71 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Simplified Science 
Drying Vegetables 
Some people in Bound Brook. N. J, 
who claim to be drying vegetables by an 
improved process which leaves them en¬ 
tirely unchanged, have had considerable 
free newspaper space of late, and our 
readers are asking us what we think of 
it. As we understand the matter, the 
originators of the method prefer to keep 
it secret, so, since we cannot well ask 
them, we have asked the vegetables, by 
slicing them rather thin and drying quick¬ 
ly at a little above room temperature un¬ 
der reduced pressure. It is folly to say 
that when these are again moistened they 
will exactly resemble the fresh article; 
they will not and they cannot, since the 
water in the minute cells of which all 
plant tissue is built up is in very delicate 
combination with the other bodies which 
are the solid part of the plant. But com¬ 
plete and quick drying does not greatly 
change their quality, while it docs per¬ 
fectly preserve them, since decay cannot 
proceed in the absence of water’. The 
flavor will no doubt slowly change, since 
nearly all flavors are complexes of several 
bodies, some of which are unstable and 
volatile. 
The advantages of being able at once 
to change a ton of fi-esh potatoes, for in¬ 
stance. into a few hundred pounds of dry 
ones which would have all the food value 
and most of the flavor of the fresh ones 
are evident, and the process is equally ap¬ 
plicable to all the common vegetables, al¬ 
though the results will not be equally fa¬ 
vorable with all sorts. Air, warmth and 
reduced pressure ai-e free to all. and. as 
we understand it, there is no attempt to 
patent their use. But whether the buying 
public, which is conservative in matters 
of food purchase, would take to the new 
articles is a very open question, f. d. o. 
ay Bros, & Wells Co. 
NSVIL1.E N.Y. 
of strong sulphuric acid poured on it. 
A temperature sensitive bar can be made 
of several pairs of metals. Any pair 
which expand unequally will bend a lit¬ 
tle with changes of temperature. Zinc 
and iron work well and can be soldered 
together. But the bending at best is 
not great. Hard rubber and thin steel, 
riveted frequently and closely, give a 
fairly large bend and are quite sensitive. 
The trouble with all these thermostat 
bars, as they are called, is that they 
must be constantly adjusted, as the 
metals tend to change and get set under 
the strain. A bar could be arranged to 
set off a chemical mixture, but whether 
it would work when needed is an open 
question. Many such devices would be 
expensive as well as uncertain. Better 
make one really good bar and arrange it 
to close the circuit of an electric bell lo- 
Preparing Rawhide 
I have a deer skin which I do not 
Wish to tan, but to use raw for snow- 
shoes. What will merely remove the 
c. D. F. 
Tanners i-emove the hair from deli¬ 
cate skins which they do not wish to 
soak by smearing with “rusma,” which 
IS one part of arsenic sulphide, also 
known as orpiment and yellow arsenic, 
to two or three parts of slaked lime, 
made into a paste with water. This 
dissolves off the hair in a short time, 
and is then well washed from the skin. 
It IS quite poisonous. A safe and slower 
paste is made of sulphide of lime and 
water, and a non-poisonous but rather 
caustic paste is made of sulphide of 
soda and ^ water. This latter may act 
on the skin a little, and all three will 
surely act on yours if applied with the 
bare hand. Any of the chemicals should 
cost, at present prices, not more than 
a dollar a pound, and a pound would 
likely be enough for a deerskin. See that 
in any case you get the sulphide and not 
the sulphate or sulphite. Better try the 
action first on a small part, to get some 
idea of the effect. F. D, c. 
Changing Hard Water to Soft 
Is there any way to change a hard 
water well to soft? j. c. K. 
No, not the water in the well, as that 
flows through rocks which .slightly di.s- 
solve in the water, as they have been 
doing for ages and will continue to do. 
