364 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



FRENCH PRESERVED BREAD. 



A new article called preserved bread has lately been intro- 

 duced in Paris as a substitute for biscuit, or hard-tack, for 

 travelers, and for naval and military commissary stores gen- 

 erally. Bread prepared in the ordinary way is first submit- 

 ted to a drying process for from eight to fifteen days, until 

 every particle of moisture is eliminated. It is then com- 

 pressed to the utmost, so as to occupy the least possible bulk, 

 having been previously exposed for a short time to the action 

 of steam in a suitable vessel. The loaves are then piled up 

 upon iron plates with rims, which serve as moulds during the 

 operation. These plates are then placed under a hydraulic 

 press, subjected to great pressure, and allowed to cool there 

 during twenty- four hours. The cakes thus obtained are 

 placed in boxes, sealed up, and, if kept from moisture, can be 

 preserved for many years. This bread has a vitreous frac- 

 ture, but the teeth penetrate it without effort. It softens 

 readily in soup, and for many purposes is very much superior 

 to the preparations usually employed under the same cir- 

 cumstances, especially on account of being leavened. 2 B^ 

 June 11,663. 



COLORING MATTER OF WINE. 



A method of distinguishing genuine red wine from the 

 false, according to Cotteni, consists in mixing fifty parts of 

 the liquor to be tested with six parts of nitric acid of 1.40 

 specific gravity, and heating the mixture to 190 or 200 F. 

 Under these circumstances natural wine experiences no 

 change after the lapse of an hour, while that which has been 

 artificially colored loses its tint in five minutes. 14 C\ CO., 

 in., 242. 



PRESERVATION OF BEER. 



The method of preserving wine devised by Pasteur, which 

 consists in heating it, after having been bottled up or put up 

 in casks, to a temperature sufficient to destroy the vitality 

 of any existing spores of the wine fungus, and thereby to 

 prevent their development, marked a new era in the business 

 of wine-making, the treatment recommended having been fol- 

 lowed with m-eat success, and coming more and more into 



