Washington, June, 1819.
[Am. Farm.
Conversion of Rags into Sugar.—We find this is no joke. There is in the Annales de Chemie a long and very circumstantial account, from the pen of M. Henry Braconnot, of Geneva, of the whole process of this singular discovery; and are now so well satisfied there is nothing of "pleasantry" in the matter, as at first sight appeared to many, that, should we be told to-morrow that, as linen may be converted into its constituent principle, sugar—(a piece of fine Irish linen into a loaf of double refined!)—so may wool be converted into its constituent principle, fat—(an old threadbare coat into a basin of fine gravy soup!)—we shall be prepared to look quite grave at the announcement.
"The conversion of wood into sugar (says M. Braconnot) will, no doubt, appear remarkable; and when persons not familiar with chemical speculations are told that a pound weight of rags can be converted into more than a pound of sugar, they may regard the statement as a piece of pleasantry, though nothing can be more real."
The agent in making this wonderful conversion is sulphuric acid, and those to whom it may not be enough to know that the thing can be done, will find ample directions as to the modus operandi in M. Braconnot's Memoir. We shall content ourselves here with one extract:
"I made these 359.2 gr. of sugary matter (obtained from old cloth well dried) into the consistency of sirup; at the end of twenty-four hours it began to crystallize; and some days after, the whole was solidified into a single mass of crystallized sugar, which was pressed strongly between several folds of old cloth; crystallized a second time, this sugar was passably pure; but, treated with animal charcoal, it became of a shining whiteness.—The crystals were in spherical groupes, which appear to be formed by the union of small diverging and unequal plates. They are fusible at the temperature of boiling water. This sugar, of a fresh and agreeable flavour, produced in the mouth a slight sensation of coolness. It dissolves in hot alcohol, and crystallizes by cooling. Dissolved in water, and mixed with a little yeast, it fermented; the vinous liquor which resulted, furnished alcohol by distillation. Burned with potash, and its charcoal washed with diluted nitric acid, it yielded a fluid not troubled by nitrate or barytes. It would be useless to insist farther on the properties of this sugar: it is evident that it is perfectly identical with the sugar of grapes or of starch."