The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-08-15

milk, eggs, meat and flour will in the
future be made in factories?"
why not, if it proves cheaper and
better 10 make the same materials than
TO grow them? The first steps, and you
know that it is always the first step
that counts. have already been taken.
1t is many years, You must re-
member, since first succeeded in max
ang fat direct from its elements. I do
not say that we will give you artificial
beefsteaks at once, nor do l say that we
shall ever give you beefsteaks as we
now obtain and cook it. We shall give
you the same identical food, however,
chemically, digestively, and nutrively
speaking. It's form Will differ. because
IL will probably be a tablet. But il viii
be a tablet Of any color or shape that is
desired, and will, think, entirely satisfy
the epicurean senses of the future for
you must remember that the beefsteak
Of today is not the most perfect OF pict-
ures, either in color or composition"
This declaration from so high an au-
thoriJy was somewhat staggering. 1t
was an unexpected blow at tender
CASUALLY TENDER and lOng-loved house
hold idol. The common or garden beef
steak suddenly took upon Itself a poetry
and a pathos in the mind Of the writer.
which could only have been born Of its
prospective approximation. The idea. or
glass COWS ana Ufdcc DCtLSAtdh UlcAllAllcs,
was truly scientific, but there was a lack
Of poetry in it which was scarcely mOdi-
fed by the hope that the beefsteaks of
the future might, could, and would be
the reverse OF tough.
ITO comprehend what I mean by the
tendency of the time" continued Prof.
BerthelOt. you must consider the long
evolution which has characterized the
development OF foods and the major part
which chemistry has played therein. The
point is that from the earliest time we
have steadily increased our reliance upon
chemistry in food production, and just
as steadily diminished our reliance upon
nature. Primitive man ate his food and
vegetables raw. When he began TO cook,
when he first used fire. chemistry made
its first intrusion upon the sphere OF
nature. Today the fire in the open air
has been replaced by the kitchen. Every
cooking utensil now used represents
some one of the chemical arts. Stoves.
saucepans and pottery are the results Of
chemical industries. So, also, compounds,
food compounds, which-like sugar, for
instance-have been subjected to a more
or less complex chemical treatment in
their journey from the field in which they
grew TO the kitchen in which thy are
used. The ultimate result is clear-chem-
istry has furnished the utensils, II has
prepared the foods, and now it only re-
mains for chemistry to make the foods
llltltlStlNNcs MlllNn II has dAltciNlg NC III
10 do
Before proceeding to describe what
synthetic chemistry has already done in
this direction, the professor said by way
of preface:
There is a distinction which 1 would
like to make at this point between the
laboratory stage and the commercial
stage Of any given discovery i'm food
making. From the scientific standpoint
the laboratory result is the important
one. As you and all the world know
the commercial result follows inevitably
In time. Once science has declared that
a desired end is attained the genius Of
invention fastens upon the problem and
the commercial production of the result
slowly attainS perfection by gradually
improved processes at less and less cost.
Take aluminium, for instance. Once
very expensive metal, its steadily de-
creasing cost in production is bringing
it within the reach OF all. The use OF
sugar is universal Sugar has recently
been made in the laboratory from glycer-
in. which / first made direct from syn
thetic alcohol. Commerce has now taken
up the question and 1 see that an inVen-
ton has recently been patented by which
sugar Is 10 be made upon a commercial
scale from two gases at something like
\ cent per pound. As TO whether or not
the gentlemen who own the process can
do what the inventor claims, il is neither
opinion II may be that the commercial
synthetic manufacture of sugar is a more
difficult task than they imagine. have
not the slightest doubt, however, that
sugar will eventually be manufactured
on the largest scale synthetically and
that the culture of the sugar-cane and
the beet root will be abandoned because
they have ceased TO pay. Look at
alizarin. There is one result OF the same
kind that synthetic chemistry has al
ready brought about"
What is alizarin?'
"AliZarin is a compound whose syn
thetic manufacture by chemists mas de-
stroyed a great agricultural industry. 1t
is the essential commercial principle Of the
madden root, which was once used in dye
ing wherever dyeing was carried on. The
madden root was grown to an enormous
extent in Persia. India and the Levant.
and spread from there to Spain, Holland
and the Rhine provinces. Continental
Europe used it in enormous quantities.
and twenty years ago its annual import
into England was valued at $3.50. 900. The
discovery was made, however, that
tically, and the artificial production of It
has so far supplanted the natural that
the madden fields, so far as Europe Is
concerned, have practically ceased to eX-
ist So with indigo. The chemists have
now succeeded in making pure indigo di-
rect from its elements. and II will soon
be a commercial product. Then the indi-
go fields, like the madden fields, will be
abandoned, Industrial laboratories having
usurped their place.
so far as dye stuffs We're concerned.
the Intervention of chemistry seemed not
unnatural. They were chemical products
and seemed TO fall naturally into the
sphere Of the chemist. When it came to
tobacco and tea and coffee, however, syn
thetic chemistry appeared to be getting
nearer home, invading the family circle.
so to say 1t appeared, however, that not
only are tobacco and tea and coffee to
be manufactured directly and artificially
but there is substantial promise that such
tobaccos, such teas, and such coffees as
the world has never seen will be the out
come. This promise may be understood
In two ways, but the highest superlative
is the degree in which il is TO be taken,
and the development Of the point was full
Of interest.
Tea and coffee could now be made
artifically," he said. IF the necessity
should arise or the commercial opportuni-
ty through the necessary supplementary
mechanical inventions. had been reached.
The essential principle of both tea and
coffee is the same compound. The DE-
ference of name between theme and
caffeine has arisen from the sources from
which they were obtained, but they are
chemically Identical in constitution. 1t
has often been made alphabetically. The
scale of manufacture Of synthetic ladder
is as follows:
Carbon and oxygen make carbonic
oxide.
"Carbonic oxide and chlorine make
carbonyl chloride.
"Carbonyl chloride and ammonia make
urea, whence uric acid.