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Vinegar

It is imitated by adding acetic ether and coloring | sure; fill quickly to the mark with boiling water, matter to vinegar made from whiskey.

Cider Vinegar (which includes all fruit vinegars) contains malic acid. Malt, or Corn Vinegar, made from weak worts, contains phosphates of lime and magnesia, gum, and extractive matter.

Wood Vinegar, or pyroligneous acid, when crude, contains tar and wood spirit.

Adulterations of Vinegar.

Sulphuric, nitric and muriatic acids, are used to give a false strength; burned sugar and acetic ether to give color and flavor. The latter cannot be considered as injurious. One one-thousandth of mineral acid is allowable, and tends to preserve the vinegar. This would be about four measured ounces to the barrel, or two to the ordinary halfbarrel. Sulphuric acid is detected by boiling with chloride of calcium; baryta is not admissible as a test for sulphuric acid in vinegar.

Muriatic acid gives a white, curdy precipitate, with a solution of nitrate of silver. This precipitate is soluble in ammonia, and blackens on exposure to light. Nitric acid is detected by adding muriatic acid.

If the solution will dissolve gold leaf, nitric acid is present.

To Strengthen Vinegar.

Freeze it and remove the ice which forms on the surface. The water of the vinegar alone freezes, leaving the acetic acid in solution in the remaining water. To Determine the Strength of Vinegar.

The hydrometer (see SPECIFIC GRAVITY) is not to be much relied on in testing the strength of vinegar. The simplest test is to take a fragment of fine marble, weigh it and suspend it by a thread in a known measure of vinegar until all action ceases and the liquid has no longer a sour taste. Take out the marble, wash and dry it, and note the loss of weight it has sustained. Fivesixths of this is real (hydrated) acetic acid. An ounce of good vinegar should saturate from 30 to 32 grs. of pure and dry carbonate of soda; such vinegar contains about 5 per cent. of anhydrous (absolute) acetic acid. Vinegar above 30 per cent.

Vinegar above 30 per cent. of real acid will dissolve the essential oils and camphor.

Simple continuous Vinegar Process.

The following household vinegar method is to be recommended as simple, expeditious, and furnishing a constant supply of vinegar with scarcely any trouble, and at trifling cost: Two barrels are procured, one for making, the other for storing the vinegar. Those from which good vinegar has just been drawn are preferable. The storage barrel is kept always in the cellar, the generating one in the cellar or house, according to the season. In this latter barrel a small hole is bored, for the circulation of air, at the top of one of its heads. The barrels lie on their side, and contain each a wooden faucet. Of course their capacity is regulated by the yearly demand of vinegar. and pour by a funnel into the generator. Every 2 or 3 weeks 3 galls. of vinegar are withdrawn from the generator, added to the storage barrel , and 3 galls. of alcoholic mixture are placed in the generating barrel as before.

Another method of working the casks consists in half filling the generator with vinegar and adding every week so much of the alcoholic mixture that it fills the barrel in from 8 to 16 weeks , according to the season. Half the vinegar is then added to the storage cask, and the process recommenced in the generator. The warmer the season the more rapid may be the manufacture.- Wetherill on the Manufacture of Vinegar.

Vinegar without a Ferment (Dobereiner's Process).

The ferment used in the manufacture of vinegar is not necessary. Alcohol may be oxidized directly by the agency of finely divided platinum (platinum black) 10 per cent. alcohol placed in a close vessel with platinum black is rapidly converted into acetic acid. Dr. Ure estimates that with a box of 12 ft. cube and 6 to 8 oz. of strong platinum, 1 lb. of alcohol daily can be converted into acetic acid, and with from 20 to 30 lbs. we may obtain 300 lbs. of vinegar from the proportionate quantity of spirits. The same platinum black will last for an indefinite time, requiring only to be heated to redness from time to restore it. This method is undoubtedly the most elegant one known of vinegar manufacture, and has been tried on a large scale in Germany. The objection to it is, however, the high cost of the platinum, in which a large amount of capital must necessarily be kept locked up.

The continuous Quick Vinegar Process.

