The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Simple Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
A Lightning Arrester 
It may interest your readers to learn 
that a device has been invented entirely 
to prevent lightning within a mile of the 
point at which it is located. A patent 
has been applied for. It will be com¬ 
paratively inexpensive. The inventor lived 
on a farm where lightning would strike 
in almost all storms, and he has seen 
seven barns on fire at once from lightning 
strokes. That put him to thinking out a 
remedy. It is very simple. He builds a 
chamber of metal, cigar-shaped, and fills 
it with hydrogen gas.- It is sealed by a 
liquid in such manner that when gas ex¬ 
pands or contracts, as it does by heat, 
cold and barometric changes, no gas is 
lost, and the chamber stays charged with 
gas indefinitely. That gives buoyancy to 
the chamber. It is then allowed to rise 
to a mile or more, and a metal cable at¬ 
tached between the elevated chamber and 
the earth as an electric conductor. Wings 
are always floating about in dust. But 
it is worth trying. 
Used machine oil is such an uncertain 
quantity that we hesitate to advise you 
to use it on harness. Neat’s-foot oil, with 
a little wax melted in, is cheap and sure. 
The books mention bone black and in¬ 
digo, or a little Prussian blue, for use in 
harness dressing. But oil soluble aniline 
black is the most modern and best, if you 
can get it. 
Repairing Earthen Demijohn 
Can I repair an earthen demijohn, evi¬ 
dently imperfectly made, which has a 'hole 
in the bottom, by building a round form 
a few inches deep, filling it with rich ce¬ 
ment and setting the demijohn in? Will 
it stick? H. M. G. 
Middletown, N. Y. 
Well, you can try. It will stick all 
right if the glaze is removed from the 
outside, which can be done with a bit of 
coarse emery cloth and plenty of hard 
scrubbing. And it may stay stuck, if 
there is not too much change in tempera¬ 
ture, since the earthenware and the ce¬ 
ment have not the same rate of expan¬ 
wear oftener than the larger bull gears. 
Where gears of this kind are in use it 
seems to be pretty well established that 
no lubrication is the best lubrication. 
This treatment seems rather drastic at 
first, but under the conditions in which 
these gears work it seems the best thing 
for them. They are constantly being 
showered by sand and dust from the 
drive wheels, and if their surfaces are wet 
with oil or other lubricant, practically all 
of the sand falling upon them sticks and 
is retained on their surface. This is 
crushed between the teeth of the gears and 
mixed into a first-class grinding paste; 
valves are ground with a very similar ma¬ 
terial. On the other hand, if they are 
left dry a portion of this grit will rat¬ 
tle off. 
A ( few years ago the writer helped to 
drive' a small tractor through the Spring’s 
work that was equipped with large cast 
bull gears entirely exposed, as a part of 
the driving mechanism. These were kept 
carefully oiled with waste cylinder oil 
by means of a gravity oil tank with which 
the machine in question was equipped. 
The gears wore very rapidly, and after a 
time a heavy black wagon grease, carry¬ 
ing a good percentage of tar, was substi¬ 
tuted for the oil, but the wear seemed to 
continue as rapidly as ever, due to sand 
particles sticking in the grease.. Unless 
something can be found that will give a 
polished, dry. glazed surface, the gears 
would better be run absolutely dry. With 
gears running in a protected location it is 
another matter, and,a lubricant is desira- 
are so attached that the chamber floats 
against the wind and remains about verti¬ 
cal to its point of anchorage to the earth. 
Being in metallic contact with the at¬ 
mosphere and the clouds at its upper 
end, and in contact with the earth at its 
lower end, the cable conducts all electric 
energy from the vicinity of the chamber 
before it collects in quantity sufficient to 
make a flash or stroke. If no electric 
energy collects, no discharge can take 
place, hence no lightning flashes in a 
radius equal to the height to which the 
chamber is put up. The sketch explains 
the device. J. e. 
This was submitted to our scientific 
editor, who says the idea is an old one: 
Undoubtedly, if you could get a metal 
balloon, with good electrical connections 
to the ground, to float above your fields, 
all the lightning in the neighborhood 
would be strongly tempted to strike the 
balloon first. But you will find that in 
order to float any length of chain or cable 
it will have to be of such size that, the 
first good wind would tear loose any 
chain that the balloon of that size would 
float, and there you are! 
It is not impossible that some day a 
device of this sort will be used to take 
electricity from the air to be used for 
purposes to which the electric current is 
now applied. 
Perpetual Motion 
I am sending you a rough sketch of my 
idea of perpetual motion. The outline 
consists of one large wheel, a walking 
board at the bottom, and an elevator and 
balls. The idea is to speed up the ele¬ 
vator and the walking board at the bot¬ 
tom that should be supplied with a car¬ 
rier and lugs to take the balls to the ele¬ 
vator, one at a time. As fast as they 
drop off the large wheel the elevator 
should take one ball from bottom of ele¬ 
vator to top, where it is deposited on the 
running board to take its place on t the 
large wheel as each one drops off at the 
bottom. W. o. T. 
