[Sca-cooks] distilling wine

[Martin G. Diehl]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Vincenzo mentioned:
> > Over 2,000 years ago, the Greeks knew of distillation,
> > but were unable to get alcohol from wine because they
> > brought the liquid to a boil too rapidly.
> 
> Oh? is this because you want to boil off the alcohol at 
> a lower temperature than 212 degrees F, leaving the water 
> behind and if you boil it too fast (too hot?) you get a 
> mixture of water and the other volatiles?

Right ... once you get the temperature above the b.p. of 
the alcohol, you get a mix of water and alcohol in the 
distalite ... you get out everything that you put in.  

When they were experimenting, the might have known that 
bringing the liquid to a boil caused the separation -- and 
always did the test that way ... but could never realize 
that the alcohol boiled out at a lower temperature.  

> > Even though L. Sprague deCamp's "Lest Darkness Fall"
> > had a solution to that question, we don't allow that
> > written work to be counted as 'documentation'.
> 
> Thank you. I hadn't heard of this book before. It sounds 
> interesting but unless I find other books on Amazon or 
> one of their affiliates I could spend more for shipping 
> that the book. So, I'll have to put it on my list to look 
> for at my local used book stores.  

Yes ... but also ... 

On Abe Books,  http://www.abebooks.com 
305 copies starting at $1.00

On Alibris, http://www.alibris.com 
Title: lest darkness fall (245 available) $2.95 and up.  

> Stefan

Vincenzo

-- 
Martin G. Diehl 

So much wisdom and knowledge -- so little time and bandwidth. 

"Thou plenty hast, yet me dost scant"
--John Dowland (1562-1626); "The First Booke of Songs"; 1597. 

Reality: That which remains after you stop thinking about it. 
--inspired by P. K. Dick

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