This is the method almost universally adopted for manufacturing vinegar on the large scale.

Common new whiskey makes excellent vinegar; the fusel oil becoming oxidized during the process, is converted in harmless, agreeable ether. It is diluted so as to form a wash of about 6 per cent . alcohol. Two tubs, or upright casks, are prepared as follows: A false top and bottom are inserted.

In the false top are bored numerous holes onetenth of an inch in diameter and 1½ in. apart; the top is fixed water-tight about 6 to 8 in. from the top of the barrel. At from 8 to 14 in. above the bottom of the tube are bored in. air-holes, inclining downwards, so that the liquid may not flow out. About 2 in. above the air-holes is placed the false bottom pierced with in. or inch holes.

The space between the false top and bottom is filled with closely-curled beech-shavings, or charcoal in lumps of the size of a walnut, sifted, washed and dried. The holes in the false top are filled with lamp-wick, and the space below the false bottom provided with a stop-cock, or gooseneck. There is also an inclined hole 6 in. below the false top for the insertion of a thermometer and hour-glass, or wood tubes are inserted into the false top, reaching nearly to the cover of the tub; these act as chimneys. The beech shavings are boiled in vinegar and pressed into their place until within 6 in. of the false top or sieve. Before starting the process the room and tubs are to be kept a day at a temperature of 75° to 80° Fahr.

We will suppose that the generator, filled to the fevel of the ventilating hole, contains 10 galls.; the manufacture will then be carried on in the following manner: Seven galls. of good vinegar are placed in it, and 3 galls. of a warm alcoholic mixture made in the following manner and added:

If common whiskey (50 per cent.) be employed, have a small measure of 3 pts. and a large one (a bucket) of 3 galls. If 86 per cent. spirits are used, let the small measure be for 2 pts. Put a small measureful of the spirits in the large mea- | warm the resulting vinegar if necessary, and hav- The shavings at the thermometer hole, and at the lower ventilating holes, are then loosened by means of a stick thrust therein. A wash is now prepared which contains 1-5 vinegar and 4-5 of a 3 per cent. solution of alcohol; this heated to from 75° to 80°, is gradually poured through the hole in the cover of the generator, at the rate of 1 barrel in 24 hours. At the expiration of this time, ing added enough alcohol to make the whole | lar to those used for the production of coal gas), quantity taken thus far of 5 per cent. alcoholic strength, pour this through the generators as before. Repeat this operation on the third, and even on the fourth day if necessary. Investigate the temperature of the air escaping from the generator, and when it exceeds that of the wash which is running, it is a sign that the acetification has commenced. When it rises to a point between 980 and 104°, the generators are in a proper condition to commence the regular business of the manufacture; the fermentation has been properly established. We then daily pour through generator No. 1, a wash consisting of a certain quantity of spirits, vinegar, and water, heated to a temperature between 75° and 80° Fahr.; and through No. 2 the wash has passed through No. 1, to which has been added more spirits. We draw manufactured vinegar daily from generator No. 2. The vinegar resulting from setting the generators in action, though not prejudicial to health, is of inferior quality and bad flavor, from extractive matter from the shavings and tubs and from the iron cauldron. It may be added in very small quantity to the subsequent vinegar, if it be not thrown away. - Wetherill on the manufacture of vinegar.

To make Quass.

Mix rye flour and warm water together, and leave it till it has turned sour. This vinegar is much drunk in Russia; it looks thick and unpleasant at first, but becomes agreeable by use. Distilled Vinegar.

This is obtained from vinegar by distillation, rejecting the fourth or eighth part that comes over first, and avoid its acquiring a burnt flavor.

Distilled vinegar is weaker than the common, but is used sometimes in pickles, where its want of color is an advantage.

To Deprive Vinegar and other Vegetable Liquids of their Color.

To take away the color of vinegar, a litre of red wine vinegar, cold, is mixed with 45 grammes of bone-charcoal, in a glass vessel. Shake this mixture from time to time, and in 2 or 3 days the color completely disappears. When the process is to be performed in the large way, throw the charcoal into a cask of vinegar, which must be stirred from time to time. The highest colored red wines treated in the same manner become perfectly limpid. Ivory-black possesses the same property as bone-black.

