St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-12-12
APPLIED SCIENCE.

ar 1AxGO ONxENNGs
Aema rk able Developments of Elcc'
stricity I'm Avenues of Conn
mcrcial Usefulness.
A new application Of electricity, anc
one which is interesting from its very
originality, is seen in process for de-
tecting and determining the dilutior
of wine with water, writes Henry
Harrison Suplee in the Forum. 1t is
a we'll known trick of the trade to ado
to certain wines as much water as
they will stand; and the difficulty OF
proving the adulteration, with the cost
of the necessary chemical analysis to
determine the percentage OF water
which has been added, renders this
trade deception a difficult matter for
the authorities to handle In recent
communication to the French acad-
envy, M Maneuvrier describes meth
cd of measuring the extent of adulter-
alton by the electrical conductivity, or
rather by the resistance. Experiments
have shown that the resistance of
fered by a given wine in its natural
state to the passage of an electrical
current is very nearly constant, while
this resistance is very greatly in
creased by the addition of water. 1t
is, therefore, only necessary to COM
pare the electrical resistance of sus-
pected sample with one Of known. pur-
tn 1afa ho question
BY comparing number of specimens
to which known percentages of water
have been added, it is possible to con-
st.'uct a curve of resistance which will
make possible an immediate Quanrtra-
tive determi nation of the amount OF
water which has been added.
From the testing of the purity OF
wines to the destruction of the germs
of disease is somewhat OF a leap in
considering the work OF the er=ssineer;
but it serves only to show the increas-
ing scope of that work. The use OF
steam to sterilize infected clothing and
materials has been tried repeatedly,
and usually success has attended the
attempts; but there are certain fea-
lures about the use OF steam for this
purpose which until recently have been
but imperfectly understood. Assum-
ing, quite correctly, that the steril!zing
effect of steam was due to the heat, it
has been supposed that the greater
heat carried by the superheated steam
would render it more effective for this
purpose than saturated steam, such as
is supplied by an ordinary steam boil
er. Experience, however, has shown
that the best results are attained when
the steam is slightly moist. and that
steam, in spite Of its high
er temperature, is not SO effective.
The. recent experiments made at the
government institute at Hamburg
have shown that the saturated steam
penetrates more thoroughly into the
pores and interstices of the fabrics to
be treated than Is possible either with
highly heated dry air or with super
heated steam. It appears that the
power OF the steam Is as
sisted by the partial condensation of
the first portion which enters the in
terstices Of the materials; this aiding
in the removal Of the entrapped air,
and permitting the subsequent flow of
steam to come into intimate contact
with every portion of the infected ar
ticles. It has been fully demonstrated
that such articles as bedding, blan-
kets, heavy clothing and the like, may
be completely sterilized and disinfect-
ed by exposure in closed chamber
to current of saturated steam for a
period of about 80 minutes. Various
forms of sterilizing cham
bers have been designed for conduct
Ing the operations rapidly and effec-.
lively on a large scale; and the i'm
portance of the subject is leading gov
ernments and bodies having control OF
large numbers of men to consider this
as an important detail in the work OF
the sanitary engineer.