Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-06-25
An IMPORTANT FooD REFORM.

The Production OF Chemically Pure
Cream OF Tartar-Total Elimination
ofAuLimc Impurities-New Discov-
cries In Rehning-A Long Stride To-
ward Pure Food.
IPfom the New YORK Tribune.l
Discoveries of much Importance on
account of the relation they bear to-
ward more wholesome food supply
and consequently upon sthe public
health, have been recently inade in the
process of refining cream Of tartar.
Cream of tartar, as Is well known, is a
bitartrate of potassa purified from the
crude tartar, or argol, which collects in
a crystalline deposit upon the bottom
and sides of wine casks during the fer
mentation of the wine. This tartar, in
its crude state, contains lime and other
impurities, which no process OF refin-
ing, prior to that here described, was
able to entirely remove. IL has been
possible, 1t is true, to neutralize the
lime to some extent by the aid of chem
icals, and this method was resorted to
in order to procure cream of tartar in
small quantities for pharmaceutical pur-
poses; but it was open to serious objec-
ton in view of the fact that the chemi-
Gals employed for this purpose were not
always washed out but remained in
quantities that were uncertain and pre-
| judicial to its quality. The supposed
Iimpossibility of removing the lime has,
accordingly, caused cream of tartar to
be classed and sold as pure when it did
not contain more than five cent. of this
| limpurity. The major part, however, of
that used in commerce, or for culinary
purposes, contains the tartrate of lime
to an extent much greater than five per
cent, not infrequently being found,
upon analysis, debased to degree
eGualing one-fOurth or more of its en-
tire weight.
In II report upon the subject of food
adulteration made to the New York
State Board of Health by Professors
Chandler and Love, it is stated that of
| twenty-seven samples of cream of tar
tar bought from dealers as pure, six
teen were adulterated with various sub
stances from three to ninety-three per
cent, while of the remainder all con-
tanned tartrate of lime, some as high as
1859 per cent.
The serious character of this adulter-
alton is more readily appreciated when
| it is recollected how largely cream of
tartar enters into the preparation of
the food of every family. In connec-
ton with soda in baking powder it is
the chief agent now employed for rails
ing and making light and digestible all
our biscuit, cake, and other pastry, and
is besides, in many communities, super
seding the old-fashioned yeast for all
leavening purposes, so that it is EN-.
ployed to some extent in almost every
meal of which we eat. The amount of
cream of tartar used in this country in
a year in baking powder and otherwise
in the preparation of food, is estimated
at ten million pounds. If this were
ninety per cent. pure-a high estimate
we would consume one million pounds
or more of lime annually as substi-
tute for bread. So large a deterioration
becomes appreciable in the deprivation
elements not only, but if, as is now sup
posed, this excess of lime taken into the
system has relation to the painful af-
fections of the kidneys SO prevalent in
this country, its bearing upon the health
of the entire community is too import
ant to be overlooked.
The new process by which cream of
tartar is produced 100 per cent. pure
that is, with the lime totally eliminated
by treating the crude material under
pressure instead of using any chemical
whatever for the purpose, was the dis
covery originally of a German chemist,
but has been developed and perfected
by the Royal Baking Powder Company
Of this city, through whose efforts q
few years since in behalf of high
standard of purity in food, the public
was rid of the poisonous alum baking
powders at that time SO prevalent.
The determination of this company
to place upon the market only abso-
lutely pure goods, and the impossibility
Of doing this from the cream of tartar
of commerce, made it apparent that
some new method must be sought by
which cream of tartar could be pro-
duced in large quantities, free from lime
and chemically pure. The cream of
tartar refiners of this country and Eu-
rope when approached upon the sub
ject, declared such result impossible,
and declined to incur the expenditure
Baking Powder Company, accordingly,
resolved to solve the problem for itself;
and, having secured the aid of the best
chemists of Europe and America, pro-
ceeded with its investigations and dis
coveries until the result, after several
years of labor and the expenditure of
over half q million dollars in the pur-
chase of patents, perfecting of processes,
and the erection of buildings and ma
chinery, was reached in the complete