Research Results For 'Whisky'

ADULTERATION

Adulteration is a term not only applied in its proper sense to the fraudulent mixture of articles of commerce, food, drink, drugs, seeds, etc, with noxious or inferior ingredients, but also by magistrates and analysts to accidental impurity, and even in some cases to actual substitution.

The chief objects of adulteration are to increase the weight or volume of the article, to give a colour which either makes a good article more pleasing to the eye or else disguises an inferior one, to substitute a cheaper form of the article, or the same substance from which the strength has been extracted, or to give it a false strength.

Among the adulterations which were commonly practised around 1905 for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the weight or volume of an article are the following: Bread was adulterated with alum or sulphate of copper, which gives solidity to the gluten of damaged or inferior flour; with chalk or carbonate of soda to correct the acidity of such flour; and with boiled rice or potatoes, which enables the bread to carry more water, and thus to produce a larger number of loaves from a given quantity of flour. Wheat flour is adulterated with other inferior flours, as the flour from rice, bean, Indian-corn, potato, and with sulphate of lime, alum, etc. Milk was usually adulterated with water. The adulterations generally present in butter consisted of an undue proportion of salt and water, lard, tallow, and other fats; when of poor quality it was frequently coloured with a little annatto, and, at times, with the juice of carrots. Genuine butter should not contain less than 80 percent of butter-fat. Cheese was also coloured with annatto and other substances. Tea was adulterated chiefly in China with sand, iron-filings, chalk, gypsum, China clay, exhausted tea leaves, and the leaves of the sycamore, horse-chestnut, and plum, whilst colour and weight were added by black-lead, indigo, Prussian-blue (one of the deleterious ingredients used by the Chinese in converting the lowest qualities of black into green teas), gum, turmeric, soapstone, catechu, and other substances.

Coffee was mingled with chicory, roasted wheat, roasted beans, acorns, mangel-wurzel, rye-flour, and coloured with burned sugar and other materials. Chicory was adulterated with different flours, as rye, wheat, beans, etc, and coloured with ferruginous earths, burned sugar, Venetian red, etc. Cocoa and chocolate were mixed with the cheaper kinds of arrow-root, animal matter, corn, sago, tapioca, etc. Sugar was adulterated to some extent with flour. Tobacco was mixed with sugar and treacle, aloes, liquorice, oil, alum, etc, and such leaves as rhubarb, chicory, cabbage, burdock, coltsfoot, besides excess of salt and water. Snuffs were adulterated with carbonate of ammonia, glass, sand, colouring matter, etc.

Confections were adulterated with flour and sulphate of lime. Preserved vegetables were kept green and poisoned by salts of copper. The acridity of mustard is commonly reduced by flour, and the colour of the compound is improved by turmeric. Pepper was adulterated with linseed-meal, flour, mustard husks, etc. Colour was given to pickles by salts of copper, acetate of copper, etc. Ale was adulterated with common salt, Cocculus Indicus, grains of paradise, quassia, and other bitters, sulphate of iron, alum, etc. Porter and stout were mixed with sugar, treacle, salt, and an excess of water. Brandy was diluted with water, and burned sugar was added to improve the colour; sometimes bad whisky was flavoured and coloured so as to resemble brandy, and sold under its name.

Gin was mixed with excess of water, and flavouring matters of various kinds, with alum and tartar, were added. Rum was diluted with water, and the flavour and colour kept up by the addition of cayenne and burned sugar. For champagne gooseberry and other inferior wines were often substituted. Port was manufactured from red Cape and other inferior wines, the body, flavour, strength, and colour being produced by gum-dragon, the washings of brandy casks, and a preparation of German bilberries. Cheap brown sherry was mixed with Cape and other low-priced brandies, and was flavoured with the washings of brandy casks, sugar-candy, and bitter almonds. Pale sherries were produced by gypsum, by a process called plastering, which removes the natural acids as well as the colour of the wine. Other wines were adulterated with elderberry, logwood, Brazil-wood, cudbear, red beetroot, etc, for colour; with lime or carbonate of lime, carbonate of soda, carbonate of potash, and litharge, to correct acidity; with catechu, sloe-leaves, and oak-bark for astringency; with sulphate of lime and alum for removing colour; with cane-sugar for giving sweetness and body; with alcohol for fortifying; and with ether, especially acetic ether, for giving bouquet and flavour.

Medicines, such as jalap, opium, rhubarb, cinchona bark, scammony, aloes, sarsaparilla, squills, etc, were mixed with various foreign substances. Castor-oil has been adulterated with other oils; and inferior oils were often. mixed with cod-liver oil. Cantharides were often mixed with golden-beetle and also artificially-coloured glass.

The adulteration of seeds was largely practised also, the seed which forms the adulterant being of course of the most worthless kind that can be had. Thus turnip-seed was mixed with rape, wild mustard, or charlock, which are steamed and kiln-dried to destroy their vitality, so as to evade detection in the progress of growth; old and useless turnip-seed was also used fraudulently mixed with fresh seeds. Clover was also much mixed with plantain and mere weeds.

