Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1920-10-22

Chicago.-Eggs can now be pre-
served by putting on their shells a
thin film of aluminium soap. The
process. one of the newer methods
employed I'm guarding the product of
the lowly hen from spoilage, Is de-
scribed In the current number Of the
Journal Of Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry.
Its description occurs In an article
by Drs. Hilton Ira Jones and Robert
Du Bots of the department of chemis-
try at the Oklahoma Agricultural and
Mechanical college at Saltwater,
Okla, who have made an intensive
study of the subject.
Those scientists began their re-
searches on this line year or so ago
and have not only suggested important
improvements In egg preservation but
have prepared catalogue Of the books
and articles which constitute the first
photography of the salvage Of the egg.
one.Quarter Spoilage.
The practical bearing Of their In
vestigation is shown By their state
ment that egg dealers handling mil
from spoilage as high as 25 per cent
Beginning with the earliest expedi-
ent, that of burying or packing the
eggs In an alright substance. the au-
thors carry their scientific readers
through the entire range of the litera-
tura of aoo praSarvotiop from colt m
water glass. They find various faults
with the sealing agents employed.
They then tried aluminium soap, and
recommend 1t for further investigation
and experiment. This substance can
be prepared with soap solution. to
salt of aluminium, such as the alum Of
commerce, which Is sulphate Of alu.
minum and potassium. Although the
resulting precipitate Is technically a
soap, ii is insOluble In water and must
be dissolved by some such agent as
gasoline, so that film may be quick
ly and cheaply formed upon the shell
by dipping the eggs in solution Of 1t.
The soap itself Is odOrless and taste
less and therefore makes an ideal seal
er, since II has no effect upon the egg.
The experimenters found. however,
that the usual solvent, gasoline, left a
slight taste on the shell of the egg
which was impaired to the contents.
Two methods of solving the problem
of obtaining a tasteless application
were tried and both were successful.
Wholly Satisfactory.
"The first" to quote the authors,
"was to protect the eggs by a prelim-
mary coating before sealing with the
gasoline solution. The best agent for
this purpose is dilute sulphuric acid.
When eggs are immersed In the acid
effervescence continues for about ten
seconds and ceases as a coating Of cal
cium sulphate is formed in the pores
of the egg shells. The calcium sui
plate acts as polarizer and stops the
reaction. The eggs are then dipped
without drying into the aluminium soap
solution and placed In n special drip
ping rack. The method of double
sealing with surphuric acid seems
wholly satisfactory. The contents OF
the egg are sweet, and no taste Of gas
oline can be detected. The extra cost
of the preliminary sealing, either In
time or money, Is negligible.
"Ihe necessity of double dipping Is
without doubt weakness and a bet
ter solution Of the problem was found.
Gasoline is composed largely of PEN
tame, a practically tasteless, odorless
and colorless liquid. Since gasoline
dissolves aluminium soap well, 1t Is
certain that its chief constituent
would do so, and the problem was to
prepare chemically pure pentane on
a large scale.
1.-THE best method of preparing PEN
tame seems to be the reduction of amy
lene. A very convenient and cheap
process of making amylene or pen
tame has recently been devised by DR..
Roger Adams. BY fractional distilla-
ton practically odorless and tasteless
pentane can be produced. The cheap
ness with which pentane can now be
made and the facility with which the
product can be used to dissolve alumni.
mum soap seem to make this solution
of the problem satisfactory In every
way"