«# RURAL NEW-YORKER 
649 
Simple Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
Stoppage in Water Pipe 
For the last 2G years we have been pip¬ 
ing water about 200 yards, with about 
10O-ft. fall, through galvanized iron pipe. 
Lately it has almost stopped running. 
What can we do to clean it? T. o. 
New Berlin, N. Y. 
It is likely that your pipe, of which 
you do not give the size, has just about 
served its time, and there is little or 
nothing you can do to clean it while it 
is in place. We have suggested the use 
of dilute, say one to ten, hydrochloric 
(muriatic) acid, allowed to stand in the 
pipe several hours, but it is not likely that 
this will do you much good, for a sedi¬ 
ment which has taken 20 years to collect 
is probably quite solid. Taking the pipe 
up. length by length, and pounding it 
may, if it was a good galvanization 
inside to start, clean it well enough for a 
few years’ more service. It looks like a 
new pipe, however. 
Vinegar Fails to Form 
A year ago last Fall I put cider for 
vinegar in an old vinegar barrel with 
plenty of mother. It froze during the 
Winter, and has not made vinegar yet. 
What can I do?^ L. F. B. 
Andover, N. Y. 
No doubt the mother of vinegar, which 
is a rather tender plant, was frozen to 
death, and it may be that the wild bac¬ 
teria got in and rotted the whole business. 
If you still have “hard cider’’ just wait¬ 
ing for more mother, of course another 
dose of mother will start things going. 
An “analysis” would tell what you have, 
but we hardly think that is required, as 
most neighborhoods contain one or more 
ancient authorities who will need no in¬ 
ducement other than a moderate sample 
to say with absolute accuracy what that 
barrel now contains. 
If the cleaning out is properly done, 
you should need no disinfectant of any 
sort. If it is not. no disinfectant will 
help ; you must do the cleaning over again. 
If the well is merely muddy for a few 
days, it will be all right after it settles; 
but if, after cleaning, it seems to get foul 
very soon, you probably have direct con¬ 
nections between the well and some cess¬ 
pool or drain, and the only cure is a new 
well some distance away. A peck or so 
of fresh-burned wood charcoal will often 
remove a stale odor from well water, but 
beware of anything that merely covers up 
impurity. 
Making Vinegar 
How can I make malt vinegar at home? 
Where can I get “mother of vinegar” to 
start it? R. J. 
New York. 
“Mother of vinegar” is the name of 
the mass of minute plants which change 
alcohol to acetic acid, and it is not for 
sale, so far as we know, but any good 
cider vinegar which has not been heat 
sterilized contains enough of the little 
plants to give you a starter, and the stuff 
multiplies rapidly. In a liquid contain¬ 
ing from four to six per cent of grain 
alcohol, together with some other nutri¬ 
ents, such as are found in cider, malt ex¬ 
tract, and fruit and vegetable juices gen¬ 
erally, you will get a good growth of the 
mother and a rapid change of the alcohol 
to vinegar, provided there is plenty of 
air. For this reason the jug or keg should 
not be filled more than three-quarters 
full, but the hole should be covered with 
cheesecloth to keep out small flies. As 
to the liquid to be fermented, it is noth¬ 
ing but a beer without hops, but the Vol¬ 
stead act appears to forbid the publica¬ 
tion of exact directions, even for home¬ 
brewed vinegar. 
Cooling in Porous Jars 
Will the porous jars, to be soaked in 
water every so often, serve as refriger¬ 
ators to keep cream and harden butter, 
etc. ? MRS. c. H. B. 
Greensborough, Md. 
This scheme, which depends on the 
presence of dry warm, or hot, air works 
perfectly in the Southwest. Everyone 
there has porous water bottles, called 
ollas (pronounced ol-ya), and the hotter 
and drier the day, the cooler the water. 
Probably the dome-shaped affairs which 
have been advertised so widely of late 
also work well there. But we consider it 
unlikely that they will give satisfaction 
in the damper air of Maryland. The 
whole reason for their action is that drv 
air will have water, and to get it will 
take the energy needed to turn water 
into vapor from whatever holds the water. 
That condition of departed energy we call 
“cold,” and we say that evaporation cools 
the jar or its contents. If you can get 
one of the things on trial, go ahead. 
Most of the large housefurnishing stores 
sell them, but we wouldn’t tie up any 
money in your location. 
Poison in Parsnips 
Are two-year-old parsnips poisonous? 
Cuyahoga Falls, O. H. B. 
The tops are, but the roots, properly 
cooked, will merely be tough, since the 
poisonous property is destroyed by cook¬ 
ing. 
Housecleaning Questions 
1. How can I clean fly-specked picture 
frames? 2. What will keep stoves from 
rusting when put away? 3. How can I 
make a good, cheap furniture polish? 
