Cleans^ 
In  cleaning  earthenware 
crocks  and  bowls 
Simplified  Science 
By  Dr.  F.  D.  Crane 
Old  Dutch 
Is  Old  Glass  Brittle  ? 
I  am  told  that  glass,  long  exposed  to 
the  elements,  deteriorates,  becoming  so 
rotten  as  to  break  at  a  slight  touch.  Is 
this  true?  I  thought  of  buying  a  lot  of 
such  glass  for  a  hothouse,  but  hesitate. 
New  Jersey.  E.  a.  w. 
Old  glass  is  often  quite  brittle,  and  if  it 
has  to  be  re-cut  there  is  usually  about  50 
per  cent,  or  more  loss,  according  to  the 
skill  of  the  workman,  but  if  it  can  be 
used  in  the  same  size  as  received,  and  will 
be  handled  decently,  it  may  do  very  well 
for  years.  At  the  present  high  price  of 
glass  the  net  cost  should  decide  if  you 
want  to  take  a  chance,  but  it  should  come 
to  you  at  much  less  than  a  new  article. 
Aging  Wines 
Can  you  tell  me  anything  about  “aging 
wine  by  electricity,”  a  process  which  I 
saw  described  in  a  Southern  newspaper 
about  25  years  ago?  It  originated  with 
a  Dr.  Frazer  of  California  (T  think) 
who  applied  for  U.  S.  and  foreign  patents' 
for  the  process,  though  a  lawyer  told  me 
at  the  time  that  it  wasn't  patentable,  as 
electricity  is  as  free  as  the  air,  and 
there  was  nothing  original  in  its  process. 
It  has  always  seemed  to  me  au  impor¬ 
tant  •  discovery,  and  I  have  wondered  if 
the  experiment  was  a  success.  m.  it.  H. 
Massachusetts. 
Wo  have  never  heard  of  the  particular 
process  you  mention,  but  there  have  been 
several  of  them.  The  “aging”  of  wines, 
liquors,  perfumes,  etc.,  is  not  well  under¬ 
stood  ;  it  is  partly  a  breaking  down  and 
partly  a  reforming  and  recombination  of 
many  unstable  aromatic  bodies,  and  elec¬ 
tricity  has  been  tried,  with  more  or  less 
success,  to  hasten  it.  It  is  doubtful  if 
the  process  at  best  has  any  present  value, 
as  “big  money”  is  no  fool,  and,  seeing 
the  signs  of  the  times,  is  quietly  getting 
out  of  "wines  and  liquors  while  the  get¬ 
ting  is  good — and  it  is  growing  poorer 
every  day.  f.  d.  c. 
Non-blazing  Garments 
I  read  some  time  ago  that  if  a  solution 
of  alum  was  put  in  the  rinsing  water  used 
for  children’s  cotton  clothes  they  would 
not  blaze,  but  burn  like  a  piece  of  woolen 
goods.  If  true,  will  you  inform  your 
readers  lmw  to  use  it?  L.  at.  w. 
Pennsylvania. 
Nothing  you  can  use  and  still  have 
them  wearable  will  make  cotton  as  slow- 
hurning  as  wool,  but  a  lump  of  alum  or  a 
couple  of  tablespoons  of  borax,  or  both, 
in  the  last  water  will  render  them  much 
less  liable  to  blaze  up.  The  dose  must  be 
repeated  at  each  washing.  But  it  is  un¬ 
wise  to  let  the  children  know  that  they 
can  take  a  chance ;  teach  them  tor  act  as 
if  all  their  clothes  were  always  trimmed 
with  shavings.  “A  gun  is  always  loaded” 
is  the  only  safe  doctrine. 
WRITE  FOR  OUR  PRICE  LIST 
We  Buy  WASTE  PAPER 
and  all  Kinds  of  Scrap  Material. 
THEODORE  HOFELLER  &  CO. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
ROOM  CeMCMT  NO.  1 
Permanently  repairs 
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boilers,  stoves,  furnaces, 
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Jersey  City,  N.  J. 
v  POWER  WASHER 
WOMANS 
FRIEND 
Cider  in  a  Copper  Kettle 
Wo  have  a  large  copper  kettle  in  which 
we  wish  to  boil  cider.  Some  one  has  ex¬ 
pressed  a  doubt  about  using  it  for  the 
purpose  and  we  would  appreciate  your 
advice.  L.  K.  at. 
Connecticut. 
It  would  be  risky  even  if  the  cider  were 
very  fresh  and  sweet,  for  copper, 
although  not  much  acted  upon  by  the  veg¬ 
etable  acids  in  the  absence  of  air,  would 
probably  be  slightly  attacked  at  best.  If 
the  cider  wore  even  a  little  old  there 
would  probably  be  quite  some  action,  and 
copper  salts  are  poisonous  and  would  in¬ 
jure  the  flavor  also.  The  kettle  can  be 
tinned,  and  it  is  then  safe,  but  tinning  a 
copper  kettle  is  an  art  and  no  job  for  the 
amateur.  The  process  is  simple,  merely 
dean  the  kettle,  heat  and  rub  with  a  stick 
of  block  tin.  with  a  little  muriate  of  zinc 
as  a  flux,  but  there  is  a  “know  how” 
about  it  which  cannot  be  described  in 
words.  T'niess  you  tin  the  kettle  it.  is 
better  to  keep  cider  and  all  acid  liquids 
out  of  it.  Better  use  the  safe  and  cheap 
enamel  ware. 
•  m  wall-paper? -*  th«  most  bountiful 
m.  Jinn  t  select  paper  until  you 
our  entire*  homo  and  doit,  nt  small  cost, 
at 3c  for  a  doable  roll. 
