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T H E J O U R I V A L O F I N D U S T R I A L Ait’D ENGPATEERING C H E M I S T R Y
The chemist begins to be of value to the wine industry only when he becomes familiar with the wine business and becomes a wine man. When that happens he will know that as wine is a natural and not a synthetic product, he must adjust his scientific knowledge to the nature of the product and not try to change the character of wine to meet his scientific views. As the chemist becomes familiar with the wine he will be able to interpret his analyses correctly, to segregate the sound from the unsound wines and to anticipate their stability. This was most desirable and useFul t o the wine merchant. Pure food laws were coming into effect in European countries. Salicylic acid (the preservative commonly used) had to be abandoned and the chemist was instructed to look for a preservative that could not be detected. At that time benzoates were very difficult of detection and benzoic acid was adopted as a preservative. But analytical science soon caught up, and benzoates also were of no value. The chemist is still looking vainly for a preservative t h a t cannot be detected. As wine makes itself spontaneously when the grapes are crushed, i t was considered a purely natural product and its goodness or badness the result of chance. So we have to this day the much-abused phrase, “the fine vintage of I%-.’’ The reasons for good and bad vintages were unknown. T o be sure, Pasteur had made his classic researches and his views had slowly made themselves felt throughout the world. 1Vhere pure yeast was planted in sterile media, as in beer, the quality of the resulting product was largely dependent upon the quality of the yeast. I n the manufacture of wine, it is obvious that the must cannot be sterilized in the same way t h a t beer can be. The chemist a t this time, being able to anticipate the stability of a natural wine, concentrated his effort upon the production of wines of sufficient stability to keep in a warm climate rather than the finding of a preservative that could not be detected. The use of a preservative in such a wine would only add to the cost and do little, if any, benefit. It holds good in all food industries, I think, that the need for preservatives decreases as knowledge of the product increases. Through the efforts of t h e writer, wine was shipped without preservatives as a n experiment: the first car was shipped with many misgivings. It was expected that every barrel would blow up, and the entire carload be lost. This was a very trying time for the chemist, as his theories were on trial and a failure meant a return to the old regime. The car, however, gave perfect satisfaction and nothing was heard afterwards. From t h a t time on, the use of preservatives decreased and methods for improving the vintage increased; in fact, a chemist’s knowledge took the place of preservatives in the business. The production of stable wine-that is, a wine that does not deteriorate on shipment--is a most complex problem. To go into the problem is outside the province of this short paper. It can be said, however, that if the chemist has been of any benefit t o the wine industry he has been of benefit here. To the direct question-“What has the chemist done for the wine industry?”one can with justice reply : I - B ~ proper methods of handling he has made the use of preservatives unnecessary. n-He has insured the uniformity of the product as completely as seasonal differences will allow. 3-He has reduced the quantity of spoilt wine from 2.5 per cent to less than I per cent (about 0.46 per cent average). 4-He has reduced the quantity of inferior wine from Zj per cent to 5 per cent. (Some grapes always gire inferior wine no matter what care is given to the products. Usually these grapes are those grown on over-irrigated ground and over produce.) One of the most important duties of the chemist is, as we have said, the production of a uniform product, without which uniformity no business can be successful. Some details may not be out of place. There is no difficult37in turning out, for ex-
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ample, a uniform sugar, but a uniform wine is less easy. Every vintage is slightly different, yet if a brand of wine be established it is necessary t o supply your customer always with wine of exactly the same type. Otherwise, the consumer, being used to the one wine, objects t o the other. The wine chemist has to help in the attaining of uniformity. rls the blending of wines is the final operation, and as these blends compose a t times 100 different wines, this is:perhaps one of the most important duties of the wine chemist. Blends are usually made up first in sample, analyzed, blended as nearly as possible t o the composition of the previous blend of this type, and the directions for the blends then distributed to the winery which is to make them up. Bf ter blending, samples are again sent to the laboratory where the chemist again analyzes them to see whether the blends have been properly and uniformly made. The following samples show the method of checking the blending. The analyses of the sample blend made in the laboratory, and the actual blend made in the cellar must agree; otherwise, the blend is not uniform and must be reblended. Per cent alcohol b y volume Winehaven Claret-Blend Sample blend 12.29 12.37 Finished b l e n d . . ~. Wahtoke Port---Blend Sample b l e n d . , . . , , , 20.78 20.78 Finishedblend., , , . ,
. . ..
