Cooling / condensing table

[kiwi Bruce]

Anyone know how old this is, and how it was used? Kiwi Bruce
Old distillation limestone cooling table to produce Cognac (Wiki)

[Badmotivator]

I looked around a bit online and couldn't find any answers. It's a nice puzzle.

If there was a matching top piece you could imagine it being a condenser. The top could be as simple as a sheet of metal that lays over the whole thing, or a mirror-image stone piece, but there are obvious problems with both of those possibilities.

One site, Lassco.co.uk, has one for sale as a garden ornament (£3,250!) and includes this description: "These tables, often used in sequence, were designed as a heat-exchanges - using the cool of the stone to cool water during the cognac making process." But that's a weird idea too. Maybe cooling water was scarce, so they recirculated it and needed a way to remove heat from it?

[Danespirit]

My guess would be it was standing at a angle sideways...lets say 45 degrees tilt.
The water would then flow into it at the "inlet" we can see at the right bottom of the picture.
It would follow the "spiral" all the way down and be collected at last.
I have never seen anything like this...still the idea should work on cold days.

[Bushman]

If you go to this site: http://www.lassco.co.uk/a-french-cognac ... ling-table" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow and click on dowload details it will tell you it is 19th century.

[kiwi Bruce]

Over three thousand quid, Good grief! Kiwi Bruce