1544 
Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 13, 1924 
Radio Department 
How Radio Works 
The aerial and grounding of any radio 
set is that part that has the most to do 
with the proper working of radio. It is 
on that account that we go so much into 
detail and emphasize the necessity of 
putting up your aerial carefully and be¬ 
ing sure that you have a good connection 
to earth. 
The Ground. —The connection to the 
earth is called the ground. This connec¬ 
tion can be made to a rod driven in the 
ground at least 6 ft., but a better plan 
is to use a piece of %-in. pipe, and then 
in very dry weather some water poured 
into the pipe will help make connection 
to damp earth. Your water pipes, steam 
pipes or well casing will -make excellent 
grounds. Where you have any such pipes 
to connect to. the rod or pipe driven in 
to ground. You then can be sure that 
lightning will not come into your set and 
spoil it. 
Connecting Your Set to Ground.— 
Right next to the binding post on your 
set marked “aerial” is another post 
marked “ground” or “earth;” this post 
is connected by copper wire to your 
water-pipe ground inside or outside the 
house, using knobs and tubes for insulat¬ 
ing purposes. 
Soldered Joints. —If you have a sol¬ 
dering iron, or can get one from your 
neighbor, solder all your joints inside 
and outside of the house. Soldered joints 
will mean that you will have a very 
much more quiet working set than -where 
the joints are just twisted together. This 
is especially true where air can get at 
copper wire and cause it to corrode. Poor 
1. It may be dust from ragweed, or 
other weeds in the oats, or it may be 
from the oats; there seem to be few 
plants that are not capable of “poison¬ 
ing” susceptible individuals. A series of 
skin tests to determine what particular 
plant is responsible for your trouble, fol¬ 
lowed by vaccinations over a period of 
several months to immunize you against 
that narticular poison, might protect you, 
but you will probably find it much easier 
and more satisfactory to hire a substi¬ 
tute during oat thrashing, as difficult as 
it is to find substitutes at that time. It 
is possible, too, that a simple face mask 
of gauze in one or several thicknesses 
that would prevent your inhaling the 
dust from thrashing would protect you, 
though that would not be a comfortable 
thing to wear on hot days. If you can 
only manage to be present in spirit, but 
absent, in body when the thrashers come, 
you wdll probably find about the only 
really practical remedy for your trouble. 
2. I know of very few medicines that 
a family should keep on hand for emer¬ 
gencies, the trouble being that it takes 
considerably more knowledge of what any 
particular emergency calls for, if the 
medicine is to be useful, than any mem¬ 
ber of the average family possesses. The 
first essential in intelligent treatment is 
Strain Insulator, Lightning Arrester, Porcelain Knot) and Single Pole Double 
Throw Switch. Above, Copper Ground Clamp 
the earth is not necessary, nor will it 
work as well. 
Parts Necessary for Aerial and 
Ground. —Y'ou will need the following 
parts, and they can be of any make that 
is good: 
75 to 100 ft. of No. 14 copper wire for 
aerial. 
25 to 50 ft. of No. 14 insulated wire 
for lead-in and ground connecting wire. 
Several porcelain or glass insulating 
knobs. 
Pong porcelain tube for lead-in wire to 
pass through wall. 
Lightning arrester. 
One single pole double throw switch. 
Two strain insulators, one for each 
end of aerial wfire. 
Copper ground clamp, for fastening 
ground wire to water pipe. 
Some long screws for fastening knobs 
to wall. 
If you have to pass either your aerial 
or ground lead wire through any wall 
be sure to use a porcelain tube, so that 
the wire will not touch the wall. All 
outside wires where they come near or 
touch the building must be attached to 
insulating knobs. Even in the house 
this is the best manner in which you 
will get better results and protect your 
insurance. 
Look at the Illustration. —Here are 
shown, on the left, a strain insulator, a 
lightning arrester, a porcelain knob and 
a S.P.D.T. (single pole double throw) 
switch. Above these parts is shown a 
ground clamp which is long enough to 
reach around any ordinary-sized pipe or 
rod and below it a long porcelain tube 
for use in the wall of your house. 
Put Them up to Stay. —In installing 
your aerial and ground connections put 
them up to last, so that wind and sleet 
will not break them down, and then they 
will last as long as your radio set. The 
aerial should be fastened to your house¬ 
top or poles with a pulley and rope, so 
that you can put it up or down as you 
wish. 
