THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



VARIETIES OF SUGAR. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



The different varieties or kinds of sugar known to chemists are, cane- 

 sugar, glucose, mannite, dulcose, milk-sugar, &c. The only plants, how- 

 ever, which contain sugar in quantity are the sugar-cane (Saccharum 

 officinarurn and its varieties), the white beet (Beta cicla), the sugar-maple 

 (Acer saccharinum), and certain palm trees. Sugar is manufactured in 

 Spain and Portugal from grapes : 100 lb. of this yields, by refining, 70 lb. 

 of fine white sugar. The cocoa -palm and the arbutus (or strawberry 

 tree) are sugar -yielding. A large kind of millet grass brought from 

 Africa, the Imphee or Kafir corn, yields sugar equal to that of the cane, 

 as do other species of Holms. 



The grains of wheat, and all the similar seeds which are used as food, 

 contain at first a large quantity of sugar, which gradually disappears as 

 they approach to a state of maturity. This is the case also with peas, 

 beans, and all leguminous seeds, and is one reason why the flavour 

 of young peas is so much superior to that of old ones. The manufacture 

 of sugar from chestnuts was some tune ago prosecuted in France, but 

 the extraction of starch from them is now the chief commercial application. 



1. Sugar, similar to that of grapes, may be prepared by boiling one 

 part of the starch of potatoes or flour with from one-hundredth to one- 

 tenth of sulphuric acid, and four parts of water, for thirty-six or forty hours, 

 care being taken to renew the water as it evaporates. At a higher pressure 

 and temperature the change may be effected more rapidly with a smaller 

 quantity of acid. The excess of acid is then to be saturated with lime, 

 the sulphate of lime separated, and the liquid concentrated by sufficient 

 evaporation. 2. The starch of flour soon loses its gelatinous consistence 

 when moistened with an extract of sprouted barley ; it is transformed 

 into a liquid, and if the barley is in sufficient quantity, it is changed 

 in the course of a few hours into sugar of grapes, provided the temperature 

 be maintained at 158 to 167 cleg. Six parts of barley which has germinated 

 produce twenty-five parts of sugar of grapes. 3. Sugar may also be 

 procured by taking twelve parts of linen rags, or paper cut into small 



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