Brandy and soda water

“ When cold, bottle the liquid, and cork it tightly. The bottles for this purpose should either be quite new, or such as have been used before for lemon syrup. Mixed with ice-water it is a wholesome and refreshing beverage, and if you stir into a half tumbler of the mixture a half tea-spoonful, or more, of carbonate of soda, it will foam up, and be just like the soda-water you buy in the shops at six cents per glass. ”

“ However, it was well known that a vast magazine of the precious article surrounds us on every side. The sea is water changed to brine by a salt of soda. If only a plan could be contrived for separating this soda from the hydro-chloric acid, which makes it common salt, there is at our doors a depot large enough to form a Mont Blanc of pure soda. ”

“ Cold water removes milk more quickly than hot, as hot water causes a coating of milk to adhere to the glass. Bicarbonate of soda not only hastens the cleansing process, but sweetens the bottle. Milk cans, pails and all milk containers are cleansed in the same manner, using more baking soda in greater quantities of water.
FIRE EXTINGUISHER. Arm & Hammer or Cow Brand Baking Soda is unsurpassed as a fire extinguisher. It not only smothers the fire, but generates carbonic acid gas which temporarily envelopes the flames, shuts off the air supply or oxygen, and so extinguishes the fire. ”

“ The flavouring syrups used in connection with the popular American beverage, “soda water,” frequently consist almost wholly of glucose and artificial compound ethers. Dr. Cyrus Edson, of the New York City Board of Health, has lately directed public notice to the fact that many manufacturers of soda water use water obtained from artesian wells, which are driven on their premises, and which, from the nature of the geological formation of Manhattan Island, are very liable to contain sewage contamination. ”

“ Many of the remarks made in regard to the ageing, flavouring and blending of wines equally apply to brandy, and need not be repeated in this place. When freshly distilled, it is colourless, its amber tint being either due to the casks in which it has been stored, or to added caramel. The normal constituents of genuine brandy are water, alcohol (including small amounts of butylic, propylic and amylic) , various ethers (acetic, oenanthic, butyric, and valerianic) , aldehyde, acetic and tannic acids, and traces of sugar and the oil of wine. ”

“ The bi-carbonate of soda is obtained by passing carbonic acid gas over the carbonate crystals. Soda does not attract moisture from the air. It is used in washing, in glass manufactories, in dyeing, soap-making, etc.
[Pg 393]
Sulphate of Soda is “Glauber’s Salt”; it is also employed in glass-making. Mixed with sulphuric acid and water, it forms a freezing mixture. Glass, as we have seen, is made with silicic acid (sand) , soda, potassa, oxide of lead, and lime, and is an artificial silicate of soda. ”

“ Household Soap—No. 1.—Slack six pounds of fresh quicklime in a tub, using just enough water to make it crumble perfectly. Dissolve six pounds of washing soda in four gallons of warm water. Add the slacked lime and the soda solution together and stir well, adding four gallons of boiling water and keep on stirring till mixed, then let it settle. Pour off the clear lye and you have home-made caustic soda. Put this lye into a clean kerosene tin over a gentle fire and add to it 12 pounds of clarified grease, stirring continually, then dust in, a little at a time, four ounces of powdered borax. ”

“ When the protection afforded is not quite complete,—for example in distilled water containing a 4000th of muriate of soda, a 6000th of sulphate of soda, a 15,000th of arseniate of soda, or a 35,000th of phosphate of soda,—besides a powdery crust, small crystals, with several facettes, are sometimes formed on the lead, while, at the same time, a minute white film will very slowly appear on the bottom of the glass, on its side where it is left dry by the evaporation of the water, and likewise on the surface of the water itself. ”

“ METHOD OF DETECTING THE ADULTERATIONS OF BRANDY, RUM, AND MALT SPIRIT.
The false strength of brandy or rum is rendered obvious by diluting the suspected liquor with water; the acrimony of the capsicum, and grains of paradise, or pepper, may then be readily discovered by the taste.
The adulteration of brandy with British molasses, or sugar-spirit, becomes evident [Pg 196] by rubbing a portion of the suspected brandy between the palms of the hands; the spirit, as it evaporates, leaves the disagreeable flavour which is peculiar to all British spirits. ”

