The RURAL New.YORKER 
517 
Simple Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
Flux for Galvanized Metal 
What is a good flux for soldering gal¬ 
vanized metal, zinc, brass, copper and 
tin? s. M. 
Frederick, Md. 
Chloride of zinc, sometimes called 
muriate of zinc. This is a solid that 
takes water from tin* air very fast, and 
becomes an oily liquid A little hydro¬ 
chloric (muriatic) acid is usually used 
with it, and it is sometimes made into 
a paste with denatured alcohol The place 
should be well washed with water after 
using it. 
Cleaning Water-glass Containers 
What will take water-glass out of the 
jars used for preserving eggs? g. w. e. 
Eldred, Pa. 
Warm, dilute, hydrochloric (muriatic) 
acid will do all that can 'be done. But 
the alkaline silicate has probably attacked 
the glazing of the jars, and they will 
never be entirely good again if this has 
happened. But there Is nothing poison¬ 
ous present, and there are some uses for 
which they are still good. . 
the speed of fermentation, and the amount 
of acetic fermentation that sets in, that 
there is really no standard. The reason 
the efleet of hard cider is more'persistent 
is that there are certain higher and more 
complex alcohols present, which are more 
toxic and more slowly eliminated from the 
system. Up in Sussex County, N. J., 
where they are wise as serpents, they 
produce an article which they claim to 
be harmless as doves by letting the cider 
barrel set out on the north side of the 
woodshed during a cold snap. Then a 
tube is inserted and the unfrozen center 
piped out, and it is certainly—or rather 
a fellow told me once—it was remarkable. 
What happens, of course, is that the 
water freezes out and there is a natural 
concentration, very different from dis¬ 
tillation. of the alcohols and fragrant 
ethers. The effect is also lingering. 
F. n. c. 
Quicksilver on Gold 
T dropped a thermometer on a table 
and broke it. and did not brush it off. 
I laid my gold watch on the table with 
the quicksilver and this morning some of 
the quicksilver was on the case. Is there 
any way to remove it. or would it be 
better to let a jeweler do it? m. m. 
Our chemist tells us that unless a con¬ 
siderable quantity of the quicksilver got 
on the watch case it will probably vanish 
in a short time without injuring the case. 
If it does not the matter should be re¬ 
ferred to a good jeweler, as it is beyond 
the amateur to reinedv it. 
Canned Milk 
I have a friend who thinks he has 
solved the milk question. His plan is 
to have ready a lot of one or two gallon 
tin cans, with a small hole in the top. 
fill with fresh milk, pasteurize, seal, and 
put on the market like corn syrup or 
similar goods. Will It work? ir. w. 
New York. 
No, something of the sort has been 
tried long since. There are two main 
reasons why it will fail. In the first 
place there are certain decay germs 
which are so universal that they cannot 
be kept out with ordinary care which 
spend their dry seasons as a very re¬ 
sistant “spore’’ form. They resist pas- 
Temperature in Iceless Refrigerators 
Tell your readers not to believe that 
low temperatures can be obtained in an 
iceless, evaporation refrigerator, at least 
below a thousand feet, and not. even above 
that elevation in’ the eastern part of the 
country. Ten degrees F. is doing well. 
Wilkinsburg, Pa. 
tv. s. R. 
The temperature in an ice refrigerator 
depends on a constant, the temperature 
of tin 1 ice and the energy needl'd to melt 
it. and on the construction and use. That 
of an evaporation refrigerator depends on 
a difference, that is on the additional 
amount .of water vapor which the air 
around it will take up at that tempera¬ 
ture. and it will vary from hour to hour. 
It is only very rarely that this sort of 
a cooler works well in the East; in the 
higher West, especially in a breeze, they 
are fine. There would be quite a gain 
if an electric fan could be adjusted to 
play on the felt, but here the cost of cur¬ 
rent would come in rather seriously. Stick 
to ice if you can get it. but if you are 
stuck for ice a good evaporation cooler is 
better than nothing. But do not trust 
it too far. 
Honey Vinegar 
M ould the directions recently given in 
The If. N.-Y. for “honey vinegar” pro¬ 
duce . a vinegar which could be legally 
sold in Massachusetts? Could a good ar¬ 
ticle be made of buckwheat honey? Is 
there any advantage in getting the special 
yeast mentioned? n. f. m. 
