684 



STARCH 



STAR-CHAMBER 



by a drop of strong nitric acid or preferably by a 

 little chlorine water. H.v the gentle action of 

 nitric acid on starch an explosive c<mi|x>un<l called 

 xyloidine is obtained. At a temperature of about 

 320 F. (160 C.) starch is convcrt.il into tirstruir 

 or British gum, and the same change is produced 

 on starch by the action of dilute mineral acids. 

 Dextrine is usually made on an industrial scale 

 from potato-starch. It is this Dextrine (q.v.) 

 which is the adhesive matter on postage -stumps, 

 but it is otherwise largely used in the arts. By 

 the further action of acids on starch dextrose or 

 grape sugar, and also the cryst&llisable sugar, 

 midtose, are obtained. Maltose sugar is likewise 

 produced during the operation of malting by the 

 action of diastase on the starch of grain. 



Starch is heard of in England as early as 1511, 

 but was not much used till 15(!4, when, according 

 to Planche, ' Mistress Binghein Vandh Plasse, a 

 Fleming, came to London, and publicly taught the 

 art of starching. . . . Stuhltes falls foul of this 

 " liquid matter which they call starch, wherein the 

 devil hath learned them to wash and dive their 

 ruffs, which being dry will then stand stiff and 

 inflexible about their necks." ' 



Manufacture. Starch is manufactured on a large 

 scale in Europe from maize, wheat, rice, potatoes, 

 and from sago-flour. Maize-starch is most largely 

 mode. The grain contains 65 per cent of starch 

 and about 14 of gluten and other nitrogenous 

 matters. The Indian corn is first steeped for 

 forty-eight hours in water at a temperature not 

 exceeding 120 F. It is then ground with water 

 by millstones into a milky state, after which 

 it is sieved to keep back the husks. From the 

 sieve the starchy liquid passes into ' nins ' or 

 channels made of wood, from 2J to 4 feet broad 

 and 9 inches deep, in which the starch deposits. 

 It is then removed from the nins and put along 

 with water into vats or tuns ( 10 feet in diameter 

 and 4 feet 6 inches deep) provided with stirrers, 

 some very weak soda- lye bemjj added. After it is 

 sufficiently stirred the liquid is allowed to settle, 

 when the starch falls to the bottom. At this stage 

 the vats contain a layer of starch, over this a layer 

 of gluten, and aliove that again a stratum of 

 yellowish water thick with gluten. The starch is 

 again washed with water in the final settling vats, 

 from which, after drawing off the water, it is 

 removed and spread on clean cotton sheeting to 

 be dried in stoves at a temperature l>etwecn 120" 

 and 130 F. A little chloride of lime is used to 

 bleach maize and other kinds of starch. 



Potato-ttarch. In manufacturing starch from 

 potatoes, the latter are first washed in machines of 

 various kinds, but of which one of the simplest is 

 a revolving cage-like cylinder with wooden bars. 

 Then follows the grating of the washed potatoes 

 by forcing them against the saw-like teeth of 

 raspers, which, as sufficient water is fed to the 

 machine, reduces them to a paste. In order to 

 separate fibrous and albuminous matters and other 

 impurities, the starch-paste with an addition of 

 water is passed through fine sieves, and at the 

 same time agitated by various arrangement-. 

 From the sieves it is received into settling tank- 

 in which the deposit of starch is again washed in 

 clean water. It then descends in a milky stream 

 over an inclined plane, on which the starch is 

 deposited, and afterwards once more washed. A 

 little alum or sulphuric acid is used to assist in 

 the removal of albuminous matters. The starch is 

 dried either on porous bricks or on slabs of gyiwuni, 

 and for some purposes it undergoes another drying 

 in a hot chamber. 



Wheat-starch. Owing to the large amount of 

 albuminous and other nitrogenous bodies (gluten 

 or it.-, equivalents) which wheat contains, amount- 



ing sometimes to more than 15 per cent., the 

 methods of making starch from this grain are a 

 lit tli> more complicated than the processes em- 

 ployed to obtain it from other cereals or potatoes. 

 Wheat starch is made by the old plan of n-moving 

 the gluten by fermentation, and also \<\ Mai tin'-, 

 method of kneading (lie Hour into a still dough 

 ami washing out the starch with water on a sieve. 

 Good English wheat contains about 69 |>er cent, of 

 starch, but in this pain the proportion of both 

 starch and gluten varies much. 



Hire-starch is prepared by removing the gluten, 

 which amounts to from 7 to 8 per cent, of the seed, 

 by the action of soda in weak solution. The pro- 

 portion of starch in rice is higher than it is in other 

 cereals, varying from a little under to a little over 

 80 per cent. The corn-flours of commerce are pre- 

 pared either from the purified starch of maize or 

 from that of rice. These flours, being nearly pure 

 starches, with the flesh and bone forming con- 

 stituents extracted, are not flours of their respec- 

 tive seeds in the sense that wheat-flour is. 



Sago-starch is obtained from the pith of the 

 stems of sago palms (see PALM and SAGO). Most 

 of the sago imported into England is in the form 

 of sago -flour, which is used in the manufacture of 

 houseliold starch and glucose sugar. Besides its 

 use in the laundry, starch is extensivelv employed 

 in dressing textile fabrics and as a thickener for 

 the colours used in printing calico ; also for 

 mounting photographic prints and dusting founders' 

 moulds. 



The principal starches prepared for food besides 

 the 'corn-flours' are Arrowroot (q.v.), Tapioca 

 (q.v.); and Tout-lea-mots, from the rhizomes of a 

 species of Canna cultivated in St Kitts, West 

 Indies. Curcuma Starch is made to some extent 

 in Southern India from the tuberous root of Cur- 

 ,111,111 angvstifolia, and is sometimes called by 

 Europeans East India arrowroot. In France starch 

 is manufactured from horse-chestnuts. Paisley is 

 the principal seat of the starch-manufacture in 

 Great Britain, where it is chiefly made from maize. 

 Kice-starch is made on a large scale at Norwich, 

 and wheat-starch at Belfast. 



In the United States, where maize-starch was 

 first produced in 1842, the principal manufactories 

 are at Oswego, New York, and at Glen Cove, on 

 Long Island ; indeed, these are the largest starch- 

 works in the world. There are over 100 other 

 factories in the Union, some producing potato- 

 starch or wheat-starch, but tin- most mai/e-starch ; 

 and some 10,000,000 Ib. of starch is now exported 

 annually. Maize-starch is manufactured from a 

 large porous grained Indian corn. 



Star-chamber, a tribunal which met in the 

 old Council-chamber of the palace of Westminster, 

 ami is said to have got its name from the roof of 

 that apartment being decorated with gilt stars, or 

 localise in it 'starres* or Jewish bonds had been 

 kept. It is supposed to have originated in early 

 times out of the exercise of jurisdiction by the 

 king's council, whose powers in this respect had 

 greatly declined when in 14H7 Henry VII., 

 anxious to repress the indolence and illegal exac- 

 tions of powerful landowners, revived and re- 

 modelled them, or, according to some investi- 

 gators, instituted what was practically an entirely 

 new tribunal. The statute conferred on the 

 Chancellor, the Treasurer, and the Keeper of the 

 Privy Seal, with the assistance of a bishop 

 and a temporal Lord of the Council, and Chiel- 

 i n slice-, or two other justices in their absence, a 

 jurisdiction to punish, without a jury, the misde- 

 meanours of sheriffs and juries, as well as riots and 

 unlawful assemblies. Henry VIII. added to the 

 other members of the court the President of the 

 ( 'ouncil, and ultimately all the privy-councillor* 



