Where Does Chocolate Come From?

Perhaps no other one thing is so well known to boys and girls the world over as chocolate. Yet there was a time, and not so many years ago, as we figure time in history, when there were no cakes of chocolate, or chocolate candies to be had in the candy shops, no chocolate flavored soda water or chocolate cake. To-day quite a panic would be started if the world’s supply of chocolate were cut off.

Chocolate is obtained from cacao, which is the seed of the cacao tree. It is quite often called cocoa, although this is not quite a correct way of spelling the word. The cacao tree grows to a height of sixteen or eighteen feet when cultivated, but to a greater height when found growing wild. The cacao pod grows out from the trunk of the tree as shown in the picture, and is, when ripe, from seven to ten inches long and from three to five inches in diameter, giving it the form of an ellipse. When you cut one of these pods open, you find five compartments or cells, in each of which is a row of from five to ten seeds, which are imbedded in a soft pulp, which is pinkish in color. Each pod then contains from twenty-five to fifty seeds, which are what we call “cocoa beans.”

The cacao tree was discovered for us by Christopher Columbus, so that we have good reason to remember him aside from his great discovery of America. The discovery of either of these would be fame enough for any one man, and it would be difficult for some boys and girls to say just which of the two was Columbus’ greater discovery.

Columbus found the cacao tree flourishing both in a wild and in a cultivated state upon one of his voyages to Mexico. The Indians of Peru and Mexico were very fond of it in its native state. They did not know the joy of eating a chocolate cream, but they had discovered the qualities of the cacao bean as a food and had learned to cultivate it long before Columbus came to Mexico.

Columbus took some of the cacao beans back with him to Spain and to this day cacao is much more extensively used by the Spaniards than by any other nation. The first record of its introduction into England is found in an announcement in the Public Advertiser of June 16, 1657, to the effect that:

“In Bishopgate Street, in Queen’s Head Alley, at a Frenchman’s house, is an excellent West Indian drink called chocolate, to be sold where you may have it ready at any time and also unmade, at reasonable rates.”

Of course, by the time America became settled the people brought their taste for chocolates with them.

What is the Difference Between Cacao and Chocolate?

When the cacao seeds are roasted and separated from the husks which surround them, they are called cocoa-nibs. Cocoa consists of these nibs alone, whether they are ground or unground, dried and powdered, or of the crude paste dried in flakes.

Chocolate is made from the cocoa-nibs. These nibs are ground into an oily paste and mixed with sugar and vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, or other flavoring substances. Chocolate is only a product made from cocoa-nibs, but it is the most important product.

What Are Cocoa Shells?

There are other products which are obtained from the cacao seed. One is called Broma—which is the dry powder of the seeds, after the oil has been taken out.

Cocoa shells are the husks which surround the cocoa bean. These are ground up into a fine powder and sold for making a kind of cocoa for drinking, although the flavor is to a great extent missing and it is, of course, not nearly so nourishing as a drink of real cocoa.

What is Cocoa Butter?

The oil from the cacao seeds, when separated from the seeds, is what we call cocoa butter. It has a pleasant odor and chocolate-like taste. It is used in making soap, ointments, etc.

How is Cacao Gathered?

When the cacao pods ripen on the tropical plantations, where the climate is such that they can be grown successfully, the native laborer cuts off the ripened pods as we see him doing in the picture showing the pods on the tree. He does this with a scissors-like arrangement of knives on a long pole.

As he cuts off the pods he lays them on the ground and leaves them to dry for twenty-four hours. The next day they are cut open, the seeds taken out and carried to the place where they are cured or sweated.

In the process of curing or sweating, the acid which is found with the seeds is poured off. The beans are then placed in a sweating box. This part of the process is for the purpose of making the beans ferment and is the most important part of preparing the beans for market, as the quality and the flavor of the beans and, therefore, their value in the market, depends largely upon the ability of whoever does it in curing or fermenting.

