>>>  YOU ARE VIEWING A 200 LINE SAMPLE OF EBOOK# E00823  <<<

TITLE: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT APRIL 9, 1881
AUTHOR: VARIOUS
EBOOK: E00823 (O'Briens Book Cellar)

[Illustration]

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 275

NEW YORK, APRIL 9, 1881

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XI, No. 275.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.

       *       *       *       *       *

			TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I.   ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--The Various Modes of
     Transmitting Power to a Distance. (Continued from No. 274.)
     By ARTHUR ARCHARD. of Geneva.--II. Compressed Air.--III.
     Transmission by Pressure Water.--IV. Transmission by
     Electricity.--General Results

     The Hotchkiss Revolving Gun

     Floating Pontoon Dock. 2 figures.--Improved floating pontoon dock

II.  TECHNOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY.--Wheat and Wheat Bread. By H. MEGE
     MOURIES.--Color in bread.--Anatomical structure and chemical
     composition of wheat.--Embryo and coating of the embryo.--
     Cerealine--Phosphate of calcium.--1 figure, section of a grain
     of wheat, magnified.

     Origin of New Process Milling.--Special report to the Census
     Bureau. By ALBERT HOPPIN.--Present status of milling structures
     and machinery in Minneapolis by Special Census Agent C. W.
     JOHNSON.--Communication from GEORGE T. SMITH.

     Tap for Effervescing Liquids. 1 figure.

     London Chemical Society.--Notes.--Pentathionic acid, Mr.
     VIVIAN LEWES.--Hydrocarbons from Rosin Spirit. Dr.
     ARMSTRONG.--On the Determination of the Relative Weight of Single
     Molecules. E. VOGEL.--On the Synthetical Production of Ammonia
     by the Combination of Hydrogen and Nitrogen in the Presence of
     Heated Spongy Platinum, G. S. JOHNSON.--On the Oxidation of
     Organic Matter in Water, A. DOWNS.

     Rose Oil, or Otto of Roses. By CHAS. G. WARNFORD LOCK.--Sources
     of rose oil.--History--Where rose gardens are now cultivated
     for oil.--Methods of cultivation.--Processes of
     distillation.--Adulterations

     A New Method of Preparing Metatoluidine. By OSCAR WIDMAN.

III. AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, ETC.--The Guenon Milk Mirror. 1 figure.
     Escutcheon of the Jersey Bull Calf, Grand Mirror.

     Two Good Lawn Trees

     Cutting Sods for Lawns

     Horticultural Notes: New apples, pears, grapes, etc.--Discussion
     on Grapes. Western New York Society.--New peaches.--Insects
     affecting horticulture.--Insect destroyers.

     Observations on the Salmon of the Pacific. By DAVID S. JORDAN
     and CHARLES B. GILBERT. Valuable census report.

IV.  LIGHT, ELECTRICITY ETC.--Relation between Electricity
     and Light. Dr. O. T. Lodge's lecture before the London Institute.

     Interesting Electrical Researches by Dr. Warren de La Rue and
     Dr. Hugo Miller.

     Telephony by Thermic Currents

     The Telectroscope. By Moxs. SENLECQ. 5 figures. A successful
     apparatus for transmitting and reproducing camera pictures by
     electricity.

V.   HYGIENE, MEDICINE, ETC.--Rapid Breathing as a Pain Obtunde in
     Minor Surgery, Obstetrics, the General Practice of Medicine, and
     of Dentistry. Dr. W. G. A. Bonwill's paper before the
     Philadelphia County Medical Society. 8 figures. Sphygmographic
     tracings.

VI.  ARCHITECTURE, ART, ETC.--Artist's Homes. No. 11. "Weirleigh."
     Residence of Harrison Weir. Perspective and plans.

       *       *       *       *       *

WHEAT AND WHEAT BREAD.

By H. MEGE-MOURIES.

In consequence of the interest that has been recently excited on the
subject of bread reform, we have, says the London _Miller_, translated the
interesting contribution of H. Mege-Mouries to the Imperial and Central
Society of Agriculture of France, and subsequently published in a separate
form in 1860, on "Wheat and Wheat Bread," with the illustration prepared
by the author for the contribution. The author says: "I repeat in this
pamphlet the principal facts put forth in the notes issued by me, and in
the reports furnished by Mr. Chevreul to the Academy of Science, from 1853
up to 1860."

