GIMP, or GYM?, a kind of trimming for dress, curtains, furniture, etc., made either of silk, wool, or cotton. Its peculiarity is that fine wire is twisted into the thin cord of which it is made.
GIN is a machine used for raising weights, driving piles, etc., and consists of three poles, each from 12 to 15 ft. long, and 5 in. in diameter at the lower end, tapering to in. at the upper. The poles are united at the top, either by an iron ring which passes through them, or by a rope which is twisted several times round each, and to this " joint ' a pulley is fixed. Two of the poles are kept at an invariable distance by means of an iron rod, in order that they may support the.windlass which is attached to them, its pivots running in iron cheeks fixed to the poles. When the machine is to be used, it is set up over the weight to be raised; two blocks arranged according to the second system of pulleys (q.v.) are fixed, one to the top of the poles, the other to the weight; and the rope, after passing round both blocks, and over the pulley before mentioned, is attached to the windlass, by the revolution of which the weight can then be raised.—The name of gin is also given to a machine used for raising coal, etc., and also for communicating motion to thrashing-mills. It consists of an erect axis or drum, firmly fixed in sockets, to which are attached transverse beams, varying in number according to the power required. To the extremity of each beam a horse is yoked, and they are then driven round in a circlet If coal is to be raised, the horses must either be frequently unyoked, and turned in the opposite way, or the machine must be made reversible; the platter of which is found toile preferable, as a saving both of time and labor. This machine is now rapidly disappearing before the steam-engine.
GIN is a machine used for disentangling the fibers of cotton (q.v.) GIN, or GENEVA, an alcoholic drink, distilled from malt or from unmalted barley or other grain, and afterwards rectified and flavored. The gin, which forms the common spirituous drink of the lower classes of London and Its vicinity, is flavored very slightly with oil of turpentine and common salt; each rectifier has his own particular recipe for regulating the quantities to be used; but it is usually about 5 fluid oz. of Spirit of
turpentine and 31 lbs. of salt mixed in 10 galls. of water; these are placed in the recti fying still, with 80 galls. of proof corn-spirit, and distilled until the feints begin to come over. It is then used either unsweetened or sweetened with sugar.
We derive the terms gin and geneva from the Dutch, who call the Hollands-gin (which is their national spirit), genever, which they have derived from the French genievre, juniper. The origin of this name is, doubtless, to be found in the employment of juniper-berries in flavormo. the spirit made in Holland, where it is an article of great manufacture, chiefly at Schiedam; hence it is often called Schiedam or Hollands, as well as geneva and gin. So extensive is the manufacture of this spirit in Holland, that in Schiedam alone, in 1875, the spirits distilled amounted to 9,212,631 gallons; the grain and malt mills supplying 53,001,245 lbs. of rye meal, and 46,628,865 lbs. of malt. Other distilleries are scattered about the country. Notwithstanding this immense manufacture of alcohol, the Dutch are by no means an intemperate people; the fact is, the larger part by far of the spirit made in Holland is exported to other countries, especially to North America and Northern Europe. It was formerly always exported in bottles, but casks are now much used as well. The chief manufactories of gin in England are those of Messrs. Booth and Messrs. Smith and Nicholson, in London; Messrs. Coates and Co., at Plymouth ; and one or two large distilleries in Bristol.
Perhaps nothing used as diet by man is liable to greater and more injurious adulter ation than gin. Almost every gin-shop keeper in London has some vile recipe for increasing the pungency and giving a factitious strength to the much diluted sweetened spirit sold under this name. A mere enumeration of the articles usually employed will give some idea of the extent to which sophistication is carried on with this spirit: Roach alum, salt of tartar (carbonate of potash), oils of juniper, cassia, nutmeg, lemons, sweet fennel, and caraway; coriander seeds, cardamoms, and capsicums; and worse than all, creosote, which is most injurious. It is said that sulphuric acid is even added, but this requires confirmation.