I
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Grams per 100 cubic centimeters T o t a l Volatile Reducing acidity acidity sugar Tannin No. 485 (265,000 gallons) 0.500 0.060 0.145 0.135 0.510 0,060 0.150 0.140 No. 482 (144,500 gallons) 0.390 0.043 6.60 0.070 0.046 0.390 6.63 0.079
Besides this, the mine chemist has duties in common with all chemists, He must analyze the water and soils of the vineyards owned by his company, analyze the supplies used in the wineries or in the vineyards, advise as t o fertilizers to be used and devise means to gather as many by-products as possible. I must say, in conclusion, that the wine chemist, in spite of temporary discouragements, is having more intimate relations with the Wine Industry. He is, in fact, becoming quite friendly, a n d he has hopes of being on the same good -terms as his brothers in the sugar, dyeing, oil, petroleum, gas, soap and other industries, which the chemist has made famous. MONADXOCR BUILDING,SAXFRAXCISCO
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE CHEMIST TO THE COPPER INDUSTRY B y 1. B. P. HERRESHOIW Vice-President Nichols Copper Company and Consulting Engineer General Chemical Company
During the last forty years there has been a n enormous increase in the copper mined, smelted and refined in the United States. The following figures clearly show this increase : l i , 5 0 0 long tons ..................... ; . . 64,708longtons 1894 ~ . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . , . 158,120longtons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362,739 long t o n s 1904 1912 ........................... . . . . . . 563,;OOlongtons
I n 1 8 i 4 the United States produced 1884
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Of the 17,500 tons produced in 1 8 7 4 ~Calumet & Hecla produced 87 per cent. This was before the producing days of Montana and Arizona copper, which began in about 1883. It is fair t o assume that there were very few, if any, chemists employed in the copper industry in the United States in 1874. At that time, among the few laboratories in New York City, the largest one made only one or two copper analyses per year, and it was known then that Calumet & Hecla had employed one of the very few expert chemists in the country to help them, if possible, out of some chemical difficulty. About 1884 a few chemists were employed in the earlier work of developing going on in Montana and Arizona. You will notice the marked increase in the output of copper from the years 1884 t o 1894. It was not until after 1890 that the real value of chemists in improving operations in mining, as well as in concentrating, roasting, smelting and refining copper was fully appreci-
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T H E JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
ated. From that time to the present the value of chemists in the mining and metallurgical work in the production of copper has very greatly increased, and the number of chemists employed is greater in proportion than the enormous increase in copper produced I n the large copper mines of this country chemical analyses are made and used to very great advantage in the control of mining operations and also in connection with sorting the ore before crushing Ores from different parts of a mine have varying percentages of copper and differ often to a great extent in their fluxing properties, so that a bedding system is sometimes employed, placing the various grades of ore in different beds of bins. All of this ore has to be analyzed and then careful chemical calculations are made by the metallurgists, so that the proper proportion from each bin is mixed when delivered in the smelter. I n the concentration of ores the process is, to a considerable extent, a mechanical one, although of late electricity for separation and concentration is employed, and also a process that uses a moderate amount oi oil which facilitates a more perfect separation of the mineral from the gangue. Whichever method is employed, a control by chemical analysis is necessary to show the gains or losses in copper. I n the successful smelting operations a t many of our large mines the metallurgist who calculates the best smelting mixture of ores and fluxes to be introduced into the smelter, has to be not only an able chemist, but should be a physicist and engineer as well, in order to obtain the most economical results. To carry out this important work a great many chemical analyses are necessary, for the best results in roasting ores in the modern roasters can be produced only by the full employment of chemical analyses and physical tests. The United States mines more than 5 0 per cent of the copper of the world; 75 per cent of the copper of the world is refined in this country and the larger proportion of this refining is done by electrolysis I n carrying on this electrolytic work the chemist has been responsible for a very large proportion of the improvements that have been made in the last twenty years, so t h a t chemistry has shown itself to great advantage not only in improving the electrolytic methods of refining, but also in the preceding methods of mining and smelting. I n the electrolytic refining of copper, samples representing 80 to IOO tons of blister copper are analyzed for copper, gold and silver in order to arrive a t the value of the lot. Formerly