Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1916-11-28
New Discoveries.

New Discoveries.
The latest meeting of the American
Chemical Society brought out . number
of scientific papers containing new dis.
coveries of interest to housewives.
It was reported, among other matters,
that most efficient method OF removing
iron stains from cloth 10 Is per cent
solution OF titanium trichlorid I'll Cit.
applied cold to tho rust spot. The 70.
agent 10 unfortunately, expensive. Meth.
DDS more generally available are boiling
for several minutes In solutions Of pc.
tassium acid tartrste (cream Of tartar),
tartaric acid, or cit-ic acid. Especially
practical devices are boiling in the juice
of grapefruit, pineapple, or rhubarb; OF
In an infusion Of tho leaves and stems OF
the common begonia. All these have
the advantage over the familiar hydro
cloric or oxalic acids that they are less
apt to injure fabric or color.
A study of the action Of acid foods on
fifteen standard makes of enamelled
ware showed solution in the food OF
both lead and anthony. The lead, In
general, amounted to less than two parts
In . million; but one sample of cranberry
sauce showed seventy times this amount
of antimony. Apparently, then, 1t Is, on
the whole, better to use some other
sort of cooking utensil for very sour
visnds.
"Ready made" Hamburg steak also
proves something of risk. Twenty
samples bought In the open market
showed, in more than half, above ten
million bacteria to the cubic centimeter,
about twenty times as many as In fairly
decent milk. Meat ground to order,
better still, ground at home, seems to be
the part Of wisdom.
On the other hand, q detailed exami-
nation of some hundreds of msnufactur-
ed foods showed that reputable produc-
ers, nowadays, virtually never adulter'
ate or misbrand any of their goods, while
"the adulteration that represents seri.
Gus menace to health is practically non
exist ent."
But the most suggestive paper of the
meeting, from the point of view of the
ousekeeper, was an elaborate study OF
the "stalipg" of bread. 1t 10 we'll known
that the spOngy texture of good bread is
due to the bubbles of carbon dioxide gas
formed by the yeast. It is also well
known that all hot gases contract great
ly on cooling, and that carbon dioxide In
particular is very much more soluble In
cold water than in hot.
When, therefore, bread fresh from the
oven Is cooled, the carbon dioxide of the
open spaces shrinks to much less
than its former volume, while at the same
time this diminished quantity 10 still
further reduced by solution In the mois.
ture of the bread. The result is partial
vacuum within the loaf. Air Is, there
fore, sucked into the bread to fill the va.
cant space.
1t now appears that the stating of bread
is caused by the action of the oxygen of
this air on the proteins Of the -four. But
If the bread is kept In an atmosphere OF
carbonic acid, this gas will be drawn in
instead of air, and no such action will
occur.
In practice, 1t IL found sufficient mere
ly to cool the bread in the carbon dioxid.
The loaf then becomes filed with the
inert gas, which only very gradually diff.
fuses out and lie replaced by air. Bread
thus treated, instead of stating in few
hours, remains fresh for two or three
weeks.
The idea of the inventor is to apply
the method commercially on a large
scale, using the waste carbon dioxid
from beer brewing. But 1t is obviously
''up to" some ingenious housekeeper to
work out the idea in the kitchen.