Clerget points out first the observation of Mitscherlich regarding
the influence of temperature on the rotatory power of invert sugar,
and calls attention to the detailed experiments he has made which
resulted in the determination of the laws of the variation. From these
studies he was able to construct a table of corrections, applicable in
the analysis of all saccharine substances in which the cane sugar is
polarized before and after inversion. The basis of the law rests upon
the observation that a solution of pure sugar, polarizing 100° on the
sugar scale, before inversion, will polarize 44° to the left after
inversion at a temperature of zero. The quantity of sugar operated upon
by Clerget amounted to 16.471 grams in 100 cubic centimeters of liquid.
On the instrument employed by him this quantity of sugar in 100 cubic
centimeters gave a reading of 100° to the right on the sugar scale
when contained in a tube twenty centimeters in length. The process of
inversion carried on by Clerget is as follows:
The sugar solution is placed in a flask, marked on the neck at 100
and 110 cubic centimeters; or if smaller quantities are used, in a
flask marked on the neck at fifty and fifty-five cubic centimeters.
The flask is filled with the sugar solution to the first mark and
then a sufficient quantity of strong hydrochloric acid added to bring
the volume of the liquid to the second mark. The mouth of the flask
is then closed with the thumb and its contents thoroughly mixed by
shaking. A thermometer is placed in the flask which is set in a
water-bath in such a way that the water comes just above the level of
the liquid in the neck of the flask. The water is heated in such a
manner as to bring the temperature of the contents of the flask, as
determined by the thermometer, exactly to 68° and at such a rate as to
require fifteen minutes to reach this result. At the end of fifteen
minutes the temperature having reached 68° the flask is removed and
placed at once in another water-bath at the temperature of the room,
to which temperature the contents of the flask are cooled as rapidly
as possible. To make the polarimetric observation a tube twenty-two
centimeters in length is filled with the inverted sugar solution by
means of a tubulure in its center, which serves not only the purpose of
filling the tube but also afterwards to carry the thermometer, by means
of which the temperature of observation can be taken. If the sugar
solution be turbid, or contain any lead chlorid due to the previous use
of basic lead acetate in clarification, it should be filtered before
being introduced into the observation tube. This tube being one-tenth
longer than the original compensates for the dilution caused by the
addition of the hydrochloric acid in inversion.
When reading, the bulb of the thermometer should be withdrawn far
enough to permit the free passage of the ray of light and the exact
temperature of the solution noted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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