“ Precipitate the lime by oxalate of ammonia, and the magnesia by carbonate of ammonia and phosphoric acid. (Page 52.) Then evaporate the liquid thus treated to dryness. A quantity of common salt will remain: let this be exposed to a red heat; 0.4 of its weight indicate the sodium contained in the bulk of water employed; and 0.4 sodium are equivalent to 0.53 of soda.
It seems hardly requisite to mention some other substances that occasionally make their appearance in the waters used for domestic purposes. A fine divided sand is a common constituent, which is easily obtained in a separate state. ”

“ Caustic soda is a white brittle mass, of a fibrous texture, a specific gravity of 1·536, melting at a heat under redness, having a most corrosive taste and action upon animal matters, dissolving readily in both water and alcohol, attracting carbonic acid when exposed to the atmosphere, but hardly any water, and falling thereby into an efflorescent carbonate; it forms soaps with tallow, oils, wax, rosin; dissolves wool, hair, silk, horn, alumina, silica, sulphur, and some metallic sulphurets. ”

“ When all the water has been expelled, the resulting dry mass is ignited and allowed to burn out, when the black ash that remains, which is carbonate of soda, is afterwards dissolved out, and the alkaline liquor causticised with lime in the usual manner. According to Dunbar, 8 cwt. of recovered ash and 41⁄2 cwt. of good lime will produce 900 gallons of caustic ley at 11° Tw. The liquor is then pumped into settling tanks, from which it is delivered to the boilers when required.
Fig. 64.
Evaporating Apparatus.—An ordinary form of evaporator for the recovery of the soda is shown in Fig. 64. ”

“ So that from the bleacher who spends thousands-a-year on the carbonate, to the apprentice who in the dog-days lays out a penny on ginger-beer or soda-water, all are interested in the cheapness of soda. ”

“ Non-Alcoholic Drinks.—The same remark applies to a good many of so-called temperance beverages. Of these again it is hardly proper to speak as liable to adulteration. So-called soda-water is very often devoid of soda and is only carbonated water, but the term “soda-water” is a survival from the times when this was a medicinal beverage and when soda was prescribed to be present in definite amount by the pharmacopoeia. Potash and especially lithia waters very frequently contain only mere traces of the substances from which they derive their names. ”

“ Example:—1,000 gallons of weak liquor at a density of 7° Twaddell are reduced to a volume of 200 gallons having a density of 35° Twaddell, or to a volume of 140 gallons with a density of 50° Twaddell, by evaporation.
Preparation of Caustic Soda.—The crude soda ash recovered from previous boiling operations is dissolved in large lixiviating tanks and extracted with hot water. ”

“ The concentrated liquor is run on to either of the beds b, where the last portions of water are driven off by the heat from the fireplaces a, and the residual mass is ignited until all the organic matter contained in the liquors is carbonised and the soda is converted into carbonate of soda. This takes place in about 4 hours, according to the degree of concentration of the liquor as it is run into the furnaces. The running in of liquor should be done with great care, as explosions sometimes occur through the sudden liberation of steam on the liquor coming in contact with the hot beds. ”

“ In purchasing soap, it is safer to choose the make of some well-known firm, who have a reputation to lose if their products are not good; and for anything stronger than soap, it is better to buy sal-soda and use it knowingly than to trust to the various packages so extensively advertised. Washing soda should always be dissolved in a separate vessel, and added to the water to be used. Ammonia may be used, but its too frequent use will yellow bleached fabrics. Borax is an effectual cleanser, disinfectant and bleacher. It is more expensive than ammonia or soda but is the safest alkali to use. ”

“ The operation is finished when all the sodium sulphide has been converted into normal sodium carbonate, partly also into acid sodium carbonate (bicarbonate) NaHCO3; at the same time a precipitate is formed, consisting of ferrous sulphide, alumina and silica, which is removed by another settling tank, and the clear liquor is now ready either for boiling down in a “fishing-pan” for the manufacture of white soda-ash, or for the process of causticizing.
Soda-ash (as well as caustic soda) is sold by degrees of “available soda.” ”

