The evening times., 1899-03-23
LOCKED UP Ten DAYS
In An AIR-TIGHq BOX
A Voluntary Prisoner for the
Sake of Scitnce.
Assists in Experiments for Testing
Human Endurance.
Energies From His Close Quarters
Not Much the Worse for His
Confinement.

Middletown, Conn, March 23.-Emtl Os-
terberg, for ten days voluntary inmate
of scientific prison, was released yester-
day morning, none the worse for his sac
rifce in the interests of scientific expert
mentation. janitor in Wesleyan Univer-
sity, he is well educated and has been of
great assistance in making Prof. w. o. At
waters experiments successful.
Prof. Atwater has explained the object
of these experiments thus: ITO ascertain
the ways in which food is used in the
body and the kinds and amounts best suit
ed to individuals of different classes and
necessary TO devise accurate methods of de-
termining the total income and outgo of
material and energy in the organism
These last experiments have been of a
special character. Osterberg's food was
especially rich in starch and sugar. Every
thing given him, including food water,
fresh clothing, papers TO read, books TO
peruse, was carefully weighed. His tenn
perature was recorded at regular intervals.
The very air he breathed was measured
and analyZed.
The articles given 10 him to eat were
selected, not for his particular benefit, or
TO please his palate, but wholly in the in
terest of science 20 show how much heat,
force or life principle could be obtained
from various articles of food, such as milk,
eggs, beef. and other things supposed to
sustain life; also liquids, water, alcoholic
drinks, and the like.
AS Osterberg has been imprisoned for the
benefit of science in the machine techni-
cally called the respiration calorimeter"
many times during four or five years, he
knows exactly what is expected of him.
and he has proved a willing, docile sub
ject.
This last Imprisonment of nearly ten
days is said to be the longest on record.
Although a strong. healthy man, he was
little dazed when he came out of the
box little sluggish, and he did not move
around with noticeable celebrity until an
hour or more had passed. but he soon re-
covered his elasticity.
He said he had been we'll treated, pro-
vided with a telephone and could COM
municate with the professors and the at
tendants frequently.
Osterberg was allowed to write letters
and take all the exercise that the limited
dimensions of his scientific prison would
allow. When he wanted a drink of water
the fluid was deposited in a tube, the COW
er screwed on, the air exhausted to a GER
tain extent, all connection with the out
side atmosphere being cut off.
When this was accomplished the inmate
had TO only open little door on the out
side end of the tube and take out his
drink OF water, his beefsteak, his newspa-
per, and his volume of Robinson Cru
soe,' without the act effecting the tenn
perature or the air inside
Here is the programme of the daily rou-
tine which Osterberg has followed for the
sake of science and his professors:
a m.-Rise Weigh self, stripped and dressed.
7:i5 a m.-Breakfast. Weigh self
500 a. m.-Begin work.
1920 a. m.-Ten minutes rest.
1890 a m.-Weigh self. Drink 200 grammes
water.
1880 p. m.-stop work.
] p. m.-Weigh self.
lis p. m.-Dinner. Drink 200 srsmmes wa
1850 p. m.-Besin work.
$50 p m.--Ten minutes rest.
p. m.-Weigh self Drink 200 grsmmes water.
p. m.-Stop work Weigh self.
$3.50 p. m.-Supper. Change undeIclothing.
Weigh self stripped and dressed.
10 p. m.-weigh self. Drink 200 grsInmes wa
ter and retire.
The chamber in which this scientific
janitor spent his nine and half days is
about seven feet long, four feet wide, and
seven feet high. II consists Of three cham-
bers or boxes, the two outer ones being of
wood and the inside box of metal The
outer covering is of zinc and the inner of
sheet copper The front opening is used
as a window and also a door for exit and
entrance by the prisoner of science.
This scientific testing chamber is the re-
suit of many years of experiment and
study. II is a great improvement on the
original calorimeter used in Germany by
the scientists of the Leipsic and other uni
versities. AS Prof Atwater is the origina-
tor in America OF these experiments, he
is admitted to be entitled to much credit
for the data he has obtained from year TO
year in his Investigations. He was origi-
nally connected with the scientific school
at Yale. Later. on a more extended scale
he began experiments at his present sta
tion. the laboratory of the Wesleyan Uni
versity. in Middletown.
His achievements have been so marked
as to attract the attention of the Smith
sonian Institution and the Agricultural De-
partment of the Government The result
was an invitation to begin the establish
ment of series of experiment stations"
on the German plan, which Prof Atwater
was able to carry-on for the Government
with extraordinary success.
Prof Atwater is the Government agent
in charge of the experiment station. He
has large correspondence with scientific
men and societies in different parts of the
world. His Investigations in the labora-
tory, aside from the Government expert
ments, are of broad, comprehensive, orr
ginal and radical character, and considered
of great Importance to the six or seven
hundred young men and women students
receiving the benefit of these researches.