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IV. A DAY AT A VINEGAR AND BRITISH-WINE FACTORY.

THERE exists not only between malt liquors and spirits, as explained in the last two articles, but between all the dissimilar liquids beer, spirits, vinegar, and wine—a connexion little supposed by the majority of those who use them. Who would expect, unless he had attended somewhat closely to the matter, that the same corn which yields our quartern loaves may be made to yield spirit, and beer, and vinegar, by particular processes? Or that wine, cyder, beer, malt, fruit, sugar, and molasses, are all capable of yielding-and many of them are actually made to yield, in manufacture-that very distinct and peculiar liquid, vinegar? These are remarkable instances of vegetable chemistry, or of the changes which heat and other agents produce in vegetable substances. The full explanation of all these changes forms one of the most difficult branches of science; but the manufacturing arrangements are capable of being described in a general manner, without involving the delicate and complicated reasonings of the chemical philosopher. Having, in connexion with the last two "visits," been enabled to describe the brewing and distilling processes and arrangements whereby beer and spirits are produced, we may now appropriately notice in a similar manner the Vinegar-manufacture. It happens, too, that the firm who have liberally afforded the facilities for this purpose, viz., Messrs. Beaufoy of South Lambeth, are not only malt-vinegar makers, but also manufacturers of "Sweets," or as they are more generally termed "British Wines." Thus the same visit will enable us to gather a little information respecting the production of wine.

The vinegar-manufactories are but few in number. There are reasons, applying to these establishments as well as to porter-breweries and distilleries, why competition cannot be carried to so great an ex

tent as in smaller undertakings. The "plant," or assemblage of apparatus, is very costly, and the skill required in the manufacture considerable. In a Report presented by the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry a few years ago, it was stated that the number of vinegarmakers in the United Kingdom is forty-eight.

Of the five principal vinegar-works in the metropolis, four are situated on the Surrey side of the water. Messrs. Beaufoy's establishment formerly occupied the site of the present southern approach to Waterloo Bridge, and was removed thence to Vauxhall in consequence of the building of the bridge. The present works are located in South Lambeth, between Vauxhall and the Clapham Road, and occupy a considerable area of ground. In this, as in most other large works, the entrance gates open into a court-yard or area, portions of which are occupied by buildings wherein the manufacturing processes are carried on. Glancing along the left boundary of the court, we see, in the first place, an excise office, fitted up for the convenience of the officers always more or less in attendance at a vinegar-factory (as in distilleries, soap-works, glass-works, &c.) by whom the amount of duty accruing on the manufactured product is ascertained. Beyond this is the shipping department,' or counting-house for the management of all matters connected with the coasting trade and the reception of materials; and in front is a weighing-machine. Adjacent to this is the chemical-room,' for the prosecution of experiments, and the analysis of liquids, arising out of or connected with the operations of the establishment. Ranges of stabling occupy a further portion of this line of buildings; and the remainder consist of fermenting-rooms connected with the manufacture.

On the right of the court-yard are counting-houses and offices; beyond which the width of the court greatly increases. Immediately in front is the main building wherein the manufacture is carried on, and the successive stories of which exhibit a very varied assemblage of apparatus. Beginning at the top floor, we find this appropriated as store rooms, for the malt used in the vinegar manufacture, and the sugar and fruit for the wine manufacture. In various rooms and compartments of the upper part of the building are machines for grinding and crushing malt, fruit, and sugar, and all the arrangements antecedent to what we may term the chemical portions of the several proAt a lower level we find, from the numerous pipes extending in all directions, that liquids are here brought to act upon the dry in

cesses.

gredients. Here, too, are large coppers or boilers for hot water; mash-tuns, similar to those used by brewers; and conduits for liquids both into and out of these vessels. On the ground-floor the apparatus marks a still more advanced stage of the manufacture: here are 'underbacks' and jack-backs,' a refrigerator or cooling machine, a range of fermenting tuns, another range of wine-presses, and other vessels and machines pertaining to the two branches of manufacture.

