| Transcript |
- LEFT PAGE
340
MICA AND ITS VARIED USES
The mining of mica has grown to be
an important industry, especially since
it has been found to be n insulator
of great value in electrical apparatus;
but little is popularly known of its
sources. Some interesting informa-
tion is given in an article on "The
Uses of Mica," contributed to Cosmos
(Paris) by Mr. Forques. Mica has
been used for centuries, he notes, but
its uses have greatly multiplied in re-
cent years. Once its only value was
as a glazing for lanterns or as a de-
coration, but it is now applied in many
new ways, due especially to the devel-
opment of the electrical industries.
The term "mica" embraces a group of
complex sillicates. Its most remark-
able characteristic, common to all
these varieties, is the ease with which
they split into thin, flexible and often
transparent leaves. Mica is transpar-
ent only in thin leaves. In thick plates
it appears opaque with a black or col-
ored reflection. This is due to the in-
numerable surfaces of cleavage from
which the light is reflected successive-
ly, finally being entirely absorbed.
Transparent sheets of pale color are
often utilized for glazing, especially
in stoves and lamps, and such use
eabsorbs about a third of the world's
supply. The writer continues:
"The most important use, however,
is now as an insulator in electrical
work. Mica is infusible or nearly so,
impermeable to moisture, elastic flex-
ible and cleavable; these qualities are
not posessed all together by any
other known substance. It is thus
employed for the insulation of the
wires and bars of the armatures in
dynamos, that is to ssay, between the
conductors and the iron core. For
this a very flexible mica is required--
not white mica, but amber-colored.
Armatures with mica-insulated con-
ductors are incombustible.
"It serves also for the manufacture
of the resonating diaphragms of tele-
phones and phonographs.
"In leaves of natural mica there are
often crystals, which greatly limit its
use. The inclusions, in particular, fa-
cilitate the establishment of short cir-
cuits. Thus the electrical industry
has recourse to the use of plates of
reconstructed mica.
"To obtain these, sheets of paper as
large as required are spread with gum
lac, and powdered mica is sprinkled
over them in as uniform a layer as
possible. After drying a second layer
of gum is applied, then more mica,
and so on until the desired thickness
is reached. The plate is subjected to
a pressure of about 1900 pounds to the
square inch and at the same time
heated by steam. The pruduct thus
obtained is homogeneous, free from
cracks, of uniform thickness, and does
not absorb moisture if the heating has
been properly done. It may be sawed,
cut and pieced with ease. Finally, it
is cheaper than natural mica; conse-
quently it has taken the place of the
latter for work of great size and even
for that of ordinary size.
"In small establishments the manu-
facture of this 'micanite' is carried
on by hand, but on the large scale it
is performed mechanically, so that one
woman may make about seven cubic
feet in a day, which would require the
work of twenty women using their
hands only. The manufacture of tubes,
rings, etc., is carried on in a similar
way.
"Mica powder is used for the decor-
ation of wall paper, as in the produc-
tion of snow effects. It is also largely
employed in compositions that are
non-conducting to heat.
"Veins of mica are found in all
countries, but the industrial market is
supplied chiefly by India, Canada and
the United States."--Translation for
Literary Digest.
---
THIRTY WAYS OF CURING A COLD
The Remedies Suggested to a Man
When He Coughs
"I recently contracted a severe cold
from sitting on the rear seat of a street
car with the back door open" said a
change broker the other day, "and deter-
mined, just for curiosity, to make a
memorandum of the remedies suggested
and find out the best way to cure a cold.
"Before I left home my wife advised
me to put a piece of flannel around y
neck or I might have bronchitis or croup
or something. While I was standing on
the corner waiting for a street car, my
next door neighbor came along and when
he heard me cough, told me that a little
chloroform liniment rubbed on my neck
would do me a world of good. On the
way downtown a friend hearing me croak
told me to go to a drug store and get
a two ounce bottle of glycerin and take a
little of it every half hour When I got
to the office, the bookkeeper said that
he cured the worst cold he ever had by
getting some anti-hay fever snuff. 'It
makes you sneeze awfully, but it cures
up your cold, all right.'
"On change I was twice advised that
nothing was better for a cold than boiled
onions, and an amendment was made in
one case to the effect that fried might
answer, if taken with beefsteak. A
wheat man told me that his wife always
gave him red pepper in tea, and a pork
man thought that was good, but that
something better was butter and sugar
melted together with strong vinegar,
'Then you put red pepper into that un-
til it feels like you were skinning your
throat, and you'll be all right in the
morning.'
"Five friends suggested quinine and
four mentioned as many different drugs
that I had never heard of. One told
me to drink tar water, and another told
me to go home and give my feet a hot
bath and go right to bed.
