of imparting a sweet taste to the product. Many fermented drinks contain glycerin as a sweetening agent. These and other uses for glycerin take advantage of the following properties of glycerin: Antifreezing: Example-automobile-radiator preparations, gas meters, hydraulic jacks. Solvent: Example-application of some coal-tar dyes to fabrics, extraction of perfume substances from flowers. Preservative: Example-food and tobacco preservation, "glycerizing" of cork stoppers to prevent the growth of molds. Medicinal: Example-a constituent of certain medicinals, e. g., glycerophosphates, glycerites of various metals; a vehicle for applying various substances to the skin for absorption. Sweetening: Example-beverages and confections. Competitive conditions. Glycerin is exclusively a by-product of the soap, candle, and stearic-acid industries, and the output depends not so much on the demand for glycerin as for the world's requirements of soap and candles. The world's output of crude glycerin has been estimated at about 85,000 tons per year and the consumption in the United States at 40,000 tons per year. The United States does not produce sufficient glycerin to meet its own requirements and before the war imported thirty to forty million pounds of foreign crude glycerin. The bulk of this came from England and France. In these countries the normal demands for soap result in more of the by-product, glycerin, than can be utilized. The United States, on the other hand, is a newer and larger country and construction work requiring large amounts of dynamite and nitroglycerin is continually under way. The interesting relation thus existing between soap and dynamite, though not particularly obvious to the layman, is clearly reflected in the international trade of glycerin. Since the beginning of the war, the imports into the United States have dropped off very greatly, decreasing from 36,000,000 pounds in 1914 to 18,000,000 pounds in 1915. In 1917 the imports had further decreased to slightly over 4,000,000 pounds and of this amount none came from England. The explanation of this, of course, is the direct war demand for nitroglycerin for the manufacture of the English military explosive, cordite. With the increasing use of high-grade fats for butter substitutes and the conversion of the fatty oils to hard edible fats, the soap and candle makers are compelled to use fats and oils of a poorer quality than formerly used. These fats are high in the free fatty acids and low in glycerin, so that there is a tendency at present toward a lowering of the proportion of glycerin to soap. The present high prices, however, have encouraged the most efficient improvements in the methods of recovery, so that any decrease due to the use of poorer grades of fats is probably more than counterbalanced. Domestic production. The following table of production of glycerin was taken from the Abstract of the Census of Manufactures. 1914: 1 From Census of Manufactures, 1914. 16,568, 920 pounds.. 60, 944, 799 79,677,490 46,972,658 26,512, 454 $11,752, 580 $5,355,320 $3,096, 601 59,810,405 $10, 779, 204 ...pounds.. 1,134,394 2 Figures not available for total production of crude glycerin, 1914, as that made and consumed in the manufacture of a large portion of the refined glycerin was not reported. Glycerin produced for sale, crude and refined-Production in United States-States and cities. 1 In addition, 5,633,197 pounds were reported without value and 5,879,279 pounds as used in establishments where produced, or a total production of 93,398,012 pounds. |