114 
Standard  for  Caramel. 
iAm.  Jour.  Pharm. 
March,  1911. 
Upon  any  customers  that  might  be  at  hand  may  reasonably  be  de- 
scribed as  intolerable  if,  by  any  possibility,  avoidable. 
Furthermore,  the  size  of  the  vessel  and  the  volume  of  acid 
required  for  the  application  of  this  method  is  quite  considerable — 
sooner  or  later  a  beaker  or  other  container  would  break,  and 
sulphuric  acid  at  210°  C,  splashing  around  on  fixtures  and  operator 
is  another  unpleasant  possibility,  associated  v^ith  this  method. 
The  suggested  substitution  of  petrolatum  for  sulphuric  acid 
seems  to  me  to  only  change  the  character  of  danger  and  discomfort 
without  greatly  reducing  either. 
The  second  method,  while  doubtless  safe,  would  seem^  to  be 
barely  less  objectionable  in  the  detail  of  fuming.  To  heat  100  Gm. 
of  sugar  to  200°  C.  for  i  hour  would  surely  caramelize  the  whole 
store — ^certainly  the  man  who  had  to  stand  and  stir  for  one  hour 
would  become  thoroughly  saturated  with  the  odor  of  burnt  sugar. 
Moreover  the  big  time  factor  involved  makes  the  method  objection- 
able. 
In  attempting  to  devise  a  more  practical  method  than  the  two 
described  above,  I  have  conducted  a  series  of  experiments  to  deter- 
mine quantitatively  the  effect  of  sulphuric  acid  in  direct  contact 
with  sugar  as  a  means  of  producing  colored  solutions  of  the 
desired  tint. 
Without  taking  time  to  describe  experiments  it  is  perhaps  suffi- 
cient to  say  that  I  finally  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  solution  which 
conformed  exactly,  or  very  nearly  so,  to  the  color  produced  by  the 
first  method. 
The  proceedure  is  as  follows : 
Make  a  sulphuric  acid  solution  by  adding  2  c.c.  of  pure  con- 
centrated sulphuric  acid  (specific  gravity  1.84)  to  12  c.c.  of  water. 
Take  0.5  Gm.  of  sugar  in  a  test-tube — add  5  c.c.  of  the  acid  solution 
described  above,  and  heat  the  mixture  in  a  boiling  water  bath,  with 
mixture  continually  submerged  and  with  constant  agitation,  for  ex- 
actly 5  minutes.  Immediately  add  a  little  cold  water  and  then  35 
c.c.  of  the  U.S. P.  test-solution  of  potassium  hydroxide ;  finally 
dilute  to  100  c.c. 
The  whole  procedure  takes  15  minutes,  is  absolutely  with- 
out danger  or  discomfort,  and  gives  correlating  results  that  very 
closely  approximate  those  obtained  by  the  first  method  outlined. 