4 How can I get the “bees” for “bee 
wine”? MRS. c. N. 
Chatham, N. Y. 
Several things are advised for cleaning- 
picture frames, but the safest seems to be 
warm soapsuds, applied with care just 
where indicated and wiped off with clean 
water. 2. Stoves may be kept in fair 
shape during the Summer by wiping them 
with kerosene in which you have dis¬ 
solved a little paraffin. But if you put 
the stove where it will get damp, there is 
nothing that will keep it from rusting. 
3 Most furniture polishes are built on a 
foundation of turpentine and beeswax, 
and to this is added various proportions 
■of linseed oil. These really act as a sort 
of varnish which sinks into the wood in¬ 
stead of staying on the surface, and some¬ 
times varnish gums are added also. 
4. The “bees” which cause a sort of 
fermentation do not seem to be on the 
market, and as they might perhaps pro¬ 
duce more than one-half of one per cent 
of alcohol, it is probably against the law 
to traffic in them. 
Home-mixed Paint; Tarred Corn • 
1. Which would be the more eco¬ 
nomical, to buy ready-mixed barn paint 
at from $1.05 to $2 a gallon, or mix my 
own from linseed oil at 90c per gallon? 
What is mixed with the oil, and in what 
quantity?. 2. We used to put coal tar 
on corn to discourage the crows when we 
planted by hand, but that would not work 
in a planter. What else could be used? 
Princeton. w. w. G. 
1. Unless you have power and a small 
paint mill it will scarcely be worth your 
while mixing paint at home. If by mix¬ 
ing you mean getting the colors ready 
ground in oil and merely diluting with the 
linseed, that will ccst a little more than 
the ready-mixed, but you are surer of a 
genuine linseed paint. But for a barn, 
if you consider your time worth any- 
things, we suggest ready-mixed paint 
from a reliable maker. If you are really 
anxious to experiment, you can grind 
45 lbs. of red oxide of iron with a gallon 
of linseed oil and then thin with more 
oil and a drier, which you will have to 
buy, to the desired thinness and go ahead 
and “put it on yourself,” as most begin¬ 
ners do. 
2. From reports previously printed we 
gather that land plaster applied to tarred 
corn allow© it to be run through a planter. 
It is scarcely a chemical question, and 
our readers will probably give some good 
suggestions from experience. 
Developing Photographs 
How can I learn to develop photo¬ 
graphs? p. k. y. 
Blossvale, N. Y. 
Get the direations which come with 
each package of plates and films, and 
stick to those directions, letter for letter, 
till you can do it well. Then you can 
branch out and try other method©. But 
each manufacturer has worked out meth¬ 
ods which work best for his product, and 
it will pay you to believe what he says. 
If you think of taking it up as a business, 
get a job with a photographer. 
Fireproofing Fabrics 
How do I use ammonium phosphate, 
one pound in one gallon of water, to fire¬ 
proof children’s dresses? b. d. 
Maple Shade, N. J. 
Use_ it as the last water in which the 
drees is wet, do not wring out very well, 
let a lot of the solution dry in the' goods 
and do not get the idea that it will “fire¬ 
proof” the article. It will not. The 
most it will do is to make it slow burning, 
and the more phosphate you leave in, the 
better the effect. Try it on a bit of waste 
goods and see how it works. 
Feed is wasted on a 
Sick Hen 
Good poultry houses cost real 
money nowadays. Good stock and 
breeders aren’t cheap. But the 
modern farmer is counting results, 
not simply investment and he knows 
that barrels for coops and barnyard 
scrubs don’t pay profits at the end 
of the season. «>= Your kitchen range 
should show just as true profits. It 
can if you consider it from the view¬ 
point of service instead of initial 
cost as we have in building the 
Sterling Rang e 
The few extra dollars a Sterling costs, 
like chickens, will come back to roost 
in fuel and food saved. 
Let us tell you about it. A postal will bring 
you full information. 
SILL STOVE WORKS 
ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
Purifying a Well 
What kind of a disinfectant is put into 
a well, after it is cleaned out, to purify 
it? 
Cairo, N. Y. 
J. B. 
Patching Rubber Boots 
How can I patch rubber boots? 
Stamford, N. Y. v. g. c. 
It all depends on whether there is much 
of any real rubber in the boot. If there 
is, the self-curing tube patches will work, 
provided you can get pressure applied 
evenly till they are well stuck fast. There 
are rubber cements used by shoemakers 
which work fairly well. Or. you can vul¬ 
canize on a patch, provided always you 
have enough real rubber in the boot to 
work with, and can wait till it sets. 
Your earning power 
when it rains is 
made sure 
by 
^OWEJ}^ 
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