To Prepare the Charcoal.

Fill a crucible with the most compact parts of ox and sheep bones, lute the cover, carefully leaving only a small opening at the top, place the crucible on a forge fire, and heat it gradually till red; when the flame from the oily and gelatinous parts has ceased, diminish the opening and suddenly raise the fire; when cold, reduce the charcoal to fine powder.

To Procure Pyroligneous Acid.

This acid is procured from any kind of green wood (such as cord wood), used for making char- (such as cord wood), used for making charcoal; a cord of wood will produce about 80 galls. It is obtained in the following manner: A brisk oven is filled with coal or wood, until it becomes sufficiently hot to heat an oven over it to that degree as to reduce green wood to a charcoal. The upper oven should be closely stopped except a tube at the top to carry off the steam or acid, which tube is passed through water, and the steam thus condensed forms the acid.

To Prepare the same.

Place a large cast-iron cylinder, or retort (simiin a furnace, so that it may receive as much heat, all round, as possible. One end of this cylinder must be so constructed as to open and shut, to admit wood, and exclude the air. put into the cylinder, which is to be filled as full Oak, in pieces about 1 foot in length, is to be as possible, without being wedged, and the door must be shut close to exclude air; from the cylinder let a worm run through cold water to condense the acid; by this it is conveyed to a large cask placed on one end, where there is a pipe to carry it from that to 2 or 3 more; thus it is completely secured from flying off in the vaporous state. The fire is now to be raised to a great heat, sufficiently powerful to convert the wood completely into charcoal. When the acid ceases to come over, the fire is to be taken out, and the mass of wood left to cool in the confined state, when it becomes perfect charcoal. In the first cask, tar is chiefly contained with the acid, it precipitates to the bottom, and is drawn off by a cock; it is afterwards boiled in an iron boiler to evaporate the acid, before it is fit for use. If the acid is not strong enough, it is put into large square vats about 6 inches deep, for the purpose of making a large surface, to evaporate a part of the water contained in the acid, more espe cially by a slow heat. These vats are bedded on sand upon the top of a brick stove, where a gentle heat is applied; thus it may be procured in a pretty strong state.

This acid is a liquid of the color of white wine, possesses a strong acid and slightly astringent When allowed to remain in a state of rest for 8 or taste, combined with an empyreumatic smell. empyreumatic smell. acid is then comparatively transparent. To purify 10 days, tar of a black color subsides, and the it further, it undergoes the process of distillation, by which it is freed from a still greater portion of rendered still more transparent. But though the the tar, with which it is combined, and is thus process of distillation be repeated without end, it will never be freed from the volatile oil with which it is combined, and which is the cause of empyreuma constantly attending it. In short, it contains the same properties for the preservation of animal matters from putrefaction as smoking them by wood does, which is practised at present by the most barbarous nations, and which has been handed down from the remotest ages of antiquity. Glacial Acetic Acid (Ice Vinegar).

To 83 lbs. of fused acetate of soda add 100 lbs. of sulphuric acid and distill. Place the distillate in ice at 50° Fahr., it will become solid. Allow it to drain. It is the monohydrated acid.

Oil of Vitriol.

The strongest or Nordhausen or fuming acid is made by distilling green vitriol at a red heat. The residue is colcothar or crocus martis. It is used for dissolving indigo and other purposes where an acid of great strength is required. The ordinary sulphuric acid is made by causing vapors of suland water, to combine in a leaden chamber. The phurous acid (from burning sulphur), nitric acid afterwards in a platinum still. weak acid is concentrated in leaden pans, and Nitric Acid, Or aqua fortis, may be made by distilling at a gentle heat in a glass retort, equal weights of saltpetre (nitrate of potassa), and sulphuric acid. The receiver should be kept cooled by a cloth dipped in water. To obtain it pure it must be redistilled over nitrate of silver.

Hydrochloric Acid, Or muriatic acid (marine acid, spirit of salt).