Acts against adulteration have been passed in various countries and at various times. In Britain there was a law against it as early as 1267.
Research Adulteration

DECANTER

A decanter is a vessel, usually an ornamental glass bottle, used for storing and serving spirits such as brandy, whisky, port and gin.
Research Decanter

MORAL AND PHYSICAL THERMOMETER

The Moral and Physical Thermometer was a chart produced by a Dr Lettsom, author of the once popular tract 'The Bad Effects of a Little Drop' and a fervent temperance campaigner. The chart showed a scale of the progression between temperance to intemperance of liquors with their effects in terms of well being or vices, diseases and punishments.

The scale ranged from -70 (gin, brandy, rum, whisky consumed both during the day and night) through to +70 (water) through strong beer (+10), porter (+20), wine (+30) and cider and perry (+40) offering cheerfulness, strength and nourishment when taken only at mealtimes and in moderation.
Research Moral and Physical Thermometer

WHISKEY

A whiskey or whisky was a kind of light, two wheeled, one-horse drawn gig.
Research Whiskey

WHISKY INSURRECTION

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

WHISKY RING

Whisky Ring was the name applied to an American criminal association of revenue officers and distillers, formed in St Louis in 1872 to defraud the Government of the internal revenue tax on distilled liquors. By 1874 it had spread into national proportions. Distillers were often forced to enter the ring or expect ruin in their business. There were branches of the ring at Chicago, Milwaukee, Peoria, Cincinnati and New Orleans, and an agent at Washington to corrupt the Treasury agents. In 1874 about $1,200,000 of taxes were unpaid. In 1875, at the suggestion of Mr. George Fishback, editor of the St Louis Democrat the Secretary of the Treasury appointed Mr. Myron Colony, of the Cotton Exchange, to make a secret investigation of the frauds. Through his efforts indictments were brought against 238 persons, and the Government was shown to have been defrauded of $1,650,000 in ten months. Among those concerned was General Babcock, President Grant's private secretary, and many other Government officials.
Research Whisky Ring

WHITE PHOSPHORUS

White phosphorus (known colloquially as 'Whisky Peter' to US troops) is a chemical which burns producing a thick white smoke. Traditionally white phosphorus is used to lay down smoke screens to hide troop movements and to mark targets for aerial attack. In 2005 it was revealed that the US army also use white phosphoris rounds as anti-personnel incendary rounds. White phosphorus upon contact with flesh sticks firmly to it and quickly burns the flesh through to the bone, and when inhaled burns the throat and lungs from the inside out making it a very effective terror weapon, even more so than napalm. The use of chemical weapons was banned by international law during the 20th century, but the American government continue to use white phosphorus as a chemical weapon, notably during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent siege of Fallujah.
Research White Phosphorus

ALCOHOL

Alcohol, or ethyl alcohol,( CaHgO), is the intoxicating part of all liquids that have undergone vinous fermentation, may be extracted by distillation, and is a limpid colourless liquid, with an agreeable smell and a strong pungent taste. When brandy, whisky, and other spirituous liquors, themselves distilled from cruder materials, are redistilled, highly volatile alcohol is the first product to pass off. The alcohol thus obtained contains much extraneous matter, including water, from the first as much as 20 or 25 percent, and increasing greatly as the process continues. Charcoal and carbonate of soda put in the brandy or other liquor, partly retain the fusel-oil and acetic acid it contains. The product thus obtained by distillation is called rectified spirits or spirits of wine, and contains from 55 to 85 percent of alcohol, the rest being water. By distilling rectified spirits over carbonate of potassium, powdered quicklime, or chloride of calcium, the greater part of the water is retained, and nearly pure alcohol passes over. It is only, however, by repeated digestion with desiccating agents and subsequent distillation that the last traces of water can be removed.

The specific gravity of alcohol varies with its purity, decreasing as the quantity of water it contains decreases. This property is a convenient test of the alcoholic strength of liquors that contain only alcohol and water; but on account of the condensation that invariably takes place on the mixture of these two liquids, it can be applied only in connection with special tables of reference, or by means of an instrument specially adapted for the purpose (known as an alcoholometer.) By simple distillation the specific gravity of alcohol can scarcely be reduced below .825 at 60 degrees Fahrenheit; by rectification over chloride of calcium it may be reduced to .794; as it usually occurs it is about .820. Alcohol is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in the proportions expressed by the formula CaHgO. Under a barometric pressure of 29.5 inches it boils at 173 degrees Fahrenheit or 78.4 degrees Centigrade; in the exhausted receiver of an air-pump it boils at ordinary temperatures. The freezing of alcohol is effected only at the very low temperature of -203 degrees Fahrenheit. Its very low freezing-point renders it valuable for use in thermometers suited for very low temperatures.