"A miller had a sure cure. 'Whenever
I have a cold I go to my room and have
a quart of hot Scotch mixed and set over
a coal oil heater right by my bed; then
I get into bed and hang my hat on the
bedpost and drink that hot Scotch until
I can see three or four hats instead of
one; then I go to sleep and when I
wake up in the morning I have a fine,
large head but no cold.'
"In the course of the day I found that
goose grease rubbed on the chest, with
a mustard plaster on the stomach and
another on the back were infallible, so
was inhalation of steam as hot as I could
take it, tho brandy fumes were better;
that hot beer was excellent, and that
if I rubbed my head with wood alcohol
it would help my cough."--St. Louis
Globe-Democrat
---
AUSTRALIAN HARD WOODS
Antipodean Timbers With Some Re-
markable Properties.
That there are in parts of Australia
large areas covered with valuable
hard-wood timbers has long been
known, but the actual physical prop-
erties of these timbers, says Engineer-
ing, have never, until recently, been
properly investigated. In fact, we may
say that, with the exception of one
or two kinds such as Jarrah and
Karri, which have been employed in
this country chiefly for paving, no
really reliable information about them
has been forthcoming and even in the
case of the two timbers we have nam-
ed, our knowledge has not been alto-
gether satisfactory; the tensile
strength of Jarrah, for instance being
given by three authorities as 2940 lb
and 16,407 lb per square inch respect-
ively. The result of over 16,000 care-
fully conducted tests on various sam-
ples of timber while in the condition
usually procurable are described and
analyzed in Engineering. The physical
properties of "Yate" at once strike
one as something quite uncommon.
This extraordinary timber is as yet
practically unknown, but it far out-
strips all others in its tensile strength,
being ahead even of salmon gum, bu
5000 lb per square inch. In compari-
son and cross-bending the two tim-
bers are more on a par, though in
these also Yate still takes the lead.
Not only is the 24,000 lb per square
inch average tensile strength of this
little known timber extraordinary, for
it is equal to that of good cast iron,
but specimens have been tested which
gave much higher results than this;
in one case an ultimate tensile
strength of 17 1/2 tons per square inch
being recorded. As a sawn timber it
is probably the strongest in the world
and, as far as our present knowledge
goes there is only one that is heavier
--that one being lignum vitae from
British Guiana. The Yate tree attains
a diameter of from 2 ft. 6 in to 3 ft
and a maximum height of 100 ft It
is exceedingly tough and breaks with
a long fibrous fracture. Altogether, if
this is plentiful, it should prove one of
the most useful hard woods known.
With regard to durability, many of
these Western Australian timbers
adds Engineering, stand high and
appear to be admirably suited for use
as railway sleepers, piles, etc., the
most durable of them, perhaps, beingg
Jarrah and Wandoo. These two tim-
bers also if free from sapwood, resist
the attacks of white ants in almost all
situations. Sleeps of the former wood
have, after being in use for nineteen
years in damp situations been taken
out and have been found to be quite
sound. Very interesting cases are
given of the lasting properties of these
timbers, but unfortunately we mus
pass them by. We (Engineering) may
briefly mention however that two
Jarrah telegraph posts that were
known to have been in use for at
least twenty years were found to give
good results from 5 to 7 per cent be-
low the average of unused seasoned
timbers and two Wandoo slabs that
had been used in the decking of a
road-bridge for a period of 25 years
were found to be thoroughly sound
throughout. Jarrah piles that had
been in use in salt water for a period
of 72 years were also found to be
quite sound, having been untouched by
marine insects. The holding power of
these timbers on spikes is also re-
markably good, that of Wandoo being
higher than any other.
---
RIGHT PAGE
341
Thursday, February 21, 1907
---
DRINK SOUR MILK TO
PROMOTE LONGEVITY
Hardihood of Mountaineers At-
tributed to Free Use of Fer-
mented Lacteal Fluid
Boston, Feb.20--Drinking sour milk
disease and even to prolong life has
been tried by a well educated Boston
woman after an example set and
preached by some of the most emin-
ent savants of Europe and the results
have been good.
The apparatus is simple and inex-
pensive. The treatment itself is easy
and pleasant. It requires no physi-
cian. It does not even call for great
faith in its efficacy.
The hardy mountaineers of Bulgaria,
famous for their longevity, have been
trying the virtues of sour milk treat-
ment for years, and it was on account
of the excellent consequences that
medical men of Europe investigated it
and determined the scientific basis of
the results.
The philosophy of the treatment has
been dressed up in grave-looking sci-
entific garb as different from the logic
of the Bulgarians as erudite polysyl-
ables differ from the everyday speech,
but all that is merely the beliefs of the
Bulgarians on dress parade.
