Making Eggs Tell Their Ages
According to the Backer und Konditor Zeitung, the age of an egg is now discovered by immersing it in a solution of salt containing about eight ounces to the pint. When the salt has thoroughly dissolved, the egg to be tested is dropped gently into the glass containing the solution. If the egg is only one day old, it sinks immediately to the bottom; if three days old, it sinks just below the surface only; and from five days and upward, it floats. Another process has just been awarded a medal in Saxony by the National Society of Poultry Breeders, and is described in a German newspaper. It is well known that the air cavity at the blunt end of the egg enlarges as the age of the egg increases. Consequently, if the egg be placed in a solution similar to the one described above, it will have an increasing tendency to float with the long axis vertical. A scale of angles is placed at the back of the vessel, and from the inclination to the egg to the horizontal the age can be gauged almost to a day. A new-laid egg lies horizontally at the bottom of the vessel. When from three to five days' old, the egg raises itself from the horizontal, so that its long axis makes an angle of about twenty degrees with the horizontal. At eight days, this angle increases to about forty-five degrees; at fourteen days, it is sixty degrees; at about three weeks, it is about seventy-five degrees, while after four weeks, it stands upright on the pointed end.