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41
than to buy it by the ton and put the mineral openly into
the vat. Sulphuring the casks and vats may be so
managed as to introduce a material quantity of sulphuric
acid into vinegar. Each pound of sulphur that is burnt, if
fully oxidised, produces about three pounds of oil of vitriol.
The caramel with which vinegar is now coloured is no
longer the old-fashioned burnt sugar. Caramel is now
prepared by steeping the sugar with sulphuric acid and
ammonia at a high temperature, and a considerable quantity
of the sulphuric acid remains in the caramel and passes
into the finished vinegar.
Under the old Vinegar Act (1818) this pretence that the
vinegar required sulphuric acid in it in order to make it
keep was met by allowing one pound of sulphuric acid
to be put into each 1,000 pounds of the finished vinegar.
But that Act was merely a revenue Act in times when
sanding the sugar before coming in to morning prayers
was supposed to be the duty of every grocer's apprentice.
It has long been known that a good vinegar, properly
brewed, and not afterwards watered, requires no vitriol
to preserve it. That old revenue Act was entirely repealed
in 1861. Moreover, the various Adulteration Acts have
come into force, and the position is wholly changed. Unfortunately
several eminent chemical authors have not yet
discovered that this old revenue Act has been repealed,
and their text-books say that it is still legal to put vitriol
into vinegar. They also describe the quantity allowed as
not one pound into 1,000 pounds, but one gallon into 1,000
gallons, both these statements being very gross blunders. Oil
of vitriol is so heavy that a gallon of it weighs some 18½
pounds, whereas a gallon of water weighs 10 pounds.
Therefore 1 gallon in 1,000 gallons would be nearly twice as
much as 1 pound in 1,000 pounds of the vinegar. It would,
in fact, be 1 in 542, instead of 1 in 1,000. It is evident
that in the vinegars 28, 36, 38, and 51 the manufacturers
have acted upon these statements, some having considerably
exceeded the 1 in 542. The Government
Laboratory certificate (page 44) states that No. 38