Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-14
How Glucose is Made.

Apaper on glucose, or starch sugar,
prepared by w. H. Pitt, M. D., and
published in the second annual report of
the New York State Board of Health, is
an interesting description of the nature
and process of manufacture of this SUBJ
stance. Although artificial glucose has
been manufactured to a considerable
extent in some of the countries in Europe
for thirty or forty years, it is only with
in a comparatively short time that it has
found a market in the United States.
Physiologically considered, it is, when
pure and uncontaminated with other
compounds good and wholesome food.
In 1871, Professor Kirchoff, a Russian
chemist, discovered that if starch paste
be boiled for a certain time with a little
sulphuric acid, a part of the starch is
converted into starch sugar OF glucose.
From that time to the present, the man.
ufacture of glucose has been carried on
with varied success. While it is only a
few years since this industry has devel-
oped' to the enormous extent seen in the
factories at Buffalo. Chicago, St. Louis
and Peoria, the daily average consump-
ton of corr in the American and the
Buffalo factories of the city of Buffalo,
is 1880 bushels, the manufacture CIV
ing employment to 1900 men, of whom
800 or 400 are kept at work making
barrels and boxes for shipping the pro-
duct. Starch in green fruits is changed
into sugar in the process of ripening.
In seeds containing the embryo plant,
it is stored up mostly unchanged for the
future growth of the plant, and nature
furnishes the means of its change
into glucose at the proper time.
In imitation of the natural meta
morphosis of starch into sugar, the
chemist can bring about precisely the
same change by adding dilute acids or
malt. The artificial production of glu-
cose from starch by the acid process,
the n in general use, can be most
proftably carried on by using those
grains, tubers or roots which contain
starch in the greatest quantity. In this
country, corn, on account of its album
dance, and the percentage of starch it
contains, is found to be the best ma
terial, but potatoes, for a like reason,
are mostly used in Europe. The pro-
cess of manufacture, up to a certain
stage, is precisely similar to that of the
manuIacCurc OF SCatcn. A1Cer Jne
starch is produced it is treated with
water, and the mixture is drawn off
into wooden c%onverters. The tempera-
ture is raised to PIP degrees Fahrenheit,
and to the starch paste is added from
one and a half to two per cent. of sui
7huric acid, and the whole is boiled
about three hours. At the end of this
time the starch, or as much of it as pos
sible, has been converted into glucose,
and dissolved in the acid water. The
acid sugar solution is now treated with
marble dust or chalk, which combines
with the acid, forming gypsum, which
settles to the bottom, leaving the clear,
sweet water in a nearly neutral condi-
ton. To remove the last traces of sui
phuric acid, lime cream is added until
the test shows no free acid. Other
publications follow, and the liquid is
filtered, after which it is boiled in vacuo
at $50 degrees Fahrenheit. The result
is common glucose. Cane sirup, added
to give color and more sweetness, makes
the sirup sold. by grocers and retail
dealers.-N. w. Christian Aduocate.