1098 
July 19, 1919 
Th< rural NEW-YORKER 
Simple Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
Cleaning Flues 
Last Winter I used dry hardwood in a 
cast-iron sectional hot-water furnace. 
There is a thick coat of black, gummy 
substance on the flues, very hard to scrape 
off. Is there any other way of cleaning 
it? E. L. M. 
Massachusetts. 
There may he, but we do not know 
what it is; perhaps some reader can help. 
You might try, on a selected spot, the 
effect of wetting with kerosene. Probably 
a quick, bright hard-coal fire would burn 
a lot of it oft', but July is not an attrac¬ 
tive month in which to try it. 
Carbonated Root Beer 
Can I make root beer without using 
yeast, by the use of soda water? Can I 
buy soda water in small lots? F. I.. T. 
IlolDi’ook, Mass. 
You can get tanks of “plain soda,” that 
is, water and carbonic acid gas for from 
.$1 to .$2 each, according to your location, 
the tanks being returnable when empty, 
and you can purchase “root beer extract,” 
which is a mixture of natural oils, from 
dealers in that line. Then you can put 
a little of the extract.'^ a bottle, squirt 
in the soda water and cork, and you will 
have about what you are looking for. If 
you want to do it on a little larger scale, 
and a bit cheaper, a bottler's outfit of a 
tube of plain carbonic acid gas, gages, 
charging tank and filler, will cost you 
about $50 and will last indefinitely, but 
you will, of course, have to get now tubes 
of gas, the empty tubes being returnable. 
There are plenty of folks ready to sell 
you the outfits and give you directions 
for working them ; if you want to get 
into the game we will hunt up a near 
and reliable dealer on request. If you de¬ 
cide to try the thing commercially, by all 
means be sure that you have a first-class 
water supply. 
Sawdust for Fuel 
There are large piles of pine saw¬ 
dust here and there in Maine, left by the 
portable sawmills. Is there any way of 
pressing it into briquettes so it could be 
used for fuel? F. J. C. 
Maine. 
These piles have attracted the atten¬ 
tion of many, and there are numerous 
schemes for their use. But the pilot, are 
still there. A lot of people have ways to 
make them into fuel brick, and a good 
share of them have taken out patents. 
The hitch seems to be in a cheap and 
available binder, and in the cost of the 
outfit, which must go from place to place, 
as even a big pile does not last very long; 
Another trouble is labor competent for 
the job. The thing is entirely practical, 
but, so far, does not pay. 
Testing Machine Oil 
The country is full of oil agents who 
talk of using only oil refined by acid or 
boneblaek or fuller’s earth, and each fel¬ 
low says the other oil will ruin your en¬ 
gine. Is there any test that the operator 
can apply? F. E. R. 
New York. 
You will find this matter rather fully 
treated on page 120 of The It. N.-Y. for 
January 20, 1919. There is no test 
which can be used by the owner unless he 
is a trained chemist, and there is at least 
one chemist who would sooner buy his oil 
from a large firm that cannot afford to 
put out poor goods than bother to test 
various oils. It seems unfortunate to 
have to advise letting the unknown oils, 
which may be very good oils indeed, go 
to someone else while you stick to the 
tested brands, but it is the only sugges¬ 
tion we care to make. Use the oil ad¬ 
vised by the maker of your machine, or 
else one of the nationally advertised 
brands advised for your machine. Prac¬ 
tically all oils are purified by sulphuric 
acid, and clarified by one of the filter 
agents you mention, and the big fellows 
can do this better than the little ones 
and can charge accordingly. Any oil will 
leave some carbon, and there is lot more 
in using the oil right than in the oil 
chosen. 
Discolored Water 
I have a galvanized tank for house 
water supply which colors the water. 
What can I use for painting if to pre¬ 
serve it and to keep it from discoloring 
the water? O. H. 
Virginia. 
