The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-26
LITTLE KERNEL OF CORN
 AND ITS MANY GOOD USES

Boston. April 25.-Although health foods for humanity are much more widely ad- vertised, there are also what might be called. without any great stretch of the imagination. health foods for animals. Some of the most important are by-pro- ducts in the series of chemical operations that Is constantly turning millions of ker- nels of corn into starch and glueose-the first product serving humanity, to the tune of many thousand tons yearly, in the preparation of it's cotton goods. and the second eventually reaching the hu- man stomach, in even larger quantities. through the pleasant medium of confec- tionery or soda water. An ordinary ear of corn contains many industrial possi- bilities-even including corn cob pipes, and vulcanized rubber mats for libraries and public buildings-many Of which have been developed only during the last two decades. On their commercial side the total value of these products has been re- gently illustrated by the formation of a highly capitalized combination of the corn product interests, while, on the theoreti- cal side, the subject forms an important field of study in theoretical laboratories as, for example, in the starch and sugar laboratories of the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology, where it was first made matter of student investigation.
 Important as are the by-products oh-
 tained from corn, the ultimate products
 of the corn kernel, starch and glucose, are
 by far the most important Glucose, thick, colorless syrup, is indeed very gem
 orally known, and has a very ill-deserved popular reputation as an adulterant. As a matter of fact 1t Is not, broadly speak ing, an adulterant at all, but a valuable commercial agent which accomplishes cer- tain ends in candy making and in the preparation of soda fountain syrups with out being in the least injurious. Vast quantities of it are used yearly in making confectionery, preserves, and fruit syr- ups, partly because 1t Is more economical than ordinary sugar, but quite as much because 1t is better adapted to the pur- pose As a foundation material it takes any flavor successfully but unlike sugar 1t doesn't shrystalize out afterward and the confectionery will therefore keep long CT in It's original condition. The objection most commonly brought against glucose, that a mineral acid is used in producing 1t, is altogether irrational The actual amount of acid Is not more than one pound In a thousand, and even ths small amount must be quite neutralized, and so got rid of, by the very process of refining before the glucose has reached the stage of perfection that makes it a marketable commodity.
 An ordinary kernel of corn, as 1t comes to the laboratory. contains a germ, or embryo plant, surrounded by a mass of cells containing albuminous matter and separate grains of starch. These ele- ments. which practically nourish the little plant germ somewhat as a chicken Is nourished in an egg, are really the ele- ments of perfect food. proteine-ot which the white of an egg Is familiar example-containing sugar, starch and fats. Their presence is what gives the kernel of corn so many commercial possi- bilities. And without going Into the tech nicaities of producton--steep tubs. rolls, shakers, filter presses, starch runs, or what not-the gradual evolution of these different products is an interesting exam pie of the power of modern chemical me- chanism to extract long list of unex- pected utilities out of a single natural substance. Sun, wind. rain, air and soil store up these various utilities and mod ern humanity is always making new, quicker, and better ways of extracting and applying them.
 When the kernel of corn begins going through its transforming processes one of the first results Is separation of the germ. The germs. separated and ground, are reduced to a pasty mass which is sub- jected to pressure and so divided into clear, yelowish oil on the one hand and dry compact cakes on the other. The oil is used In the manufacture of soaps or Is vulcanzed, mixed with bits of cork and so transformed into rubber mats or bi- cycle handles. The dry cakes are largely exported as cattle feed the amount of both healthful and nutritious What is left after the germ of the corn has been extracted continues on It's way to the final and vastly more important products starch and glucose.
 But before the corn becomes starch two other bi-products are produced, the first being corn bran, or wet feed as 1t is called In factory practice. and the second gluten meal. Both of these products are cattle foods, the gluten being particularly rich in albuminous substances and used, for example, for mixing with the regular food of a dairy farm in order to improve the quality and quantity of the milk. Gluten, indeed which In dried form be- comes gluten meal and so goes to the cows, Is derived from the corn during the of the starch that goes to the big textile mills and there plays an im- portant part In the weaving and dyeing of cotton fabrics, or else to the confectioners. where thousands of tons are used yearly as moulds in which to cast the candy anil mals, that we see so commonly at Christi mas. The grape sugar, so called. which