Sometimes the curing is done by placing the seeds in trenches or holes in the ground and covering them with earth or clay. This is called the clay-curing process. The time required in curing the cacao beans varies, but on the average requires two days. When cured they are dried by exposure to the sun and packed ready for shipping. At this time beans of fine quality are found to have a warm reddish color. The quality or grades of beans are determined by the color at this stage.

How Chocolate is Made.

When the cacao beans arrive at the chocolate factory they are put through various processes to develop their aroma, palatability and digestibility.

The seeds are first roasted. In roasting the substance which develops the aroma is formed. The roasting is accomplished in revolving cylinders, much like the revolving peanut roasters, only much larger. After roasting the seeds are transferred to crushing and winnowing machines. The crushing machines break the husks or “shells,” and the winnowing machine by the action of a fan separates the shells from the actual kernel or bean. The beans are now called cocoa-nibs. These nibs are now in turn winnowed, but in smaller quantities at a time, during which process the imperfect pieces are removed with other foreign substances. Cacao beans in this form constitute the purest and simplest form of cacao in which it is sold. The objection to their use in this form is that it is necessary to boil them for a much longer time, in order to disintegrate them, than when they are ground up in the form of meal. For that reason the nibs are generally ground before marketing as cacao or cocoa.

Another form in which the pure seeds are prepared is the flaked cocoa. This is accomplished by grinding up the nibs into a paste. This grinding is done in a revolving cylinder machine in which a drum revolves. In this process the heat developed by the friction in the machine is sufficient to liquefy the oil in the beans and form the paste. The oil then solidifies again in the paste when it becomes cool.

What we know as cakes of chocolate are made from the cocoa-nibs by heating the mixture of the cacao, sugar and such flavoring extracts as vanilla, until an even paste is secured. This paste is passed several times between heavy rollers to get a thorough mixture and finally poured into molds and allowed to cool. When cool it can be taken from the molds in firm cakes and wrapped for the market. This is the way Milk Chocolate is made. The difference in the taste and consistency of milk chocolate depends upon how many different things the chocolate maker adds to the pure cocoa-nibs to produce this mixture. Often substances such as starchy materials are added to make the cakes more firm. They add nothing to the quality of the chocolate.

Chocolate-covered bonbons, chocolate drops, and the many different kinds of toothsome confections are prepared in the American candy factories, as we all well know. The chocolate covering of this confectionery is generally put on by dipping the inside of the choice morsel in a pan of liquid chocolate paste and then placing the bits in tins to allow them to cool and harden.

A great many of the choicest bits of confectionery are now produced by machines entirely. These machines are almost human, apparently, as we see them make a perfect chocolate bonbon which is delivered to a candy box all wrapped for packing. These wonderful machines thus give us candy which has not been touched by the hands of any one prior to the time we thrust our own fingers in the brightly-decorated box and take our pick of the assortment it offers.

Does Air Weigh Anything?

Air is very light, so light that it seems to have no weight at all; but, if you will think a minute you will see that it must have some weight, because birds fly in it and balloons can be made to float through it. It has been found that one hundred cubic inches of air at the sea level weighs, under ordinary conditions, about thirty-one grains. This seems a very small weight, but when we remember the thickness of the atmospheric envelope over the earth we see that it must press quite heavily upon the earth’s surface. There is a very simple instrument called a barometer, which is used for measuring the amount of this pressure. The name means pressure-measure.

Another striking feature of air is its elasticity, and this explains something that is noticed by all mountain climbers. On a high mountain, it is difficult to get enough air to the lungs, though one breathes rapidly and deeply. The reason is, that the air at the foot of the mountain is compressed by the weight of that above it, and consequently the lungs can hold more of it than of the air on the mountain top, which has less weight resting upon it and is, therefore, not so much compressed. On account of the ease with which it is compressed, we find that more than half of all the envelope of air that surrounds the earth is within three miles of the surface.

When air is chemically analyzed it is found to consist of a number of substances mingled together, but not chemically united. These include nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbonic acid gas, water vapor, ozone, nitric acid, ammonia, and dust.

