size of large peas; on the gravel place six inches of coal, then one-half peck of barley malt, then fill up to within one and a half feet of the top, ,,.