antimony, which women used to darken
their eyelids. By a process of
generalization, it came to mean any fine
powder, and then for the essence of any
material. Alcohol was first used to mean
the essence of wine itself by the 16th-
century German alchemist Paracelsus.Making Distilled Alcohols
All distilled alcohols are made in basically the
same way.
Fruits, grains, or other sources of
carbohydrates are fermented with yeasts
to make a liquid with a moderate alcohol
content, from 5 to 12% by volume.
This liquid is heated in a chamber that
collects the alcohol-and aroma-rich
vapors as they escape from the boiling
liquid, and then passes them across
cooler metal surfaces, where the vapors