# Prohibition Bureau laboratory still atop the Treasury building (1927 or 1928)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/loc-2016888657-uncle-sam-distiller-1927/

Library of Congress Harris & Ewing photograph captioned "Uncle Sam has turned distiller": the Prohibition Bureau's miniature copper still in a Treasury laboratory, used to test formulae for a non-poisonous alcohol denaturant.

The Library of Congress caption says the Prohibition Bureau "has set up a modern copper still of miniature 'commercial' proportions in the laboratory atop the United States Treasury building in Washington, to give severe practical tests to all tentative formulae" for a non-poisonous denaturant, and shows G.F. Beyer, chief chemist of the Prohibition Unit. The Library dates the negative [1927 or 1928] from other negatives in the same range.

This is a federal laboratory, not an illicit still. The copy stored here is the Library of Congress service JPEG.

## Sources

- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division: https://www.loc.gov/item/2016888657/