THE FECULOMETER.
THE FECULOMETER
The selling price of beets naturally depends upon their yield in sugar, and what gives potatoes their value is their yield in fecula or starch, a product that serves to nourish man and animals and that is also used in the manufacture of alcohol and glucose. No account, however, is taken of this important coefficient in business transactions, potatoes containing proportions of starch varying from 13 to 23 per cent. being sold at the same price. Nevertheless, it is of the greatest interest to cultivators to make such measurements, since, in order to increase the value of their product, they might thereby be led to make a judicious selection in their planting.
Mr. A. Allard, starting from the fact that the richness in starch increases along with the density, has constructed a simple apparatus that gives both these data at once, with sufficient precision, and without calculations, tables, etc. It is, upon the whole, a large areometer with constant weight and variable volume that is plunged into a cylindrical vessel 0.5 m. in depth and 0.3 m. in diameter, filled with water. The instrument itself consists of three parts: (1) A lower receptacle in which is placed a weight to assure the equilibrium; (2) a central float into which is put a kilogramme of very clean and very dry potatoes; and (3) a rod graduated for density and feculometric richness. The deeper the apparatus sinks, the more valuable is the potato. How much more?
The degree to which the rod sinks shows this. The same principle and the same instrument might be applied to the determination of the density of various agricultural products, such as beets, cider fruits, grain, etc. It would suffice to graduate a special scale each time.
For each variation of a thousandth in density, the areometer sinks about 5 millimeters—that is to say, it presents a sensitiveness that is more than sufficient in practice.—Le Monde Illustré.
THE COMING LIGHT.
There is no more eager contest than that which has been going on for some time between gas and electricity. Which of these two systems of lighting will triumph? Will electricity suppress gas, as gas has dethroned the oil lamp? A few years ago, the answer to this question would not have been doubtful, and it seemed as if gas in such contest must play the role of the earthen pot against the iron one. At present the case is otherwise.