1430 
lhe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Simple 
By Dr. F. 
Science 
D. Crane 
Celery Tonic 
Will you inform mo how to make colory 
tonic for the nerves? They claim it is 
made from the roots of tlio celery plant. 
Now York. o. E. H. 
We have looked up several formulas 
for celery tonics, and we think that in 
every instance the action on the nsvi»ves 
is largely if not wholly due to ingredients 
other than celery. As a whole, they are 
more highly medicated than is advisable 
for self-dosage, nor can we advise you to 
undertake their manufacture. The seeds 
are the part of the plant most generally 
used, but the entire plant, including the 
root, may be employed. You will get all 
the “virfcue M —there is by eating the plant 
or the grated root, and you can get plenty 
of the root in the form of “celeriac” or 
knob-celery. If you must have something 
to take out of a'spoon, soak a quarter of 
the weight of ground celery seed, or half 
the weight of grated celery root in vine¬ 
gar (say four or eight ounces to a pint), 
for a couple of weeks. You will get 
whatever value there is in the celery, and 
a teaspoonful of vinegar once in awhile 
is not likely to hurt you any. Besides, 
you will find a few dropsvof the vinegar 
help along most salad dressings. 
Metal Roofs and Lightning; Limestone 
and Slate Rocks 
1. Is it true that metal-roofed buildings 
are seldom struck by lightning, and that 
if the roof is wired to the ground by a 
good conductor there is perfect protec¬ 
tion? 2. Do weathered limestone rocks 
act on the soil as ground limestone? 3. I 
have seen a fine field of potatoes growing 
in soil full of decomposing slaty rock, and 
the yield was best where the rock was 
thickest. Did the rock influence the yield? 
Jamaica, Vt. j. w. 
1. Lightning is so erratic that it is hard 
to say if it is more likely to strike one 
thing rather than another. The path of 
the istroke through the air seems to de¬ 
termine the object hit in many cases, and 
this path, in turn, is affected by clouds 
and air currents. Metal-roofed buildings 
are certainly less apt to be damaged by 
lightning for two reasons: the charge is 
distributed over a much larger space, and 
is very apt to discharge with little harm 
by way of gutters and leaders. A metal 
roof well joined to a plate in damp earth 
is said to be almost perfect protection, 
but there should be -plenty of conductor 
and good joints. The advantage of cop¬ 
per is that it does not quietly rust away, 
leaving you with a false sense of security. 
Iron is exactly as good as a conductor, 
since that type of electric discharge 
travels on the surface of the conductor. 
The chemical action is the same, but the 
speed is slower, so slow that it is hardly 
worth while to wait for it. 
2. The action is proportional to the 
surface, and the relative surfaces of the 
ground rock are almost infinitely greater 
than that of the lumps of stone. 
3. Impossible to say, since we know 
nothing of the kind of slate. 
A Talk About Catalysis 
c. w. 
oxygen, and, in round numbers, calling 
hydrogen weight one because it is the 
lightest, we find that it will take eight 
parts by weight of oxygen, or 1<> parts 
by weight of oxygen, but never any more 
and never any intermediate weights, as 
five or 13, no matter if you have your, gas 
mixtures made up -in those proportions; 
If ■•you try to get these to combine you 
will get the excess'gas loft over, water or 
hydrogen peroxide will be formed, or a 
mixture- of them, but- never any inter¬ 
mediate compound. Now if you have such 
a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, it will 
stay a mixture of gases indefinitely so 
far as we know. If some outside agent, 
as heat or electricity, is brought in, the 
gases will combine, often explosively, in 
the fixed ratio. But if we pass these 
mixed gases over a bit of pipe stem, for 
instance, which has been soaked in a 
salt of platinum, dried and heated, so as 
to break down the platinum salt into free 
platinum, the gases will combine at once, 
and quietly, if the thing is managed 
rightly, and water will form in the ratio 
of .one to eight, and either gas, if in ex¬ 
cess of this' ratio, will remain as a gas. 
On the other hand, if we make, by other 
means, the one to 1G combination, and 
put it in a polished platinum dish, noth; 
ing happens, except that- it* will slowly 
eva*>orate just as it would" in a'glass disln 
But if we make a few scratches -on the 
polished surface, we will see little bub¬ 
bles form along these lines, and rise, and 
others will form, and so on, till we have 
the one to eight compound, water, left 
and the proportionate weight of the gas. 
oxygen, free. But the bit of platinum- 
loaded clay and the platinum dish will 
each appear to be entirely unchanged after 
the gases have changed to a liquid and 
the liquid has changed to a gas and an¬ 
other liquid. These two reactions have 
been given space because they are among 
the best examples of “catalytic” action. 
There are also'cases known of so-called 
“negative catalysis" where a reaction 
What is catalysis? 
New York. 
No one knows. But quite a good deal 
is known about it, and there are a large 
number of instances known, in which the 
best explanation of what fs finally found 
to be present is to say that ‘‘catalysis 
has taken place. 