How to Connect to the Lightning 
Arrester. —The wire that comes from 
your aerial to your radio set, is fastened 
to one end of the lightning arrester and 
then the same wire is run to the middle 
pole, or connection, of the switch, and 
ends there. The other end of the light¬ 
ning arrester is connected to the ground 
with another piece of wire. Nothing else 
to do to it, for now it is on the job all 
the time, and will ground all atmospheric 
electrical charges that may pass from 
your aerial. 
The Use of the Switch. —The switch 
is an additional protection to your set 
and should be used. The aerial lead-in 
wire first came to your lightning arrester 
and then ended at the middle pole of the 
switch. From one of the outside poles 
of the switch run a wire through the por¬ 
celain tube, wiiicli is in your wall, to 
your set, and connect to the binding post 
marked “aerial,” and the other outside 
pole of the switch is connected to the 
ground by a separate wire or the same 
one that you used for the ground connec¬ 
tion on the lightning arrester. This 
switch should be placed just outside a 
window where it can be reached con¬ 
veniently or inside the house near your 
set. To use the switch, you throw '’he 
moving arm over to the side that is con¬ 
nected to your set and when you are 
through listening to a program and are 
going to leave your set for the evening 
or for any length of time throw 7 the 
switch over to the side that is connected 
V 
joints cause a greal deal of crackling 
noise in any radio set, and may even 
cause you to miss altogether a program 
that you could have heard if the joints 
had been well soldered. 
Ready to Listen-in.— When vour set 
*■ • 
is connected to the aerial and ground you 
are ready to listen-in, provided that you 
have the complete set, which means all 
batteries, etc. The complete set we will 
describe in our succeeding articles. 
J. H. F. 
Health Notes 
Itch from Oat Thrashing; 
Household Remedies 
1. Every time I thrash oats I get the 
itch. I have gone to three doctors and 
they do not help me a bit. Personally I 
think, it is the dust of the ragw r eed which 
is in the oats as the day after I thrash 
my face becomes red and itches and burns 
terribly. Can you tell me of anything 
which you believe would help it? 2. 
Could you send me a list of medicines 
which every family should have on hand, 
and the use for which each is intended? 
Central Bridge. N. Y. c. v. L. 
to know 7 exactly what you are treating, 
and medicines of active nature, when mis¬ 
applied, are capable of doing far more 
harm than good. There are some simple, 
but effective, applications that may be 
made externally in case of wounds, how- 
ever, that it w r ould be well for every fam¬ 
ily to be able to make. One of these is 
plain boiled and cooled water. Germs 
that cause infection are carried into 
wounds by dirt; getting rid of dirt, 
therefore, gets rid of a multitude of 
germs. A perfectly safe application, in 
any quantity, to a wrnund of any extent, 
is water that has been boiled to sterilize 
it and then cooled sufficiently for use. 
Pour it into and over a wounded sur¬ 
face until you have made that as clean 
as possible; you may wash out germs 
that would cause severe infection if left 
in place. Dirt is dangerous, get rid of 
it instead of trying to disinfect it. For 
small wounds, after cleansing, the appli¬ 
cation of tincture of iodine is a good 
home germicidal application and one that 
is becoming popular. The surface to 
which it is to be applied should first le 
made dry w 7 ith clean cloths, and any 
cloth that has been freshly washed and 
ironed may be considered clean. Steri¬ 
lized cotton and gauze may now 7 be pur¬ 
chased at any drug store in small pack¬ 
ages and kept, at hand for home dressing 
of wounds, but. in the absence of them, 
clean cotton and linen cloths may be used. 
A deep punctured wound, such as is made 
by a nail, needs more effective disinfect¬ 
ing than can easily be done at home, how- 
ever. After germs are carried deeply into 
the tissues, it is hard to get them out. 
Better trust a doctor to do that, though, 
of course, infection may take place long 
before a doctor can be secured. The 
rusty nail has a bad reputation, and de¬ 
serves it, but it is not the rust on the 
nail that does the harm, it is the germ¬ 
harboring dirt. A bright nail is just as 
dangerous if it carries the same germs 
into the wound. The germs of lockjaw, 
which is particularly feared, live in the 
surface layers of soil and, for that rea¬ 
son are more apt to be found upon the 
nails of old boards on the ground than 
upon the new ones in the nail box. 
