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1)"The Coffee Museum of Trieste"
and its history (>>)
2) Science in kitchen:
backing and conservation of food (>>)
Prof.ssa Ernesta De Masi
"The Coffee Museum of Trieste" and its history
The “Coffee Museum of Trieste” and its history.
The Coffee Museum is situated at the “Torre del Lloyd”, the Lloyds’ tower (3 Via von Bruck – area “Campi Elisi” - Trieste), which was the gate to the old Austro-Hungarian naval dockyard. Now the first Museum core is placed side by side to a new exhibition area including objects and tools related to the harbour activity.
The idea of a coffee museum was conceived many years ago. The project was thought up for the first time in the 19th century and came true in 1906 as a “Trade Museum”. In the following years, a series of modifications affected the Museum name, contents, structure and location. Earlier, under the sponsorship of the Chamber of Commerce and of the City Council ot Trieste, the exhibition was located within the big hall of the old Stock Exchange, now seat of the Chamber. In its first placing, the Museum hosted samplings, goods, and other items related to the harbour trade and, especially, to the coffee industry. In the second half of 20th century, the Museum moved to a new building within the city’s University area. During the 1970s, the Museum sank into oblivion and was gradually forgotten by the city’s authorities.
Here below, you can find out the main steps which have characterized the development of the “Coffee Museum of Trieste”:
1817: The Accademia Reale di Commercio (Royal Academy of Commerce) is instituted in Trieste. This higher education institution would become the “Scuola Superiore di Commercio” (Higher School of Commerce) thanks to the sponsorship of the Revoltella Foundation (in 1868) - the current Faculty of Economics and Commerce. In the Higher School of Commerce a basic sampling of various goods and produce already existed.
1903: The Trieste Chamber of Commerce takes over the well launched Laboratories of chemical analyses owned by dr. Giulio Morpurgo, who is appointed Director of the structure. Dr. Morpurgo has also the responsibility of realizing a museum within the Institution.
1906: In the building of the former Stock Exchange – Piazza della Borsa - the first Trade Museum is created.
1927: The Museum becomes the Museo merceologico under the direction of dr. Domenico Costa.
1945: The museum changes its name and location again. It’s now located within the building of Applied Chemistry, in the new University area. Its new name is Museo tecnologico, operating until the 1960s of the last century. After these years a period of inactivity follows.
2001: An important public company is interested in the Museum - the Autorità portuale di Trieste (The Trieste Harbour Authorities). The new administration approves the transfer to the Lloyds’ tower, seat of the company director and top management. This becomes the first exhibition space of the “Coffee Museum of Trieste”. The promoter is Gianni Pistrini, an expert in the coffee production and a high level journalist.
The purpose is now that of realizing a significant and permanent structure to show to future generations the role of Trieste harbour in the transport and trade of coffee.
To visit the Museum, please contact the exhibition director, Gianni Pistrini, e-mail: pistrinig@hotmail.com |
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Scienza in cucina:
Preface
The kitchen is certainly for a student an interesting place to be explored. We used in the laboratory, for the most activities, the kitchen tools, allowing the scientific exploration of daily phenomena: a such approach to the study of science turns out motivating and exciting.
The teachers team, working on the project, devised a lot of experiments that, coming from the ideas of common sense of the pupils, bring them to the construction of meaningful scientific knowledge as the temperature concept, the energy transfer, the efficiency of thermal machines, the chemical transformations of the foods.
The project involves many subjects:
· Physics: measurement of the efficiency of the moka (coffee machine), the operating curve of a pressure cooker, measurement of the wavelength in the microwave oven, making the ice cream using liquid nitrogen
· Biochemistry: composition of the foods and they transformations
· History: researches on typical foods and traditional process in the conservation and the baking.
The proposed experiments, qualitative and quantitative, carried out in laboratory but also in classroom or at home, privilege the amusing aspect and the method of learning by discovery with a strong involvement of the perceptive and emotional aspects.
Cooking system …
From microwave oven to interferometer measurement
The magnetron is the microwaves generator and trough a wave guide they are sent to the baking chamber. The sidewalls of the baking chamber reflect the microwaves so to have an uniform distribution on the food. A rotary dish is used to improve this uniformity. The result from the interaction between the food molecules and the microwaves is the heating of the food and the following increase of temperature.
Baking chamber
1. Wave guide
2. Magnetron
3. Rotare dish
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Wave length measurement Cooking cheese without rotary dish. |
With a microwave interferometer we can do interesting optical experiments.
… over the tradition
Induction cooking: no flame
Heating is from eddy current generated in the bottom plate of the pot by magnetic induction.
Induction cooker parts
1 Bottom plate
2 Pyroceram
3 Elettromagnetic field
4 Converter
5 Coil for induction
6 Power supply
7 Control switch
As the heating resistances, the coils are assembled under the cooker plate.
