Alcohol, commonly called spirits of wine, is procured from any liquid
which has undergone the vinous fermentation, such as wine and beer.
The spirit used in England is procured from a wash made by pouring
boiling water upon ground malt, as for making beer; this, when
fermented and distilled, produces a colorless spirit, which, by being
again distilled at a gentle heat, called rectifying, produces a very
strong spirit; but even this contains some considerable quantity of
water, and to get rid of this, for certain chemical purposes, it
is necessary to add carbonate of potash, quick lime, or some other
ingredient greedy of water, and again distil it. Brandy, rum, and
whiskey, are but various forms of spirit colored and flavored with
different substances. Brandy is distilled from wine; rum from the
molasses, a sort of treacle produced in sugar making; and whiskey
from malt. The strongest brandy does not contain more than one half
of its bulk of pure spirit.
Alcohol, when pure, is a very limpid, colorless fluid, lighter than
water, in the proportion that 792 bears to 1000. It is very volatile,
boiling at 172 deg. of Fahrenheit, and highly inflammable, it
dissolves resins and volatile oils, and is, therefore, used largely
in perfumery. The well known lavender water and eau de Cologne, are
solutions of volatile oils of various kinds in pretty strong alcohol,
and what are called spirit-varnishes, are most of them solutions of
various kinds of resin in strong alcohol, although some of them, as
mastic varnish, are made with spirit of turpentine, a volatile oil,
in place of alcohol.