New Britain herald., 1921-09-06
HOW THE CHEMISTS
 RECOGNIZE HOOTCH
Synthetic WhiSkey and Gin
 Secrets Are Made Public


 'hootch" maker who manufactures open book to the government chem lsts who test the products of violators of the Folstead law.
 Evidence seized from rum-runners and bootleggers is brought to them for examination. How the chemical tests arc conducted was disclosed today by R. A. Edson, chief chemist of the gov ernment laboratory in the federal building The walls of his office are lined wfNl shelves filled with bottles of every kind and description con- taining every kind of beverage forbid den by the Volsteadr Act.
 A fringe of stills seized in raids decorates the top of the shelves and :here is a pile of them in a corner. Tn the past year more than 5000 samples of liquor. good. bad and in different. have been tested here and ,he results produced later in the fed ral courts.
 The first thing to be done by the chemists when a sample of suspected liquor IS brought in is to test it for alcohol Usually the prohibition agents try to get at least half a pint of whiskey and a pint of wine for the
 
 ally an agent comes in with a small bottle of liquid which he explains is a drink of whiskey which he bought at a bar and had to hold in his mouth until he could spit it out into a bottle without being observed by the bar keeper. And that is tested too.
 When the sample is large enough | the hydrometer is used to find the l amount of alcohol present. The hy- drDmeter is a thermometer-like in- | strumert of glass with the specific | sravities marked on it. It is noated | in the sample and the markings read. Alcohol being lighter than water the hydrometer sinks farther | in a mixture of alcohol and water | than in plain water. The amount of | alcohol can thus be accurately de- | termined by reading the markings.
 Small samples of booze are, tested by | means of the pycnometer. A measured | quantity of the suspected liquid is weighed and its weight compared | with that of an equal quantity of | water, By means of a few computa- tions the amount of alcohol can easily | be found.
 For rapid work on beer and wine | with small percentages of alcohol the | GDhlllOn1elef IS used. The eVl0ence IS heated and the boiling point learned. | Water boils at 100 degrees Centigrade | and alcohol at a much lower temper ature. A" mixture of alcohol and | water boils at a lower temperature | than water and thus the chemists rap idly calculate the amount of alcohol. |
 After the test for alcohol has been completed in the case of whiskey the | being charred by fire before the whis- | key that has been held in bond for | some time has a color of its own due | to the inside of the whiskey barrels | being charred by fire before the khis- key is put in. The manufacturing | Dootle~ger making an artificial whis- key of grain alcohol and water uses carmel made of burnt sugar to color his product.
 The Marsh reaction shows if the color of the whiskey sample is genu- inc or artificial. A quantity of amyl alcohol slightly acidifed with phos- phoric acid is mixed with the liquid 10 be tested. Amyl alcohol being tighter than ethyl alcohol. as ordinary grain alcohol is called by the chem s's, rises to the top of the mixture. If the whiskey is genuine the color will mix with the amyl alcohol and rise to the top of the mixture. If the color is due to carmel it will stay in the bot tom of the mixture. Test is made for wood alcohol if there is any sus- picion of it's presence.
 Mir. Edson said that 90 per cent of the liqror seized by the prohibition agents and brought to the laboratory to be tested is synthetic whiskey made of alcohol and water and a little color
 or just plain "hootch.''
 We can usually tell whether the stuff is genuine or na. by just smell ing of it," he explained. The syn thetic stuff has a distinct smell of raw | alcohol which is not present in gen. uine whiskey no matter how bad it may be.
 Lately we have tested a number of samples of synthetic gin. It is made of alcohol and water with little oil | of Juniper to give the characteristic | gin flavor. But the juniper flavor is | ranker than genuine gin and I don't think any one gets much pleasure from | dt mixing such stuff. The bootleggers | usually put in too much of the oil of | juniper.
 There is some artificial wine seized | by the prohibition agents. It is usual | U made from alcohol and water fla vored with fruit juice of some kind. | The homemade wine that is submit | ted for test is very poor stuff. Usual |