The proper conduct of these processes, in connection with the use of accurately graduated apparatus, is the only surety against the numerous sources of error which may be encountered.  Different sugars require different treatment in clarification, and much must necessarily be left to the judgment and experience of the operator.

The following directions are based upon various official procedures such as the one used in the United States custom houses, the method prescribed by the German government, etc.  They embody also the result of recent research in regard to sources of error in polarimetric estimation of sugar: 

DIRECTIONS FOR THE POLARIZATION OF SUGAR.

1.—­Description of Instrument and Manner of Using.

The instrument employed is known as the half shadow apparatus of Schmidt and Haensch.  It is shown in the following cut.

[Illustration]

The tube N contains the illuminating system of lenses and is placed next to the lamp; the polarizing prism is at O, and the analyzing prism at H. The quartz wedge compensating system is contained in the portions of the tube marked F, E, G, and is controlled by the milled head M. The tube J carries a small telescope, through which the field of the instrument is viewed, and just above is the reading tube K, which is provided with a mirror and magnifying lens for reading the scale.

The tube containing the sugar solution is shown in position in the trough between the two ends of the instrument.  In using the instrument the lamp is placed at a distance of at least 200 mm. from the end; the observer seats himself at the opposite end in such a manner as to bring his eye in line with the tube J. The telescope is moved in or out until the proper focus is secured, so as to give a clearly defined image, when the field of the instrument will appear as a round, luminous disk, divided into two halves by a vertical line passing through the center, and darker on one half of the disk than on the other.  If the observer, still looking through the telescope, will now grasp the milled head M and rotate it, first one way and then the other, he will find that the appearance of the field changes, and at a certain point the dark half becomes light, and the light half dark.  By rotating the milled head delicately backward and forward over this point he will be able to find the exact position of the quartz wedge operated by it, in which the field is neutral, or of the same intensity of light on both halves.

[Illustration]