298 
Certain  Aerated  Beverages. 
j  Am.  Jour.  Pliarm 
(       June,  1885. 
A  TECHNICAL  POINT  IN  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF 
CERTAIN  AERATED  BEVERAGES.^ 
By  W.  a.  H.  Naylor. 
A  short  time  ago  a  manufacturer  of  aerated  beverages  brought  to 
me  a  bottle  each  of  ginger  ale  and  ginger  beer  that  he  had  recently 
made,  in  which  neither  aroma  nor  pungency  could  be  detected.  He 
was  quite  unable  to  account  for  the  rapid  disappearance  of  those  char- 
acteristic properties,  which  he  affirmed  the  syrupy  essence  possessed  to 
a  high  degree  before  aeration,  and  he  desired  from  me  an  explanation. 
As  no  clue  to  the  cause  of  this  remarkable  disappearance  was  obtained 
from  the  answers  he  supplied  to  numerous  questions  put  to  him  regard- 
ing the  purity  of  the  materials  he  had  used  in  the  production  of  the 
drinks,  it  was  deemed  advisilile  to  subject  the  two  samples  to  a  general 
examination. 
As  a  preliminary  step,  the  carbonic  acid  was  drawn  off,  collected  and 
examined,  the  result  being  that  the  gas  was  found  to  be  mixed  with  an 
appreciable  quantity  of  air.  The  further  discovery  was  made  that 
both  sain[)les  were  contaminated  with  copper,  a  circumstance  which 
sufficiently  explained  the  metallic  t  iste  that  characterized  them.  But 
in  these  facts  there  did  not  appear  more  than  a  show  of  reason  for 
regarding  them  as  sources  of  the  evil  which  formed  the  subject  of  com- 
plaint. Accordingly  the  machinery  was  overhauled  and  the  necessary 
repairs  were  executed.  In  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  mechanical  defects 
were  remedied,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  subsequent  ^^charges,''  after 
bottling,  showed  no  admixture  of  gas  with  air,  and  no  metallic  con- 
tamination. The  complete  result,  however,  was  not  obtained,  for  on 
opening  one  of  the  bottles  four  hours  afterwards  it  became  evident 
from  the  absence  of  pungency  that  the  old  grievance  still  existed. 
The  next  step  consisted  in  testing  the  respective  materials,  solid  and 
liquid,  which  played  any  part  in  the  manufacture  of  the  ginger  bever- 
ages. These  included  citric  acid,  sugar,  ginger  essence,  water,  and 
calcium  carbonate  from  which  the  gas  was  generated.  All  were  found 
to  be  unexceptional  as  to  quality.  There  was  yet  one  more  chemical 
to  be  examined,  viz.,  the  oil  of  vitriol.  The  chief  feature  that  attracted 
attention  in  regard  to  the  acid  was  the  unpleasant  smell  it  emitted, 
^  Read  at  an  Evening  Meeting  of  the  Pliarmaceutieal  Society  of  Great 
Britain,  March  4,  1885. 