the analyses of copper were not exact enough to satisfy the buyers and sellers The chemists theii came together and improved the methods so much that perfect satisfaction now exists. It is not unusual in a copper works laboratory to have two chemists make independent analyses of the same sample and turn in results, which agree to within o 01 per cent on blister copper and 0 0 0 2 per cent on refined copper. More than one-half of the copper refined is cast into wire bars and then rolled and drawn into wire, the bulk of which is used for electric conduction. A very small quantity of arsenic in copper greatly lowers its conductivity; a quarter of one per cent cuts down its electric conductivity from IOI to 45 Refined copper for this purpose should contain less than one-thousandth of one per cent arsenic in order to satisfy the consumer. The chemists have made such results possible by their able research work and also by their remarkable improvements in analytical methods for copper and arsenic and their wonderfully exact methods for determining quantitatively minute quantities of bismuth, antimony, tellurium and selenium in copper. These results could not have been obtained twenty years ago, and forty years ago even the best chemist in the country could not have dreamed of doing such work. I n the great improvements in the copper industry our chemists have performed a very important part in a very able manner. The great consumers of copper in large manufacturing industries of this and other
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countries, and the whole world, owe to the chemists connected with our copper industries a debt of thanks for their masterly work. 25 BROAD STREET, NEWYORK
CONTRIBUTIONS OF T H E CHEMIST T O T H E CORN PRODUCTS INDUSTRY B y E. T. BEDFORD President Corn Products Refining Company
The industry of glucose and grape sugar, or, as it is known in this country, the industry of corn products, is based upon a n epoch-making discovery of a chemist-the conversion by chemical means of starch into reducing sugars. The chemist has been inseparably connected with this industry from its beginning. It was started in Germany a little over one hundred years ago, and due to the limitation of the products-there being only two, glucose and grape sugar-the field and the activities of the chemist were limited correspondingly, but conditions in this country afforded him much larger opportunities, and I am glad to be able to say that the American chemist did not overlook his opportunity, but was quick to make the most of it. Owing t o the character of the raw material employed in this countrycorn-our products are no longer limited to two; the chemist has added to them until their number now exceeds one hundred. We produce a large number of different grades of glucose, or corn syrup, suitable for every conceivable purpose, either as food or in the arts. Manifold as the technical uses are, they are overshadowed by the great value of glucose as a food. This fact is emphasized in these days of high-priced food. I t s importance and significance as an ideal food for the masses was pointed out very forcibly by Prof. Graham Lusk, who showed conclusively that glucose is the cheapest food-fuel known. Grape sugar, or corn sugar, also is an important product, and is manufactured in a variety of grades. Due to the great care which the chemist exercises in devising ways and means of controlling the process of manufacture in all of its details, the quality of the articles produced is of such excellence as to have secured for this country by far the largest portion of the world’s trade in these commodities. While the chemist was most active from the very beginning in developing the process for making glucose and grape sugar and in steadily improving their quality, he also demonstrated his value to the industry by developing new staple products such as starches for culinary and technical purposes, of dextrins and gums and various sugars, which in point of purity rival cane and beet sugar. These products are now manufactured in this country in very large quantities and are being shipped to all parts of the world. A brief reference to statistics will illustrate the effect of such work. The corn manufactured into corn products in this country amounts to 50,000,ooo bushels per year. It is converted into 800,000,000 pounds of corn syrup, 600,000,000 pounds of starch, 230,000,000 pounds of corn sugar, 625,000,000 pounds of gluten feed, 75,000,ooo pounds of oil and go,ooo,ooo pounds of oil cake. The chemist soon recognized the large possibilities which lay in the utilization of certain constituents of the raw material which were allowed to run to waste. First among these were the nitrogenous substances, commonly classified under the name of “gluten.” Their running to waste was stopped; the product was collected, washed and dried, and put upon the market as a cattle feed of great nutritive value; it has materially increased the revenue obtainable from corn. I should like to say in this connection that I hope t h e chemist will again concentrate his attention upon this product and within a reasonable time convert it into an article of food to be used by man rather than by animals. The recovery of the outer hull of the corn, the bran, followed next, and by applying practically the same methods it was ob-