Springfield, N. Y. 
The scheme you tell us about is an old 
idea, and will not work on account of the 
friction of the bearings taking up a cer¬ 
tain, if small, amount of energy, which is 
Diagram of Lighting Arrester 
not returned but is wasted, ultimately, as 
heat. This unavoidable loss is the reason 
that none of this class of machine can op¬ 
erate until the laws of the universe have 
been either revised or abolished. 
Cleaning Harness 
Will a little formaldehyde and water 
used to wipe harness keep it free from 
mold? Will used machine oil that con¬ 
tains some cylinder oil make a good har¬ 
ness oil? What can be put in to make 
it black? r. n. o. 
Fulton, N. Y. 
Wiping the harness with formaldehyde 
in water, say one to 10, would certainly 
destroy mold if present, but mold germs 
•Baric 
Sap wood ■ 
■Annual rings 
or yearly growth 
'-Medullary 
rays 
Quarter-sawed board cut 
from log at A'.' Note ike 
annual rings at right 
angles to face of hoard 
and medullary rays 
parallel to face 
Slash sawed board 
from Bl Note warping 
caused by shortening 
of annual rings\ in 
drying ZUffSf 
Method of Sawing Quartered Oak 
sion. But it will add surprisingly to the 
weight of the article, and the thing will 
have to be handled with great care.. If 
the hole can bo located, try forcing in a 
putty-thick paste of good plaster of paris 
with white of egg before you put the ce¬ 
ment jacket on. 
Smoke Balls 
How are “smoke balls” made? C. D. C. 
New York. 
These are sometimes called “Eggs of 
Pharaoh’s Serpents,” and are mercuric 
sulphocyanide made to a very thick paste 
with a little water containing gum tra- 
gacanth or gum arabic, and well dried. 
The fumes are somewhat poisonous, and 
the stuff itself, like most compounds of 
mercury, is decidedly poisonous. 
Protection for Steel-roofed House 
Should a steel-roofed house, with 
cables to the ground from the corners, 
also have points on the chimneys? 
Nicholson, Pa. G. w. H. 
Lightning is so erratic that we certainly 
advise erecting rods several feet above 
each chimney which are soldered to the 
steel roof. Then if you run cables to the 
ground from the corners and put them 
well underground, in earth always damp, 
you have as perfect protection as can be 
given. 
• Farm Mechanics 
Lubricant for Tractor Gearing 
What lubricant should be used on ex¬ 
posed gearing of tractors? I have one 
which is equipped with gravity oiling sys¬ 
tem. but have been told that the gears 
will last longer if kept dry so dirt will 
not stick to the cogs. I have also heard 
of road tar being used, which would form 
a glazed surface on the cogs after being 
run a while. I would like to know what 
experiences others have had. w. A. w. 
Evans Mills, N. Y. 
Tractor gearing should not be exposed, 
and the present designs are being made as 
dust-tight as possible. There are still 
some, however, that get their final drive 
by means of bull gears which are ex¬ 
posed to the action of grit, and in ma¬ 
chines of this kind the bull pinions are 
usually the first parts to fail by wear. 
They wear out before the bull gears do 
because they have fewer teeth or cogs, 
revolve faster and present their teeth to 
able, one having body enough to prevent 
being squeezed from between the teeth by 
the load imposed. 
It may be possible to arrange ui simple 
guard or covering over the gears in ques¬ 
tion which will increase their wear and 
life very much. A study of your machine 
will show you whether it is possible to 
make and install such coverings or not. 
B. H. S. 
Sawing Quartered Oak 
Would you give directions for sawing 
oak logs into quartered boards? Wc have 
some that I wish to have sawed, and our 
sawyer does not understand how. 
W. A. P. 
Quarter-sawed lumber may be cut by 
first sawing the log iu quarters length¬ 
wise and then placing those quarters on 
the saw carriage with the bark or rounded 
side down and sawing them into boards. 
As will be noted from the sketch, this 
cuts the log so that the annual rings ex¬ 
tend across the board parallel to its least 
dimension thickness, while iu the slash- 
sawed lumber, also shown in the. sketch, 
only the boards cut from the middle of 
the log have this characteristic. 
Quarter-sawed lumber has many ad¬ 
vantages over the ordinary slash-sawed 
stock. The shrinkage of lumber takes 
place ■ almost entirely along the annual 
rings or layers of growth laid down each 
year by the tree. As the lumber dries 
from the green state this ring tends to 
shorten, making the board narrower, and 
also tending to warp it, the concave side 
being the side that was formerly outward 
in the tree trunk. Now if the lumber can 
be so sawed that these rings extend across 
the thickness of the board rather than its 
width the shrinkage will be in thickness 
rather than width, and warping will he 
largely eliminated. Also iu most woods 
the edge of the grain presented iu quar¬ 
ter-sawed stock will stand wear much 
better, and will not sliver up. Advan¬ 
tage is taken of this fact in the manu¬ 
facture of North Carolina pine flooring, 
only in this case it is termed “edge 
grain.” “vertical grain” or “comb 
grained” i-ather thau quarter-sawed, al¬ 
though the effect is the same. 
