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Show Onions' 'Breath' Measured to Find Its Strength by Cornell U. Scientist ITHACA, N. Y. Onions can now have the strength of their "breath" measured. Stated in slightly more technical tech-nical terms, a definitely quantitative quantita-tive measurement can be made of their pungency, by a new distillation distilla-tion process devised by Hans Pla-tenius, Pla-tenius, a young research scientist at Cornell university. Mr. Plate-nlus' Plate-nlus' technique is no mere chemical stunt, either anyone who has ever bought or sold onions In quantity knows that strength or mildness In onions Is reflected In cold cash on the hard cobblestones of the produce pro-duce marketplace. The Cornell onion-"breath" measuring meas-uring system Is based on the fact that the pungency of an onion depends de-pends on a sulphur-containing oil. There Is very little of this In an onion. One mass analysis some years ago used up more than five tons of onions and yielded less than a pound of oil. The oil, which is known chemically chemi-cally as allyl-propyl-disulphlde, contains con-tains about 43 per cent of sulphur by weight nence, any method which will measure the amount of sulphur that can be evaporated out of a given lot of onions should give an Indirect measurement of the quantity of the oniony oil present, and hence of the strength of the onions' "breath." |