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Updated: April 30, 2025
We shall only dwell upon the first, because it is the only one interesting to the distiller. The areometer can only be just, when the atmosphere is temperate; that is, at 55° Fahrenheit, or 10° Reaumur.
It is easy to conceive how weak a mixture, 25 parts of water to one of whiskey, must be; thus the produce of the first distillation is only at 11° or 12° by the areometer, the water being at 10°. It is only by several subsequent distillations, that the necessary concentration is obtained, to make saleable whiskey.
Into pure water is plunged the lower part of a vertical tube containing pure alcohol, open at the top and closed at the bottom by a membrane, such as a pig's bladder, without any visible perforation. In a very short time it will be found, by means of an areometer for instance, that the water outside contains alcohol, while the alcohol of the tube, pure at first, is now diluted.
The variations in cold or heat influence liquors; they acquire density in the cold, and lose it in the heat: hence follows that the areometer does not sink enough in the winter, and sinks too much in the summer. Naturalists have observed that variation, and regulated it.
They have ascertained that 1° of heat above temperate, according to the scale of Reaumur, sinks the areometer 1/8 of a degree more; and that 1° less of heat, had the contrary effect: thus the heat being at 18° of Reaumur, the spirit marking 21° by the areometer, is really only at 20°. The cold being at 8° below temperate, the spirit marking only 19° by the areometer, is in reality at 20°. 2-1/4 of Fahrenheit corresponding to 1° of Reaumur, occasion in like manner a variation of 1/8 of a degree: thus, the heat being at 78-1/2°, the spirit thus marking 21°, is only at 20; and the cold being at 87°, the spirit marking only 19° by the areometer, is in reality at 20°.
It is easily conceived, that extreme cold or extreme heat occasion important variations. For that reason, there are in Europe inspectors, whose duty it is to weigh spirits, particularly brandy: for that purpose they make use of the areometer and the thermometer.
An areometer, to be good, must be proved with distilled water, at the temperature of 55°. Areometers, being made of glass, are brittle, and must be used with great care. This inconvenience might be remedied, by making them of silver; I have seen several of this metal.
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