Cellier-Blumenthal, Jean-Baptiste (1768–1840), is generally credited with inventing (in 1808) and patenting (in 1813, with improvements in 1818) the first practical continuous column still. During the first decade of the nineteenth century there was keen interest in France in developing more efficient stills that could operate continuously for the production of industrial alcohol and potable spirits. The drive to develop the continuous still led to what has been described as “an avalanche of patents.” The base material was almost invariably wine: in 1818 the French distilled more than half a million liters of it.
Cellier was drawn to the subject as a way of refining beet sugar alcohol, and his first stills were built in partnership with a Dutch sugar trader, Armand Savalle, who would later become a global still manufacturer. Twice Cellier and Savalle were nearly killed by explosions while testing their new distilling equipment.
Eau-de-vie, Armagnac, and cognac distillers soon adopted Cellier’s still, which was found to be “most suitable for the production of wine spirit.” See eau-de-vie; Armagnac; and cognac. However, Cellier’s column still was not limited to distilled wine. Rum distillers in Guyana, for example, were quick to embrace this new distilling technology, as were bourbon distillers in the United States. Cellier’s transformational invention remains the basis for the modern column still.
See also Coffey, Aeneas; column still; and rum.
Forbes, R. J. Short History of the Art of Distillation from the Beginnings up to the Death of Cellier Blumenthal. Leiden: Brill, 1948.
Smith, Frederick H. Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.
Strengell, Teemu. “Sugars in Whisky.” Whisky Science, December 10, 2016. http://whiskyscience.blogspot.com/2016/12/sugars-in-whisky.html (accessed February 23, 2021).
By: Charles MacLean