Taunton, Mass. 
These directions have been tried on a 
sample of buckwheat honey, which was 
diluted with eight volumes of water, a 
little standard yeast added (the directions 
assumed that the wild yeast in the honey 
would act, hut this honey had been 
heated), and the mixture allowed to si nd 
in the kitchen covered with cheesecloth. 
The usual fermentation set in, and passed 
through the “metbeglin” or honey beer 
stage, and then an acid fermentation set 
in. It is now practically finished, and 
gives a fair vinegar with a slightly sweet 
taste, probably due to some uufermentable 
sugar in the honey. There is not much 
flavor, hut that would no doubt improve 
on standing. It could, of course, not be 
sold as cider vinegar, nor perhaps as 
“vinegar.” since that might imply a cider 
source, but it could certainly be sold as 
honey vinegar, since that is what it is. 
If you are considering it as a business, 
tell us and we will let you know where 
you can purchase a reliable vinegar 
tester, since honey will vary a little, 
the fermentation will not always run 
same, and you will of course want to 
out a uniform article. As to the special 
yeast, an inquiry to the parties mentioned 
showed that it was not now being sold, 
but another line was su sted and if we 
get any results it will be announced. 
Reproduced from the X. Y. Evening Telegram 
teurization and even sterilization while 
in this stage, but they loosen up and be¬ 
gin to grow if kept damp a few hours. 
It is to catch these chaps in their grow¬ 
ing form, when they are easily killed by 
boiling, that vegetables are cooked three 
times unless you can. raise the heat, under 
pressure, to a point where even the spore 
forms are killed. So to begin, the cans 
of milk would have to be processed, or 
else sterilized three times. Of course this 
would change the cream into a cake of 
butter fat. The second objection is that 
any effective preservative process would 
ruin the taste as well as the cream. The 
fat in milk is a complex mixture, parts 
of it are easily broken by hot water, and 
the resulting free acids have a marked 
rancid effect. They would also, probably, 
act on the container, more or less. It is 
not impossible to do something of this 
sort on a small scale, but for the reasons 
given it is out of the question as a busi¬ 
ness. at the present state of our knowl¬ 
edge- P. p. c. 
and 
the 
put 
Alcohol in Hard Cider 
How much alec hoi does “hard cider” 
contain? Is it as strong as beer? 
New York. H 
Hard cider is not uniform, neither is 
beer, but in general the average hard 
cider is rather more alcoholic than the 
average beer. In the case of cider, so 
.JV.uvh . ou tliu sugar iu the juice. 
Glittering Stones 
There are few of us who do not cherish 
the secret hope that as we plow or hoe or 
walk along the road we may some day see 
a sparkling bit which, when we have picked 
it up and washed it with care, will turn 
out to be a diamond weighing, say, a 
pound or so. But the chances are slim, 
and we may as well have our dream 
diamond weigh a pound as not; it is 
pleasanter to think of and just as likely 
to happen, since very few diamonds have 
been found m our country, and those who 
have studied the matter are quite sure 
that none will be. at least in those parts 
of which f.. geology is known. Besides 
that, diamonds in nature do not glitter, 
but have a peculiar waxy lustre which is 
not apt to attract attention. But from 
savage days the human animal has picked 
up bright stones, and the habit is a good 
one to follow: not that there is much 
chance that you will get anything worth 
while to anyone else, but just because 
many are pretty and all are interesting 
it you care anything at all about natural 
objects. 
By far the commonest bright stone, in 
the Eastern States, is quartz in some of 
its many fornis. It is the oxide of silica, 
from the chemist’s standpoint, cousin to 
the oxide of carbon that we all form in 
our bodies and breathe out from our lungs, 
and which most of us swallow from time 
to.tune as the “gas” in soda water. But 
• 'I s m 1 , !l ox Jde * s a xolid, and is almost 
infusible, although it has vieldod of late 
years to the fierce heat of the electric 
furnace and oxy-acetyl’ene flame, and is 
on the market in various shapes for ckem- 
HOW ONE FARMER PROGRESSED 
A HUNDRED 
YEARS IN A DAY 
Attaching 
He was puzzling over the labor 
problem. 
“Trouble with me is,” he said, “that 
I’m farming the way they did a hundred 
years ago. All hand and horse labor. 
What I need is Power.” 