M. B. D. 
Skin Disease 
Our boy contracted a skin disease last 
Slimmer which to me looks like ringworm. 
Our family doctor confirmed this. I have 
painted the place with iodine, until, when 
school began, it appeared cured. At the 
end of a week I noticed that he had very 
sore knees, blisters which seemed to open 
and break. This, like the ringworm, is 
not only itching, but gets very painful. 
Not knowing what it was, I tried a white 
salve which doctor had also given for 
treatment of ringworm. The knees began 
to heal, yet I thought it wiser to consult 
the doctor. This new trouble is supposed 
to _ be first cousin to ringw T orm, in the 
opinion of another doctor, as our own 
was out of tow 7 n. I have faithfully paint¬ 
ed and salved since about the end of 
July, and no other encouragement from 
doctor except if I keep right at it I will 
in time succeed. I boil all clothing, even 
his trousers and black stockings, regard¬ 
less of color; also kept him home from 
school for a week, doing all I could. 
Every time I think he is w 7 ell he breaks 
out some other place again. Always it is 
at the shoulder, the knees, the elbows, up 
and down the spine. At present his 
shoulders are healing for the second time ; 
so are his knees, but the base of the 
spine broke out anew, going on down the 
legs towards the knees again. It has 
never touched his face nor the top of his 
head. Doctor insists it is a skin disease 
not caused by the blood. I have also been 
told that ringworm is found in young cat¬ 
tle before they are in milk. Is there an.v- 
ing I can do for my boy, something I 
could put on him ofter a good cleansing 
bath with some kind of medical soap that 
would not only heal but also prevent? 
New York. mbs. p. u. 
“First cousin to ringworm” lacks a lit¬ 
tle in scientific exactness as a medical 
term and doesn’t convey much informa¬ 
tion to the man at a distance. When you 
say ringworm, or tinea circinata, any 
physician knows what you mean, but. 
when you drag in relatives by blood and 
marriage you introduce an element of 
mystery that cannot help but counfound 
the most wise, in which latter class but 
few of us belong, anyway. If your child 
is having repeated attacks of ringworm, 
it is evident that he is being subjected to 
re-infection from some source. You are 
apparently guarding against this infec¬ 
tion from clothing and bedding, but there 
may be some one at school with whom he 
comes in contact who is sharing his para¬ 
sites with him. Has the school been 
looked over for such possible source? 
Perhaps this trouble- from which he is 
now suffering is some form of eczema, not 
a parasitic disease at all. Ringworm of 
the body is not usually a troublesome dis¬ 
ease to dispose of. though that of the 
scalp is pretty obstinate. Your physician 
should know, and probably does. Being 
the only one with opportunity to examine 
the boy, he is the only one competent to 
make a diagnosis, and he seems to feel 
that a cure is only a matter of time, pa¬ 
tience and diligence. I hope that he is 
right and that all of these virtues al¬ 
ready exercised by you are well on their 
way to their reward. m. b. d. 
The Farmer, the Teacher, 
the Preacher 
(Continued from page 1537) 
ed, what else can happen but the end of 
social progress and a return to another 
Dark Age? It is a wise people acting if 
only in the interests of their own self- 
preservation that recognizes the supreme 
worth of this trinity of these noble and 
all-important callings—the farmer, the 
teacher, the preacher. It is a wise people 
that, acting in the interests of their own 
best welfare, that will give to these call¬ 
ings every reasonable and adequate sup¬ 
port. But if these callings be discredited, 
and the resources that should be turned 
into them be diverted into purely selfish 
and materialistic channels—then social 
progress and the sun of humanity’s fair¬ 
est hopes will sink in a night of failure, 
gloom and despair. 
Halfway across the lake on his first 
boating expedition. Rastus noticed quite 
a little water in the bottom of the boat. 
Somewhat agitated, he took his penknife 
and got down on his hands and knees. 
“What you gwine do boy?” asked his 
boating companion. “I’s gwine let some 
of this heah watah out.” explained Ras¬ 
tus, “’foah we gits heavy an’ sinks!”— 
Everybody’s Magazine. 
