CHEMISTRY AND TECHNOLOGY OF WINES AND LIQUORS. Originally published
in 1935. PREFACE: It is hoped that the present volume will, in a
sense, serve to mark the end of an era, and the beginning of a new
one. Man kind has had certain arts from time immemorial. Weaving,
smelting, pottery, and the production of alcoholic beverages are
noteworthy among these. And they share, besides great age, the
distinction of having reached a fairly high peak of perfection
without that intensive application of scientific development which
has been characteristic of the newer arts whose origin has been in
the advance of scientific knowledge. This is not to say that they
have been untouched by science until the twentieth century. In
particular the art of alcoholic beverages owes much to the workers
of the nineteenth century. Pasteur, Hansen, Lavoisier, and many of
the immortals of sci ence have left their imprint and monuments in
this field as well as in many others. More recently, but still
apart from the mod ern age were the great investigations by the
Royal Commission in Great Britain and President Taft's Board in
this country into the question What is Whiskey? In our wine
production, the work of the beloved Harvey W. Wiley culminating in
the Amer ican Wines at the Paris Exposition had a far-reaching
decisive effect. This summary cannot do more than pay its respects
to the thousands of earnest workers here and abroad who by their
labors have added vastly to our knowledge of the art of making
alcoholic beverages and their composition. The beverage art,
however, has been distinguished in an other way. It has had to
suffer under the inherent conservative tendency of any old art, and
also it has been speciallyhampered by various legal bedevilments.
The era just past in the United States, prohibition, may be
likened, by not a too strained analogy, to the Dark Ages in Europe
from the fourth to the fourteenth century. During the prohibition
period, the beverage art, under the necessity of continuing its
existence to satisfy a demand which would not cease even at an
official behest, and yet under the need of concealment to evade
legal requirements, went through a curious semi-comatose state. The
time happened to coincide with a period in our national life when
in all other arts, the sciences, especially the science of
chemistry and the growing knowledge of chemical engineering, were
finding broad new fields of extensive and intensive applica tion.
The vast results of these applications both in new products and in
increased and improved productiveness are too well known to require
illustration. Hence the repeal of prohibition found the beverage
art as a sort of stepchild. Chemical science was ready to step in.
Chem ical engineering had its techniques ready. But the art to
which these were to be applied was demoralized. Bootlegging
required very little of its product. A very bare resemblance to its
proto type and a substantial kick were sufficient to satisfy the
market. Quality of product was generally unattainable by bootleg
manu facturer, and really unnecessary to his market. Economy of
production was a relatively minor consideration when the liability
to government seizure and the maintenance of an army of thugs and
wholesale bribery constituted the larger items in the final selling
price of the product. In this historical background, the present
volume is offered. The authors are unaware ofany other summary of
the art as it now exists which has been published recently and they
feel that there may be a need for it. On this account the authors
have felt it necessary to include between the same covers a wide
diversity of material of varying degrees of technical density, and
they have been thereby forced to an equal diversity of t
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
