Project Gutenberg's The Production of Vinegar from Honey, by Gerard W Bancks

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Title: The Production of Vinegar from Honey

Author: Gerard W Bancks

Release Date: February 4, 2008 [EBook #24510]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE PRODUCTION OF

Vinegar from Honey.

BY THE

REV. GERARD W. BANCKS, M.A.

FOURTH EDITION.

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

PERRY & SON, PRINTERS, DARTFORD,
AND 4. PAUL BAKEHOUSE COURT, LONDON, E.C.

1905.

THE PRODUCTION OF

~VINEGAR from HONEY.~

Vinegar, or dilute acetic acid, is
produced by a process of fermentation
from certain vegetable substances.
After alcoholic fermentation has taken
place there follows, under suitable
conditions, a further decomposition, by means
of which the alcohol is converted into a more
highly oxidized body, acetic acid, with water as
a by-product.[1]

These conditions require that the liquid
shall contain alcohol, nitrogenous matter, and
alkaline salts in certain proportions, and that it
shall be in contact with the air, at a suitable
temperature, for a sufficient length of time.

The researches of Pasteur showed the
process of oxidation to be due to a microscopical
fungus (mycoderma aceti), possessing the power
of condensing oxygen and conveying it to
the fermentable substance. This organism,
which is a true bacterium, as the fermentation
proceeds, forms a leathery membrane (slightly
differing according to the substance