1384 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Aiigust 28, U)2(' 
WM. LOUDEN 
Over fifty years’ experience in 
planning and equipping barns. 
Save Time, Material and Labor 
in Barn Building 
Simple Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
Reading a Barometer 
What do the readings of a barometer 
signify? G. T. R. 
Several things go by the xiame of 
barometer, but the only ones which have 
a right to it are those which in some 
way ghow the weight of the air at the 
time. The original barometer balanced 
mercury against air. In theory this sort 
is easily made by filling a glass tube, 
closed at one end and a little over 80 in. 
long, with mercury, and setting it in a 
dish of mercury. What mercury is not 
kept in the tube by the weight of the air 
will run out, and space filled only with 
mercury vapor will be left in the upper 
end of the tube. Now, as the weight 
of the air changes, more mercury will be 
run out of, or pressed in to the tube, the 
excess in the dish acting as a reserve. 
It sounds easy to make this sort, but in 
practice the results are poor unless you 
have proper arrangements of filling the 
tube, since more or less air is certain to 
cling to the sides, and that means in¬ 
exact readings. 
Another kind of barometer depends on 
the pressure of the air on a thin-walled 
metal box, from which the air has been 
exhausted. The motion of the metal is 
so slight that it is multiplied by a rack 
and pinion and a pointer, and this is the 
weak spot in this device. A special form 
of this sort of barometer, called in general 
“aneroid,” used an exhausted metal tube 
and gets better results. The very in¬ 
creased demand for sensitive aneroids as 
altitude meters in flying has led to 
marked improvements in this type. The 
reason they are of rise is that, as the 
machine rises, there is less and less air 
above it, and so of course less and less 
weight of pressure is exerted on the 
sensitive box or coil. 
So. if you have 'a real barometer, you 
have either a column of mercury or a 
thing like a clock face with a little 
pointer which wanders between 29 and 
81 on the scale, but mostly sticks pretty 
close to 80. Now as to the readings, 
they must be interpreted in connection 
with other observations. The only thing 
the barometer tells you is air pressure. 
Air gets lighter as it gets warmer and 
as it gets wetter. That is, heated air 
expands, so there is relatively less of it 
above your machine and the pressure 
goes down. 
Water vapor weighs less, bulk for bulk, 
than air. so if the stuff above you 
machine is water vapor and air mixed, 
it will weigh less, that is, press down less, 
than dry air. Of course there is* some 
water vapor in all air in nature and along 
the coast, quite a bit of it at times. The 
80-in. barometer height is for an average 
air. So you must size up the humidity 
and the temperature when you read your 
barometer and take them into account. 
In general a light air precedes a change 
in the weather in the direction of a 
storm ; that is. “the glass is falling.” as the 
sailor puts it. If there is a marked drop 
it means that the colder air will rush in 
to the warm, wet, and so light-air dis¬ 
trict or region, and there will be high 
wind. That is why the barometer is so 
much use to 'a sailor. He cares little 
whether it is raining or will rain; a 
little more or less water does not trouble 
him: there is plenty all about, but he is 
very greatly interested in the amount and 
direction of the wind. On the other hand, 
the farmer wants to know if it is going 
to rain, and that, which really means 
whether the moisture in the air about 
will reach the precipitating point, de¬ 
pends on a lot of local factors which the 
barometer cannot perceive itself, and so 
cannot tell you. 
From my own observations, near New’ 
York, reading the barometer each day 
for another purpose, I have concluded 
that while the barometer w’ill always 
show a coming change of pressure, it will 
rarely indicate a “storm” until it is quite 
evident in other ways, and so also with 
a clearing, but it will always show’ a 
coming high wind. 
Chemistry of Shaving Lather 
What is the action of lather in shav-1 
ing? c. n. w. 
New York. 
There should be little, it any, although 
some. shaving soaps do carry some free 
alkali, as carbonate of potash, in the first 
place. If there is much of this, however, 
the skin is almost sure to be more or less 
irritated sooner or later. Even a soap 
w’hich is neutral by chemical composition 
w’ill give a fairly alkaline lather, how¬ 
ever, and a solution of soap in water does 
seem to have a slightly softening action 
on the hair tissue. The main action of 
the lather is that of a support; the indi¬ 
vidual hairs are held steady against the 
advancing razor edge just long enough to 
get caught by the blade, and then, if that 
is properly sharp, the edge goes on 
through. The action is analogous to the 
cap of soft metal on the tip of armor¬ 
piercing shells. The lather holds the hair 
steady just long enough for the razor to 
take hold. That this is the case is shown 
by the results of using a lather of gum. 
or certain shaving compounds which con¬ 
tain no soap at all. They work rather 
better, if properly made, than the ordi¬ 
nary lather, but are somewhat more ex¬ 
pensive. so have a limited .sale. Partly 
because very little is used, even in a life¬ 
time, by any one person, and partly be¬ 
cause pure cocoanut oil. which is the only 
good base, is hard to get in small lots, it 
usually does not pay to make your own 
shaving soap, but if you must experiment 
take two-thirds cocoanut oil and one-third 
good lard, melt together and to the melted 
and rather warm oil add in a thin stream 
under constant stirring a 10 per cent solu¬ 
tion of equal parts of carbonate of potash 
and dry carbonate of soda in water. Test 
with litmus from time to time, and when 
the reaction is blue after five minutes' 
boiling, add just a little of the oils, which 
you will reserve for that, and boil up 
again. This will give a fairly neutral 
soap which w’ill lather in any water, but 
it will not sharpen a dull razor. 
