Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-07-26

which too great use of the vegetable adul-
terants would cause, q substance called I'm
| iDgs Is addssi This is simple. cheap pre-
parstion of burnt su9sr or caramel. and
gives that ps culiariy aromatic flavor TO the
mixture so much priced by lovers of coffee
| In order to use the many different kinds Of
adulteranfs so that the superficial observer
may not detect them . very ingenious machine
has been patented At the top of this. INFO a
| tube, is placed the carrot or other vegetable,
| handle 10 turned slowly and the carrot comes
| from the bottom of the machine cut into
small pieces exactly similar in shape and size
| to the coffee kernel.
ssThe adulreration of coffee is easy and
common, add il is also very easy to detect A
coffee merchant could tell II at glance II
unground, and by taste if good. The micro
seopic i Examination too easily separates the
genuine from the false. Ground coffee is OF
such q greasy nature that when thrown on
water it floats and does not discolor the water,
while all sdulterants sink and give the water
q brown cslor. Chemical analysis is also a
certain test for deliberations. ALI aduiterants
are not harmful. Very few are actually
poisonous in small quantities, but when an
order for coffee is given. beans carrots and
other things are usually not specially de-
| sired.
with the coffee % milk Cor cream and
sugar are served. Milk, pure and good, has
a rich appearance and pleasant taste. Its
specific gravity ranges from 1929 to 1882.
with an average 1890. If then the specific
gravity is below 1929 the genuineness is
dou btiul; if above 1882 the quality is unusu-
allv good In order to determine the specific
gravity of milk at a glance, an Instrument
called a galsctometer has been invented. To
find the percentage quantity of Cream IN any
quantity of milk, another instrumt nj called d
lactometer Is used The component parts OF
milk, AS shown by a number of anals SEES, are
Cheese matter, 3,64; butter, 3 So; milk
sugar, 40; saline matter, 0.8l; water,
81 80. Several chemists have at different
times manufactured substitute for milk
from chemicals, One of them, very closely
resembling milk in color and taste. is Fifty
grammes of glucose twenty to thirty grammes
of albumeD dried white OF egg), and from
one TO two grammes of the crystals of carbon
ate OF soda In half litre Of water and then
emulsifying with FROM fifty to sixty grammes
Of some fatty substance. The emulsiiyng OF
the mixture is best done at a temperature OF
from l20 degrees to l40 degrees Fahrenheit.
When formed the mixture has the consisten-
cy of cream. and closely resembles milk after
The most common and cheapest adultersnt OF
milk is water. II has been found that large
proportion of the milk furnished to New
York is watered, and the milk then doc,ored
with annatto and starchy matters. Thus the
cup of ground vegetables or spent tan which
is served to the innocent hungry man, may
be further improved by the addition of glu-
cose, fat and other pleasant things.
"To sweeten the delightful mixture there
are some little white Jumps dropped in. The
Jumps are called sugar. Are they sugar?
Possibly. They may, however, be starch.
Starch treated in certain ways can be made
into kind of sugar This product is known
to commerce as glucose, sacctram and Brit
ish sugar, and lie usually used for brewing
purposes, blu. also for adulterating brown
sugar, and for mixing with sugar for sweet
ening candy, jellies and jams. Powdered
| sugar is often and almost always adulterated.
The most common adulterant is kind OF
white earth found on the west coast of Africa
To the naked eye it is exactly like powdered
sugar. and has no taste.
1.-THE bread which is served with the other
things for the breakfast is very frequently
adulterated. The adulterants most common.
ly used are alum or sulphate of copper, to
give solidty to the gluten of damaged -four ;
| or chalk or alum to correct the aciditv of the
poor flour, or rice and potatoes to enable the
bread to carry more water and thus allow
more loaves to the sack. One hundred pounds
of flour should make 1876 pounds of bread
but the art OF the baker has increased this to
as many as $50 loaves.
sin the old times, when every pound OF tea
shipped from China had to pass under the
careful scrutiny of an officer of the East
India Company, it was not frequently adul
terated. Now it is the exception to fine pure
tea. There is in Shanghai certain street
called Maloo. Here live the men and wo
men whose business is to adulterate the tea
The street is too small for vehicles, and so
along the center of it the spent tea leaves
are scattered tor redrying. The redrvng
process is tried so many times that often the
stuff is putrid. Dogs and cats walk around
| on the drying leaves, or make beds of them
to sun themselves on. From the name of the
street the tea mixture is called Maloo. Mil
lions of pounds of leaves of other bushes are
put in with it. Iron filings as well as grains
of copper and mineral matter are mixed with
the leaves before they are curled.
Cocoa contains so much fatty matter.
amounting to more than half its weight, thar
it is very frequently adulterated. The adul-
terapts commonly used are chocolate and
oAluc vi nUH. MustdTu Is huulterdteu Win
flour; pepper with a mixture of gypsum,
mustard husk and a little starch; malt with
ungerminated grain, and tobacco with nearl ~
everything in the vegetable kingdom"
competent authority, speaking of adul-
terants, says 1.-The addition of alum and
sulphate of copper to bread, the facing OF
black tea with black lead and of green tea
with mixture of indigo blue and China clay
add false strength and improve the appear.
snce of the article adulterated. The treat
ment of pickles with salt of copper brightens
| thegreen vegetable color. Ferruginous earth.
are added to sauces, anchovies, potted meat,
and preparation of cocoa. Mineral pigment.
are used to color confectionery. Sulphuric
acid is added to vinegar and lime juice, and
| chicory and catechu to exhausted tea"
| Canned goods are almost always adutera
| ted, and physicians dc clare the imported ones
unfit for use. In general the laws are very
strict concerning adulterants, but, notwith.
standing. they are used in everything PIT
Barnum once SAID: 1.-The American people
like to be humbugged." This may be whv
they do not mind loading their stomachs