One or two coate of a prepared asphalt- 
urn paint »>f any of the standard brands 
will help the tank, but are you sure that 
it is the source of the color? It is not 
unusual for waters pumped from driven 
wells to release a moderate amount of 
iron merely on standing, since the iron is 
in solution when the water is pumped 
and comes out when the carbonic acid 
which holds it escapes into the air. Try 
letting some of the fresh pumped water 
eland for a time, and see if it throws out 
a deposit; if it does, the tank is not at 
fault. If the iron is in the water to be¬ 
gin with, there is nothing to do but use 
it promptly. The color is annoying, but 
harmless to health. It is by no means 
harmless to white clothes when washed, 
but a little oxalic acid in the rinse water 
will usually fix matters. 
The Price of Gold 
Why has not the price of gold risen, 
just as the price of all other metals has 
increased? J.L.B. 
New York. 
For the same reason that yardsticks have 
not gotten any longer. Gold is the standard 
measure of values. As long as the Gov¬ 
ernment will buy and sell it for a fixed 
price, no one is going to pa"y more; they 
will invest it in Government bonds for a 
sure thing, or in other things for a less 
certain but higher interest, and take its 
earnings rather than keep the gold. That 
is, if you had a thousand yardsticks that 
other people wanted to use, and others 
would pay you four cents a year for the 
use of a yardstick, you might better get 
$40 a year than let them stand in your 
barn. Since the yardsticks won’t get 
longer or shorter, their length being fixed 
by law, you might better get what you 
can for the use of them as they are. It 
is the same with gold dollars. 
Face Powders; Effect of Shaving 
1. What is the real object of using face 
powders and powders on various parts of 
the body? Is it a mechanical effect, or 
is there something in the powder that has 
a chemical effect on the skin? 2. Could 
a safety razor be used to remove an ab¬ 
normal growth of hair, or will repeated 
shaving increase the growth? W. H. C. 
New York. 
1. Face powders seem to have had more 
or less of a vogue of late years, and it. is 
so easy to use them to excess that most 
of their devotees seem to be doing what 
they can to increase the demand on the 
manufacturers, regardless of the effect on 
themselves. Many substances have been 
used for the purpose; the chief ingredi¬ 
ents are ground soapstone, “talcum pow¬ 
der” as it is called ; starch, rice for choice 
but corn for cheapness, and stearate of 
zinc. This last is the most modern in¬ 
gredient, and is about the best of the lot, 
as it is entirely harmless, mildly anti¬ 
septic. and stays “put” the best, besides 
being readily brushed from a coat. Equal 
parts, by bulk, of talcum, starch and zinc 
stearate, with a drop or so of oil of lav¬ 
ender. make a very good mixture. There 
is no chemical action on the skin at all; 
the effect is purely mechanical, and the 
use of a powder is a great advantage if 
the user is to be out in the air and sun 
much of the time. For it is a fact Unit 
our present ideas of cleanliness are very 
modern indeed, and the human skin has 
not yet adapted itself to being washed 
with any regularity and thoroughness. 
In fact, it makes haste to protect itself 
at once by a thin coat of oil, which will 
hold the natural dust as a protective 
layer. From the standpoint of the skin, 
to remove this layer of oil and dust and 
leave it bare to the elements, especially 
to the actinic rays of the sun, is almost 
criminal, and its next effort to protect 
itself is to lay down a pigment layer 
which is called tan if continuous, and 
freckles if more or less discontinuous. 
Meanwhile, it keeps up the supply of oil 
in the hope that enough dust will catch 
and stick to protect it, so that the skin 
is not troubled any by a thin coat of dust, 
no matter where it comes from. Washing 
the dust off, however, may make trouble; 
plenty of foamy soapsuds to begin with 
and lots of clean hot water to finish 
should be the rule. A cloth wet with de¬ 
natured alcohol is a first-rate cleanser if 
care is taken to keep it out of the eyes. 
2. A razor, safety or otherwise, is un¬ 
doubtedly the very best thing to remove 
hair which is not wanted, and cutting 
the ends off positively does not increase 
the rate of secretion of hair from the 
gland. (If it only would! Some of us 
would shave our bald spots twice a day.) 
