Studying Germs on Wheels 



Climb on board this automobile and 

 see if the water you drink is pure 



SCIENCE has made wonderful prog- 

 ress in devising methods of quickly 

 discovering sources of danger to 

 public health by the pollution and con- 

 tamination of food and water supplies, 

 and has found means of counteracting the 

 dangers threatening from germs and other 

 impurities. But promptness of action is 

 imperative in all cases, and in recognition 

 of this fact, the efforts of the health 

 authorities in all states have been directed 

 toward finding some means of expediting 

 the work of the health officials and 

 enabling them to cover every locality 

 requiring their services without danger- 

 ous delay. 



The Department of Health of the State 

 of New Jersey has recently introduced a 

 traveling field laboratory mounted on a 

 motor chassis. In outward appearance 

 the vehicle resembles a delivery wagon. 

 The closed and covered body has doors in 

 front and in the rear, and forms a small 

 room used primarily for bacteriological 

 work. On one side of the inside wall is a 

 bench or shelf upon which rests two incu- 

 bators which are heated by electricity 

 from a storage battery, which also 

 operates the starting and lighting system 

 of the automobile. The shelf also pro- 

 vides enough room for the making of 



The laboratory on wheels is the family 

 doctor for New Jersey water systems 



culture plates and for their examination 

 for the purpose of counting the germs. 

 The incubators may also be removed, and, 

 by changing the voltage of the heating 

 lamps, may be used on any 110-volt cir- 

 cuit at any water-pumping or filtration 

 plant. 



Another portion of the equipment 

 carried by the automobile is a portable 

 chlorine gas disinfecting apparatus by 

 means of which any water supply found 

 to be unsafe may be purified by the 

 addition of chlorine gas. By means of 

 this traveling laboratory the necessary 

 inspection of dairies and water supplies 

 in various remote parts of the State has 

 been greatly expedited. 



The interior of the laboratory. At left appears the chlorine gas disinfecting ap- 

 paratus and at right an inspector is shown making a chemical analysis 



lOS 