To prepare a scientific coffee
How the moka, coffee machine, is made
| Lower water tank with relief valve |
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| The funnel has to be filled by coffee powder |
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| Upper tank and in the centre is a pipe opened on the top |
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| On the top of lower tank there is a filter sustained by a rubber gasket |
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How it works
When we put the coffee machine on the hot plate, the heat supplied from a power source warms the tank and the water.
The steam coming from the heating of the water increases the pressure in the lower tank. This pressure push on the water going up trough the little pipe under the filter where is the powder coffee. Finally it arrives in the upper tank, as the famous drink.
The safety valve, installed on the lower tank, is to limit the maximum pressure at a value less than the cracking pressure. For instance, it can happen in the case of high pressing of the coffee powder. |
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The experiment
We calculated efficiency of the moka that we can consider a thermal machine because there is a conversion from thermal energy to mechanical energy.
We define the efficiency in this application as the ratio between the useful energy and the supplied energy to the machine to produce the drink:
η = Eu / Es
The useful energy is of two terms:
1. the potential energy variation when water goes up from the lower tank to the upper tank
2. the thermal energy because (we drink the hot coffee).
The supplied energy Es is of four terms:
1. Heat supplied to the water inside the lower tank to raise the temperature to the working value.
2. Work to the friction when the water cross trough the coffee powder.
3. The heat to produce the vapour raising the pressure that rises he water
4. The heat to warm the moka
To do the measurement, we installed in the lower tank of the moka, the probe temperature and the pressure transducer.
We weighed the water inside the lower tank, the quantity of the coffee produced and its temperature. We measure besides the distance B1B2 between the centroid of lower tank and the top of the pipe in theupper tank.
Conservation with the heat
The enzymes and the micro organisms are much sensitive to the heat, therefore one of the most effective methods in order to extend the duration of the food is the high temperatures treatment. The enzymes are deactivated in a few minutes in a range of temperature between the 50–80 °C, because they are constituted from proteins denaturating to these temperatures.
The micro organisms are particularly sensitive to the warm wet conditions, that facilitates the coagulation of proteins. Most resistant are the spores, like the Clostridium botulinum (the botulino) resisting to warm wet conditions up to 20 minutes at 120 °C, while the most of the vegetative shapes die at 60 –70 °C. The chemical composition, but over all the low PH, influences very much the heat resistance of the micro organisms. The acid food, with pH less than 4.5, prevents the development of the organisms spores (like the anthrax and the botulino), and needs therefore of treatments much lighter, because the other sources of contamination are less resistant, as you can see on the following table where it is written the Thermal Dead Time: that is the time necessary to kill a micro organism at a certain temperature.
MICROORGANISMS |
MINUTES |
DEGEES CELSIUS |
Salmonella typhosa |
4,3 |
60 |
Staphilococcus aureua |
18,8 |
60 |
Escherichia coli |
20-30 |
57 |
Streptococcus thermophilus |
15 |
70-75 |
Lactobacillus bulgaricus |
30 |
71 |
SPORE DI: |
Bacillus anthracis |
1,7 |
100 |
Bacillus subtilis |
15-20 |
100 |
Clostridium botulinum |
100-330 |
100 |
Clostridium calidotolerans |
520 |
100 |
Conservation with the cold
The low temperatures is important to conserve longer the food because slows down the chemical and enzymatic reactions. The cold slows down, until arresting, the enzymatic activity but not deactives the enzymes acquiring their property when the temperature increases. Because of the slowing down of the enzymatic activity, also the development of the microbes is slowed down: at -18 °C it can be considered null.
The most of the microbes is not killed from the cold. The food conserved with the cold, therefore, must have two important characteristics:
- they must be very cleaned from the hygienic point of view;
- they mustn’t have change of temperature during the conservation
Ice cream by liquid nitrogen
The boiling point of nitrogen, at 760 mmHg, is -196°C and for that it is possible to make ice cream by liquid nitrogen.
Pouring it on mixed ingredients of ice cream, these become solid very fast because they exchange an high quantity of heat for high temperature difference.
The pressure in the kitchen
Pressure cooker
How it is made
The pot is cylindrical vessel closed by an hermetic cover.
There are two valves: the working valve is to have constant pressure ejecting the steam in excess, the safety valve is opened to avoid the burst if the working valve doesn’t work for failure.
How it works
The boiling point of the water, on the sea level, then at 760 mmHg, is 100°C.
During the boiling process, the water temperature is constant. The heat exchanged is only to have the water vaporization but it doesn’t increase the temperature.
If there is hermetic seal, the pressure inside the pot can increase as the temperature in order to the saturation curve.
In the pot, the water begins to boil when the working valve is opened from the vapour pressure of the water being inside.
In this condition the pressure cannot further increase and for that not even the temperature.
The experiment
The working valve is a gravity valve, then we can calculate the pressure weighing the little piston and measuring its section, the temperature is measured by a thermometer. The result agrees to the saturation curve
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