1445. To Free Alcohol from Fusel Oil

1445.    To Free Alcohol from Fusel Oil. This may be effected by digesting the alcohol with charcoal. By Schaeff'er's method the alcohol is filtered through alternate layers of sand, wood-charcoal, boiled wheat, and broken oyster shells; this removes all other impurities as well. The fusel oil can be extracted from small quantities of alcohol, by adding a few drops of olive oil to the spirit, agitating thoroughly in a bottle, and, after settling, decanting. The olive oil dissolves and retains the fusel oil.

1446. To Deodorise Whiskey or Alcohol and free it from Fusel Oil

1446.    To Deodorise Whiskey or Alcohol and free it from Fusel Oil. To the barrel of liquor add about a gallon (or more) of water saturated with chlorine; stir up thoroughly, and let it rest for 12 hours. Then saturate with chalk; add another gallon of water, and distill.

1447. To Filter Alcohol

1447.   To Filter Alcohol. The following method of filtering alcohol, or its solutions, is said to be very satisfactory, and is used extensively in North Germany, where it constitutes one of the secrets of the trade. Clean, unsized paper (Swedish filtering paper is the best), is torn into shreds and stirred into the liquid to be clarified. The whole is then strained through a flannel bag, when the resulting liquid will be found to possess the utmost clearness and limpidity. A filter may also be made by spreading thin paper pulp evenly upon stretched flannel or woolen cloth. When dry, the cloth so coated will be found to give better results than the felts, etc., commonly employed as filters. (See Nos. 714 (To Make a Filter for Filtering Wines) and 811.)

1448. To Test the Strength of Alcohol

1448.    To Test the Strength of Alcohol. Alcohol dissolves chloroform, so that when a mixture of alcohol and water is shaken up with chloroform, the alcohol and chloroform unite, leaving the water separate. On this fact Basile Rakowitsch, of the Imperial Russian Navy, has founded his invention. The instrument he uses is a graduated glass tube into which a measured quantity of chloroform is poured, and to this is added a given quantity of the liquid to be tested;

these are well mixed together and then left to subside; the chloroform takes up the alcohol and leaves the water, which, being lighter than the chloroform, will float on the top; and the quantity of water that has been mixed with the spirit will be at once seen.

1449. Arithmetical Rules for the Treatment of Alcohol

1449.      Arithmetical Rules for the Treatment of Alcohol. The following excellent rules, derived from various sources, contain, and will yield to the manufacturer, much information of a very useful character.

1450. To Ascertain the Cost of any Quantity of Alcohol

1450.    To Ascertain the Cost of any Quantity of Alcohol at any Degree or Percentage of Strength Above or Below Proof. Alcohol is always bought and sold at so much above or below proof. To ascertain the price of a quantity of alcohol, add the percentage over proof, or deduct the percentage under proof, and multiply by the price per gallon. Thus: what will 40 gallons of alcohol, 25 per cent, over proof, cost at 28 cents proof? We first find 25 per cent, of 40, which is 10; we then add that number to 40, the number of gallons, and we get 50; we then multiply 50 by 28, the price per gallon proof, and get $14.00, or 35 cents per gallon. Again, what will 40 gallons alcohol, 25 per cent under proof, cost, at 28 cents per gallon proof? Again, we find that 25 per cent, of 40 is 10; we then deduct 10 from 40, this leaves us 30; by multiplying 30 by 28 we get $8.40, or 21 cents per gallon.