ISSUE 77, BEGINNINGS, Part 5: Beginning the Quest for Food Purity
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Beginning the Quest for Food Purity He should know. Fredrick Accum constructed the first factory for the production of coal gas, the first fuel to be used in large scale public illumination projects. A German chemist, Accum had prospered in London as a practical chemist, laboratory experimentalist, and instructor in chemistry. His colleague Fredrich Winsor formed a company and soon London Bridge (1813) and Westiminster (1814) were illuminated by gaslight. Accum oversaw the difficult process of rendering gas from coal. It was difficult because it generated noxious by-products such as tar and Sulphur. After Accum in 1815 published "Description of the Process of Manufacturing Coal-Gas" other manufacturers mushroomed over England, and they proceeded to dump the noxious by products into local estuaries. These same estuaries supplied the water used by food processors to dilute milk (chalk also added to maintain a white color), or mix with vinegar and copper for green pickles. Accum, bruised by his role in imperiling the consuming public, began seriously studying the chemical compositions of foods sold to the British public. His 1820
ISSUE 77, BEGINNINGS, Part 5: Beginning the Quest for Food Purity
ISSUE 77, BEGINNINGS, Part 5: Beginning the…
ISSUE 77, BEGINNINGS, Part 5: Beginning the Quest for Food Purity
Beginning the Quest for Food Purity He should know. Fredrick Accum constructed the first factory for the production of coal gas, the first fuel to be used in large scale public illumination projects. A German chemist, Accum had prospered in London as a practical chemist, laboratory experimentalist, and instructor in chemistry. His colleague Fredrich Winsor formed a company and soon London Bridge (1813) and Westiminster (1814) were illuminated by gaslight. Accum oversaw the difficult process of rendering gas from coal. It was difficult because it generated noxious by-products such as tar and Sulphur. After Accum in 1815 published "Description of the Process of Manufacturing Coal-Gas" other manufacturers mushroomed over England, and they proceeded to dump the noxious by products into local estuaries. These same estuaries supplied the water used by food processors to dilute milk (chalk also added to maintain a white color), or mix with vinegar and copper for green pickles. Accum, bruised by his role in imperiling the consuming public, began seriously studying the chemical compositions of foods sold to the British public. His 1820