Oxygen is the most important of these constituents, for it is the part that is necessary to support life. Yet, notwithstanding its importance, it forms only about one-fifth of the entire bulk of the atmosphere.

Oxygen is a very interesting substance and many striking experiments may be performed with it. If a lighted candle is thrust into a vessel filled with oxygen, it burns very much more rapidly and brilliantly than in air. A piece of wood with a mere spark on it bursts into flame and burns brightly when thrust into oxygen, and some things that will not burn at all in air, can be made to burn very rapidly in oxygen. For example, if a piece of clock spring be dipped in melted sulphur and then put into a jar of oxygen, after the sulphur has been set on fire, the steel spring will take fire and burn fiercely. The heat produced is so great that drops of molten steel form at the end of the spring, and falling on the bottom of the jar, melt the surface of the glass where they strike.

The other two substances found in pure air, nitrogen and argon, are very much alike. They make up the remaining four-fifths of the air, and are very different from oxygen in nearly every respect.

Nitrogen and argon resemble oxygen in being colorless, odorless, and tasteless gases; and they are of nearly the same weight as oxygen, argon being a little heavier and nitrogen a little lighter; but here the similarity ends. Oxygen is what we call a very active substance. As we have seen, it causes things to burn very much more rapidly in it than in air. Nitrogen and argon, on the contrary, put out fire. If a lighted candle is put into a jar of nitrogen or argon its flame will be extinguished as quickly as if put into water.

We must now consider the impurities found in air. Of these the most important is carbonic acid gas, or, as it is frequently called, carbon dioxide. It is always produced when wood or coal is burned, and is, of course, constantly being poured out of chimneys. It is also produced in our lungs and we give off some of it when we breathe. It is colorless, like the gases found in pure air, has no odor or taste, and is considerably heavier than oxygen or nitrogen. In its other properties it is much more like nitrogen than oxygen, for when a candle is put into it the flame is extinguished at once. To find out whether air contains carbonic acid gas, it is only necessary to force it through a little lime water, in a glass vessel, and watch what change takes place in the water. Fresh lime water is as clear as pure water; but after forcing air containing carbonic acid through it, it becomes turbid and milky. If the turbid water is allowed to stand for a time, a white powder will settle to the bottom, and if we examine this powder, we find it to be very much the same thing as chalk. While it is true that air generally contains only a very small portion of carbonic acid gas, there are some places in which it is present in such large quantities as to render the air unfit for breathing. The air at the bottom of deep mines and old wells often has an unusually large proportion of this gas, which, because of its great weight, accumulates at the bottom, and remains confined there. The presence of a dangerous quantity of the gas in such places may be detected by lowering a candle into it.

Why Does the Scenery Appear to Move When We Are Riding in a Train?

When you sit in a moving train looking out of the window it appears as though the fields, the telegraph poles and everything else outside were moving, instead of you. This is because our only ideas of motion are arrived at by comparison, and the fact that neither you nor the seats of the car or any other part of the inside of the car is changing its position, leads you to the delusion that the things outside the car are moving and not you. If you were to pull down all the curtains and the train were making no noise at all, you would not think that anything was moving. It would appear as though you were motionless just as everything in the car appears so. When you turn then to the window, and lift the curtain you carry in the back of your mind the idea of being at rest and that is what makes it appear as though the fields and everything outside were moving in an opposite direction.

This is particularly noticeable when you are in a train in a station with another train on the next track. There is a sense of motion if one of the trains only is moving and you feel that it is the other train, because you are surrounded by objects in the car which are at rest, and when you look out at the other train with this half consciousness of rest in your mind, it appears as though the other train were moving when as a matter of fact it is your train. If the delusion happens to be turned the other way, it will appear as though you are moving and the other is still. It depends upon what cause the impression starts with.

Why Don’t the Scenery Appear to Move When I am in a Street Car?