Another reason for quarter-sawing that 
applies particularly to oak is the beauty 
of the lumber secured. There are certain 
medullary rays that radiate out from the 
heart of an oak tree much like the spokes 
of a wheel. These run at. almost right 
angles to the annual rings, and conse¬ 
quently are exposed in quarter-sawed oak 
lumber as a broad flake, giving it its 
peculiar mottled appearance. 
Iu storing valuable lumber before it is 
dry it will help to prevent checking to 
881 
paint the ends of the sticks with red lead 
and oil or other material that will seal 
the end pores. Checking is caused by 
the rapid drying at the end. The lumber 
dries more rapidly here thau it does 
farther back in the stick, consequently 
shrinks, and being prevented from nar¬ 
rowing by the part of the stick imme¬ 
diately back of it that has not yet dried 
out and shrunk it is not strong enough 
to resist the tension and splits. R. n. s. 
Waste Disposal from Kitchen Sink 
What is the best way to drain the 
water from a kitchen sink only? At 
present it runs through a short pipe into 
the side yard, where it stands, an unsight¬ 
ly and unsanitary pool. We want some¬ 
thing simple and easy of construction 
that we can do ourselves, if possible. We 
do not wac f make a septic tank unless 
absolutely necessary. What size and 
kind of pipe or tile is required? How far 
from the well, which is a driven one, 22 
ft. deep, is it necessary to carry the waste 
in order not to contaminate the water? 
If carried very far, it would go through 
a space often plowed, so would have to be 
below plow depth. The final disposal at 
the end of the outlet is the part that 
troubles us most. The soil is a gravelly 
loam. The ground is level. The location 
is such that the outlet has to be in full 
view of the highway. G. S. H. 
East Aurora, N. Y. 
A Cornell bulletin, Sanitation Series 
No. 4, describes a small septic tank made 
from a barrel that should meet your con¬ 
ditions nicely. The sink is provided with 
a grease trap, and galvanized iron pipe 
used to carry the waste to the septic 
tank. Where the pipe turns at a right 
angle to go from the cellar to the tank a 
tee provided with a plug should be used 
rather than an elbow to permit a wire to 
to be run through for cleaning purposes 
should the line become plugged. The 
same fitting should be used where the 
sewage enters the tank, and a short piece 
of pipe screwed into the tee to carry the 
discharge below the level of the sewage 
■iu the tank. The outlet from the tauk is 
made from 4-in. tile. A 3-in. tee fitting 
is. used for the outlet from the tank. 
Eight inches is cut from the long end of 
the fitting, and by cutting out the staves 
from the top of the barrel used as a tank 
this tee fitting is hung bell up, so that the 
top of the bell is in. below the top of 
the barrel. The other bell opening of the 
tee is outside of the barrel, and serves as 
a point to which the disposal line is con¬ 
nected. The barrel used may be an ordi¬ 
nary 40-gal. oil or tar barrel, and is 
placed in a round hole in the ground 
about three to four inches deeper than it 
is desired to have the barrel stand when 
finished. ^Concrete is now placed 'in the 
hole to this depth, the barrel placed upon 
it and leveled up, the connections put in 
place and concrete poured around the 
barrel, making a tight tank. A flat stone 
may be used for a top. 
About 25 ft. of ordinary drain tile laid 
with a very slight grade, and with open 
joints, should serve to dispose of the 
waste from this tank in this soil. This 
should he laid in trenches 10 to 12 in. 
deep. If the ground must be plowed over, 
however, these trenches may be made 
deeper, but more tile may be necessary in 
this case. The purpose of this line of 
tile is to permit the sewage from the tank 
to seep off into the surrounding soil, 
where it is acted upon by the soil bao- 
A Perpetual Motion Machine 
terta, and it should distribute it well in 
the upper soil, where they are most 
numerous aud active. 
It is impossible to say what a safe dis¬ 
tance from the well would be, as con¬ 
ditions of soil, slope, etc., have so much to 
do with this that no general rule can be 
laid down. One hundred feet is some¬ 
times given as a “safety distance.” aud 
that is probably more than sufficient 
where a purifying bed is used and the 
ground simply moistened by the sewage 
and not allowed to soak into it to any 
depth. This system being wholly below 
ground, will not disfigure the landscape 
in any way. If the sink is in a cold lo¬ 
cation, 'it would be well to place the trap 
in the cellar to avoid freezing. 
The Coruell bulletin from which this 
material is taken, if not out of print may 
be obtained for the asking, aud describes 
the installation of this tank, as well as 
many other types, in more detail than is 
given here. B. H. 8. 