The general health of the body and an 
increased blood supply, and so increased 
nutrition of the gland are the only things 
which will hustle the hair. Of course the 
mild massage of shaving, as well as rub¬ 
bing in general, might help, and this 
seems to he the basis of the effect of vas¬ 
eline on the hair. Hut, for purely me¬ 
chanical reasons, the short hair which 
comes out after shaving seems stiffer than 
the long hair which was shaved off, just 
as a broom is stiffer when you clip off 
the ends of the straws, so the hair seems 
to be heavier. If you want to be sure 
about this, pick some spot, say the outside 
of the lower arm, where there is, in most 
people, a slight growth of hair, and per¬ 
sistently shave it for a month or so; then 
count the hairs in a square inch, and you 
will see that the number has not in¬ 
creased. So if you have some hair where 
you do not want it. a razor will take it 
off better than any chemical, and will not 
injure the skin unless you get careless. 
Removing Oil from Glass 
How can I remove oil from new win¬ 
dow glass, put in by machine? Is any¬ 
thing better than alcohol as a solvent? 
Allanstand, N. C. I. G. 
Make a strong suds or solution of soap, 
old-fashioned “soft soap” if you can get 
it, and add a half teacupful of gasoline to 
the quart. If your suds are strong enough 
the gasoline will mix in with a little stir¬ 
ring. Then use this, plenty of it, on a 
cloth or sponge, and follow with plenty of 
soft water, if you have it; if not, add just 
a few drops of ammonia water to the 
rinse water. 
Wfe Guarantee the B^alms hot to 
Bend or 
-And Theres no Time limit to This Guarantee 
Remember — 
Genuine John Deere Bot¬ 
toms —the kind you get when you 
buy a John Deere Tractor Plow— 
have a world-wide reputation for 
good seed beds, good scouring and 
long wear. 
John Deere Quick Detach¬ 
able Shares —the kind you get 
when you buy a John Deere Trac¬ 
tor Plow—wear exceptionally well 
and are easy to keep close-fitting. 
Loosen one nut to remove the share; 
tighten the same nut and the share 
is on tight. 
Sizes — 
Two-Bottom 
Three-Bottom 
Four-Bottom 
W HEN you buy a John Deere Tractor Plow you get 
full protection against beams bending or breaking throughout 
the long life of the plow. You are protected by the material in 
the beams—extra strong, special John Deere steel. You are protected 
by the simple, binding guarantee of the maker of John Deere Plows. 
That is one of the many special reasons why you should choose a 
JOHNfeDEERE 
TRACTOR PLOW 
:> i 
Remember, a tractor plow in op¬ 
eration is subject to hard strains. The 
tractor does not “give,” as horses do. If 
a beam springs, the plow will no longer 
do good work. That means a costly de¬ 
lay while the beam is being repaired. If 
a beam breaks there is a costly delay and 
the expense of a new beam besides. 
The extra strong, guaranteed John Deere beams 
protect you against delay and expense. 
Be sure to consider that important 
feature when you choose your tractor 
plow. And keep in mind these other 
features; 
The extra strong beam braces are 
long lapped and securely joined to the 
beams with heavy bolts and lock wash¬ 
ers. The frame stays rigid. The bot¬ 
toms keep their proper alignment. 
The simple, strong, positive power 
lift is trouble proof. It doesn’t gather 
trash. Its few parts move only when the 
bottoms are being raised. There is prac¬ 
tically no wear. 
In every way you will find that 
the John Deere Tractor Plow has the 
downright quality to enable it to keep on 
doing the best of work year after year 
with fewest repairs. 
You can hitch this plow to any 
standard tractor. Your John Deere dealer 
can furnish it to you in two, three or 
four bottom sizes. You can get it equipped 
with the type of genuine John Deere bot¬ 
toms especially adapted to meet your re¬ 
quirements. See your John Deere dealer 
the first time you are in your town. Write 
to us for a folder. Ask for folder TP-127. 
JOHN DEERE 
GET QUALITY 
AND SERVICE 
Moline, Illinois 
JOHN DEERE 
DEALERS GIVE BOTH 
