Evening star., 1942-09-10
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

few years ago a rare sugar, d-rhibose
of limited use in medicine, cost $4,000
pound
Then chemists at the United States
Bureau of Standards found that at very
small expense it could be extracted from
bakers yeast which in turn can be made
from sulfte liquor, waste product of
paper mills.
Still there was no great use for d-rhi-
bose. Now, however, according to re-
port to the American Chemical Society
it has become needed for the cheap
synthesis of ribof1avin one of the vita
minis essential to life which now is being
put in bread
OF all the thousands of sugars avail
able in nature or which can be synthe-
sized, it was reported. only this one is
suitable for making the vitamin. The
major cost in the past has been the
d-rhibose synthesis.
Through the invention of Swedish
engineer there currently are two plants
in Canada producing the low-cost yeast
needed for the process. The erection of
similar plants in the United States after
the war is contemplated.
Only very small fraction of the tre-
mendous quantities of sulhte liquor now
being dumped into woodland rivers
throughout the country Is required to
produce all of the rare sugar needed for
all the ribof1avin required by the entire
world. Hitherto sulfite liquor has been
almost entirely waste and contaminant
of streams.
The choice of yeast is highly important,
Is was explained. That produced from
grain or molasses is too expensive to
permit an economical d-rhibose- from
yeast operation. The paper mill waste
yeast is preferred in every way.
About eight to ten tons of the liquor
are obtained for every ton of paper or
pulp produced and the disposal of these
has been one of the most pressing prob
lens of the paper industry. Rosin and
lignin, valuable for the manufacture of
plastics, are obtained as by-products OF
the yeast process.
X
What happens to whiskey in aging9
1t is one of the three basic properties
which determine the quality of the bev-
erage, the others being distillation and
fermentation.
Very little is known about 1t. At pres
ent maturing In distillery warehouses
throughout the United States are ap-
proximately 5OoOoO,Ooo gallons, with
an inventory value of close to billion
dollars
An intensive investigation of what Is
happening has just been started and
will continue for eight years, DR.. A. J
Lehman, technical director of one of
the country's largest distilling corpora
tions, has reported to the American
Chemical Society.
The maturing stage, he says, begins
after distillation as soon as the new
colorless whiskey is drawn into standard
lied, charred oak barrels. These barrels
are placed in Government bonded ware
houses. The maturing stage ends with
the withdrawal of the aged whiskey from
the barrels, since after bottling in glass
practically no further changes take place
During this period of maturing, the
whiskey, which Immediately after dis
tillation is crude and unpalatable, un-
dergoes definite changes in staste and
aroma. These changes are caused by
extraction of substances from the wood
oxidation of some of the original SUBJ
stances and also some of those which
have been distracted by the alcohol, and
reactions between the original substances
and those extracted from the wood.
Consequently, DR.. Lehman declares
the development of quality can be to
some extent measured by known physical
changes which can be accurately de-
termined. These changes commonly are
used as guide to determine and meas.
ure quality more accurately than is pos.
sible by taste and smell.
The present work, he indicates, is based
on observation of about $50 barrels sci
aside from regular production at inter-
walls since 1887 From these barrels
samples are withdrawn at various times
These samples carefully are collected
by the plant chemists and analyzed in q
uniform manner. The investigation will
be continued until all the whiskies are
at least eight years old. An enormous
amount of data already has been OBJ.
| tanned.
Reports Another Occasion