This section is from the book "The Engineer's And Mechanic's Encyclopaedia", by Luke Hebert. Also available from Amazon: Engineer's And Mechanic's Encyclopaedia.
A term implying a peculiar odour derived from the overheating of matters under the process of distillation, or when vegetable or animal matter becomes burned in other processes in close vessels. It is said that tin's peculiar odour is produced from no substance that does not contain oil; hence, if no empyreuma is perceived in burning any substance in a close vessel, we may be assured that it contains no oil.
 
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