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Photograph by Charles Martin and Ethel M. Bagg 

 ROLLING AND PASTING RATION HEATERS AT HOME 



THE CONVERSION OF OLD NEWSPAPERS AND 

 CANDLE ENDS INTO FUEL 



IN ITALY and France worhen and 

 children are rolling old newspapers 

 into tight rolls, pasting down the 

 edges with glue or paste, and boiling them 

 in paraffin to make ration heaters (scalda- 

 rancio) out of them for the use of the 

 soldiers in the trenches in the high Alps, 

 where coal cannot be sent. They are 

 making them by the million. The Italian 

 National Society furnishes 1^2 million a 

 day to the government, and the old news- 

 papers are being used up for this pur- 

 pose so fast that they are becoming 

 scarce, and paraffin has become very ex- 

 pensive. 



In America there are still millions of 

 candle ends and thousands of tons of 

 newspapers scattered over the country, 

 and it would seem to be well worth while 

 for the thousands of willing hands in the 

 homes to- convert them into these most 



useful ration heaters for the boys at the 

 front, or for their use next winter in the 

 training camps, or even for use at home, 

 where they can take the place of the 

 more expensive solid alcohol or replace 

 kindlings in the kitchen stove. 



It is the easiest thing imaginable to 

 make ration heaters, or scalda-rancio, as 

 they are called in Italy, if one follows 

 the directions of the National Italian 

 Society. 



Spread out four newspapers, eight 

 sheets in all, and begin rolling at the long 

 edge. Roll as tightly as possible until the 

 papers are half rolled, then fold back the 

 first three sheets toward the rolled part 

 and continue to wrap around the roll al- 

 most to the first fold, then fold back an- 

 other three sheets and continue to wrap 

 around the roll again up to the last mar- 

 gin of the paper. On this margin, con- 



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