The Washington times., 1901-11-17

ing material which defed detection tC
the very end. So the secret of the man
ufacture of that particular composition
| billiard ball still defies science.
{ One of the hardest conundrums pro
J posed to these chemists was a commits
! sion to discover a process by which
/ paper could be manufactured that
should be both fireproof and water
| proof.
/ The contract which the embryo com
/ pany drew up with the chemists was
! one that seemed at first impossible OF
| fulfllment There were many fireproof
| papers on the market at that time, but
none was waterproof There was also
mr h waterproof paper on the market,
but lone of il was firep, oof To add to
the difficulty, every known chemical
that could be used to make the paper
aterproof-resinous sub stances-would
tend to increase its .nnammability
Also. every known chemical that could
be applied to make the paper fireproof
would destroy its ability to resist
water. That particular contract was
never quite filled, the chemists claim
ed. They succeeded in making the paper
so waterproof that bag of it held sew
eral gallons of water several days with
out leaking, and they made the same
paper so iireproof that when held in a
strong flame of a Bunsen burner-one
of the strongest flames known-the
paper simply charred and crumpled up
after a time There was no flame as
the paper burned Nothing that indi
Gated combustion except the steady
charring tina; began only after the
paper had been held in the fame for
over a minute. But If the chemists
were not satisfied with the work from
scientific point of view, the officers Oh
the company were They claimed that
for all practical purposes the paper
would answer just as well as if 1t were
as perfectly freproof as theory could
wish it. The amount paid for the secret
was $10,50O.
Another case that came to the labora-
tory was that of very valuable set
ter which, it was suspected, had been
poisoned. The dog had suddenly be-
come seriously i'll and had died at the
a
charged employe was suspected of
poisoning the animal and the owner
wanted to send the man to prison. If
possible. The body of the dead animal
was sent to the laboratory, and upon
being cut open it was found that Lady
Grey had swallowed Il champagne cork
that had lodged in the intesines and
killed her.
A Western produce firm shipped a
hogshead Of eggs to a pie baking con
cern. The eggs arrived in too adj
vanced state Of decomposition for use
even for pies The pie bakers claimed
The eggs were spoiled before they were
shipped. The matter threatened to get
into court and the pie concern hired
the chemists to determine whether the
shipper had acted honestly or not
There were no known tests by which
the point could be determined. Moth
ing remained for the chemists except |
TO launch int the regions of the un- |
known and 10 experiment with eggs of !
various known stages OF freshness and |
decay. Here came al unsuspected diff |
fculLy.
In all Washington the chemist could !
not find single egg that was decayed. !
de needed decayed esgs to base his ex-
periments upon Not dealer would |
admit that he had rotten egg in the |
place. One market after another was
searched, but in vein. Then the chem
st discovered that his search was fruit
less because he was suspected of being
an agent for the board of health. In
The end the eggs were procured from
farmer After six weeks work IL was