Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-12-14
PROGRESS OF CHEMISTRY.
Oasis of the Sciences 1t Furn shes Substt
tutes for Many Stanls-a

SuN9ffs
tutes for Many Staples.
Chemistry is the basis of all the
sciences, and the rate at which il has
been going ahead of late is astonishing
On shelf in the patent Office, at Wash
ington. are a number of bottles contain
ing colognes and various scents. These
were not made from flowers, but are
laboratory compounds, counterfeitiag
the perfumes of the rose and other
kinds of blossoms so perfectly that no
body can tell the difference Nearly
all of them are entirely new Altar of
roses has not yet been produced arti-
ficially, but it is in sight. The chem
lists are approaching it from two direc-
tions. The ethereal oil that gives to
the rose its peculiar fragrance is called
"rhodonol." This oil is found in the
common lemon grass, and also III some
of the geraniums. Efforts are being
made to extract the oil from these
plants, only slight modification being
required 10 transform it into the altar.
At the same time the production of the
altar is being attempted directly from
the elements which nature employs in
its composition.
The production of artificial musk
from coal tar is a wonderful triumph
of synthetic chemistry. It is likely to
drive the real article out of the mar
ket before long. Though not at all the
same thing as real musk, chemically
speaking. it's scent is indistinguishable
from that of the latter. Musk, of
course, is an important article of COM
merce obtained from a gland of the
musk deer that roams the pine forests
| of the Himalayas. The perfumes of all
flowers are due to ethereal oils and
before long all of these will be manu-
featured artifcially. Ethereal oils give
to fruits their delicious fiavors. There
are hundreds of these oils, and every
one Of them can be cOunterfeited cas-
| lily, inasmuch as they are very simple
chemical compounds. 1t doesn't pay
any longer to use real fruit syrups for
soda water, inasmuch as all of them can
be initiated to perfection with artificial
others or by mixtures of others.
| The biggest commercial success in
| the way of artificial fiavoring is vanal-
line. This product is keeping down the
! price of vanilla beans, and it is likely
| to drive the latter out of the market.
! Already the chemists are manufactur-
mig oil of banana, oil of pineapple, oil
of pear, oil of apple, oil of raspberry
] and many others. The essential oil of
banana, obtained by distilling the fruit,
| is identical chemically with the labora-
| tory product. Oil of banana is a COM
pound of acetic acid and amyl alcohol,
| the latter being the chief constituent of
/ fusel OIL Oil of bitter almonds has been
counterfeited; though chemically diff
ferent, it has the same flavor as the real.
The chemists now know how 20 coun-
terfeit Tactic acid, which is the sour
principle of sour milk. They also
make citric acid, which is the sour of
| the lemon A recent achievement of
great Importance is the manufacture
of salicylic acid from carbolic acid.
One of the best remedies for gout and
rheumatism is salicylic acid; also it is
very useful as preservative. Former
| ly it was obtained from the wintargreen
plant and from certain varieties of will
! lows, and it is made by the ton, and is
extremely cheap-too cheap, in fact,
| inasmuch as it is freely employed to
give better keeping quality to bottled
and otherwise preserved foods. 1t kills
the bacteria that produce deeomposi-
ton, but in the stomach it destroys the
| digestive ferments, and on that account
/ il is injurious to health.-N. O. Times
| Democrat.