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Aeneas Coffey (1780-1852) was born in Calais
Calais

Calais is a town in northern France in the Departments of France of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, where he spent his early years. His family returned to Dublin
Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
 (both his parents were Irish
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
), where he was educated at tcd
Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , corporately designated as the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I of England as the "mother of a university", and is the only constituent residential college of the University of Dublin....
. He entered the excise servce around 1799-1800 as a gauger. He married Susanna Logie in 1808, and they had a son, also named Aeneas, who may have been their only child.

According to British customs and excise records, he was appointed sub-commissioner of Inland Excise and Taxes for the district of Drogeda in 1813, and was eventually promoted to Inspector General of Excise in Ireland.






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Aeneas Coffey (1780-1852) was born in Calais
Calais

Calais is a town in northern France in the Departments of France of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, where he spent his early years. His family returned to Dublin
Dublin

Dublin is both the largest city and capital of Republic of Ireland. It is located near the midpoint of Ireland's east coast, at the mouth of the River Liffey and at the centre of the Dublin Region....
 (both his parents were Irish
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
), where he was educated at tcd
Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , corporately designated as the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I of England as the "mother of a university", and is the only constituent residential college of the University of Dublin....
. He entered the excise servce around 1799-1800 as a gauger. He married Susanna Logie in 1808, and they had a son, also named Aeneas, who may have been their only child.

According to British customs and excise records, he was appointed sub-commissioner of Inland Excise and Taxes for the district of Drogeda in 1813, and was eventually promoted to Inspector General of Excise in Ireland. He resigned from the service at his own request in 1824.

He enhanced and patented the original column still (invented by Robert Stein), giving it the name Coffey still
Column still

A column still, also called a continuous still, patent still or Coffey still, is a variety of still consisting of two columns invented 1826 by Robert Stein, a Clackmannanshire distiller....
. Early Coffey stills produced 60% over proof spirit. Modern versions can achieve 66-68% over proof, approximately 95.6% v/v pure alcohol
Ethanol

Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatility , flammable, colorless liquid....
. As alcohol forms an azeotrope
Azeotrope

An azeotrope is a mixture of two or more liquids in such a ratio that its composition cannot be changed by simple distillation. This occurs because, when an azeotrope is boiled, the resulting vapor has the same ratio of constituents as the original mixture....
 with water at this concentration, it is impossible to achieve higher purity alcohol by distillation alone.

On his retirement from service, Coffey went into the distilling business and for a short time ran the Dock Distillery in Grand Canal Street, Dublin. The development of the Coffey still paved the way for the distillation of grain whiskey and blended whiskey
Blended whiskey

A blended whisky is the product of blending different types of whisky. It is generally the product of mixing one or more single malt whiskies together with other grain whisky or neutral grain spirits....


Further reading


  • Irish Whiskey - A 1000 Year Tradition: ISBN 0-86278-228-7


See also


  • List of inventions named after people
    List of inventions named after people

    This is a list of inventions followed by name of the inventor . For other lists of eponyms see Lists of etymologies....
  • List of alumni of the University of Dublin