Beyond this building, which is known as the 'Brewhouse,' is another called the stoves,' or the 'stove-room,' kept carefully closed on all sides, and brought to a considerable heat within, for the furtherance of a very delicate part of the process of vinegar-making. Near this are buildings connected with one or two other branches of manufacture carried on by the same firm, which we shall not here notice further than to say that Messrs. Beaufoy are also 'millers' and 'drug-grinders.' A detached building in a more remote part of the yard serves as a store-house, the internal arrangements of which exhibit a specimen of very careful and minute classification. It is a feature in the establishment to make and repair on the premises as many of the implements and apparatus employed as possible. Hence a considerable quantity of materials is always in requisition; and these are under the especial control of a storekeeper. The whole of the buildings of the factory are classified into certain departments, each of which is placed under distinct superintendence; and the heads of the departments are charged with the quantity of stores and materials supplied by the storekeeper. The weight and number of all stores supplied being entered in a book, as well as the department to which they are supplied, the principals can thus at any time ascertain the amount of consumption in any one department. Lead and colours, brushes and pots, for plumbers and painters; nails and screws, &c. for carpenters; hoop iron for coopers; various tools and implements for smiths-indeed materials and tools for half a dozen different trades, are here congregated. Factory visitors may frequently notice this feature in large establishments, where a well-planned system of economy leads to the employment, within the factory, of a number of artisans not directly concerned with the manufacture carried on. All this is regulated by a well-known principle in the division of labour, which can only be developed where a large number of persons is employed.

Behind the store-house, and extending to a considerable distance, is the vinegar-field, a remarkable feature in most vinegar-works. Here

the eye glances over many hundreds of casks, all ranged in parallel rows, and elevated to equal heights from the ground on wooden bars resting on brick piers. A pathway lies open between each pair of rows of casks; and at intervals in these paths are openings or valves, forming channels of communication, to which we shall allude more particularly hereafter.

Returning from the vinegar-field, we find on the south side of the open court the workshops for the various artisans alluded to above. There is one shop for blacksmiths, another for millwrights and engineers; another for plumbers, a fourth for carpenters, a fifth for wheelwrights. The cooperage is more extensive than any of these, for all the casks employed in the vinegar and wine departments are both made and repaired within the premises.. On the same side of the open court, but nearer to the entrance, are buildings more particularly connected with the staple manufacture of the place. One of these is called the Rape-shed, and is filled with numerous bulky vessels in which the finishing processes of the vinegar-manufacture are carried on; so bulky, indeed, that some of them admit of comparison with the giant vats at Barclay's brewery. Another of these buildings is the sending-out warehouse,' where the vinegar, after the completion of the manufacture, is consigned to store-vats ranged round the wall, and thence drawn off into casks for sale. The interior of this building is represented in Fig. 1. A somewhat similar building is the wine store warehouse, where the British wines are stored and drawn into casks.

We may finish our tour of the premises by remarking that the water required for the establishment is furnished by an Artesian well; and that there are three steam-engines for pumping the water, pumping the liquids in various stages of preparation from one vessel to another, grinding the malt, &c. There is a range of waggon-sheds too; and two fire-engines for the protection of the premises. The large open areas of the court and the vinegar-field, with the various buildings surrounding them, together occupy about eight acres.

It may now be well, in attempting to describe the operations carried on in these buildings, to keep them wholly separate, and to offer what we have to say concerning vinegar, before we speak of British wine.

THE VINEGAR MANUFACTURE.

At the beginning of this paper it was stated that vinegar may be produced from many substances apparently wholly dissimilar. It is not only that they may be, but they are so in practice; for one manufacturer uses one ingredient, one another. Messrs. Beaufoy's is a malt-vinegar factory, where the vinegar is produced from precisely the same substance as that whence the Highlander makes his whiskey. The theory of fermentation is one of the most refined points of scientific investigation; but it may be remarked, as a general clue to the apparent discrepancies in the materials of the vinegar manufacture, that alcohol, or spirit, is capable of being distilled from sugar, from fruit, from grain, and other vegetable substances; and that whatever yields spirit, may also be made to yield vinegar, by a different mode of procedure. Indeed the acetous fermentation, whereby vinegar is produced, follows very closely on the vinous, whereby spirit results; and it is often difficult to stop at the one and prevent the occurrence of the other. When we hear of 'sour' beer or 'sour' wine, we may regard these as instances that the acetous fermentation has commenced, or that our beer or wine actually contains some vinegar; indeed the French name vin aigre (sour wine) points significantly to one source whence the acid is produced.

Dismissing any discussion of the question why one manufacturer selects one ingredient and one another, we proceed to the details of the malt-vinegar manufacture, as exemplifying most of the principles involved.

What constitutes malt is pretty generally known, and has been before alluded to; but it may be added here, that the process of malting changes the character of the grain by converting some of the starch contained in the barley into sugar, and facilitating the similar conversion of a further portion. This conversion into sugar, called the 'saccharine fermentation,' is one of the important steps in the preparation of beer, of ale, of whiskey, and of malt-vinegar in all of these it is requisite that the starch of the grain be converted into a kind of sugar; for it is from this sugar that the vinous fermentation produces alcohol, the parent of vinegar. Hence the early processes in an alebrewery, a malt-distillery, and a malt-vinegar factory are very similar.

The malt is brought to the vinegar-works which we are describing, and hauled up out of the waggons into the upper floors of the brewhouse. Here openings placed in different directions allow the malt to