Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-01
gLEcTRo.PLATED CALIFORNIA WINE.


How the Liquor Acquires Age and Purity
by Electricity.
Down on Battery street. in a huge
building furnished with huge casks.
each of which contained 500 gallons OF
liquid exhalations, reporter found F.
III. Speed. the well known electrician.
Mr.. Speed had a bunch of wires in his
hand and was mounted upon cask
thickly coated with black paint and
bound with wire. In reply to an in
quiry the electrician stated that he
was preparing the casks for the aging
of wine by electricity, and gave the
following account of the process:
IAN old Philadelphian long ago tried
to give liquor the purity and strength
of age by causing it to flow over a
great number of cotton threads. From
the ends of these threads it fell in
small drops, every one of which passed
through the air before 1t dropped into
the barrel, and, according to the pop
ular belief, was oxidized. Tho quail
ties of the liquor thus treated were
changed to the qualities of liquor of
considerable age, but it was found
that the change was not permanent.
In short time the wine returned to
its original condition.
Recently successful attempts were
made to accomplish the desired result
by the aid of electricity, and it was
found that by passing a current of
electricity throgh new wine or brandy
the wished-for Grange took place, the
action being somewhat analogous to
that of an electro-plating process.
Later on it was found that cur
rent not in contact with the LIQUOR,
but circulating about it, also had a
remarkable effect upon it, and this
process has been put in operation on a
considerable scale in this city. What
the exact effect upon the encrcled
liquor is has never been ascertained,
but this much has been reached, that
wine so treated lose its harshness and
deleterious properties, having after
treatment the qualities of aged wine.
The properties of the wine that cause
nausea and headache seem to change
so that persons of weak digestion can
use the treated wine without expe-
riencing any unpleasant effects.
''The parties who are using the
electric process admit that they are
unable to determine the precise change
that takes place in the wine, but know
to certainty that the wine is so much
improved that they are unable to dis
pose of all they treat in competition
with the old process of letting the
liquid stand IN vault until the aging
process is accomplished. 1t is one of
those subtle processes that are so diff
ficult to follow. Chemistry affords no
solution of the problem.
1T is known that wine, after stand
ing exposed for a short time, becomes
utterly unfit for use, but wines treated
by electricity may remain exposed for
a long time without material altera-
ton. This discovery may lead to in
vestigation and possibly to other bene-
fetal uses of electricity in the same
subtle manner.
The casks in which the wine is
treated are surrounded with coils of
insulated copper-wire, through which
an electric current of considerable
strength is allowed to pass for pc
riod of time ranging from eighteen to
twenty-five days. The cask occupies
the position of an electric magnet
within its surrounding coil of wire. If
bar of iron is suspended in the cen
ter of the cask it exhibits all the phe-
nomena of an electric magnet. 1t at
tracts other pieces of iron. In fact,
the cask is an electric magnet with
the magnet removed, and the interior
Of the cask becomes a magnetic field.
''The casks are forty-five inches in
diameter and los inches high. making
the largest electric magnet coils that
have ever been made for any purpose
whatever. An instrument for meas
uring the strength of the encircIing
current is attached to each cask, and
switches are provided to cut off the
carrent of the cask when it is neces-
sary to change the contents. San
Francisco cal!