Industrial Processing @museum.de

F: It's in perfume. In shower gel. In cosmetics and in aftershave.

M: It is in medicines. In adhesives. In cleaning agents.

F: We're talking about ... ethanol.

M: High-proof, industrially produced alcohol.

F: The alcohol is purified in large columns and distilled several times. Using special rectifying equipment, the alcohol content is finally increased to around 96 per cent. We've set up a model of this type of rectifying apparatus for you. It was once part of a tutorial providing assembly instructions. In the original, the column, at the firm of Brüggemann in Heilbronn, was 17 metres or more than 55 feet tall and had 20 rectifying trays. You can see one of them here, right above the model.

M: High-proof ethanol isn't exactly tasty, but it's basically drinkable. And incidentally, industrial alcohol is also untaxed. To prevent fraud, steps were taken early on to denature the ethanol – in other words, special chemical substances were added to make it undrinkable. The result is spirit.

F: In the 19th century, spirit was in demand as a source of energy, since it was easy to store and transport. That led to the development of multiple products that ran specifically on spirit – smoothing irons, lamps and even cookers. If you look at the shelf on the right, you'll find some of those gadgets on display. More information – in German – is available if you touch the monitor screen.