If you are in a street car in the country and moving along fast you will receive the same impression, especially in a closed car, because you are looking out of one hole or one window. In an open car you do not receive the same impression because your range of vision is broader. You can and do, although perhaps unconsciously, look out on both sides and the impression your mind gets through the eyes is not the same. If you were to pull down all the storm curtains in a moving open street car, and then look out of one little crack, you would think the outside was moving. But if you stop to remember that you are moving and not the things outside the car, then the impression vanishes. In the city, of course, your brain is so thoroughly impressed with the fact that houses and pavements do not move, and the cars move so much more slowly, that it is difficult to make yourself believe otherwise. The impression is more difficult always when you are moving through or past objects with which you are perfectly familiar. It is all, of course, a question of impressions.

Why Does the Moon Travel With Us When We Walk or Ride?

The moon does not really travel with us. It only seems to do so. The moon is so far away that when we walk a block or two or a hundred, we cannot notice any relative difference in the relative positions of the moon and ourselves. When a thing is close at hand we can notice every change in our position toward it, but when it is far away the change of our position toward it is so slight that it is hardly perceptible. A very good way to illustrate this is to ask you to recall the last time you were in a railroad train looking out at the scenery in the country. The telegraph poles rush past you so fast you cannot count them. The cows in the pasture beside the railroad do not seem to go by so fast. You can count them easily. The tree farther over in the next field does not appear to be moving but slightly, while the church steeple which you can see far in the distance, does not go out of sight for a long time—in fact, seems almost to be moving along with you. The moon is just like the church steeple in this case, except that it is so much farther away that it seems to travel right with you. It is all due to the fact as stated at the beginning of this answer, that the relative positions of yourself and the moon are only slightly changed as you move from place to place, so slight in fact as to appear imperceptible.

Is There a Man in the Moon?

The markings which we see on the face of the moon when it is full can by a stretch of the imagination be said to form the face of a man. On some nights this face appears to be quite distinct. If, however, we look at the moon through a telescope, we see distinctly that it is not the face of a man. Through a very large telescope we can see very plainly that the marks are mountains and craters of extinct volcanoes. It just happens that these marks on the moon, aided by the reflections of the light from the sun, which gives the moon all the light it has, make a combination that looks like a face.

Does the Air Surrounding the Earth Move With It?

This is one of the old puzzling questions which many a high-school student has had to struggle with to the great amusement of the teacher who asks for the information and such other scholars who have already had the experience of trying to solve it.

To get at the right answer you have merely to ask one other question. If the air does not revolve with the earth, why can’t I go up in a balloon at New York, and stay up long enough for the earth to revolve on its axis beneath me, and come down again when the city of San Francisco appears under the balloon, which should be in about four hours? If that were possible, travel would be both rapid and comfortable, for then we could sit quietly in a balloon while the earth traveling beneath us would get all the bumps.

No, the atmosphere surrounding the earth moves right along with the earth on its axis. If it were not so, the earth would probably burn up—at least no living thing could remain on it—since the friction of the surface of the air against the surface of the earth would develop such a heat that nothing could live in it.

Why Does Oiling the Axle Make the Wheel Turn More Easily?

If you look at what appears to be a perfectly smooth axle on a bicycle or motor car through a powerful magnifying glass, you will find that the surface of the axle is not smooth at all, as you may have thought, but covered with what appear to be quite large bumps or irregularities in the surface. If you were to examine the inside of the hub of the wheel in the same way, you would find that it also is like that. Now, when you attempt to turn a wheel on the axle without oil, these little irregularities or bumps grind against each other, producing what we call friction. As friction develops heat, the metal of the axle and the hub expand and the wheel gets stuck.

What Made the Mountains?