WWlX  A  REAL 
|)f  POWER  WASHER 
Round  rubber  rubs  tbe  clothes,  turns  them  over 
null  over  and  forces  the  hot,  soapy  water  through 
them.  Washes  tub  full  perfectly  clean  m  5  minutes. 
Mo  wringers  to  shift.  Xothlng  to  get  out  of  order. 
Special  low  price  to  Introduce.  Catalogue  Free. 
Biuffton  Mfg  Co.  boxf67Bluffton,  Ohio. 
A  Four-pound  North  Carolina  Clam 
A  Good  Ci.Ajr. — No  doubt  there  will  be 
some  of  our  people  who  will  have  to  de¬ 
pend  on  clam  chowder  or  boiled  clams  for 
their  Christmas  dinner.  We  have  known 
people  to  he  perfectly  happy  if  on  Christ¬ 
mas  Day  they  could  have  a  full  meal  of 
fried  pork  or  fried  muskrat  or  baked 
sweet  potatoes.  It  does  not  make  so 
much  difference  what  you  eat  on  Christ¬ 
mas  Day  as  the  thought  which  goes  along 
with  the  food,  but  at.  any  rate  if  there  is 
clam  chowder  to  he  eaten  we  suggest  the 
clam  shown  in  the  picture  on  page . 
This  dam  weighs  a  little  over  four 
pounds  and  was  taken  out  of  the  sound  at 
Wrightsville  Beach,  N.  C.  There  is 
enough  of  this  to  make  a  Full  dinner  for 
six,  and  we  would  not  mind  having  a 
taste  of  it  if  it  could  be  put  into  the 
bauds  of  old  Aunt  Mary  at  Christmas 
time,  and  we  could  walk  a  few  miles  be¬ 
fore  dinner.  “Don’t  be  a  clam,”  says  the 
philosopher.  If  you  have  to  be  one, 
however,  why  not  be  a  big  one  so  as  to 
attract  attention? 
Smoke  in  a  Refrigerator 
A  fire  started  in  a  room  in  which  a  re¬ 
frigerator  was  standing  with  the  door 
partly  open,  and  the  smoke  entered  the 
refrigerator  so  that  it.  still  smells  strongly 
of  smoke  and  we  are  not  able  to  wash  it 
out.  Is  there  anything  that  will  kill  the 
smoke  odor?  a.  d.  m. 
New  York. 
Wood  smoke  odors  certainly  do  stick, 
but  the  most  adhesive  part  of  them  is 
usually  basic  in  character,  so  try  wash¬ 
ing  with  vinegar  diluted  with  its  volume 
of  water,  lettiug  stand  a  half  hflur  and 
washing  with  plain  water  If  this  does 
not  take  it.  all,  give  a  light  fumigation 
with  sulphur,  a  teaspoouful  of  sulphur  on 
a  red-hot  brick  laid  on  a  flat  stone  or 
another  brick,  followed  by  a  good  wash¬ 
ing. 
Fine  needles  are  not  hard  to  thread  if 
you  have 
The  t?x\Ar*  T  .nmn 
Its  generous,  steady  light  makes  old  eyes  seem 
young.  No  smoke.  No  flicker.  Solid  brass, 
nickel-plated. 
For  best  results  use  Socony  Kerosene — 
the  cleanest,  clearest-burning  fuel. 
STANDARD  OIL  COMPANY  sf  N.  Y. 
56  New  Street,  New  York 
Electric  Silver  Cleaning 
Have  just  noticed  the  item  “Electricity 
in  a  Dishpau.”  I  thought  you  might  like  to 
tell  sometime,  that  an  aluminum  pan  was 
“the  I  test  ever,”  for  cleaning  silver  in, 
thus  doing  away  with  the  price  of  alum¬ 
inum  or  zinc.  Cse  the  salt  and  soda  solu¬ 
tion.  as  with  the  piece  of  aluminum  in 
the  granite  pan.  I  am  a  household  ex¬ 
pert.  and  use  mul  advise  that  method  for 
all  plain  finished  silverware,  but,  beware 
of  usiii'r  that  way  with  any  French  finish, 
silver,  for  that  beautiful  gray  will  be  then 
no  more.  c.  ar.  atxk.w 
Tv.  X.-Y. — Remember  about  this  finer 
ware.  The  cleaning  is  done  a  little  too 
well,  and  the  pattern  of  engraved  or  em¬ 
bossed  ware,  which  comes  out  because 
there  is  darkened  silver  in  the  lines,  is 
apt  to  seem  weak  and  faded  because  all 
the  surface  is  equally  bright.  That,  is, 
the  lines  as  well  as  the  surface  are  all 
clean  silver,  which  is  not  desired  in  most 
eases. 
Ammonium  Carbonate  for  Bread  Baking 
Why  do  bakers  use  ammonium  carbon¬ 
ate  in  bread  making?  Is  it.  used  in 
place  of  yeast,  or  in  conjunction  with  it? 
Texas.  B.  E.  C. 
Ammonium  carbonate  breaks  down, 
"dissociates”  the  chemists  say,  at  the 
even  temperature,  into  ammonia  gas,  and 
carbonic  acid  gas,  which  may  re-unite,  or 
each  unite  with  something  else  if  they 
remain  within  the  loaf,  as  the  heat  goes 
down.  It  is  cheaper  to  use  it  than  to 
raise  the  bread  properly  with  yeast. 
There  may  be  those  who  consider  it 
harmless,  hut  we  are  not  of  that  opinion, 
and,  unless  the  bread  so  made  is  plainly 
labeled,  we  consider  its  use  a  fraud,  to 
say  the  least. 
SPOOKY 
KROSOII 
_  OIL  ‘ 
STANDARD  Oil  C0.2H.Y. 
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