1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1393 



almost too large to put in your vest pocket like 

 the one we advertise. Fifty years ago a U-shaped 

 electrical magnet covered with insulated copper 

 wire cost about $2.50; but now you can get a much 

 neater one from dealers in electrical supplies for 

 two dimes and a half; and a dry battery to run it 

 costs another two dimes and a half or even less. 

 Insulated copper wire, a few yards of which took 

 all the pennies I could scrape to buy, is now kick- 

 ed about under foot wherever electrical people 

 aie working. I always scold, however, to find it 

 around our premises, because the sight of it re- 

 minds me of how badly I wanted just a little in 

 my boyhood days, and yet could not afford to 

 buy it. Even away down in Florida, after the 

 men did the wiring on our cottage for the electric 

 lighting, they threw the remnants out in the door- 

 yard. Of course, when they sent in their bill 

 they charged me for this useless wire that they 

 threw away; and every time I see one of these 

 little dry batteries, that can now be had for fif- 

 teen or twenty cents, I am lost in wonder to 

 think of the energy that is stored up in that little 

 metallic can, and which will be given out at the 

 bid of man to do important work, not only an- 

 nouncing that somebody wants to see or talk with 

 you, but to carry your message miles away, or 

 light the gas to push your automobile, when 

 there is an emergency call that demands your 

 presence somewhere, at the rate of almost a mile 

 a minute. It is the developments of chemistry 

 that have given us this wonderful power. The 

 fables in the Arabian Nights that Corwin and I 

 used to read and laugh over have come to pass; 

 h\x\. truth \% greater \.\\2ir\ fiction. The author of 

 the Arabian Nights thought he was telling a tre- 

 mendous yarn. But he did not make his yarn 

 big enough. He did not know what was com- 

 ing fifty years ahead. 



And now I hope, dear friends, that there may 

 be other boys (or may be girls) who are as crazy 

 as Corwin and I were in olden times to know 

 more about the wonders of chemistry and elec- 

 tricity. Such a boy is more likely to be found 

 in a home where there is not much money; and 

 I want to whisper to him to gather up those scraps 

 of copper wire that men throw away, and then go 

 around to the automobile-shops and ask for some 

 of the discarded batteries. I wrote to the factory 

 where these batteries are made, and asked them 

 what they would give for the old cells. They 

 said they were hardly worth the cost of transpor- 

 tation and pulling to pieces; so now they are 

 kicked around under foot like the copper wire. 



A few days ago one of our men had a wheel- 

 barrowful, and was going to dump them into the 

 pond. I stopped him, and found, by using a 

 battery-tester, that some of them had recuperated 

 so that they would do very good service. You 

 let a dry battery rest a while and it will rest up, 

 like an old man. The reason why they last so 

 long in ringing doorbells is because they have a 

 chance to rest up between the calls. After this 

 boy has gotten a wheelbarrowful of dry batteries 

 or cells, let him hitch them up w'ith some of these 

 bits of copper wire. If he manages it right, this 

 series of batteries will not only ring bells and 

 run machinery, but it will light electric globes 

 and give a very good light if it is rested often 

 enough. The amount of light or work you get 

 from such a system of batteries will depend on 



the number you have and how good they are. 

 The batteries can be put down cellar or in any 

 out-of-the-way place, and you can carry the wires 

 wherever you wish. I can not begin to tell you, 

 dear friends, how much this knowledge of elec- 

 tricity and chemistry has been worth to me 

 through a busy life. I told you, a little time 

 back (see page 1025, Aug. 15), about a man who 

 had canvassed our town of Medina, and sold a 

 carload of gasoline-cans. He said that gasoline 

 put into those cans, and kept there for twenty 

 minutes, would become non-explosive in conse- 

 quence of the electrical action of the apparatus in 

 the can. I was able to tell him at once, from 

 my knowledge of electricity and chemistry, that 

 he was undertaking to rob the people. The car- 

 load of cans came here to Medina; but before our 

 people had handed over their honest money we 

 exposed him in our county paper. If you have a 

 boy who is interested in studying up these things, 

 by all means encourage him; for God alone knows 

 how much he may be benefited by this knowledge 

 when he gets to be fifty or sixty years old. 



Health Notes 



ROLLED WHEAT CAN IT BE MADE AT HOME.? 



I am very much interested in the use of wheat, in the raw 

 state, for human food. I wish you would let me know, if possi- 

 ble, how the wheat grain can be made, by domestic means, like 

 the rolled wheat which is sold at the groceries. Or are there 

 any simple devices in the market for this preparation so that any 

 one would be able to make the rolled wheat from the grain at 

 home.' Any advice regarding this matter will be welcome. 



San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 8. J. Fineurd. 



Friend F., I have experimented somewhat in 

 regard to this matter. Any of the various coffee 

 or spice mills will crush and grind the wheat so 

 it can be masticated almost as well as the rolled 

 wheat, and perhaps quite as well. In regard to 

 having the wheat perfectly clean, perhaps it had 

 better be hand-picked, and it might be well to have 

 it washed or scoured. Your wife can doubtless 

 manage this. For a small amount, grind it in 

 any kind of coffee-mill, but I would not try to 

 grind it very fine. If some of the particles are 

 too coarse to chew up readily, sift them out with 

 a flour-sifter, such as women ordinarily use. Eat 

 the dry ground wheat food with a spoon, using 

 butter enough so that it will masticate nicely, 

 and you will get the full benefit of the rolled 

 wheat and save all the price of the middleman, 

 the expense of fancy pasteboard packages, print- 

 ing, etc. It does seem to me as if the average 

 farmer ought to be able to make a short cut from 

 the grain that grows in the home fields to the 

 ground wheat placed right on his table. Of 

 course, we want the very best quality of wheat; 

 and I do believe that poor people with a little land 

 could grow a little patch of wheat in their own 

 garden; and when it is just right to use, say about 

 the age of green corn, it is one of the most delicious 

 and nourishing foods I ever tasted. It is some 

 trouble to rub the grain out of the heads and blow 

 off the chaff. If we had some cheap machine for 

 doing the work I do think "green wheat," just 

 out of the milk, might be as great a dish for the 

 whole human family as "green corn," that is al- 

 ways in the market at the proper time, and after- 

 ward put up in cans. 



