FAMILIAR LETTERS ON CHEMISTRY. 15 



into magnets, we should be enabled to ascend and descend acclivities with great 

 facility. This notion may ultimately be, to a certain extent, realized. 



The employment of the galvanic pile as a motory power, however, must, like 

 every other contrivance, depend upon the question of its relative economy : pro- 

 bably some time hence it may so far succeed as to be adopted in certain favorable 

 localities ; it may stand in the same relation to steam power as the manufacture of 

 beet sugar bears to that of cane, or as the' production of gas from oils and resins 

 to that from mineral coal. 



The history of beet-root sugar affords us an excellent illustration of the 'effect of 

 prices upon commercial productions. Tills branch of industry seems at length, as 

 to its processes, to be perfected. The most beautiful white sugar is now manufac- 

 tured from the beet-root, in the place of the treacle-like sugar, having the taste of 

 the root, which was first obtained ; and instead of 3 or 4 per cent*, the proportion 

 obtained by Achard, double or even treble that amount is now produced. And 

 notwithstanding the perfection of the manufacture, it is probable it will ere long be 

 in most places entirely discontinued. In the years 1824 to 1827, the prices of 

 agricultural produce were much lower than at present, while the price of sugar was 

 the same. At one time one malter* of wheat was 10s., and one klafterf of wood 18s., 

 and land was falling in price. Thus, food and fuel were cheap, and the demand for 

 sugar unlimited ; it was, therefore, advantageous to grow beet-root, and to dispose 

 of the produce of land as sugar. All these circumstances are now different. A mal- 

 ter of wheat costs 18s. ; a klafter of wood 30s. to 36s. Wages have risen, but not in 

 proportion, while the price of colonial sugar has fallen. Within the limits of the 

 German commercial league, as for instance, at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, a pound of 

 the whitest and best loaf sugar is Id. ; the import duty is 3fd.or 30s. per cwt., leav- 

 ing 3|cZ. as the price of the sugar. In the year, 1827, then, one malter of wheat was 

 equal to forty pounds weight of sugar, while at present that quantity of wheat is 

 worth seventy pounds of sugar. If indeed fuel were the same in price as formerly, 

 and seventy pounds of sugar could be obtained from the same quantity of the root 

 as then yielded forty pounds, it might still be advantageously produced ; but the 

 amount, if now obtained by the most approved methods of extraction, falls far 

 short of this : and as fuel is double the price, and labor dearer, it follows that, at 

 present, it is far more advantageous to cultivate wheat and to purchase sugar. 



There are, however, other elements which must enter into our calculations; but 

 these serve to confirm our conclusions, that the manufacture of beet-root sugar, as a 

 commercial speculation, must cease. The leaves and residue of the root, after the 

 juice was expressed, were used as food for cattle, and their value naturally 

 increased with the price of grain. By the process formerly pursued, seventy-five 

 pounds of juice were obtained from one hundred pounds of beet-root, and gave 

 five pounds of sugar. The method of Schiitzenbach, which was eagerly adopted 

 by the manufacturers, produced from the same quantity of root eight pounds of 

 sugar ; but it was attended with more expense to produce, and the loss of the 

 residue as food for cattle. The increased expense in this process arises from the 

 larger quantity of fuel required to evaporate the water ; for, instead of merely 

 evaporating the juice, the dry residue is treated with water, and we require fuel 

 sufficient to evaporate one hundred and six pounds of fluid instead of seventy- 

 five pounds, and the residue is only fit for manure. The additional three pounds 

 of sugar are purchased at the expense of much fuel, and the loss of the residue 

 as an article of food. 



If the valley of the Rhine possessed mines of diamonds, as rich as those of Gol- 

 conda, Visiapoor, or the Brazils, they would probably not be worth the working : 

 at those places the cost of extraction is 28s. to 30s. the carat. With us it amounts 

 to three or four times as much to more, in fact, than diamonds are worth in the 

 market. The sand of the Rhine contains gold ; and in the Grand Duchy of Baden 

 many persons are occupied in gold washing when wages are low ; but as soon 

 as they rise, this employment ceases. The manufacture of sugar from beet-root, 

 in like manner, twelve to fourteen years ago, offered advantages which are now 

 lost : instead, therefore, of maintaining it at a great sacrifice, it would be more 

 reasonable, more in accordance with true natural economy, to cultivate other and 

 more valuable productions, and with them purchase sugar. Not only would the 

 state be a gainer, but every member of the community. This argument does not 

 apply, perhaps, to France and Bohemia, where the prices of fuel and of colonial 

 sugar are very different to those in Germany. 



The manufacture of gas for lighting, from coals, resin, and oils, stands with us 

 on the same barren ground. 



* Malter a measure containing several bushels,. but varying in different countries, 

 f Klafter a cord, a stack, measuring six feet every way. 



