RECTIFICATION is the final purifier), Con of liquors, generally alcohol, by dis tillation. It is not often carried on un der the same roof with the distillation. Rectifiers receive malt spirits from dis tillers from proof to 25 per cent. Their business is to re-distil once for rectifica tion. Then to distil again with various vegetable and chemical substances so as to produce flavors called gin, hollands, brandy, peppermint, and other cordials. For gin, Italian and German juniper-ber ries, and coriander-seeds. Hollands are made from rye-spirit, flavored with juni per and other ingredients. See BRANDY, &c. In rectifying spirits for gin, proof is reduced to 17 and 22 per cent. under proof, and at that strength sold to the dealers.
In the trade of spirits, there is the dis tiller, who makes the spirit from the fer mented grain and wash ; the rectifier, who concentrates, compounds, and flavors it; the merchant-dealer ; and the retailer, in the gin-shop and public-house.
To determine the probable produce of wines, &c., intended for distillation, is small alembic has been invented at Paris, adapted to heating with spirits of wine, and a glass vessel used as a recipient, so that a single glass of wine may be distilled. It was adopted as a toy, and became the means by which families made all kinds of flavored waters. The leaves of oranges, roses, &c., &c., were laid on gratings above the water, and the vapor rising through them received their odor and flavor. The whole weighs but 5 or 6 lbs. and is in a box but 16 inches long and 8 or 4 square.
The ordinary method of conducting the process, consists in placing the liquid to be. distilled in a vessel called a still made of copper, having a moveable head, with a swan like neck, which is so formed as to fit a coiled tube packed away in a tub of water, constantly kept cold, and which is termed a refrigeratory or worm tub. The charge of a wash still is from 16 to 20,000 gallons, and the low-wines still is the produce of the wash still, and from this are produced spirits and feints in separate vessels. The feints are turned into the next wash still. The spirits are then sold to rectifiers, who re distil, flavor, and prepare for consumption.
A liquid obtained by distillation is sometimes not perfectly pure, or it is di lute, from the intermixture of water, that has been elevated in vapor along with it. By repeating the distillation of it a second or a third time, it is rendered more pure and strong. This latter process is named rectification, or sometimes concentration. RED-LEAD. See LEAD and 111Ismom. REED is the well-known implement of the weaver, made of parallel slips of metal or reeds, called dents. A thorough know
ledge of the adaptation of yarn of a proper degree of fineness to any given measure of reed, constitutes one of the principal ob jects of the manufacturer of cloths; as upon this depends entirely the appear ance, and in a great degree the durability, of the cloth when finished. The art of performing this properly is known by the names of examining, setting, or sleying, which are used indiscriminately, and mean exactly the same thing. The reed consists of two parallel pieces of wood, set a few inches apart, and they are of any given length, as a yard, a yard and a quarter, &c. The division of the yard being into halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths, the breadth of a web is gen enerally expressed by a vulgar fraction, as 1-4th, 4-4ths, 5-4ths, 6-4ths • and the subdivisions by the eighths or sixteenths, or nails, as they are usually called, as 7-Sths, 9-Sths, 11-8ths, &c., or 13-16ths, 15-16ths, 19-16ths, &c. In Scotland, the splits of cane which pass between the longitudinal pieces or ribs of the reed, are expressed by hundreds, porters, and splits, the porter is 20 splits, or 1-5th of a hundred.
The number of threads in the warp of a web is generally ascertained with con siderable precision by means of a small magnifying glass, fitted into a socket of brass, under which is drilled a small round hole in the bottom plate of the standard. The number of threads visi ble in this perforation, ascertains the number of threads in the standard mea sure of the reed. Those used in Scotland have sometimes four perforations, over any one of which the glass may be shifted. The first perforation is 1-4th of an inch in diameter, and is therefore well adapt ed to the Stockport mode of commuting; that is to say, for ascertaining the num ber of ends or threads per inch ; the se cond is adapted for the Holland reed, being 1-200th part of 40 inches ; the third is 1-700th part of 37 inches, and is adapt ed for the now almost universal construc tion of Scotch reeds ; and the fourth, be ing 1-200th of 34 inches, is intended for the French cambries. Every thread ap pearing in these respective measures, of course represents 200 threads, or 100 splits, in the standard breadth ; and thus the quality of the fitbrie may be ascer tained with considerable precision, even after the cloth has undergone repeated wettings, either at the bleaching-ground or dye-woik. By counting the other way, the proportion which the woof bears to the warp is also known, and this forms the chief use of the glass to the manufac turer and operative weaver, both of whom are previously acquainted with the exact measure of the reed.