1868 The complete Practical Distiller

49

CONTINUOUS DISTILLATION.

The still here represented is made of metal, as usual, but having one internal division a a) this forms the still into two compartments; these are both charged with wash, or other liquid intended for distillation. The still being heated by the furnace below, the vapour from the lower compartment will be driven through the tube 5, and descend by the bent pipes c c into the wash of the upper compartment, or from the tube J, without the bent pipe ; the vapour may be dispersed above the surface of the liquor within the still, by the intervention of a plate placed over the tube 6, by a pipe dy up to the vessel of water, and descend again by the pipe e into the upper compartment of the still ; by which means a partial con- densation will have been effected of the grosser vapours which have arisen from the lower compartments, and the higher or uncondensed vapour will pass off through the perpendicular pipe / to the condensing apparatus. A small pipe (/, with a stopcock, is inserted into the tube 6, and carried through the vessel of water, by which a small quantity of the vapour from the lower part of the still may be admitted into the glass vessel A, for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of the vapour. When the spirit is out of the lower compartment of the still, and the upper compartment reduced to the gravity intended, the spent liquor below is to be drawn off through the cock i ; after which the valve k may be opened, to admit the liquor from the upper to the lower part of the still; and the succeeding charge is drawn from the cistern I, through the pipe m, to the upper part of the still. The condensing apparatus consists of two cisterns, placed one within the other; the inner one I