Alcohol vapour is extremely inflammable, and burns with a pale-blue flame, scarcely visible in bright daylight. It occasions no carbonaceous deposit upon substances held over it, and the products of its combustion are carbon dioxide and water. The steady and uniform heat which it produces during combustion makes it a valuable material for lamps. It dissolves the vegetable acids, the volatile oils, the resins, extractive matters, and many of the soaps; the greater number of the fixed oils are taken up by it in small quantities only, but some are dissolved largely. When alcohol is submitted to distillation with certain acids a peculiar compound is formed, called ether. It is alcohol which gives all intoxicating liquors the property whence they are so called. Alcohol acts strongly on the nervous system, and though in small doses it is stimulating and exhilarating, in large doses it acts as a poison. In medicine it is often of great service.

The name alcohol is also applied in chemistry to a large group of compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, whose chemical properties are analogous to those of common or ethylic alcohol.
Research Alcohol

DISTILLATION

Distillation is the volatilization and subsequent condensation of a liquid in an apparatus known as a still and heated by a fire or flame. The operation is performed by heating the crude liquid or mixture in a retort or vessel known as the body of the still. This is made of various shapes and materials, and is closed with the exception of a slender neck which opens into the condenser, a long tube through which the hot vapour from the still is passed. The tube is kept at a sufficiently low temperature to cause the vapour to condense, the common method of securing this being to surround the tube with a constantly renewed stream of cold water. In some cases ice or a freezing mixture may be required to effect condensation. On a large scale the condensing tube is coiled round and round in a tub or box, and is known as a worm. From the end of it the vapour condensed into a liquid drops into a receiver.

The simplest case of distillation is that of water containing solid matter in solution, the solid matter remaining behind in the still or retort while the water trickles pure into the receiver, through a worm made of block-tin, as most other metals are attacked by distilled water.

When the mixture to be distilled consists of two or more liquids of different boiling-points, such as alcohol and water, the more volatile comes off first, accompanied by a certain proportion of the vapour of the other, so that it is hardly possible completely to separate bodies by one distillation. This is effected by repeated successive distillations of the liquid with or without the addition of substances to retain the impurities. When the production of one of the ingredients only is aimed at by this process, it is called rectification, but when it is desired to separate and collect all the liquids present, or to divide a mixture into portions lying within certain ranges of temperature ascertained either by the thermometer or by the amount of liquor run off, or by the appearance of the distillate, etc, the process is called fractional distillation.

In the laboratory, distillation is employed for purifying water, for recovering alcohol and ether, for the preparation, purification, and separation of a great number of bodies. On the large scale distillation is employed in the preparation of potassium, sodium, zinc, mercury; of sulphuric acid, ether, chloroform, sulphide and chloride of carbon, essential oils and perfumes; purification of coal and wood tar, and the products obtained from them; and on an extensive scale in the manufacture of whisky, brandy, or other spirit.

The distillation of whisky has long been familiar in Britain, especially in Scotland and Ireland, and by the old pot-still is a simple operation indeed, and one that even yet is practised surreptitiously in out-of-the-way localities. On the large scale more elaborate apparatus are employed, and for alcohol of a cheap class Coffey's or other patent still is much used. Copper is the metal that suits best as the material for the stills used in distilling whisky. Sea-water is distilled in many cases for drinking or cooking purposes. This water is, of course, very pure, but its taste is rather mawkish.

Destructive distillation, or dry distillation, differs from the preceding in this respect, that the original substance is not merely separated into the bodies by the mixture of which it is formed, but is so acted on that it is completely decomposed, and bodies are produced which had no existence in the original matter. The term is restricted to the action of heat upon complex organic substances out of contact with the air. The products of destructive distillation are numerous and varied. On the manufacturing scale the process is conducted sometimes for one part, sometimes for another part of the products. Coal, for example, may be distilled primarily for the gas, but also for ammoniacal water, benzene, anthracene, as well as for the sake of the fixed carbon or coke, the volatile portions being too often neglected and practically wasted. But much more economical methods of making coke are now practised than formerly.

Wood is distilled partly for the sake of the pyroligneous acid and the tar, partly for the charcoal. Bones are distilled for the sake of the charcoal, though the oil is also collected. Shale is distilled both for the oil and for the paraffin wax, ammonia, etc, obtained.
Research Distillation

EXCISE

Excise is a tax on the production of goods. It was first levied in Britain in 1643 on wines, beers, tobacco etc. to raise funds to support the army against Charles I.
In the USA the first excise law was passed after an excited debate in 1790, Secretary Hamilton insisting upon the necessity of such an enactment. It levied a tax varying from nine to twenty-five cents upon every gallon of liquors distilled in the United States and a higher rate for imported liquors. Lower rates were established in 1792. The opposition was strong throughout the country, culminating in the Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania in 1794.

During Jefferson's administration the excise was abolished, but was revived in 1813 during the War of 1812, imposing a tax on liquor, sugar, salt, carriages, and instruments of exchange, and a stamp duty. In 1817 these duties were repealed and no excise duty was levied until 1862, during the American Civil War. This system embraced taxation upon occupations and trades, sales, gross receipts and dividends, incomes of individuals, firms and corporations, manufactures, legacies, liquors, tobacco, distributive shares and successions.
Research Excise

	The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by Matt and Leela Probert ©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia Southampton, United Kingdom