5 facts about alcohol that may surprise you

1. The word "alcohol" is Arabic

It would seem that Islam and alcohol are incompatible concepts. But in fact, it was thanks to Muslim Arabs that medieval Europe became acquainted with strong drinks. Of course, Europeans drank wine, honey and beer before. But it was during the Crusades that they learned that in the Middle East there is such an interesting thing as an alembic.

In general, the basic principles of distillation were known to Aristotle, but similar to a modern distillation apparatus invented Persian alchemist Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan, born around 721 AD. He, like his European colleagues, tried to artificially synthesize gold.

His searches were not crowned with success, but he discovered new ways of obtaining acetic and nitric acid and alcohol.

Initially, Eastern alchemists used alcohol in the production of cosmetics, perfumes and incense. And the word "alcohol" itself comes from the Arabic al-cohl - "eyeliner".

Already during the life of Jabir, there were daredevils who decided to use his invention inside. So, the Arab poet Abu Nuwas, who took a sip of alcohol, composed poems in which declaredthat this swill "burns inside your ribs like a brand."

Born a century later, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi perfected distillation cube. And in the XI century in Sicily, which was then in the possession of the Fatimid caliph Cairo, they were already producing with might and main maal hayat, or "water of life".

From there, by 1200, ethyl alcohol came to Spain, where it was christened aqua vitae - the same "water of life", but in Latin. So strong alcohol began its victorious march across the planet.

2. The King of Navarre, Charles II, the Evil One, literally burned out from alcohol

The fact that drinking strong drinks is harmful to health is known to all. But sometimes alcohol doesn't have to enter your stomach to cause harm. This insidious liquid can lead to a painful death in a more unusual way.

In the Middle Ages, alcohol was considered an extremely effective cure for all diseases (and some still believe this). Name aqua vitae speaks for itself: alchemists were convincedthat it is the elixir of life, the philosopher's stone in a liquid state of aggregation. And in general, stars are made of alcohol.

Are the stars bright? So they are on fire. Alcohol also burns. Conclusion: stars are made of alcohol. This is what real natural philosophy is.

Alcohol was consumed both internally and externally. It is easy to see that when rubbed with it, the skin seems to start to burn - the liquid quickly evaporates and cools the body. Therefore, alcoholic compresses have long been used to bring down the temperature.

Doctors now know that they rather harmful for the skin and blood vessels than are useful. But in the Middle Ages, it seemed quite logical to treat fever with "living water", and even the rulers rubbed themselves with alcohol when their health was upset.

For example, the King of Navarre, Charles II, aka Charles the Evil, one of the participants in the Hundred Years War. He earned his nickname because of his bad temper and habit of hanging people for nothing.

Once, Karl was so feverish that he could not get out of bed, and the royal doctor ordered literally sew the monarch into a linen cloth soaked in the purest brandy. It was possible to just turn around, but in the Middle Ages they did not look for easy ways.

The king's maid did as she was told. And having finished sewing the monarch into an alcohol compress, she began to look for how to cut the thread, but there were no scissors at hand. Then the resourceful girl brought the thread to the candle - and the king flared up like a match.

The maid decided that he was a victim of evil spirits, and ran away in a panic, not having thought to splash water on her master or call for help. As a result, Charles II of Navarre was completely burned and experienced terrible torment for another two weeks until he gave his soul to God.

3. If desired, alcohol can be driven from anything

It is known that alcohol can be produced from almost any organic matter. Most often it is made from starchy raw materials - rye, wheat and other grains, potatoes and corn. And also - from apples, pears and other fruits. And even beets.

But there are more exotic options For example, cacti and succulents of South America. Or agave juice. Cooking booze also from parsnips, cashews, bananas, chestnuts, millet, sorghum, spruce branches, aloe and even carnivorous plant - sundews. The latter is fermented with other herbs and spices, as well as beetles caught by it - this is important.

