Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
G.F. Beyer with the Prohibition Bureau's miniature copper still in a laboratory atop the Treasury building.
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Prohibition Bureau laboratory still atop the Treasury building (1927 or 1928)

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.

Date
1927/1928
Kind
photograph
Source
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Retrieved
2026-10-11
Rights
The Library of Congress item record states: "No known restrictions on publication. For more information, see Harris & Ewing Photographs - Rights and Restrictions Information https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/140_harr.html" Collection: Harris & Ewing Photographs. Call number: LC-H2- B-2513 [P&P]. Reproduction number: LC-DIG-hec-34743 (digital file from original negative).

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.

itemTreasury Internal Revenue chemist G.F. Beyer (14 January 1920)Library of Congress National Photo Company photograph of G.F. Beyer, an Internal Revenue chemist at the Treasury, with caption-list notes on two enforcement cases from the same period.