Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-28
Saturday Morning, May 20, 1881.

=
| EDWARD T. oARRIEeroN. JOHN b. DARLINGTON, JR.
| Saturday Morning, May %. 1881.
THE PROGRESS OF GLUCOSE.
Little has been heard about glucose lately,
but this is not because there is any less of it
| manufactured, or any less of it sold to the
people as the product of the sugar cane.
On August 1, 1880, ten giucose-factories were
| in operation in the United States consuming
| daily about twenty Thousand bushels of corn.
| At that time also there were in process of
construction nine factories, with total ca
pacity of twenty-five thousand bushels daily.
Probably at the present time one-half of
| these new factories are in running order
The total daily consumption of corn, there
fore, for sugar and sirup-making, is not far
from thirty-five thousand bushels Eleven
| million bushels of corn will be used during
the present year for this purpose, and there
are indications that the amount will be dou-
bled in 1882. The capital invested in the
glucose industry is likewise no inconsidera-
| BILE one. Taking the large and small estab-
daily capacity represents sixty thousand dol
| lars of capital. Over two million dollars are
therefore actively employed in the glucose
works. The number of men employed
amounts to about sixty for each thousand
bushels capacity, making total of twenty
one hundred. On account of the nature of
the process of manufacture the mills are
run night and day. and work is not entirely
suspended on Sunday. All this shows the
ON of ;s
hardly dozen years old. From the best in
formation obtainable, it appears that the
cost of manufacture of glucose and grape
sugar is about one cent. a pound. From
twenty-six to thirty-two pounds are made
from bushel of corn. It is sold by the
manufactures at three to four cents per
pound. In the West the price of corn dur
ing the last year has averaged little over
thirty cents per bushel 1t thus appears that
the manufacture of glucose is a very profita-
BILE industry.
Glucose is used chiefly for the manufac-
ture of table sirups, candies, as food for bees,
for brewing and for artificial honey very
large percentage of all the glucose made is
used for the manufacture of table -sirups
The process of manufacture is very simple
one. The glucose is mixed with some kind
of sugar sirup until the tint reaches
certain standard. The amount of cane sugar
sirup required varies from three to ten per |
cent, according to circumstances. These
sirups are graded A, B, G, etc., the tint |
growing deeper with each succeeding letter. |
When these sirups are sent into the shops, |
they are sold to consumers under such high |
sounding names as ''Maple Drip" 'tBon
Ton," Upper 1en," Magnolia" extra
Choice" Golden Drip" "White-Loat |
Drip" etc. Soft candies, wakes and tsfies, |
and large proportion of stick-candies and
caramels, are made of glucose. Very often
little cane-sugar is mixed with the glucose.
in order to give sweeter taste to the can
dies, but the amount of this is made as small
as possible. Bees eat glucose with the great
est avidity, but honey made by bees which
have free access to glucose differs scarcely at
all from the glucose itself But the quantity
of honey which bee will store away when
fed on glucose is truly wonderful. This
gluttony, however, rapidly undermines the
apiarian constitution, and the bee rarely
lives to enjoy the fruits of its apparent good
fortune. In commercial honey, which is en-
tirely free from bee mediation, the comb is
made of paraffne, and filed with pure glu-
cose by appropriate machinery. This honey,
for whiteness and beauty, rivals the celebra-
ted real white clover honey of Vermont, but
can be sold at an immense profit at one half
The price There is no way of discovering
how much glucose is used by brewers, but it
is believed that the quantity is by no means
small In addition to the uses above men
,ioned, small quantities of glucose are used
by vinegar makers, tobacconists, wine-mak-
srs, distillers, mucilage-makers and perhaps
for some other purposes Grape sugar is
also used for some of the purposes enume-
rated above, but chiefly for the adulteration
IF other sugars When it is reduced to fine ,
powder, it can be mixed with cane-sugar in {
any proportions without altering its appear
ance, and since the grape-sugar costs less
han half the price of cane-sugar this adul
;eration proves immensely profitable.
These rather astonishing and not wholly
pleasing facts and figures are culled from an r
elaborate and interesting article by Prof. Har-
7ey W. Wiley in the Popular Science Monthly
:or June. The question "Is glucose whole
'One artIcie OF IOOo !! TrOIeSSor whey uoos ,
lot hesitate to answer in the affirmative He
ays: Il mean by this, however, glucose
which is properly made. Such a glucose
contains only very little sulphuric acid and
ime, not much more than good spring water,
md perhaps an almost infnitesimal trace of =,
copper, SO slight as only to be detected in
arge quantity of the substance. I do not
loubt but that glucoses have been sold which :
,ntain large quantities of free sulphuric
lid and likewise other injurious ingredi-
nts But these are due to carelessness in
and are not constituents of the
,enuine article" This is encouraging, but it I
,es not alter or mitigate the fact that it is ]
raud to sell glucose for what it is not at r
Jig price Its sale should be brought under 4
roper control by legislation.