I have this device that my grandfather used when he made

moonshine during prohibition. COREY: Nice.

RAYMOND: It's a hydrometer and it tells you

what the alcohol content is. COREY: OK.

Do you mind if I take a look at it?

RAYMOND: No, help yourself.

Why don't you put your tongue on it

and see how drunk you are from last night?

No, I'm OK.

[chuckles]

RAYMOND: I came to the pawn shop today to try

to sell my spirit hydrometer.

It's a device to determine the alcohol content of a solution.

I don't really have any use for it.

I can tell what the alcohol content of a solution

is by reading the label on the bottle.

COREY: This is pretty cool.

They spent a long time trying to come up with one of these.

I don't think there was a real successful one

until like the mid-1700s.

Before this, you didn't know what you were drinking.

You didn't know how much alcohol was in it.

This right here is why alcohol is graded

in proof, because it was the proof of how much alcohol

you had in it. RAYMOND: I see.

Proof is double the percentage,

so 200 proof would be 100% alcohol.

Even the strongest stuff they legally sell is a 180.

I've never heard of 200 proof alcohol

unless they're using it for like scientific reasons

or something, but no one would ever drink it.

You know, these things got pretty

valuable during prohibition.

Yeah, I can imagine.

COREY: You know, Billy in his bathtub

making some kind of gin, and you know,

I don't want to drink bathtub gin,

especially if there's a chance I might go blind.

It wasn't until this came out that they

could actually gauge it right.

What are you looking to get out of it, man?

Well, I'd like $100.

Here's the deal with it, man.

I don't know if I could really sell it.

You know, anybody that comes in here that's actually making

their own moonshine is going to go out and buy

like real expensive moonshine making tools, not really

a 80-year-old measuring device.

I'll give you $20 for it if you want it out of your life.

How about $25?

Sure. $25 will do it. All right, man.

- Thank you. - Chumlee will write you up.

I just suckered him out of $25.

I think he overpaid.

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