The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-29

fields, like the madden fields, will be
abandoned, industrial laboratories hav-
ing usurped their place.
TEA, COFFEE, AND COCOA MIGHT
BE MADE NOW.
80 far as dyestuffs were 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 tobocco and tea and coffee,
however, synthetic chemistry ap-
peared to be getting nearer home, in
vading the family ciccle, so to say.
Tea and coffee could now be made
artificially," he said, "if the necessity
should arise, or the commercial oppor-
tunity, through the necessary suppli-
mentary mechanical inventions had
been reached. The essential principle
of both tea and coffee is the same COM
pound. 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.
Uric acid transforms into xanthine.
Xanthine yields theobromine.
Theobromine yields theme of caffeine
Theobromine you remember is the
essential principle of cocoa. Thus, you
! see, synthetic chemistry is getting
ready to furnish from its laboratories,
the three great non-alcoholic beverag es
! in general use. The tea plants, coffee
shrubs. and cocoa trees must some day
follow the lead of madden and indigo
And what about tobaceo?'
HIGH-GRADE ARTIFICIAL TOBAC-
co QUITE POSSIBLE.
1.-THE essential principle of tobacco, as
you know, is nicotine. l have obtained
pure nicotine, whose chemical constitu-
ton is perfectly understood, by treat
i ing salomine, natural glucoside, with
hydrogen. Synthetic chemistry has not
made nicotine directly as yet, but it
has very nearly reached it, and the
/ Laboratory manufacture of nicotine may
fairly be expected at any time Conine.
the poisonous principle of hemlock. has
| been made alphabetically, and it is so
close in its constitution to nicotine, and
so clearly of the same class, that only
its transformation into nicotine remains
to be mastered, a problem which is
not very difficult when compared with
others which have been solved. The
parent compound from which the nico-
tine of commerce will be made exists
largely in coal tar"
You believe, then, that all cur tobac-
co will some day be made aTtifically?''
ITO as great an extent as appears
desirable. The choicer growths, with
their individual characteristics, from
individual circumstances of growth,
will be longest cultivated. The tobacco
leaf is simply so much dried vegetable
matter, in which nicotine is naturally
stored.
Having weakly permitted his beef
steak to be carried by storm, the writ
er was all the more inclined to defend
his tobacco. But surely" said he
there is something more in fine tob-
acco than merely nicotine and veg
etable fibre"
Precisely. Leaving aside what the
manufacturer may add there are del
icate flavoring oils which chemistry
win also create. Vanilla. f1avorine
compound of very general use, has
always been obtained until recently
from the tonka bean. Now artificial
vanillin, the same compound made
chemically, threatens to drive the
natural vanilla out of the European
market and will doubles succeed il
doing so as its manufacture is perfect
ed. In fact some Of the cholocate anC
confectionery manufacturers are al
ready taking it up. All the essentia
oils will eventually be made direct
Vanilla is very near in its chemica
4 constitution to the aromatic. the dis
tictive principal of cloves and all
spice Artificial cloves and allspice viii
probably come next. Flower perfumes
too, have been fully analysed, and il
time will be largely synthesized. One
of them, meadow sweet, is beine
largely compounded and sold. There
are. consequently, no virtues in the
natural tobacco which are likely to bt
missed in the artificial. In fact The
contrary state of affairs is more prob
liable.
l must reserve to a subsequent let
ter what further Prof. Berthelot haC
to say to me in exposition and support
of his startling prophecy; for there
was much else of the highest interest