Removing Skunk Odor 
How can we remove the odor of skunk 
from our cellar? n. J. H. 
Butler, N. J. 
This is one of the cases in which you 
will get what Mr. Ormsbee, on page 1071. 
calls a “theoretical chemist’s answer,” 
for it is a rather unusual problem, and 
the old stand-by for skunk juice—“take 
it out and bury it in fresh dirt”—doesn’t 
seem to apply very well to a cellar. Usu¬ 
ally the casual odor of a skunk fades away 
in a few’ days, but in this case it would 
seem that your “young visitor” exhausted 
every means of defense, and if so you 
have the most lasting, next to musk, of all 
the animal odors. The best we can sug¬ 
gest is to buy a couple of pounds of brim¬ 
stone, roll or lump sulphur, that is, and 
gather a dozen or so small tins, say the 
tops of tin cans, or the cans cut off to 
about two inches. Melt some of the sul¬ 
phur, cautiously, in a tin and soak in the 
tin a number of bits of rag. Now put a 
chunk of sulphur about as big as a black 
walnut with the shuck on in each little 
tin and stand it in a larger tin with 
water or in a flower saucer, or something 
of that sort, and put on top one of the 
sulphured rags. But these all about the 
cellar, start with a number of matches 
or a taper in hand at the farthest and 
light each sulphured rag ns you go to the 
door. Then wait a few hours, and if mat¬ 
ters have improved somewhat, put on a 
heavy Coat of whitewash. Take care that 
there are no carpets left on floors about 
the cellar, which might be bleached in 
streaks by the fumes coming through 
cracks in the boards. Another thing 
worth a trial, but much more risky, is to 
put two or three pounds of chloride of 
lime in two-ounce lots in little dishes all 
about in the cellar, and then, starting at 
the farthest and with a cloth wet in weak 
ammonia water at the nose, pour in each 
dish dilute, one to five, hydrochloric (mu¬ 
riatic) acid, and hasten out. Have some¬ 
one at hand to help in case the evolved 
chlorine beats you to the door. 
and making a proper end to what you 
may have left over, as well as to the rub¬ 
bings. rags. etc. The professionals use 
a mixture of equal parts of crude nitric 
and sulphuric acids, sometimes with a 
little salt added, and this is one of the 
liveliest mixtures known to chemistry^ 
and you must take your own chances if 
you decide to try it. If you want to use 
it on the worst spots, do the work out of 
doors and apply with a swab of asbestos 
packing wired fast to a stick or a heavy 
wire or rod. such as a poker. Then bury 
the excess solution a foot or so under¬ 
ground. 
Exterminating Lilac; Cleaning Brass 
1. What will exterminate lilac roots? 
2. What is the best means to clean larga 
brass kettles? N. s. c. 
Heath, Mass. 
1. Keeping the sprouts clipped well in 
time discourages the roots, although they 
are most persistent in sending up new 
ones. I know of no chemical of any 
value. Of course, a grubbing hoe is the 
best thing, but much work. 
2. For the kettles, a preliminary treat¬ 
ment with sand and water, vigorously 
rubbed on. will show the worst spots. 
These may then be rubbed with more sand 
in a five ner cent solution of oxalic acid, 
remembering that the solution is poison, 
Javeile Water 
I happened to read in The R. N.-Y. 
about the different uses of chloride of 
lime, which I thought was very good. It 
described the method to dissolve the lime 
and after that was done to put it in jars 
or bottle it for use as needed. I clipped 
it out to save for future use, but it hap¬ 
pened one of my neighbors became in¬ 
fected with a contagious disease and I 
gave him the clipping for advice about dis¬ 
infection, but this farmer lost it even 
before he could use it. Can you repeat 
the recipe? * o. j. n. 
You evidently refer to "Javeile water,” 
which was described as follows: Put 
one pound sal soda and one-quarter 
pound chloride of lime in two quarts of 
boiling water. Let the ingredients dis¬ 
solve as much as they will. Then let the 
liquid cool and settle. Pour off the cleav 
liquid, bottle and cork tightly. After 
using it to take a stain out of fabric, rinse 
with ammonia water to prevent injury to 
the fabric. The sediment from the Javeile 
water may be used to clean waste pipes. 
‘‘The Government says you can make 
an exemption on your tax for lux¬ 
uries.” “Then why not take off what 
the Government costs us? That’s the 
biggest luxury we have.”—Life. 
B Y CAREFULLY planning your barn build¬ 
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misunderstandings or changes in plans after con¬ 
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264-1 Court St. (Established 1867) 
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