“ He opened the soda and went away. She drank the brandy from the little glass, and then some of the soda. Almost instantly she felt her timidity flying before a warm courage that spread through her veins and sparkled in her eyes. “It is even more beautiful here than I imagined it would be,” she thought, as she looked round. “And I’m glad I got here first and had a chance to get—the brandy.”
When her husband came he found her leaning against a pillar of the veranda looking out into space, an attitude that was characteristic of her. ”

“ Liquid ammonia is a very good preparation with which to soften hard water. Ordinary household ammonia is quite equal to the various patent preparations. About a tablespoonful of strong ammonia will soften about twenty gallons of London water. Failing ammonia, common washing soda is as good as anything, and is certainly cheap enough for everybody. You can easily tell if you have added enough of the ammonia or soda to the water by feeling it with the hand, when the hard feel of ordinary tap water gives place to the unctuous feel of soft water. ”

“ When melted with flint or sand, it forms glass, and answers much better for this purpose than potash. In conjunction with oil and lime, it is employed in the manufacture of soap; and it is used as a substitute for soap in the cleaning and bleaching of linen, flannels, and worsted goods. If a weak solution of soda be poured into foul bottles, or casks in which wine has long been kept, it will cleanse them. It may also be successfully used for the cleansing of vessels in which milk has become acid. ”

“ Amongst the more practical additions most frequently adopted may be mentioned carbonate of soda, silicate of soda, and pearl ash (impure carbonate of potash) . The carbonate of soda may be used in the form of "soda crystals," which, containing 62.9 per cent. of water, dissolves in its own water of crystallisation on heating, and is in that manner added to the hot soap. In the case of weak-bodied soap, this addition gives firmness and tends to increase the detergent qualities. ”

“ This very useful article is produced by a combination of tallow or oil with soda or potash; with soda, hard soap is formed; with potash, soft soap. The yellow soap of commerce has also an addition of resin or turpentine, and often palm oil, these give it its yellow color and peculiar smell; pure white soap is made by boiling a solution of soda with tallow or olive oil; ordinary soaps are generally made by mixing a solution of the soda of commerce, (carbonate of soda) with quick lime, this takes away the carbonic acid and makes the soda what is called “caustic;” ”

“ The clear vat-liquor, if allowed to cool down to ordinary temperature, would separate out part of the sodium carbonate in the shape of decahydrated crystals. As these do not come out sufficiently pure, they would not be marketable and therefore they are not allowed to be formed, but the liquid, while still hot, is either run into the boiling-down pans, or submitted to one of the purifying operations to be described below. If it is boiled down without further purification, the resulting soda-ash is not of the first quality, but it is sufficiently pure for many purposes. ”

“ Oxalate of soda may be made thus—procure 3 lbs. of carbonate of soda, the common washing soda used by the laundress, not bicarbonate of soda; boil it up in a saucepan with just as little water as will suffice to dissolve it. ”

“ Strong acids and alkalies act as caustics; that is they destroy fabrics. Continued washing in strong soda and water not only tends to destroy, but also spoils the appearance of all kinds of wearing apparel and household linen. White silk and wool at once become yellow on being washed with soap that contains free soda, and linen is affected in the same way though not to the same extent. ”

“ The most usual process, where soda-ash is to be made, is the “carbonating.” This is usually effected either by forcing lime-kiln gas through the liquor, contained in a closed iron vessel, or by passing the gases through an iron tower filled with coke or other materials, suitable for subdividing the stream of the gases and that of the vat-liquor which trickles down in the tower. The same apparatus is used for “oxidizing” by means of atmospheric air passed through by means of an injector; sometimes both air and carbon dioxide are passed in at the same time. ”

“ Hence tickling the fauces with the finger or a feather, until sickness comes on, is a method very commonly adopted by drunkards to restore themselves to a sober state. The use of aromatic water of ammonia was first suggested by Mr Bromly. With a like intention, some persons have recourse to soda water, which acts by the free carbonic acid it contains, and also as a diluent and, from its coldness, as a tonic on the coats of the stomach. ”