Man to Live 140 Years
Professor Metchnikoff, the most fa-
mous of the advocates of the sour milk
diet, is severely opposed by reason of
his theories and practices--for he
himself always has a large bowl of
sour milk in his laboratory--to Dr. Os-
ler and his advocacy of a chloroform-
atory. Metchnikoff would make the
age of forty a period of life corre-
sponding to what are now the teens.
He can see not only the possibility but
the probability of so lengthening the
life of man that forty or sixty or even
eighty will mark middle age. He and
his fellow scientists ahve come to
consider the limit which Buffon set as
the natural end of human life--140
years--as the one soon to be attained,
and they pick no flaw in Buffon's arg-
ument to this conclusion from the in-
cidents of comparative zoology.
Learned monographs and disquisi-
tions on leucocytes, phagocytes, ma-
crophages, microphages, cirrhosis, ar-
terio-sierosis and anaemia all boil
down to the everyday philosophy of
the Bulgarians: "There is something
in sour milk that will make you out-
live the man who doesn't drink it.
There is something in it, we don't
know what, that kills off the germ
of disease."
The scientists tell of phagocytosis,
of certain elements in the blood that
make war on certain invading germs
and conquer them in many cases. They
are now studying means of so rein-
forcing these germ-eaters that man
will be as immune from cholera, for
instance, as the frog leading the sim-
ple life in a stagnant pool from which
it would be death for a man to drink;
as free from tuberculosis as a pigeon
cooing away happily in a pen where a
man would soon die and as safe from
diphtheria as a rat scurrying around
to the ripe old age--of a rat--in piles
of rags infested with diphtheria germs.
"It is the most romantic chapter in
pathology," said Lord Lister, president
of the British association, more than
ten years ago, and it is so entrancing
that Metchnikoff and his confreres
have been accused of mixing their sci-
ence with poetry and utopianism.
The scientist points out what was
discovered years ago, that there art
two elements in the blood, the red
corpuscles, which constitute the larg-
er proportion of the blood, and the
white. To the white corpuscles they
give the name of leucocytes. The
white corpuscles eat up certain germs
and they call these germ-eaters pha-
gocytes
Those phagocytes which prefer an
animal diet and which have but a
single cell nucleus they call macro-
phages.
Those phagocytes would have a nu-
cleus, or stomach heart, arranged like
a partly folded string of sausages, they
style microphages.
To the action of all those phago-
cytes which devour germs, and the
scheme on which the phagocytes work,
the scientists give the name of pha-
gocytosis. It is phagocytosis on which
many of the beautiful ideals of Metch-
nikoff are founded and in which is the
explanation of why a Boston woman
has been drinking sour milk to the
betterment of her health.
Finds Secret in Fish
Metchnikoff was thirty-seven years
old and already well known among bi-
ologists when he went to Messina in
1882 to study primitive forms of sea
life. Examining young starfish and
small crabs under a microscope he
saw the leucocytes, which were al-
most transparent, rush out to small
wounds which he had made with his
finger nail on the skin of the animals.
They went at the work of curing the
wounds by surrounding the invading
germs somewhat as a boa constrictor
surrounds his prey. Sometimes the
leucocytes were successful and some-
times they failed.
The germs which invaded the bodies
of the fish did not differ essentially
from those which attack man, so
Metchnikoff really saw what takes
place in many instances when the hu-
man system is attacked by certain
forms of desease.
His discoveries he gave to the scien-
tific world and to the world at large.
Virchow hailed him as a learned pio-
neer. Pasteur, the great, gave him
cordial recognition. His fame spread
all over the world, and in 1888 he went
to the Pasteur institute in Paris as
one of the associates of Pasteur.
He produced a book called "inflam-
mation"; he studied and experimented
nine years for material for his "Im-
munity," which became a standard
immediately, and he wrote an optimis-
tic study of life entitled "Nature in
Man." He is now really the leader in
original research at the institute, and
is, indeed, a second Louis Pasteur.
Leaving the phagocytes out of the
question for the time being. Metchni-
koff and other scientists concentrated
their attention on the digestive tubes
where the trouble starts. The microbe
producing putrefaction was known to
have an implacable foe in the microbe
which causes milk to sour and chem-
istry explains why.
Could the longevity of the Bulgarian
mountaineers be caused by their par-
tiality to sour milk? Experiments
were tried. It was found possible, in
the words of Metchnikoff, for a man to
"implant the sour milk microbe with-
in him and acclimatize it there." The
savants who began to affect sour milk
as part of their regular diet noticed a
considerable betterment of health. In
the words of Metchnikoff again: "It
is possible to transform one's internal
flora from one that is savage to one
that is cultivated." It is like stripping
underbrush of the poisonous fungi.
