32 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



SOME USES FOR SUGAR 



The Bulletin Agricole of Mauritius for April, 1912, gives a summary in an interesting 

 manner of the many ways that sugar is used in addition to its consumption as food 

 and flavoring, the information being based on an article by M. A. Vivien, a well known 

 French chemical engineer. On the larger scale it is employed in tanning, particularly 

 in connection with the use of chromic acid for preparing skins, for dyeing, the silver- 

 plating of glass, textile manfactures, and is even mixed with mortar and cement. Other 

 large consumptions of sugar are concerned with the making of explosives, blacking, 

 transparent soap, clear cocoanut oil, white linens, and the regulation of the rate of 

 emission of acetylene gas. In America it is mixed with coke, in the manufacture of 

 briquettes and similar materials. By burning it in a closed vessel, a form of carbon 

 i.s obtained which is useful for making electric arc "carbons." Sugar also enters into 

 the composition of many copying inks and gums. Lastly, one of its chief means of 

 consumption is in medicines. 



It is claimed that sugar heated on a metal plate yields 6 per cent of formaldehyde, 

 and this appears to justify the old method of disinfecting a room by burning sugar. 



The power of sugar as a preserving agent is well known, and greater use of this 

 may be made, particularly for keeping fresh meat and tish ; a patent has actually been 

 granted in which a solution of sugar containing formalin or creolin is employed for 

 preserving eggs. In another way, cut flowers may be made to keep fresh for a longer 

 time by placing their stalks in water containing 5 to 20 per cent of sugar : for roses 

 the strength is 7 to 10 per cent; for chrysanthemums it is 15 to 17 per cent. There 

 are flowers, however, such as lilies, pelargoniums and sweet peas, which fade more 

 quickly in water containing sugar. 



The antiseptic properties of sugar are employed in wood preparation by such means 

 as the Powell wood process (see Agricultural Ncivs, Vol. IX, p. 201), and it enters 

 into many preparations intended for preventing the ravages of fungi. Boilers and other 

 steam-producing apparatus are kept from "scaling" by the use of preparations con- 



