Fig 67. Apparatus for Pulping Beets.
219. Pellet’s Method of Cold Diffusion.—The impalpable pulp having been obtained, by one of the processes described, the content of sugar therein is determined as follows:[181]
A normal or double normal quantity of the pulp is quickly weighed, to avoid evaporation, in a sugar dish with an appropriate lip, and washed into the flask, which should be graduated, as shown in [Fig. 68], to allow for the volume of the fiber or marc of the beet. Since the beet pulp contains, on an average, four per cent of marc, the volume which is occupied thereby is assumed to be a little more than one cubic centimeter. Since it is advisable to have as large a volume of water as convenient, it is the practice of Pellet to wash the pulp into a flask graduated at 201.35 cubic centimeters. If a 200 cubic centimeter flask be used, the weight of the pulp should be 25.87 instead of 26.048 grams. After the pulp is washed into the flask, about six cubic centimeters of lead subacetate of 30° baumé are added, together with a little ether, to remove the foam. The flask is now gently shaken and water added to the mark and the contents thoroughly shaken. If the pulp is practically perfect, the filtration and polarization may follow immediately. The filter into which the contents of the flask are poured should be large enough to hold the whole quantity. It is recommended to add a drop or two of strong acetic acid just before completing the volume of the liquid in the flask to the mark. The polarization should be made in a 400 millimeter tube, which will give directly the percentage of sugar present. It is not necessary to heat the solution in order to insure complete diffusion, but the temperature at which the operation is conducted should be the ordinary one of the laboratory. In case the pulp is not as fine as should be, the flask should be allowed to stand for half an hour after filling, before filtration. An insufficient amount of lead subacetate may permit some rotatory bodies other than sugar to pass into solution, and care should be taken to have always the proper quantity of clarifying material added. The presence of these rotating bodies, mostly of a pectic nature, may be shown by extracting the pulp first with cold water until all the sugar is removed, and afterwards with boiling water. The liquor obtained from the last precipitation will show a decided right-handed rotation, unless first treated with lead subacetate, in which case the polarization will be zero. A very extended experience with the instantaneous cold aqueous diffusion has shown that the results obtained thereby are quite as reliable as those given by hot alcoholic or aqueous digestion.
220. Flask for Cold Diffusion and Alcohol Digestion.—For convenience in washing the pulp into the sugar flask, the latter is made with an enlarged mouth as shown in [Fig. 68]. The dish holding the weighed quantity of pulp is held with the lip in the mouth of the flask, and the pulp washed in by means of a jet of water furnished from a pressure bottle or washing flask. The flask shown is graduated for the normal weight of pulp, viz., 26.048 grams. The marking is on the constricted neck and extends from 100 to 101.3 cubic centimeters. This permits of making the proper allowance for the volume occupied by the marc or fiber, but this is unnecessary for the usual character of control analyses. In the case of healthy, fresh beets, the volume occupied by the marc is nearly one and three-tenths cubic centimeters for the normal polariscopic weight of 26.048 grams of pulp. For the laurent instrument this volume is nearly one cubic centimeter.
Figure 68. Apparatus for Cold Diffusion.
221. Extraction with Alcohol.—The third method of determining sugar in beets is by alcoholic extraction. The principle of the method is based on the fact that aqueous alcohol of not more than eighty per cent strength will extract all the sugar from the pulp, but will not dissolve the pectic and other rotatory bodies, which, in solution, are capable of disturbing the rotatory power of the sugar present. It is also further to be observed that the rotatory power of pure sucrose, in an aqueous alcoholic solution, is not sensibly different from that which is observed in a purely aqueous liquid. The pulp, which is to be extracted, should be in as fine a state of subdivision as convenient, and the process may be carried on in any of the forms of extraction apparatus already described, or in the apparatus shown in [Fig. 69]. The extraction tube, of the ordinary forms of apparatus, however, is scarcely large enough to hold the required amount of pulp, and therefore special tubes and forms of apparatus have been devised for this method of procedure. In weighing the pulp for extraction, a quarter, half, or the exact amount required for the polariscope employed, should be used. If the tubes are of sufficient size the full weight may be taken, viz., 26.048 or 16.19 grams for the instruments in ordinary use. Since the pulp contains a large quantity of water, the extraction could be commenced with alcohol of standard strength, viz., about ninety-five per cent. The volume of alcohol employed should be such as will secure a strength of from seventy to eighty per cent when mixed with the water contained in the pulp. The flask receiving the extract should be kept in continuous ebullition and the process may be regarded as complete in about one hour, when the pulp has been properly prepared. The method of extracting beet pulp with alcohol is due to Scheibler, and in its present form the process is conducted according to the methods described by Scheibler, Sickel, and Soxhlet.[182]
Fig. 69. Sickel-Soxhlet Extractor.