SACCHAROMETER, the name given, by Mr Richardson of Hull, to an instrument invented by him for ascertaining the value of worts, and the strength of different kinds of malt liquors. In plain English, the name signifies a measurer of sweetness; and therefore, if etymology were to be attended to, the instrument should be employed merely as a measurer of the sweetness of worts. It is in fact best adapted for this purpose, being merely an hydrometer contrived to ascertain the specific gravity of worts, or rather to compare the weight of worts with that of equal quantities of the water employed in the brewery where the instrument is used.
The principle which suggested the invention of the instrument to Mr Richardson is as follows: The menstruum or water, employed by the brewer, becomes heavier or more dense by the addition of such parts of the materials as have been dissolved or extracted by,
and thence incorporated with it: the operation of boiling, and its subsequent cooling, still adds to the density of it by evaporation; so that when it is submitted to the action of fermentation, it is more dense than at any other period.
In passing through this operation of nature, a remarkable alteration takes place. The fluid no sooner begins to ferment than its density begins to diminish; and as the fermentation is more or less perfect, the fermentable matter, whose accession has been traced by the increase of density, becomes more or less attenuated; and in lieu of every particle thus attenuated, a spirituous particle, of less density than water, is produced: so that when the liquor is again in a state of quietude, it is so much specifically lighter than it was before, as the action of fermentation has been capable of attenuating the component parts of its acquired density; and, indeed, were it practicable to attenuate the whole, the
liquor would become lighter or less dense than water; because the quantity of spirit produced from, and occupying the place of the fermentable matter, would diminish the density of the water in a degree bearing some proportion to that in which the latter had increased it.
From these facts, the reader, who is acquainted with hydrostatical principles, will be able to construct a saccharometer for himself. Brewers, who are strangers to these principles, we must refer to Mr Richardson's book for details, which our limits permit us not to give.