Business & Finance: Margarine

In 1868, M. Mege-Mourees, a French scientist, invented margarine as a substitute for butter, by churning beef fat with milk. The product was called oleomargarine. In 1906, vegetable oils were first substituted for the oleo oils, to lower the price and improve the product. Up till this time, margarine was considered only a nasty substitute for butter; good grocers would not sell it, and some sellers were arrested for handling it. Its only lure lay in its cheapness.

The introduction of vegetable oils, however, turned the tide abroad. Yet the product failed of wide acceptance until the War, when butter was rationed in England. Many who had to eat margarine or nothing, ended by liking it as well as butter.

Modern margarine is a triumph of practical chemical skill, combining many oils after refining, decolorization and deodorization. Last year, Britain imported $150,000,000 worth of vegetable oils, most of which went to her margarine makers. Imports included cottonseed oil from the U. S., as well as oils from palms, cocoanuts, soya beans, peanuts. The product is colored with the red annatto bean from Asia, and sells for half the price of butter.