France and Switzerland imorted
the germ of the ferment which the
Bulgarians used to ferment milk, and
this ferment is now on the market in
Paris and has been imported to Bos-
ton. The germ microbe of the ordin-
ary milk differs from that of the im-
ported only in being smaller and less
powerful. Some of it is not pleasant
to take, but in Paris today they are
manufacturing a ferment which is
called "lacto-bacilline," and which is
pleasant to the taste. The secret of
its compound is no trade secret, and
it is possible that some Bostonians
may in time see a profit in the manu-
facture of the ferment.
How Boston Does It
The apparatus used in Boston con-
sists of two watertight glass jars in a
metal lined comprtment box. The
jars are filled with ordinary milk, the
ferment is placed in the milk, the
compartment filled with water and
when the milk is at the desired tem-
perature it is drunk.
---
ODDS AND ENDS
An excellent paste for cleaning saucepans, boards
sinks, tiles, discolored china, stone, paint, etc. can be
made as follows. Take equal parts of whiting, soft
soap, white sand, and soda. Place the ingredients in
a saucepan, adding enough water to form a smooth
paste. Boil until quite dissolved, and pour into jars
for future use. Apply with a clean flannel, wrung out
of hot water, and afterwards rinse with clear warm
water.
For cleaning windows, mirrors, etc. add a few
drops of parafin, or methylated spirit to the water
with which they are washed. It will lighten the pol-
ishing process, and give a brigher lustre than ordin-
ary water. A few drops of parrafin added to the
water with which linoleum or oilcloth is washed will
not only help to preserve it, but will also give it a
better polish.
A cheap furniture cream can be made as follows:
Take four tablespoonfuls of turpentine, four ounces
of castille soap, two ounces of white wax, place to-
gether in a clean enamel saucepan and dissolve slowly
over a gentle heat. Next add a sufficient quantity of
boiling water to form a cream. This same recipe also
makes an excellent boot polish with the addition of a
little lamp black for black leather, and a little red
or yellow ochre for brown boots.
Talking of boots reminds me of one of two "dodges"
I know of to preserve the life of our footwear, and
also to keep their general appearance neat and nice.
Boots or shoes that have become hardened by
water may be rendered soft again by the application
of a little parrafin. The oil should be applied with a
cloth and rubbed well into the leather. It also tends
to preserve the leather and so lengthens the life of
the foot gear. Of course wet foot gear should be re-
moved as soon as possible, and then dried, but not
close to the fire or the leather will shrink and harden.
The right plan is to stand the boots away from the
fire and fill them with oats, the oats will quickly ab-
sorb the moisture, and can then be dried and put
away for future use.
A splendid cleaner is Potato-water. Dresses, car-
pets, rugs, and all sorts of woollen fabrics can be
cleaned with potato-water without injury to their
color. Put a pint of water into a basin and grate into
it two raw potatoes. Then strain this through a seive
allowing the liquid to run into another bowl contain-
ing another pint of water. Let this settle, then pour
off the clear part into a bottle for future use. Dip a
sponge into the potato-water, with it rub the soiled
garment or article carefully and then wash it with
clear cold water. Wash brass ornaments over with
strong ammonia using a brush dipped in ammonia
for the fancy parts. Rinse in hot water, dry and
polish while still hot with a leather. The polishing
is done equally well when the brass is cold but not
nearly so rapidly.
Old oak furniture which has been neglected should
be scrubbed over with warm beer. Dry with nice soft
cloths and brushes, meanwhile boiling a quart of beer
with a piece of beeswax the size of a pigeon's egg
and an ouce of sugar. Wash the oak all over with
this using a brush for the purpose. Leave till dry and
polish with a cloth as usual.
Pans and Saucepans that have been burnt should
never be filled with soda water, as this although it
removes the burnt portions also makes the Saucepan
liable to burn again. Instead of soda water, fill it
with salt and water, leave till next day, then bring
slowly to the boil, the burnt particles will come off
without any difficulty and there will be no after ef-
fects.
A cheap floor polish, that is equally good for
stained flors, linoleum, or oilcloth, is easily and
cheaply made, and most satisfactory to use. Ingredi-
ents: One ounce of soap (odd pieces do quite well),
three ounces of wax (candle-ends), half a pint of cold
water, one gill of turpentine, one gill of parafin.
Shred the wax and soap into a jar, and add the water.
Stand on the hob, or in a cool oven till melted. When
slightly cooled pour in the parrafin and the turpen-
tine, and stir till mixed. Keep well covered. Use
exactly as you would beeswax and turpentine.
---
|
|---|
