Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-08-22
Disinfecting Clothes by Steam.

One OF the busiest places in the city,
in case of n serious epidemic OF conta-
gion, would be the ground floor of the
Reception Hospital in East Sixteenth st.
n. j., for there is the new disinfecting
apparatus of the Health Department.
Experiments to ascertain the most prac-
tical method for using heat in the de-
struction of disease germs have been
conducted there since last winter. A
tank of boiler iron, big enough for
dozen men to walk about in at one
time, and having strong iron door at
each end, is the chief part of the APP
paratus. 1t is connected with fur
nace and steam boiler by means of
pipes. The coils of pipes are close to-
gether inside the tank, and there is an
arrangement of stop-cocks by which an
operator can fill the tank with steam or
dry heat at will. Dry air has been
heated to a temperature of nearly 80
degrees inside the tank.
When the apparatus was built the
Health Board expected to be able to
disinfect clothing ana bedding by dry
heat. DIR. Cyrus Edison knew that work
of that kind had been done in Europe
and he was anxious to make trial.
1 he Health Board has been making
liquid disinfectants in the big room
where the tank and boiler were set up.
From a trough. in which water was
passed over copperas, strong solution
of sulphate of iron was obtained, but
it was used chiefly for disinfecting
street cutters and the back yards of
crowded tenement houses. A vile
smelling liquid, made by mixing vitrlol
with dead oil, was used III some tene-
ment houses where the inmates thought
hot diain nj email strnnry tn
be effective. For the fumigation OF
rooms in which there have been cases
of contagious disease the sanitary OIL
cials have used burning sulphur. 1t
was the rule to burn up the bedding
and clothing which had been in con-
tact with smallpox or typhus fever
patients.
DIR. Edison and the Health Commits
sloners believed that the spread of
diphtheria and scarlet fever in the city
might be checked II the department had
means for the better disinfection of
clothing and bedding. 1t was said that
sulphur fumigation could not be de-
pended on for the destruction of the
germs of either disc Ise i'll the clothing
of patients and attendants. AT the
same time the Health Board could not
compel the burning of bedding and
clothing in the hundreds of cases of
| diphtheria and scarlet fever reported
every month. Then there was the pos
sibillty that Asiatic cholera might come
to the city and that the disinfection OF
clothing on large scale might be i'm
perative. 1t was believed that infected
clothing could be placed in the new
tank, subjected TO dry heat for an hour
or so and then removed uninjured and
free from the germs of disease. Ex
periments were begun to ascertain how
many degrees of heat could be employ
ed to kill the germs and yet not destroy
the clothes. The result has been n
change from dry heat TO steam.
1t was found that a few strong ia
brics which were placed in the tank
dry and subjected to dry heat of
about $500, came out purified and COM
paratively unInjured. An expensive
carpet belonging to one of Commits
| sloner Bryant'S friends was ruined by
exposure 10 2S0O of heat in the tank for
two hours. Another carpet, which had
| been left out in the blizzard and was
partly frozen when it was placed in the
tank, was subjected to a like test.
Part OF the carpet was burned up,
while another portion was still frozen
when 1t was removed from the tank.
Subsequent experiments have shown
that roll Of wet cloth may be subject
ed to intense dry heat several hours
| without being disinfected. 1t is be-
lieyed that an envelope OF steam pro-
tects the inner part of the roll from the
heat.
BY injecting live steam into the tank,
DIR. Edson's assistants have been able
to disinfect clothing and bedding at
temperature of about 1900 and the
goods come out OF the tank unhurt, ex-
cept that the colors in some kinds of
cloth are effaced or badly mixed. The
disinfection by steam is rapid and saIis-
factory. Iron cages are being prepar-
ed for the collection and return of bed
ding and clothing. Each cage has a
lock to it, and the owners of clothing
can keep the key while the goods are
being disinfected. The work is done
by the Health Department free of
charge.