Eau de Cologne is a perfume said to have been invented by the Italian chemist, Johann Maria Farina, who settled at Cologne in 1709. The original recipe is unknown, though several chemists in Cologne have long claimed to be the sole owners of it. The general principle of Eau de Cologne is alcoholic vegetable extracts, essential oils and rectified spirits. The usual recipe prescribes twelve drops of each of the essential oils, bergamot, citron, neroli, orange and rosemary, with one dram of Malabar cardamoms and a gallon of rectified spirits which are distilled together. Later recipes used highly purified spirits and made further distillation unnecessary. Research Eau de Cologne
The Whisky Insurrection was a revolt in America against the execution of a Federal excise law, which came to a head in western Pennsylvania in August, 1794, and was suppressed the same year. Scarcity of cash in the wild districts of North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania, had made distillation the chief means of support among the mountaineers, whisky being used as a medium of exchange. The excise law was passed on March the 3rd, 1791. During the next three years there were constant protests and insurrectionary mass meetings headed by one Bradford. William Findley, John Smilie and Albert Gallatin were the quieter leaders. Revenue officers were tarred and feathered by Bradford and his followers, and there was a general state of lawless opposition despite the efforts of Findley and Gallatin. In October, 1794, 15,000 militia were ordered out by President George Washington, and under General Henry Lee marched into western Pennsylvania, and the revolt was promptly suppressed. Bradford fled the country, but a number of tlie ringleaders were arrested and imprisoned. The affair was important in the United States as exihibiting the power of the then new Federal Government. Research Whisky Insurrection
The candleberry, candleberey myrtle, waxmyrtle, etc (Myriad cerifera), is a shrub of the natural order Myricaceae, growing from four to eighteen feet high, and common in North America, where candles were made from its drupes or berries, which are about the size of peppercorns, and covered with a greenish-white wax popularly known as Blayberry tallow. The wax was collected by boiling the drupes in water and skimming off the surface. A bushel of berries yields from 4 to 5 lbs. of wax. Another plant belonging to the same genus is the sweet-gale (MyricaGale), which grows abundantly in bogs and marshes in Scotland. It is a small shrub, with leaves somewhat like the myrtle or willow, of a fragrant odour and bittertaste, and yielding an essential oil by distillation. Research Candleberry
The carrot (Daucus Carota) is a biennialvegetable of the family Umbelliferae. It is a native of Britain and Europe and has tripinnate leaves of a feathery appearance. The plant rises to a height of some 60 centimetres and produces white flowers. The root is strong-flavoured and tapering. In the wild carrot the root is white, but in the cultivated variety it is orange in colour. Originally the carrot was cultivated as a food for cattle, it is now widely eaten by people. Carrots contain a large proportion of saccharine matter, and attempts were made in the past to extract sugar from them. They have been also employed in distillation: 10 lbs weight of carrots will yield about half a pint of very strong ardent spirit. Research Carrot
Coconut (formerly Cocoa-nut, or coco-nut), IS a woody fruit of an oval shape, from 7 or 10 to 15 or 20 cm in length, covered with a fibrous husk, and lined internally with a white, firm, and fleshy kernel. The tree (Cocos nucifera) which produces the coconut is a palm, from 12 to 18 metres high. The trunk is straight and naked, and surmounted by a crown of feather-like leaves. The nuts hang from the summit of the tree in clusters of a dozen or more together. The external rind of the nuts has a smooth surface. This encloses an extremely fibrous substance, of considerable thickness, which immediately surrounds the nut. The latter has a thick and hard shell, with three black scars at one end, through one of which the embryo of the future tree pushes its way. This scar may be pierced with a pin; the others are as hard as the rest of the shell. The kernel encloses a considerable quantity of sweet and watery liquid, of a whitish colour, which has the name of milk.
This palm is a native of Africa, the East and West Indies, and South America, and is now grown almost everywhere in tropical countries. Food, clothing, and the means of shelter and protection are all afforded by the coconut tree. The kernels are used as food in various modes of dressing, and yield on pressure an oil which is largely imported into various countries. When dried before the oil is expressed they are known as copra. The fibrous coat of the nut is made into the well-known coconut matting; the coarse yarn obtained from it is called coir, which is also used for cordage. The hard shell of the nut is polished and made into a cup or other domestic utensil. The fronds are wrought into baskets, brooms, mats, sacks, and many other useful articles; the trunks are made into boats or furnish timber for the construction of houses.
By boring the tree a white sweetish liquor called toddy exudes from the wound, and yields by distillation one of the varieties of the spirit called arack. A kind of sugar called jaggery is also obtained from the juice by inspissation. Research Coconut
Fritz Haber was a German chemist. He was born in 1868 and died in 1934. His conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia opened the way for the synthetic fertilizer industry. His study of the combustion of hydrocarbons led to the commercial cracking or fractional distillation of natural oil (petroleum) into its components (for example, diesel, gasoline, and paraffin) . In electrochemistry, he was the first to demonstrate that oxidation and reduction take place at the electrodes; from this he developed a general electrochemical theory. At the outbreak of war, the German Army asked the Institute to investigate substitutes for explosive in shells, and poison gas was suggested. Haber, after watching early trials with gas shells, proposed releasing gas from cylinders. He became one of the principals in the German chemical warfare effort, devising weapons and gas masks, leading to protests against his Nobel Prize, awarded in 1918. Research Fritz Haber
Geber was an Arabian chemist or alchemist, often designated the father of chemistry. He lived during the 8th century. He was acquainted with nearly all the chemical processes in use down to the 18th century. His writings describe various kinds of furnaces and other apparatus, and cupellation, distillation, and other chemical processes; the purification, composition, and properties of the metals then known - gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, and iron, and the functions of mercury, sulphur, and arsenic. He is the reputed author of an immense number of works, as well on metaphysics, language, astronomy, etc, as on chemistry. Research Geber
Chinoline is an oily liquid obtained by distilling quinine with potash and a little water, or by the dry distillation of coal. It was formerly used in medicine as an antiseptic, and was especially effective when applied to the membranes of diphtheria, being also a remedy in intermittent fevers, etc. Research Chinoline
Dippel's Oil is the rectified form of the black fetid oil, containing ammonic carbonate, which can be obtained by the destructive distillation of animal matter, such as stag's-horn, ivory, or blood. The cruder form was used in medicine, despite its appearance and odour, until Johann Dippel refined it. His oil was formerly prescribed as an anti-spasmodic and diaphoretic, and as a hypnotic. Research Dippel's Oil
In pharmacy, hartshorn was the horn of the common stag, from which substances deemed of high medical value were formerly prepared by distillation, such as spirits of hartshorn, oil of hartshorn, and salt of hartshorn. The active ingredient of these was ammonia, which was later obtained from gas-liquor and other sources. Research Hartshorn
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Eau de Cologne
