The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-07-04
ARTICLE ELEVEN
America-a Still Life Picture

America StilI Life Picture
THE vast quantity of corn, cane,
4 and beet sugar which is d.
verted. as we have seen, into boot
leg distilling, can not be turned into
alcohol. and from alcohol into
whisky or gin, without great deal
Of mechanical equipment.
For facts on mechanical equip
ment, we. turn again to the records
of the prohibition enforcement bu-
reau. This department complies a
booklet entitled Statistics Concern
ing Intoxicating Liquors" This
booklet shows that between Jan. II,
1920. and June 30, 1929, little less
than nine and one-half years, fed
eral prohibition agents alone seized
I.61e,503 stills or parts Of stills. And,
of course, there could not be a part
without whole.
When General Lincoln G. An
drews, former assistant secretary OF
the treasury of the United States,
in charge of all prohibition enforce
ment activities of the government,
appeared before a subcommittee OF
the senate judiciary committee IN
1926. of which I was a member, l
questioned him at some length on
the subject of unlawful distilling.
In 1925 the agents under his con-
troll had captured 1881 stills or
parts of stills, and the general
thought he had done very well. But
he admitted that for each apparatus
captured there were ten pieces IN
operation which he had not cap
tured.
Now, if we apply to the pieces OF
distilling apparatus captured by the
federal officers alone during the
nine and one-half years of prohibit
ton enforcement, the estimate OF
General Andrews, we find that there
must have been 16,185,0 900 pieces OF
distilling equipment in use during
that period.
The prohibition schoolmaster must
have been a pretty busy man in
structing the citizenry in the use OF
this vast quantity of distilling ma
chinery.
MAKING whisky is a simpler
WI chemical process than making
bread. It can be produced even
by so primitive an equipment as a
tea kettle and little corn meal or
potatoes, or anything containing
starch or sugar.
Fermentation is a natural process.
Distillation consists simply in sepa-
rating and condensing the alcohol
produced by fermentation. With
the slightest knowledge and the
simplest apparatus, whisky can be
made in every home in the land.
General Andrews had one of the
captured stills brought before the
committee, to show us how the thing
was done. 1t was nothing but an
ordinary wash boiler. The lid had
been soldered on, and on top of
the lid, a simple funnel arrange
ment, known in the trade as
boiling head, had been attached.
This entire still could not have cost
TO exceed $13.
He admitted that this wash
boiler still had a capacity of forty
gallons of alcohol day from corn
mash. or a larger capacity from
sugar. With this wash boiler still,
and an additional investment of
1885 to 50 so for a hundred pound
sack of corn sugar and a few cents
more for yeast and molasses, this
Illicit diStiller was ready for bust
ness.
1 have before me an advertise
ment of a mail order house for
what it terms heavy copper boilers.
These boilers are complete stills,
with boiling head, with the excep-
ton of the worm. A f1ve-gallon still
is priced at $3.50 and a thirty-gal-
Ion still at s2750. They are guaran-