Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/54

38 the subject, believing it one of primary importance in this branch of the chemical arts.”

Mr. Faraday and Dr. T. Thomson considered the above suggestions particularly worthy of the attention of brewers and distillers.

We know that thunder-storms are caused by the different electric conditions of the earth and atmosphere. Fermenting tuns may be so situated, as to be affected by these different electric conditions. We know that milk in some dairies is soured and injured by atmospheric electricity, while in others differently arranged, no such effect is produced. Most brewers will admit, that beer of the same brewing, when sent out in casks, will remain sound in the cellars of some of their customers, while in others it will become acid.

A shock of electricity sent through any beer will speedily cause it to become sour.

Fermenting tuns, when imbedded in the earth, are very liable to be affected by the various conditions of atmospheric electricity.

Many instances of injury, from such causes, have come under the author’s observation, from which he selects the following:

In the summer of 1828, being called into a town in Surrey to superintend some brewings, he found that the fermenting tuns were imbedded in the earth, and at once expressed his disapprobation of this mode of placing them, and at the same time