Jan. 19, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



35 



American Canna, shows the starch grains well, and they 

 constitute the chief matter in all the articles sold as arrow- 

 root. Genuine cocoa does not exhibit any conspicuous 

 quantity of starch ; but some of the articles eonimonly 

 sold for cocoa contain it in large quantities. Anything 

 called cocoa or chocolate, or by any grand name, which 

 gets thick when mixed with hot water may be suspected 

 to be mainly starch, and as that from the potato and from 

 any of the things called " arrowroot " are low in price, 

 it is very profitable to sell such mixtures at the rates 

 usually charged. The microscope at once detects the 

 adulteration. For a fair standard, the cocoa of Van 

 Houtten or Cadbury's Essence may be taken, and the 

 dirterence between either of them and the inferior mix- 

 tures will be strikuigly apparent. 



Starch is a very curious product of the vegetable king- 

 dom. Like some others of ditlerent chemical constitution, 

 it is stored up in grains when the nutrition of a plant is so 

 vigorous that it can afford to lay up something for the 

 future as an investment. Cultivation enables us with 

 some plants, as the potato, to cause a much larger 

 quantity to be stored up than the vegetalile can possibly 

 ■want for its own purposes, but which is useful to us, or to 

 our domestic animals, as food. If large starch grains are 

 examined with a high power and careful illumination, but 

 witliout the polariscope, a curious wrinkled structure will 

 be seen. All starch grains begin as minute round vesicles, 

 and, if the plant can afford to feed them, they 

 grow pretty quickly in a state of dependence upon, but not 

 directly serving the general organism, except by relieving it 

 of matter which is superfluous, and would be harmful if not 

 kept out of its assimilative system until it may be specially 

 required. The starch in each vesicle is not a single 

 substance There are two kinds, one easily soluble and 

 the other nearer to cellulose. The grains do not grow like 

 common cells. If magnified about 800 diameters, their 

 ■\*Tinkles or folds will plainly distinguish them from the 

 other kinds of cell formations. An advanced student can 

 refer to such a work as Sach's " Text- Book of Botany " for 

 details of the process of starch-grain development. The 

 main fact is, that after a layer of the vesicle is fully formed, 

 it splits, and allows new matter to penetrate and inter- 

 calate fresh layers, and so on until a fully-developed grain 

 exhibits a dozen or two of wrinkles. 



It is said in Miller's " Chemistry " that the cross pro- 

 duced by polarised light is not perceptible in the starch 

 of wheat flour, but this is only true if too low a power 

 is used. It is easily seen with a one-eighth. If readily 

 visible with lower objectives, and the grains are large, the 

 starch of the potato is probably present. Chemically, starch 

 belongs to the hydrocarbons. Its composition is given as 

 C^HioOj, together with a small quantity of mineral matter. 

 By heat it can be converted into British gum, largely used 

 by calico-printers to mix with their colours, and for various 

 other purposes as a cheap substitute for gum-arabic. 



A NEW company has been registered, the following par- 

 ticulars of which may be interesting. It is called the 

 Electrical Rotary Brush Company (Limited), capital 

 £100,000, in £1 shares. Objects: To purchase letters 

 patent, No. 2,-562, for " Improvements in the method or 

 means of and appliances for communicating a rotary 

 motion to brushes employed for various purposes, but spe- 

 cially for brushing hair." The purchase consideration is 

 £15,000 in fully paid shares and £.3.5,000 in cash. Directing 

 qualification, shares or stock to the nominal value of £2.5. 

 Remuneration, 100 guineas per annum in respect of each 

 director, with an additional 200 guineas for the chairman. 



THE ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANIES. 



"f T7E, in common with some of our contemporaries, have 

 > V for some time past esteemed it a part of our duty 

 to animadvert upon the unscrupulous way in which efforts 

 have been made to foist upon an apparently gullible public 

 electric lighting speculations, with scarcely a chance of pro- 

 longed existence, to say nothing of the return for which 

 shareholders usually, and naturally, look as a reward for 

 their temerity, ^\'hat has long been a desideratum is a 

 tabulated list of the various companies embarked, with 

 particulars as to their financial position and prospects. 

 The work involved in the production of such a list is 

 obviously considerable — one might almost say prodigious. It 

 has, however, been attempted, and, we think, with a great 

 measure of success, by the Mcrcnntile Stiippini/ lleyinler 

 and Commercial Revieu; who publish the result of their 

 labours in the form of a special annual supplement. It 

 comprises details of the constitution, progress, and resources 

 of all the registered companies, together with a number of 

 explanatory tables, kc, the perusal of which is calculated 

 to instil in one's mind an intense feeling of amazement at 

 the rapacity of promoters, and the comparative generosity 

 of the earlier inventors. 



The various companies on the register are divided into 

 four groups, in the first of which are classed the parent 

 Brush Companies and its eighteen satellites. Tw^o of these 

 are apparently not yet in working condition. The other 

 seventeen have a combined nominal capital of £5,125,000. 

 The actual capital issued is £2, 697,. '318, including £555,180 

 allotted to vendors. The amount " paid up " by the 

 public is £1,180,685, leaving £961,453 as the extent of 

 their remaining liability. Out of the £1,180,685, the 

 sum of £614,170 has been paid to vendors, in addi- 

 tion to the shares above mentioned. The parent company 

 paid for its rights over the Brush patents £200,000 

 in cash and shares. These rights had been purchased 

 from another company, who, in its turn, had paid to 

 J. T. Montgomery £22,000 (£10,000 in cash), and to C. F. 

 Brush £5,000 in shares. It has not transpired how much 

 Montgomerj- paid for his interest, but sufficient is known 

 to demonstrate how very small, in comparison, was the 

 sum that fell into the hands of Brush himself. Besides 

 the Brush patents, the Brush Company also possesses an 

 incandescent lamp, which it '" purchased from Mr. Lane- 

 Fox, subject to the rights of the British Electric Light 

 Company, for 1,250 shares, £4 paid, £718 in cash to cover 

 certain expenses, and 25 per cent, on the net profits of the 

 incandescent lights ; Mr. Lane-Fox to give his services for 

 two years, at £1,000 a year." Our readers will remember 

 that this costly concession was recently described by the 

 counsel for a subsidiary company as worthless ! The 

 British Company are apparently of a somewhat similar 

 opinion, as they make little, if any, use of their right to the 

 Lane-Fox lamp. It is not stated how much the last^ 

 mentioned company paid for the right to use the lamp in 

 certain extensive parts of the kingdom. The Brush Com- 

 pany has received from ten companies £402,750, the 

 amount received from the other offshoots not being stated. 

 The second group embraces twenty-three " working com- 

 panies other than the Brush," whose combined nominal 

 capital amounts to £10,675,500, of wliich £5,191,128 has 

 been issued, including £2,581,955 allotted to vendors. Of 

 the £2,609,173 taken up by the public, £1,0.38,409 has 

 been paid, leaving a liability of £1,570,764. A sum of 

 £462,775 has been paid to the vendors, in addition to the 

 shares allotted them. 'J'hc cash payment is, however, 

 much smaller than that originally agreed upon. The most 

 remarkable company in this series is the " J. B. Rogers " 



