Hydrometer

"Hydrometers were used for measuring specific gravity (how heavy a liquid is compared to water) in alcoholic drinks and other liquids. In early twentieth-century Ireland, this instrument could tell the brewer about the alcoholic strength of the liquid. Up until recently this glass hydrometer had been at my grandfather's house, in front of which stood a fashion shop that he ran for over 70 years. Notably, I do recall him saying to me that before a shop ever stood there it was a bar or public house. Although the instrument in question may pre-date the 1910's, it is highly likely that the household used the hydrometer throughout the Twentieth Century. Before the invention of the hydrometer, 'proof' was tested in a fairly cavalier fashion; a small heap of gunpowder was doused with a sample of the spirit which was being tested. A match was then put to the damp heap and if the result gave a steady flame the spirit was 'proved'. Too weak a mixture and the gunpowder only smouldered, too strong a one and you may have caused damage to one's careless self. For obvious reason I suspect this hydrometer was produced by Thomas O'Dempsey Buss (successor to the late R.B. Bate) who worked in London 1847-83. On the rear of this devices reads the numbers "22329", followed by "Patent No 3594" and "BUSS, 48 Hatton Garden, London and Temp 60°", and the bulbous shape at it's end seems to contain a substance similar to mercury. This particular hydrometer was likely to have been used by someone for home brewing or by someone at work. This device is an important tool for situating home brewing within an Irish historical and cultural context. During the twentieth century in Ireland, perhaps it was used for the home brewing of Poitín and other Irish Spirits? "