There is no question but that at one time the surface of the earth was smooth, i. e., there were no big hills and no deep valleys. That was before the mountains were made. The earth was a hot molten mass that began to cool off from the outside inward. It is still a hot molten mass inside today. The outside crust became cooler and cooler and the crust became deeper and deeper all the time. Then when there would be an eruption of the red-hot mass inside, the earth’s crust would be bulged out in some places and sucked in in others and would stay that way. The bulged out place became a range of mountains and the sucked in place became a valley. This process went on happening over and over again until the crust of the earth became firmly set. Volcanos caused some of these eruptions, as also did earthquakes. There are today gradual changes occurring which to a certain extent change the outside surface of the earth, and it is possible that new mountain ranges will be produced in this way.

What Makes the Sea Roar?

The roar of the sea is a movement of the sea which causes the same kind of air waves or sound waves that you make when you shout, excepting that, of course, the vibrations do not occur so quickly in the sea and, therefore, the sound produced is a low sound. It is no different in any sense than the same noise would be if the same air waves could be produced on the land away from the water.

Why Is Fire Hot?

When a fire is lighted it throws off what we call heat rays or waves. These waves are very much like the waves of light which come from a light or fire or the air waves which produce sounds. The rays of light and heat which come from the sun are like the rays of light and heat from a fire. Heat is of two kinds—heat proper which is resident in the body, and radiant heat which is the kind which comes to us from the sun or from a fire. This radiant heat is not heat at all, but a form of wave motion thrown out by the vibrations in the ether. The heat we feel is the sensation produced upon our skins when it comes in contact with the waves created by the fire. Heat was formerly thought to be an actual substance, but we know now that radiant heat is known to be the energy of heat transferred to the ether which fills all of space and is in all bodies also. The hot body which sets the particles of either in vibration and this vibrating motion in the form of waves travels in all directions. When these vibrations strike against our skin they produce a heat sensation; striking other objects these vibrations may produce instead of a heat sensation, either chemical action or luminosity. This is determined by the length of the vibratory rays in each case.

When I Throw a Ball Into the Air While Walking, Why Does It Follow Me?

When you throw a ball into the air while moving your body forward or backward, either slowly or fast, the ball partakes of two motions—the one upward and the forward or backward motion of your body. The ball possessed the motion of your body before it left your hand to go up into the air because your body was moving before you threw it up, and the ball was a part of you at the time.

If you are moving forward up to the time you throw the ball into the air and stop as soon as you let go of the ball, it will fall at some distance from you. Also if you throw the ball up from a standing position and move forward as soon as the ball leaves your hand the ball will fall behind you, provided you actually threw it straight up.

Of course, you know that the earth is moving many miles per hour on its axis and that when you throw a ball straight into the air from a standing position, the earth and yourself as well as the ball move with the earth a long distance before the ball comes down again. The relative position is, however, the same. We get our sense of motion by a comparison with other objects. If you are in a train that is moving swiftly and another train goes by in the opposite direction moving just as fast, you seem to be going twice as fast as you really are. If the train on the other track, however, is going at the same rate of speed and in the same direction as you are, you will appear to be standing still.

Going back to the ball again, you will find that it always partakes of the motion of the body holding it in addition to the motion given when it is thrown up.

What Good Are the Lines On the Palms of Our Hands?

It cannot be said that the lines on the palms of our hands are of any great service to us. Indeed it is doubtful if they are of any value in themselves, outside of the possible aid they may be in helping us to determine the character of the surface of things which we grasp or touch. It is possible that they aid in some slight degree in this way. There is little doubt, however, that they are a result of the work the hands are constantly called upon to do rather than contrived for any particular service. The habitual tendency of the fingers in grasping and holding things throws the skin of the palms into creases which through frequent repetition make the lines of the palms permanent in several instances.

The peculiarities of these lines or creases in various individuals as to details and length and variations is the chief basis of the so-called science of palmistry.

What Makes Things Whirl Round When I Am Dizzy?

The medical term that describes this condition of turning or whirling is vertigo, which means in simple language “to turn.” There are two kinds of dizziness—one where the objects about us seem to be turning round and round and the other where the person who is dizzy seems to himself to be turning round and round.

