CHAMPAGNE FROM PETROLEUM. (From the British Medical Journal.)

Otago Witness, Issue 875, 5 September 1868, Page 6

CHAMPAGNE FROM PETROLEUM. (From the British Medical Journal. )

It is no longer a secret of the chemist's laboratory that clear golden syrups can be made from starch and sulphuric acid ; that delicious wines and brandies can be made from beetroot ; that a barrel of peanuts can be transformed into excellent coffee ; that lard can absorb an" enormous quantity of water in certain conditions ; that, in fact, there seems no limit to the adulterations that an intelligent and dishonest chemist can practise upon his fel-low-men. All these marvels of chemical science have in these latter days become degraded into mere tricks of trade, and their chief beauty is in their capacity to enable unscrupulous dealers to lighten the pockets and. destroy the stomachs of the confiding and consuming public. Concerning the article of champagne, a writer in the Cincinnati Journal of Commerce tells us that it is made from a thousand different substances, even from refined petroleum. Yes, from the fiery benzole a sparkling, bubbling, foaming champagne can be produced, which will delight the eye, tickle the palate, gladden the heart momentarily, but quicken our paces toward the graveyard. This a new use for petroleum, which those who have been experimenting with it as an agency for generating steam have little dreamed of. Who can say that the Pennsylvania oil territory, now considered mostly worthless, may not some day be regenerated into the great champagne-pro-ducing country of the world 1