NEWS SCRIPTS U.S. patent issued on lowcarbohydrate beer
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The editors of Industrial ir Engineer ing Chemistry, who spend a lot of their time at the forefront of chemical engineering science and process tech nology, stopped in the other day to point out the issuance of U.S. Patent 3,379,534 on "Preparation of a Low Dextrin Beer by Using Amyloglucosidase." The patent was issued to Hersch Gablinger, Basel, Switzer land. The exclusive U.S. licensee is Rheingold Breweries of Brooklyn, N.Y. Gablinger's Beer, as the Rheingold product is called, is a low-carbohy drate (dextrin) beer designed not sur prisingly for people who like beer but not carbohydrates. Gablinger's is sold largely along the East Coast at the moment, but it's working its way grad ually into the hinterland. The patent has nine claims that cover "A process for preparing a beer which remains clear and substantially free from haze for at least about six months which comprises adding amyloglucosidase to the materials being brewed during the mash and/or fer mentation period so as to reduce the amount of dextrins to below a major part of the dextrins which would oth erwise remain in the beer, and a beer having from substantially no dextrins to less than a major part of dextrins normally present in beer."
Bad Latin grammar draws sharp attack from readers News Scripts has been attacked briskly of late for wantonly butchering Latin grammar in a story about harpsichords (C&EN, April 22, page 9 4 ) , which probably proves something about the human race (Homo sap.). The word at issue is "plectrum," described by Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (second edition) as "A small thin piece of ivory, metal, etc., used in playing on the lyre and other plucked
stringed instruments." [Such as the harpsichord.] The singular of this word is "plec trum," and the plural is "plectra," as pointed out by these correspondents, some of them so gripped by emotion that their letters are barely legible, "How shocking," wrote one (to the Editor), "to learn that your writer cannot spell." "Sir (or Madam)," wrote another . . . "Get thee to a dic tionary It is true, not to say obvious, that "your writer" knows no Latin (and very little about harpsichords). He (or she) is partial, however, to the cadence of the motto of the state of Virginia—"sic semper tyrannis," what ever that means. Second choice is "illegitimus non carborundum."
Odors used to keep deer out of apple orchard The chemistry of odors is a difficult area, but at the practical level the problems sometimes are less complex. Specifically, according to Outdoor Life for May, apple farmer W. C. Sleeman of Superior, Wis., has found that he can keep foraging deer from harming his orchard by spreading bear, lion, and tiger manure around the place. He gets it from the local zoo. The same source says that a grape rancher in California achieves a similar end by letting members of the Northern Cali fornia Ocelot Club exercise their pets in his vineyard.
Department of obscure information •Texas has received a $50,000 oyster rehabilitation grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior. • The experimental dairy herd at the National Reactor Testing Station comprises eight cows. • The universe contains about 100 billion galaxies, each containing about 100 billion stars.
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94 C&EN MAY 13, 1968
Tax incentives for American exporters An anxious Government pushes for expanded exports but balks at proposed export tax incentives. Increasing con cern for balance-of-payments problems, however, may bring action. A C&EN Feature
