144 
Manufacture  of  Acetone. 
f Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I      March,  1895. 
number  of  samples  examined  during  the  past  year.  Some  were 
excellent  products,  products  that  no  pharmacist  need  reluctantly 
place  on  his  shelf  as  rock  candy  syrup.  A  few  were  extremely 
bad. 
Serial 
Number. 
Sp.  Gr. 
at i5° C. 
i  "324 
1-315 
i'346 
1  "330 
1  322 
1  '330 
1 '330 
i'325 
1-327 
1  571 
1-322 
I-340 
Reducing  Sugar. 
Trace 
Trace 
57  50 
Trace 
6-5 
1785 
20-00 
Trace. 
Trace 
36-13 
5  00 
7  00 
per  cent, 
per  cent, 
per  cent. 
per  cent, 
per  cent. 
per  cent, 
per  cent. 
Neutral. 
Slightly  acid. 
Acid. 
Slightly  acid. 
Slightly  acid. 
Neutral. 
Neutral. 
Neutral. 
Slightly  acid. 
Slightly  acid. 
Slightly  acid. 
Slightly  acid. 
Inorganic  Compounds. 
None. 
None. 
Sulphates. 
None. 
None. 
Sulphates  &  Chlorides. 
Sulphates  &  Chlorides. 
None. 
None. 
None. 
None. 
None. 
1  Highly  flavored  with  vanilla. 
My  standard  for  "  Rock  Candy  Syrup"  is;  sp.gr.  about  1-320  at 
1 5°  C,  from  a  trace  of  reducing  sugar  to  two  per  cent.,  neutral  or 
slightly  acid  in  reaction. 
You  will  notice  that  every  sample  contains  some  reducing  sugar. 
Simple  syrup  on  standing  a  short  time  is  said  to  deteriorate,  form- 
ing reducing  sugar.  Some  say  simple  syrup  on  being  boiled  is 
slowly  converted  into  reducing  sugar,  but  my  experiments  do  not 
support  this  latter  assertion. 
A  carefully  prepared  syrup,  sp.  gr.  1-330,  free  from  glucose,  was 
boiled  vigorously  for  13^  hours,  the  evaporated  water  carefully 
replenished  from  time  to  time.  A  drop  of  the  syrup  was  tested 
every  fifteen  minutes  for  reducing  sugar,  but  not  a  trace  was  detected 
in  even  the  last  test. 
IMPROVEMENT  IN  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  ACETONE.1 
By  E.  R.  Squibb,  M.D.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  ^ 
The  increasing  use  of  acetone  as  a  chemical  solvent,  and  especially  the  rela- 
tion of  acetone  to  the  manufacture  of  chloroform,  gives  importance  to  any 
improvement  in  its  production. 
Up  to  this  time  the  writer  knows  of  no  process  of  manufacture  except  by  the 
destructive  distillation  of  acetates  at  high  temperature.  The  acetates  are 
charged  into  stills  and  heated  as  long  as  they  yield  any  acetone.  Then  the 
acetates  being  decomposed  to  waste  carbonates  are  discharged  and  the  stills 
1Ephemeris,  Vol.  4,  No.  3. 