IJnle.ss you are directly ordered not to, 
by a phy.sician, it will do you no harm 
to drink it, and for wa.shing, a few drops 
of aminonia followed by a few' drops of 
a solution of ammonium carbonate, one 
ounce to one pint, will likely .soBen it 
enough. You may have to add also a 
few drops of a similar solution of mono¬ 
sodium phospliate, if there is akso mag- 
nesium present, as is the case with some 
of the limestone waters. All these chem¬ 
icals are cheap and harmless, and a few 
drops to the gallon will clean out the 
mineral salts. Another cure is to use 
salt water soap” in w’ashing. This is 
m^erely cocoanut oil soap, but it is not 
often on sale except in seaports. 
F. D. C. 
Spontaneous Combustion 
Are there chemicals w’hich, when 
mixed, will burst into flame? We have 
heard of a scheme for starting fire pots 
in orange orchards by having a sensitive 
bar mix them when the temperature 
drops to a certain point. j. is. 
There are a number of such mixtures, 
all rather dangerous and uncertain. The 
simplest, and about the safest is equal 
parts of chlorate of potash and sugar, 
which must be mixed very gently and in 
small portions, as any attempt to grind 
them together may result in a bad ex¬ 
plosion. This is set off by a few drops 
The happy dream of a hoy who felt that his 
mother overdid the job of washing his face. Ke- 
printed from N. IT. Evening' Telegram. 
cated by your bod and then hop out and 
light up the jiot.s. If the wire run is 
long, allow about tw’ice the voltage you 
think you will need, as the drop is large 
in amateur wb-iiig. Gravity or crowfoot 
batteries as are used on telegraph lines 
are better than dry cells, and will be as 
good next year, but be sure to use enough 
of them, and, of course clean them up 
and put away dry as Spring draws near. 
F. D. C. 
Purifying Water With Charcoal or Ashes 
We have heard of throwing hot w'ood 
ashes and charcoal into the well when 
the water got bad. Does it work, and 
why? c. II. 
It certainly does work, especially when 
there is plenty of eharco.al present, but 
why fresh burned charcoal absorbs many 
times its own volume of gas is not yet 
known. Of course the well should bo 
properly cleaned at the first good 
chance, as the conditions tend to repeat 
thcmselv'es, when due to bacteria of var¬ 
ious sorts. If the ca.se is really bad the 
charcoal W'ill not help much, and even 
the rnildest case should have per.sonal 
attention as a starter, even though the 
proper number of kittens and puppies 
are to be found at feeding time, since 
rats and the like sometimes seem to lose 
their heads. f. d. c. 
Purifying Kerosene 
In reply to II. M., Stamford, Conn., 
the way I do when I get poor or dis¬ 
colored kerosene is to put the kerosene 
in a wooden or glass keg or can, and 
put one heaping tablespoonful of com¬ 
mon table .salt into 'each gallon of kero¬ 
sene. Then lot .stand not less than 40 
hours. The water and the dirt will be 
in the bottom of the keg or can, and 
the piire_ (salted) kerosene will be on 
top. This kerosene should not be put 
into a metal vessel, because the salt 
in it will cause the metal to rust. 
D. F. K. 
Vinegar in Baking 
One day I wanted to use some baking 
.soda and cream of tartar in my baking. 
I found my cream of tartar bad been 
used up, so my mind became active in 
trying to think of an acid at hand, for 
we are some distance from a grocer. I 
had beard of lemon juice being u.sed. 
Why not try vinegar? I used a table- 
sjioonful of good strong cider vinegar, to 
each teaspoon of soda, in the liquid or 
sugar. Tliis works very w'ell, and while 
the cost of what cream of tartar a fam¬ 
ily uses is small yet “a penny saved is 
a penny earned.” m. I. D. 
Your plan is a good one wherever it 
works to advantage, and the traces of 
flavor in cider vinegar di.sappear in cook¬ 
ing or make no change in the final flavor. 
Legal vinegar must have four per cent, 
acetic acid, but a good grade of cider 
vinegar may run nearer six, that is, 
every hundred ounces of vinegar has six 
ounces cf pure acetic acid, which is 
chemleally equal to 18.8 or in round 
number^ 10 ounces of cream of tartar. 
The disadvantage is that the vinegar 
acts at once, and you lose some of your 
carbonic acid gas. while the tartar dis¬ 
solves slowly, giving you a chance to 
stir things together and handle before the 
gas has escaped. f. d. c. 
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