CYANOGEN

A gaseous compound of two prime equivalents of charcoal = 12, and one of azote = 14 = 26; hydrogen being the radix or, 1. It consists of two volumes of vapour of carbon, and one volume of azote, condensed into one volume; and has therefore a density equal to the sum of the weights of these 3 gaseous volumes = 1·815. Cyanogen is readily procured by exposing the cyanide of mercury to a dull red heat in a retort; the gas is evolved and may be collected over mercury. Its smell is very sharp and penetrating; it perceptibly reddens tincture of litmus; it is condensable by pre ure at a low temperature into a liquid; and by a still greater degree of cold, it is solidified. When a lighted taper is applied to a mixture of cyanogen and oxygen, an explosion takes place; carbonic acid is formed, and the azote is set at liberty. For a connected view of the various compounds of cyanogen employed in the arts, see Pru ian Blue . CYDER; ( Cidre , Fr.; Apfelwein , Germ.) the vinous fermented juice of the apple. The ancients were acquainted with cyder and perry, as we learn from the following pa age of Pliny the naturalist: “Wine is made from the Syrian pod, from pears and apples of every kind.” Book xiv. chap. 19. The term cyder or cidre in French, at first written sidre , is derived from the latin word sicera , which denoted all other fermented liquors except grape wine. Cyder seems to have been brought into Normandy by the Moors of Biscay, who had preserved the use of it after coming into that country from Africa. It was afterwards spread through some other provinces of France, whence it was introduced into England, Germany, and Ru ia. It is supposed that the first growths of Normandy afford still the best specimens of cyder. Devons hire and Here ford shire are the counties of England most famous for this beverage. Strong and somewhat elevated ground, rather dry, and not exposed to the air of the sea, or to high winds, are the best situations for the growth of the cyder apple. The fruit should be gathered in dry weather. The juice of apples is composed of a great deal of water; a little sugar analogous to that of the grape; a matter capable of causing fermentation with contact of air; a pretty large proportion of mucilage, with malic acid, acetic acid, and an azotized matter in a very small quantity. The seeds contain a bitter substance and a little e ential oil; the pure parenchyma or cellular membrane constitutes not more than two per cent. of the whole. After the apples are gathered, they are left in the barn-loft for fifteen days or upwards to mellow; some of them in this case, however, become soft and brown. This degree of maturation diminishes their mucilage, and developes alcohol and carbonic acid; in consequence of which the cyder suffers no injury. There is always however a little lo ; and if this ripening goes a little further it is very apt to do harm, notwithstanding the vulgar prejudice of the country people to the contrary. Too much care, indeed, cannot be taken to separate the sound from the spoiled apples; for the latter merely furnish an acid leaven, give a disagreeable taste to the juice, and hinder the cyder from fining, by leaving in it a certain portion of the parenchyma, which the gelatinous matter or the fermentation has diffused through it. Unripe apples should be separated from the ripe also, for they po e too little saccharum to be properly susceptible of the vinous fermentation. In France, where cyder making is most scientifically practised, it is prepared by crushing the apples in a mill with revolving edge-stones, turned in a circular stone cistern by one or two horses. When the fruit is half mashed, about one fifth of its weight of river water is added, or the water of lakes. The latter have been found by experience to be preferable to other water. In some places a mill composed of two cast-iron fluted cylinders placed parallel to each other under the bottom of a hopper, is employed for crushing the apples. One of the cylinders is turned by a winch, and communicates its motion in the opposite direction by means of the flutings working into each other. Each portion of the fruit must be pa ed thrice through this rude mill in order to be sufficiently mashed; and the same quantity of water must be added as in the edge stone mill. After the apples are crushed they are usually put into a large tub or tun for 12 or 24 hours. This steeping aids the separation of the juice, because the fermentative motion which takes place in the ma breaks down the cellular membranes; but there is always a lo of alcohol carried off by the carbonic acid disengaged, while the skins and seeds develope a disagreeable taste in the liquid. The vatting might be suppre ed if the apples were so comminuted as to give out their juice more readily. With slight modifications, the proce employed in rasping and squeezing the beet-roots might in my opinion be applied with great advantage to the cyder manufacture. See Sugar . After the vatting, the mashed fruit is carried to the pre and put upon a square wicker frame or into a hair bag, sometimes between layers of straw, and exposed stratum super stratum to strong pre ure till what is called a cheese or cake is formed. The ma is to be allowed to drain for some time before applying pre ure, which ought to be very gradually increased. The juice which exudes with the least pre ure affords the best cyder; that which flows towards the end acquires a disagreeable taste from the seeds and the skins. The must is put into casks with large bungholes, where it soon begins to exhibit a tumultuous fermentation. The cask must be completely filled, in order that all the light bodies suspended in the liquid when floated to the top by the carbonic acid may flow over with the froth; this means of clearing cyder is particularly nece ary with the weak kinds, because it cannot be expected that these matters in suspension will fall to the bottom of the casks after the motion has ceased. In almost every circumstance besides, when no saccharine matter has been added to the must, that kind of yeast which rises to the top must be separated, lest by precipitation it may excite an acid fermentation in the cyder. The casks are raised upon gawntrees or stillions, in order to place flat tubs below them to receive the liquor which flows over with the froth. At the end of two or three days, for weak cyders which are to be drunk somewhat sweet, of 6 or 10 days or more for stronger cyders, with variations for the state of the weather, the fermentation will be sufficiently advanced, and the cyder may be racked off into other casks. Spirit puncheons preserve cyder better than any other, but in all cases the casks should be well seasoned and washed. Sometimes a sulphur match is burned in them before introducing the cyder, a precaution to be generally recommended, as it suspends the activity of the fermentation, and prevents the formation of vinegar. The cyder procured by the first expre ion is called cyder without water. The cake remaining in the pre is taken out, divided into small pieces, and mashed anew, adding about half the weight of water, when the whole is carried back to the pre and treated as above described. The liquor thus obtained furnishes a weaker cyder which will not keep, and therefore must be drunk soon. The cake is once more mashed up with water, and squeezed, when it yields a liquor which may be used instead of water for moistening fresh ground apples. The proce es above described, although they have been long practised, and have therefore the stamp of ancestral wisdom, are extremely defective. Were the apples ground with a proper rotatory rasp which would tear all their cells asunder, and the mash put through the hydraulic pre in bags between hurdles of wicker-work, the juice would be obtained in a state of perfection fit to make a cyder superior to many wines. An experimental proce of this kind has been actually executed in France upon a considerable scale, with the best results. The juice had the fine flavour of the apple, was fermented by itself without any previous fermentation in the mash, and afforded an excellent strong cyder which kept well. When the must of the apples is weak or sour, good cyder cannot be made from it without the addition of some saccharine matter. The syrup into which potato farina is convertible by diastase (saccharine ferment), see Starch and Sugar , would answer well for enriching poor apple juice. d.