He bought an automobile. That 
saved several hours a day getting the 
stuff to market. Then we showed him 
how to hitch up the wonderful auto 
power plant to do pretty nearly all the 
hard work of the farm. He could move his 
power about where the work was—that was the 
first big point. And the Power was always ready. 
Here’s a sample day when you 
Farm the Lay Way with 
1 AV porta 
LAI POWER 
First, you3lip Lay Port., 
Power under the rear axle,press 
down on two levers, slip on a belt 
that connects with a lineofpul- 
ey shafting in the shed, and start 
the Lay Milking Machine. Cows 
are milked in no time. Throw on 
the separator belt—one more job 
done. Feed mill next —then the 
grindstone or churn. 
Then you put the saw rig on 
the back of the car with Lay 
Porta Power on the running 
board and drive down to the 
woodlot. In half an hour 
you’ve sawed more wood than 
you could in a day by hand. 
Back to the house and hitch 
up to your Lay Electric Lighting 
Plant and charge the storage bat¬ 
teries f or modern Lay Farm Light 
for house and barn; and then fill 
your tanka with a Lay Porta 
' Pump. 
Release the levers and the car 
is ready to run in town with, oi 
for family use. 
This marvelous Farm Power 
has cost almost nothing. Just a 
little gas. There is almost no 
wear on tires. You get the same 
mileage out of tires and do all 
this extra work besides. 
This whole Farm Power Out¬ 
fit-Car, Lay Porta Power, Lay 
Milking Machine, Lay Porta 
Saw, Lay Farm Light, Lay 
Porta Pump, Lay Porta Mill, 
costs about what one laborer 
would cost for a year and they’ll 
do your farm work for many 
years ; or practically nothing. 
Cheapest power on earth and 
most efficient. Each machine 
sold separately. Lay Porta Power will operate any 
machinery you now own that can be driven by a belt. I T ca fL. 
Power on the farm means profit. Portable Power— LI Sc LUC 
Lay Porta Power. Writefor fullinformation. We can 
employ a few farmer agents. Every one buys on LOUDOQ 
demonstration—the proposition is that logical. r 
L. A. YOUNG INDUSTRIES, Inc., Detroit, Mich. 
Portable Power Implements for the Farm r r 
Grace Motors L’t’d., Toronto, Ont., Exclusive Canadian Distributors * Address. 
V 
V 
' L. A.Younu 
Industries; 
Detroit. Mich. 
—Dept 175 
f Send full particulars 
r about Lay Porta Power. 
Name. 
MANURE IS DEFICIENT IN 
PHOSPHORUS 
PHOSPHORUS AND DECAYING ORGANIC MATTER 
CONSTITUTE THE KEY TO PROFITABLE 
SYSTEMS OF PERMANENT AGRICULTURE 
BARIUM-PHOSPHATE 
AN ALKALINE FERTILIZER 
ANALYZING 
16% Phosphoric Acid 7% Barium Sulphide 
Is an ideal material for the Dairyman to use. 
Added to manure it supplies Phosphorus iu a most desirable form. 
A few loads ot manure, to each of which a bag of Barium-Phosphate 
has been added, will produce more Corn per acre than three or four times 
the amount of manure used alone. 
, Barium-Phosphate is a mixture of an alkaliue salt of Barium, which is 
soluble iu water, and Phosphate ot Lime and 
SUPPLIES PHOSPHORUS AT A LOW COST 
I.very farmer knows that so long as he can grow clover he cau grow 
anything else, and the converse is also true, that where clover peXSlv 
deteriorate * r °" ’ 0wmg to acid conditions, then other crops must steadily 
Barium-Phosphate, in addition to supplying Phosphorus 
Sweetens the Soil 
and INSURES a LUXURIANT GROWTH OF CLOVER 
WITHOUT THE USE OF LIME 
Used with manure, or plowed under with green crops. Barium-Phos- 
P ,at It a wil*i e1 YOTT fn e 8 °> d P^ a £ d ', mild Up the fertilit - v » f your farm, 
it win pa$ HU to write for our book, 
“PHOSPHORUS THE MASTER KEY TO PERMANENT 
AGRICULTURE” 
which describes Barium-Phosphate and its uses. 
Witherbee, Sherman & Company, Inc. 
2 Rector Street, New York City 
When you urite advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll set a 
quick reply and a Square deal See guarantee editorial page. 