The word itself has been in chemistry 
some time; it means “loosing beside,’ and 
was given because- the mere presence of 
certain things seemed to set other re¬ 
actions going. In most cases, in fact 
some would say in all cases of true cata¬ 
lysis tin* active agent is found unchanged 
or nearly unchanged after .the reaction 
is over. Even the strictest construction¬ 
ists are willing to admit slight changes, 
under the name mechanical loss. But 
the atoms and molecules are so indefinitely 
small,-to our perceptions, that we cannot 
be certain of this. To a giant on the 
moon, two large armies of men might 
meet in battle on a plain on the earth, 
and the issue of the conflict, say a dis¬ 
astrous retreat in one direction or com¬ 
plete capture of one army, might seem 
io be decided by the advance of a small 
third army, which, as the .giant would 
take care to observe, would return to its 
camp practically unchanged save for a 
slight “mechanical loss.” But that loss, 
in fact, even less than one man in a hun¬ 
dred, might have been the deciding factor 
in the conflict. So it is not at all certain 
that tin 1 loss, which is practically always 
noted may not be the part of the catalyst 
whch really does take part in the reaction 
and produce the final effect. One thing 
is certain, that in true catalysis the usual 
rules of definite and multiple proportions 
do not hold in respect to the catalyst and 
do hold in respect to the main reaction. 
All chemistry is based on the fact, which 
liarj been demonstrated many times, that 
the elements combine with each other in 
definite ratios by weight,, and, if in more 
than one way, in simple multiples of those 
weights. That is, there are two well- 
known compounds of hydrogen and 
would seem likely to proceed is slowed 
down or stopped altogether by an outside 
substance. Ho we must allow for these 
in any workable definition. Here is one 
which is so loose that most chemist? will 
have a better one: (fatalysL is f ■•<•.- 
duction or inhibition of <•!: rca’ 
or its acceleration or reta‘flatten, by one 
or more substances which so m r as we 
now know, do not appreciably (flange in 
weight or composition, a,. .vliioU, in any 
event, do not take part in the reaction 
in the known chemical proportions. 
There are those who claim that many, 
some claim all, reactions are really cata¬ 
lytic. but the weight of evidence seems 
to be‘ against this position.” However, 
we are enlarging the field'of the known 
reactions and in many cases making prac¬ 
tical what has long been a curiosity. For 
instance, sulphur, with a relative weight 
of 32, easily picks up an equal weight of 
September 27, 1919 
was arsenic, which is almost always 
present in sulphur ores. Nearly all other 
impurities will hurt, but arsenic was the 
worst, and only traces were needed. In 
fact, the arsenic seemeo ,< r^t on the 
platinum so like it acts c.i p . e that it, 
and other things, have been called cata¬ 
lytic poisons. On the other hand, some 
things have been found, which, in mere 
traces, will help a catalyst along, some¬ 
thing like those “vitamines” perhaps, 
(though we really don’t know much more 
about catalysts than we do about vita- 
mines, we merely know more kinds of 
them), and these are often called acceler¬ 
ators. At any rate, the problem was to 
purify the sulphur gas, and it has been 
so well solved that the gauze now lasts 
for weeks and makes tons of acid before 
it has to be purified. In one sense the 
world war was won by catalysts, for mu¬ 
nitions and poison gases were dependent 
. neproilnced from New York Evening Telegram 
oxygen from the air, as anyone can 
demonstrate with a tut of it and a match. 
But the resulting gas is very slow indeed 
to pick up a third of its weight of oxygen 
and form the basis of sulphuric acid. 
But if the first oxide of sulphur and more 
oxygen is passed over a bit of platinum 
on pipe stem, or, more practically, through 
a gauze woven of platinum wire, you find 
the second oxide on the other side. The 
gauze has to be heated to start it, but 
after that there is heat to spare and 
you have to plan to keep it cool. This 
was known for years, the trouble was 
that the thing would run for a few hours, 
or a few days, and then slow down and 
soon quit entirely, and the gauze didn’t 
seem to be much changed. 
Then it was found that the real trouble 
on them, and it is nearly certain that 
it was started on faith in catalysts, for 
the 11 tins would not have dared to begin 
without the Ilaher process of making am¬ 
monia by the catalytic union of hydrogen 
and nitrogen. Not that they wanted am¬ 
monia, but because that is burnt, also 
catalytic-ally, to nitrate acid, and that 
means explosives independent of Chili 
nitrates. Then too, artificial or synthetic 
rubber depends on catalysis. 
Ho does your digestion, and, for all we 
know, your life itself, since the absorptioti 
of oxygen by the blood and its interchange 
for carbon dioxide in the tissues has never 
been convincingly explained on purely 
chemical grounds. The whole subject of 
catalysis is one of the most attractive in 
al chemistry, but it is the most difficult. 
I !.'• u 
Put Your Trust in Service 
M ODERN efficiency recognizes no such tiling as luck. It prepares for the 
worst. And simply en jugh,that lswhy the modern minded shooter chooses 
a Remington UMC gun and shells, dependable under all conditions. 
Most recent of the many examples of Remind ton UMC leadership in service to shooters 
is the wonderful Wetproof improvement m shot shells. No matter what happens, your 
Remington UMC Wetproof "’Arrow" or "Nitro Club" smokeless or "New Club' 
black powder shot shells can not be injured by wet. 
They may be exposed to it for hours, but will not soak through, bulge or scuff. In body, crimp (or turn¬ 
over) and top wad they will remain as firm and perfect as when fresh loaded at the factory. 
And they will work through your modern Remington UMC autoloading or pump gun just as 
smoothly, fire just as surely and give the same top speed, best pattern and penetration. 
Today, more than 82,700 alert sporting goods and hardware dealers in the United States sell 
Remington UMC — another example of best service to shooters. 
For Sale In Your T^Icarest Town 
Clean and oil your fun with Rem Oil, the combination Powder Solvent, Lubricant and Rust Preventive. 
THE REMINGTON ARMS UNION METALLIC 
CARTRIDGE COMPANY, Inc. 
Largest Manufacturers of Firearms and A mmunition in the World 
WOOL WORTH BUILDING NEW YORK. 
RS'Vtfc 0 ' 1 ’ 
for Shooting Right 
