1807 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



" No, I toi)k four grains two hours before 

 the last dose." 



"My dear sir, your ])ulse is up to TJO, 

 while 7'J is what it should he. (Juinine is the 

 very thing you ou,<,dit not to touch. At the 

 rate your heart is poundin^y; away just now it 

 will pound you to jiieces soon. Your short, 

 quick hreatii shoidd have admonished you not 

 to touch stiinuhints." 



Now, this is not an unsual occurrence by 

 any means. We have all had experience in 

 seeing people tinker with machinery or com- 

 plicated apparatus (when they knew nothino- 

 about the thing), in the vain hope that they 

 might by some blunder hit the right " cog- 

 wheel." If a machine is spoiled through mis- 

 taken kindness it is of comparatively small 

 account; but if you think I am ivrons:; when I 

 tell you to let drugs and medicines alone, ask 

 your family physician, in whom you have con- 

 fidence, what lie thinks about it. If some- 

 body offers you medicine, "free of charge," 

 do not touch it. Remember the man I told 

 j-ou of who planted tomato-seed because he 

 got it free from the Seed Department. He 

 could have purchased seed that he knew was 

 all right, and just what he wanted, for five 

 cents ; but he planted the other kind in a hot- 

 bed, got them out in his garden before any- 

 body else, then harvested a great crop of 

 crooked, scraggli , late tomatoes that nobody 

 would take as a gift. Now, the medicine you 

 are offered free of charge may be even a worse 

 speculation. These medicines given free usu- 

 ally contain morphine, cocaine, chloral, or 

 some similar drug. Of course, the patient 

 "feels better," atid wants some more medi- 

 cine. But it costs .S2.00 a bottle, or three bot- 

 tles for -S-T.OO. May the Lord be praised, a 

 law has just been passed making it an offense 

 either to sell or give away medicines contain- 

 ing these terrible poisons. The druggists and 

 patent-medicine men are beginning to writhe 

 and squirm already, because it threatens to 

 kill their business — at least a good share of it. 

 Why in the world this new law does not in- 

 clude cigarettes, I am unable to say; but I am 

 on the "war-path " in regard to the matter. 



LIGHT FOR D.\RK PLACES. 



I tried to tell you in our last issue my con- 

 victions in regard to what was coming in the 

 way of electric lighting. Below is something 

 I found on a scrap of paper: 



Klectric-light meters, witli penny-in-thc-slot attach- 

 ment.s. promise to become popular in .some places. A 

 London company sui)plies current for an eight-candle- 

 power incandescent light .six hours for a penny drop- 

 ped into the tio,x, and allows the customer to take his 

 six hours' light at once or in .small daily installments, 

 as he chooses to turn his switch. 



There, friends, do you see it? By the aid of 

 a storage-battery, with electric light attached, 

 an apparatus can be left in every home, ?o 

 that people of moderate means may have the 

 benefits of this beautiful light by simply drop- 

 ping a penny or a nickel into the slot. No ex- 

 pensive man will be needed to keep the books, 

 and there can be no complaints about unfair 

 dealing. You put your coin into the machine, 



and you get your number of hours of light, 

 to be used as you want it, by pressing a but- 

 ton. When the storage battery is exhausted, 

 somebody comes right to your door and re- 

 places it with a fresh machine. I think the 

 price can be made so low tliat almost every 

 home may be thus supplied. Of course, the 

 dynamo to charge the batteries nmst be some- 

 where near, and my belief is that the wind 

 that blows so much of the time over our heads 

 (and against them), especially at the season 

 of the year when we have short days and /o>!j^ 

 f/![<^/i/s, will do this storing of electricity. All 

 that is needed is an inventive genius to make 

 the thing practicable. 



THE NEW ACETYLENE LIGHT. 

 There have been so many inquiries in re2:ard 

 this that I have decided to give in full the fol- 

 lowing letter from friend Long, to whom I 

 have referred before — see page 718. 



Dmi- Friend:—! notice in Gleamnts fo' Nov. 1.5th 

 several articles on ace ylene gas, which mav he con- 

 fusing to the average reader. The article referred to 

 in the Cosmopolitan is .somewhnt misleading, if not 

 carefully .studied, as, in practice, acetylene is used in 

 a pure state, unmixed with air, and' with less than 

 three ounces of pressur. , under which conditions it is 

 absolutely non-explosive. 



The dangerous qualities of acetylene as now used 

 have been much exaggerated. In many respects it is 

 much .safer than kerosene, city gas, "or electricity. 

 City gas is nearly as explosive as acetylene; .still, with 

 the great amount continually used, but few casualties 

 occur, while acetylene has these important advantages 

 — that but one-tenth or less in a hulk is used for the 

 same light, and the .strong odor of the unhurried gas 

 will always cause its presence to be known long be- 

 fore enough could escape to be ignitable, which fact 

 Prof. Jacobus seems to have overlooked. 



Kerosene is more dangerous ' han acetylene, but we 

 have :ill become so accustomed to the use of kero.sene 

 that its dangerous properties are not thought of. 



With properly con.structed generators, acetylene is 

 doubtles- the safe.st illuminant we have: and the prin- 

 cipal rea.son why it is thought by some to be danger- 

 ous is mentioned by Prof. Jakobus. of its having been 

 first used in a liquid form under a pressure frequently 

 as high as 1000 pounds to the square inch, in which 

 form it is liable to cause mishaos. 



We have been using it constantly for over a year, 

 and feel much safer with it than in using kerosene- 

 lamps, as, with our generator, the acetvlene is in a 

 pure state, unmixed with air, and it is impo sible to 

 have more than three ounces of pressure to the square 

 inch, under which conditions I think even Prof. Jaco- 

 bus would admit its superior safetj-. 



There is a plain discrepancy between Prof. Jacobus' 

 figures as given i-i t'ne Cosniipulitan; but. even by tak- 

 ing his figures, acetylene at Si*7..)0 per ton for carbide 

 would be as cheap' as gas with ordinary burners in 

 New York city; U.ss than one-third of the' cost of elec- 

 tricity in New York, and much less than half the cost 

 of gas in many places 



According to careful te.sts by expert chemists, car- 

 bide at SSU 00 per ton costs about the same as kerosene 

 at Sets, per gallon or city gas at 4.5 cts. per 1000 feet, 

 for tht same amount of light. 



.\s our generator retjuires absolutely no attention 

 whatever for a number of weeks or eveti months after 

 refilling, we can imagine nothing .safer, more conven- 

 ient, or cheaper than acetylene, especially for coun- 

 try homes; and when the quality of the light is consid- 

 ered in connection with its geiieral superiority it cer- 

 tainly seems destined to supplant shortly other means 

 of lighting, not only for domestic use but also for 

 nearly every other purpose. At the present time it is 

 being'^used in many homes, with the greatest of satis- 

 facti n. 



Could yo>i give me the names and dates of the peri- 

 odicals to which vou refer as showing acetvlene to be 

 unfitted for dome.stic use ? I wish to kf ep thoroughly 

 informed along this line. I hope to .send you a port- 

 able lamp which seems to be doing nicely, in a few 

 days. An authority I have before me stat'es that the 

 number of candle-power hours for SI. 00 would be — in- 