In Asia, alcohol is made from rice or sugar cane. And according to the traditional Japanese recipe, sake was generally made from chewed rice - saliva helped the fermentation process. The highest quality product was called bijinshu - "beautiful woman's sake". It was prepared by specially trained young girls who had not met men before.

And the Chinese, for example, are big fans put in their drinks for special occasions of all sorts of snakes, scorpions and newborn mice, so that the alcohol on them is stronger, absorbs the “snake oil” and becomes more vigorous.

Some, however, manage get poisoned coagulants contained in the poison, from which the blood in the body begins to clot. But to be afraid of reptiles is not to drink wine.

And inmates at San Quentin Prison in California generally make moonshine out of rotten fruit, hot dogs, and ketchup.

Yes, and sell free for a hundred bucks a bottle. This is such a criminal business.

But perhaps the most unusual (albeit slightly unpleasant) raw material for alcohol is human feces. Korea has an ancient recipe a drink made from chewed rice and baby feces - according to the testimonies of those who tried it, the taste is slightly sour, but in general it is similar to ordinary rice wine.

Another option of this drink: Korean distilled grain alcohol soju was poured into a pit with chicken, dog or human feces and cat bones. And left for a month or two to ferment.

Naturally, no one produced such drinks en masse even in antiquity, and even more so now. But lovers to taste the original alcohol were at all times.

4. In the Russian Empire, teetotalers were given vodka through a funnel

Vodka is considered a traditional Russian drink - at least abroad. But in 1858, a real rebellion broke out in the empire against this drink. Yes, history is strange.

After the unsuccessful Crimean War, the influence of the Russian Empire in Europe was lost, and the treasury was depleted. The government has come to the conclusion that more gold is needed. How to get it? That's right, increase the tax on vodka.

The peasants were surprised to find that, because of higher prices, they could not afford to continue to pawn behind the collar as before. And we decided that we didn’t really want to.

In September 1858, in the Kovno province of tsarist Lithuania, local residents solemnly swore do not drink more vodka and other strong drinks, except for "medicinal purposes." Undistilled alcohol such as wine or beer, was not on the banned list, because there was no tax on it.

In addition, strong moral principles are, of course, wonderful, but you shouldn’t give up all the joys of life for the sake of them, right?

Seeing the unhealthy example of their Western neighbors, Russian peasants also decided give up vodka, and by the summer of 1859 the sobriety movement had spread to 91 districts of 32 provinces of the Russian Empire.

The consequences were terrible. The price of vodka fell from the peak of 8-10 rubles to 0.5 rubles per bucket, sales decreased by 70%.

In some localities, they began to pour it for free. Naturally, the owners of drinking houses lost huge profits, the empire was short of serious sums from taxes. In May 1859, protests against alcohol have outgrown in mass unrest, the peasants began to smash the taverns and taverns.

The government dealt with the problem simply - sent an army to suppress the uprisings. The soldiers flogged the rioters, and then with the help of funnels flooded vodka down their throats so that they would not think of weaning it. If you don't know how to drink, we'll teach you; if you don't want to, we'll force you. After the suppression of the uprising, 780 of its most active participants were exiled to Siberia.

5. US authorities deliberately poisoned alcohol during Prohibition

In the 1920s, the federal government of the United States, concerned about the health of the nation, introduced prohibition with the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution - banned production and transportation of alcohol. Naturally, this led to an explosive growth in the illegal liquor trade.

Bootleggers distilled alcohol in clandestine distilleries and smuggled it in from Mexico and Canada. And these cunning people also decided to prepare booze from technical ethyl alcohol.

United States Department of the Treasury ordered manufacturers of industrial alcohols to denature them by including additives in the liquid that make them poisonous. Bootleggers, on the other hand, got their own teams of chemists who removed toxic substances.

Government gone with trump cards and began to mass-produce methyl: 4 parts of methanol, 2.25 parts of the pyridine base and 0.5 parts of benzene per 100 parts of ethyl alcohol.

from alcohol, cooked bootleggers from this rubbish, subsequently killed more than 10,000 people, until Prohibition was repealed in 1933.