One cause of this is due to the fact that when you are dizzy the eyes are not in complete control of the brain and the eyes moving independently of each other look in different directions and produce this turning effect on the brain, since each eye then sends a different impression to the brain instantly.

The principal cause of the sense of dizziness is, however, the little organ which gives us our power to balance and which is located near the ears. Sometimes this organ becomes diseased and people affected in this way are almost continually dizzy. Whenever this organ of balance is disturbed we lose our idea of balance and the turning sensation occurs.

It is easy to make yourself dizzy. All you do is to turn round a few times in the same direction and stop. In doing this you disturb the little organ of balance and things begin to turn apparently before your eyes. If you turn the other way you right matters again or if you just stand still matters will right themselves. There is no great harm in making yourself dizzy and very little fun.

Why Are the Complexions of Some People Light and Others Dark?

This difference in the complexions of people is due to the varying amounts of pigment or coloring material in the cells of which the skins of all animals is made up. Very light people have very little pigment; very dark people, those with dark eyes and black hair, have a great deal of this coloring material in their cells. A great many people are neither light or very dark. They have less than the dark-complexioned people and more than the light-complexioned people. When the hair turns gray it is because the pigment has disappeared. As this is due to the loss of this coloring material, dark-complexioned people turn gray sooner than light-complexioned people. The structure of the skin showing how these cells are made in layers can be seen by examining the skin with a microscope.

What Makes Me Tired?

Men were wrong for a long time in their conclusions as to what produced the tired feeling in us.

We know now that every activity of our body registers itself on the brain. When we move an arm or leg a great many times we soon feel tired. Every time you move your arm the movement is registered in the brain, and after a number of these movements are registered the tired feeling in the arm appears. It is said that every movement of any part of the body really produces certain defective cells and that these accumulate in the blood. When these reach a certain number the tired feeling takes possession of us, and when we rest, the blood under the guidance of the brain, goes to work and rebuilds these defective cells. We know that a change takes place in the blood when we become tired because, if you take some of the blood from an animal that shows unmistakable signs of fatigue and inject it into an animal that shows no tired feeling at all, the second animal will begin to show signs of fatigue even though it is not active at all.

We used to think that being tired indicated that our bodies were in need of food and that the way to overcome it was to eat a big meal. We did not stop to think that even when we are hungry the human body has sufficient food supply stored up to keep it going for days without taking in new food. Of course, this mistake was made because we knew that our power and energy came as a result of the food we took into our systems, but this belief was exploded when it was found that a really tired person could hardly digest food while tired, and that it is best for people who are very tired to eat only a light meal.

Why Are Most People Right-Handed?

Most people are right-handed because they are trained that way. Being right-handed or left-handed depends largely on how we get started in that connection. When we are young we form the habit generally of being either right-handed or left-handed, as the case may be. Most people correct their children when it appears they are likely to become left-handed, as we have come to think that it is better to be right-handed than left, and that is the reason why most people are right-handed. As a matter of fact, if we were trained perfectly, we should all be both right-handed and left-handed also. Some people are so trained and, when we refer to their ability to do things equally well with both hands and wish to bring out this fact, we say they are ambidextrous. It is not natural that one hand should be trained to do things while the other is not.

Why Are Some Faculties Stronger Than Others?

All of our senses are capable of being developed so that our ability along these lines would be about equal. The trouble is that we soon begin to develop one or more of our faculties in an unusual manner at the expense of the development of others. Many people have a keener sense of observation than others because they have had more and better training along that line. It is a pity that more attention is not given to the development of the power of observation in children, because it is one of the most valuable accomplishments that we can possess ourselves of. With the sense of observation developed to the highest degree, many of the other faculties need not be developed so strongly because, if we notice every thing that it is possible for us to see, we do not have the need of the development of other powers to the same extent.

It is said that it would be possible to so train an infant and bring him up to maturity with all his faculties developed and in practically an even way. If we did that we would have a wonderfully intelligent being.