Margarine in Western Europe (Classic Reprint)

Download or read book Margarine in Western Europe (Classic Reprint) written by Siert F. Riepma and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2018-03-19 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Margarine in Western Europe Western Europe is margarine' s homeland. It was 90 years ago that the notable French chemist, Hippolyte mege-mouriez, completed his initial researches for a satisfactory spread that would serve the purposes of butter. What was needed was a food that would be readily available, through a controllable production system, and at an economical price. For Europe had suffered an increasingly severe shortage of fats since the Napoleonic wars. The rapid expansion of population, the growth of industrial areas with their new large working classes, the advent of gradually rising standards of living based on machine technology, and, perhaps the disruption of older butter sources by wars and social changes all contributed to the shortage. It was the Emperor Louis Napoleon III who asked the new chemical science and technology to invent a new kind of butter. He did so by way of a competition authorized in 1869, and Mege -mouriez won the award with his oleomargarine product. French and English patents were issued in July of that year. One reason the inventor called his mixture oleomargarine-after the Greek word margarites, meaning pearl-like-was that he believed its glistening appearance was due to what was then called margaric acid. The oleo came from the Latin oleum, for the strained beef fat that was then the principal component. Today, margarine is the accepted term, appearing in the legal definitions of most countries. The next step will possibly be development of a more standard European definition to replace the diverse descriptions in the several national laws, much as has been done in the laws of many U. S. States. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.