CHAMPAGNE FROM PETROLEUM.

Southland Times, Issue 1002, 12 August 1868, Page 3

CHAMPAGNE FROM PETROLEUM.

~~-It is no longer a secret of the chemist* / laboratoy that clear golden syrups can be made from starch and sulphuric acid f that delicious wines aud brandies can be made from beetroot; th.it a barrel of peanuts can be transformed into excellent coffee ; that lard can absorb an- euormoiw quantity of water in- certain- conditions ; ; that, in fact, there seems no litnit to-, ther adulterations that an uiiielligent and i dishonest chemist can practise upon hi* fellow-men. All these marvels of chemical science hare in these latter days become degraded into- mere trick* of trade, aud their cheif 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 sabstances, 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 is a new use for petroleum, which those who hare 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 someday be regenerated into the great champagne-producing country of the world ?—" British Medical Journal."