Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1883-06-11
HOW GLUCOSE is MADE.

A paper on glucose, or starch
sugar, prepared by w. II. Pitt, NJ.
D., and published in the second an
nual report of the New York State
Board of Health, is an interesting
description of the nature and process
of manufacture of this substance.
Although artificial glucose has been
manufactured to a considerable ex-
tent in some of the countries in Eu-
rope for thirty or forty years, it is
only within comparatively short
time that it has found a market in
the United States. PhysioIogically
considered, it is, when pure and un-
contaminated with other compounds,
a good and wholesome food. In
1911 Prof. Kirchoff, Russian chem
ist, discovered that if starch paste be
boiled for a certain time with a little
sulphuric acid, part of the starch is
converted into starch sugar or glu-
cose. From that time to the present
the manufacture of glucose has been
carried ON with varied success.
While it is only a few years since
this industry has developed to the
enormous extent seen in the factories
at Buffalo, Chicago, st. Louis and
Peoria, the daily average consump-
tion of corn IN the American and the
Buffalo factories of the city of Buff
falo, is IA 800 bushels, the manufac-
ture giving employment to 1,2O0
men, of whom 800 or 400 are kept
at work making barrels and boxes for
shipping the product. Starch ia
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 ma
ture furnishes the means of its change
into glocose at the proper time. In
imitation of the natural metamor-
phosis of starch into sugar, the chem
ist can bring about precisely the same
change by adding dilute acids or
malt. The artificial production of
glucose from starch by the acid pro-
cess, the one in general use, can be
most proitably carried on by using
those grains, tubers or roots which
contain starch in the greatest quanti-
ty. In this country corn, on ac-
count of its abundance. and the per-
centage of corn starch it contains, is
found to be the best material, but
potatoes, for like reason, are most
ly used in Europe. The process of
manufacture, up to a certain stage,
is precisely similar to that of the
manufacture of starch. After the
starch is produced it is treated with
water, and the mixture is drawn off
into wooden converters. The tenn
perature is raised to PIP degrees
Fahrenheit, and to the starch paste
is added from one and half to two
per cent. of sulphuric acid, and the
whole is boiled about three hours
At the end of this time the starch, or
as much of it as possible, 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 set
ties to the bottom, leaving the clear,
sweet water in nearly neutral con-
dition. To remove the last traces of
sulphuric acid, lime cream is added
until the test shows no free acid.
Other publications follow, and the liq-
uid is filtered, after which it is boiled
in vacuum at 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
The result is common glucose. Cane
sugar, added to give color and more
sweetness, makes the syrup sold by
grocers and retail dealers--N. ".
Christian AdUocdte.