SACCHAROMETER is the name of a hydrometer, adapted by its scale to point out the proportion of sugar, or the sac charine matter of malt, contained in a solution of any specific gravity. Brew ers and distillers sometimes denote by the term gravity, the excess of weight or 1,000 parts of a liquid by vol ume above the weight of a like volume of distilled water ; so that if' the specific gravity be 1,045, 1,070 1,090, &c., the gravity is said to be 45, 70, or 90 ; at oth ers, they denote the weight of saccharine matter in a barrel (36 gallons) of worts ; and again, they denote the excess in weight of a barrel of worts over a bar rel of water, equal to 36 gallons, or 360 pounds. This and the first statement are identical, only 1,000 is the standard in the first case, and 360 in the second.
The saccharometer now used in Eng land by the trade, is that constructed by Mr. R. B. Bate, well known for the accu racy mof his philosophical and i athematical nstruments. The tables published by him for the values of wort or wash, and low wines, are prece ded by explicit directions for their use. " The instrument is composed of brass ; the ball or float being a circular spindle, in the opposite ends of which are fixed a stem and a loop. The stein bears a scale
of divisions numbered downward from the first to 30 ; these divisions, which are laid down in an original manner, ob serve a diminishing progression accord ing to true principles ; therefore each di vision correctly indicates the one thou sandth part of the specific gravity of water ; and, further, by the alteration made in the bulk of the sacchrometer at every change of poise, each of the same divisions continues to indicate correctly the said one thousandth part through out." Dr. Ure prefers to take specific gravi ties of all liquids whatever with a gloss globe containing 500 or 1,00 grains of dis tilled water at 60° Fehr., when it is closed with a capillary-bored glass stop per ; and with the gravity so taken, to look into a table constructed to show the quantity per cent. of sugar, malt, extract, or of any other solid, proportional to the density of the solution. By bringing the liquid in the gravity-bottle to the stand ard temperature, no correction on this account is needed.