The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-04-17
SUGAR BOWL DYNAMITE.
Making From Sweets the Glycerine
of High Explosives.

A few cubes of sugar and presto!
A she'll breaks over the terrain to
shiver into fragments which MAIN
and kill! Just few tablespoonfuls
of molasses and science is enabled to
blow the gnarled stumps out of the
| unyielding earth with the same ma
terial which makes the farmer wife's
gingerbread.
By the direction of Daniel c. Ro-
per, the commissioner of internal
revenue of the United States treasu.
ry department, a new process has
been perfected for obtaining glycer-
inc from sugar and sweets. The ex-
periments on which the report has
been filed were made under the su-
pervision of the chief chemist of the
department, A. B. Adams, member
of the American chemical society.
When DR.. Alonzo Taylor was in
Germany about two years ago he
found that the Teutons had run short
of fats from which glycerine is usu-
ally made and had raided the sugar
bowl. It was on this information
that a special laboratory was estab-
lished in the United States treasury
and several experts, including John
R. Eoff, W. E. Linder and B. F. Bey-
er began the researches into this
method of obtaining glycerine.
Pasteur, the noted French chemist,
had years before discovered that a
small quantity of glycerine develop
ed in the fermentation of sugar and
that it was traceable in wine and
beer. The chemist, therefore, fer
mented sugars and molasses with
yeast and from the mash thus obtain
ed produced the glycerine. The wave
Of prohibition which is about to
sweep the country will not stop the
distillation of alcohol for industrial
and mechanical purposes and for fu-
ell. There will probably be more al
cohol distilled than ever before, but
it will be denatured and made abso-
lutely unfit for drinking purposes.
The manufacturing chemists of the
United States are preparing none the
less to produce it on a larger scale
than ever before, subject to the su-
pervision of the department of inter-
nal revenue.
Several large concerns are making
alcohol from cheap molasses brought
from the West Indies. This molasses,
which is uneatable is known as
''black strap" The treasury depart
ment of the internal revenue chem
lists have been able, however, to fer
ment it and to obtain not only alco-
hol but to so use the residue that
they get glycerine.
Four lots of "black strap" of 1000
gallons each, turned out very ex-
cellent quantity of glycerine. There
are 100 gallons of this clear dyna-
mite glycerine as it is called, now on
exhibition in the treasury depart
ment. Samples of it treated with nj
trio acid by a we'll known firm of ex-
plosive makers at the request of the
government, produced as good a nj
troglycerine as the market affords.
Nitroglycerine, when incorporated
with pulp or other inert substances,
becomes dynamite. Thus out of the
simple sweets of the sugar bowl
comes forth the strength which will
rend the rock.
Now that the was is over the de-
mand for high explosives will not be
so great, but at the same time,there
are many uses to which it can be
turned in times of peace. 1t is es-
pecially valuable for blowing up
heavy and clay soils which would or
dinarily resist the plow Of the far
mer. Excellent crops are produced
from land treated in this way and
general shaking up is conducive of
the better action of the nitrifying
bacteria in the ground.