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Show Chemical Industry Is Putting Luster in Textiles by Using Lobster Shells a great number of sugar molecules. When subjected to the prolonged destructive action of dilute acids it is eventually broken down into sugar. Chitin is an analogous complex, com-plex, not of sugar, but of a substance sub-stance called acetyl glucosamine. This last substance is as complicated compli-cated as its name. It is a compound com-pound of acetic acid and glucosamine. glucosa-mine. The latter, the essential building stone of the chitin molecule, mole-cule, is in turn a compound of sugar and ammonia. Glucosamine possesses pos-sesses most of the properties of the sugars. In addition it has the alkaline alka-line action of ammonia. Gourmets who have been troubled about what to do with empty lobster shells will be pleased to know that the chemical industry is finding uses for the material. The horny armor of lobsters and other crustaceans has been found to be a starting material ma-terial for the manufacture of chemicals chem-icals which give a soft, lustrous finish fin-ish to textiles, reports a writer in the Chicago Tribune. The material which makes up the protective coatings of crustaceans and insects is known as chitin. It differs profoundly from the hard materials used in the skeletons or armor of other forms of animal life. The supporting matter of sponges is calcium silicate. The sheUs of oysters, clams, and snails are built of calcium carbonate, or limestone. The bones of vertebrates consist of calcium phosphate. Each of these three compounds is mineral min-eral in nature. The chitin found in crustaceans, on the other hand, is an organic substance and one that bears little chemical resemblance to any other component of living matter. Perhaps its nearest chemical relation re-lation is the cellulose of plants. Cellulose Cel-lulose is a complex combination of |