The study of the structure of the wheat berry, its chemical composition,
its alimentary value, its preservation, etc., is not alone of interest to
science, agriculture, and industry, but it is worthy of attracting the
attention of governments, for this study, in its connection to political
economy, is bound up with the fate and the prosperity of nations. Wheat has
been cultivated from time immemorial. At first it was roughly crushed and
consumed in the form of a thick soup, or in cakes baked on an ordinary
hearth. Many centuries before the Christian era the Egyptians were
acquainted with the means of making fermented or leavened bread; afterwards
this practice spread into Greece, and it is found in esteem at Rome two
centuries B.C.; from Rome the new method was introduced among the Gauls,
and it is found to-day to exist almost the same as it was practiced at that
period, with the exception, of course, of the considerable improvements
introduced in the baking and grinding.

Since the fortunate idea was formed of transforming the wheat into bread,
this grain has always produced white bread, and dark or brown bread, from
which the conclusion was drawn that it must necessarily make white bread
and brown bread; on the other hand, the flours, mixed with bran, made a
brownish, doughy, and badly risen bread, and it was therefore concluded
that the bran, by its color, produced this inferior bread. From this error,
accepted as a truth, the most contradictory opinions of the most opposite
processes have arisen, which are repeated at the present day in the art of
separating as completely as possible all the tissues of the wheat, and of
extracting from the grain only 70 per cent of flour fit for making white
bread. It is, however, difficult for the observer to admit that a small
quantity of the thin yellow envelope can, by a simple mingling with the
crumb of the loaf, color it brown, and it is still more difficult to admit
that the actual presence of these envelopes can without decomposition
render bread doughy, badly raised, sticky, and incapable of swelling in
water. On the other hand, although some distinguished chemists deny or
exalt the nutritive properties of bran, agriculturists, taking practical
observation as proof, attribute to that portion of the grain a
physiological action which has nothing in common with plastic alimentation,
and prove that animals weakened by a too long usage of dry fodder, are
restored to health by the use of bran, which only seems to act by its
presence, since the greater portion of it, as already demonstrated by Mr.
Poggiale, is passed through with the excrement.

With these opinions, apparently so opposed, it evidently results that there
is an unknown factor at the bottom of the question; it is the nature of
this factor I wish to find out, and it was after the discovery that I
was able to explain the nature of brown bread, and its _role_ in the
alimentation of animals. We have then to examine the causes of the
production of brown bread, to state why white bread kills animals fed
exclusively on it, while bread mixed with bran makes them live. We have to
explain the phenomena of panification, the operations of grinding, and to
explain the means of preparing a bread more economical and more favorable
to health. To explain this question clearly and briefly we must first be
acquainted with the various substances forming the berry, their nature,
their position, and their properties. This we shall do with the aid of the
illustration given.

[Illustration: SECTION OF A GRAIN OF WHEAT MAGNIFIED.]

EXPLANATION OF DIAGRAM.

1.--Superficial Coating of the Epidermis, severed at the Crease of
    the Kernel.
2.--Section of Epidermis, Averages of the Weight of the Whole Grain, 1/2 %.
3.--Epicarp,                 do.            do.           do.      1   %.
4.--Endocarp,                do.            do.           do.      1 1/2 %.
5.--Testa or Episperm,       do.            do.           do.      2   %.
6.--Embryo Membrane (with imaginary spaces in white on both sides
    to make it distinct).
7.\              /  Glutonous Cells     \
8. > Endosperm  <   containing           >  do.           do.     90   %.
9./              \  Farinaccous Matter  /

ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF WHEAT.

The figure represents the longitudinal cut of a grain of wheat; it was made
by taking, with the aid of the microscope and of photography, the drawing
of a large quantity of fragments, which, joined together at last, produced
the figure of the entire cut. These multiplied results were necessary to
appreciate the insertion of the teguments and their nature in every part
of the berry; in this long and difficult work I have been aided by the
co-operation of Mr. Bertsch, who, as is known, has discovered a means of
fixing rapidly by photography any image from the microscope. I must state,
in the first place, that even in 1837 Mr. Payen studied and published the
structure and the composition of a fragment of a grain of wheat; that
this learned chemist, whose authority in such matters is known, perfectly
described the envelopes or coverings, and indicated the presence of various
immediate principles (especially of azote, fatty and mineral substances
which fill up the range of contiguous cells between them and the periphery
of the perisperm, to the exclusion of the gluten and the starchy granules),
as well as to the mode of insertion of the granules of starch in the gluten
contained in the cells, with narrow divisions from the perisperm, and in
such a manner that up to the point of working indicated by the figure 1
this study was complete. However, I have been obliged to recommence it, to

<<<  END OF SAMPLE... (THE FULL EBOOK HAS 281316 TOTAL CHARACTERS)  >>>