Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1912-12-12
TRACED TO ACCIDENT
Valuable Discoveries Not Always.
Result of Thought.
History Records Many Cases Who're
Mere Chance Has Directed Groper :
After Improve vements to Pursue
tho Proper Course.

1t is repetitive history that many a
person who has spent hours upon
hours upon combining and recombin.
Ing the factors of his problem, has had
the solution thrust upon his attention
by some casualty of daily life. Such
occurrences are the spice of research
and lead on many weary investi-
gator In hard and exacting labor. Here
is the field where the trained observ-
er has all the advantage. For how
many fortunes may never have been
realized only because no one had eyes
to behold the revelation
In our own time every beet-sugar
factory was confronted with these
two problems How most cheaply to
move the beets from the storage
sheds to the slicers; and how to
cleanse the beets from the dirt, small
stones, and rubbish carried from the
earth silos. A German factory hap
pened to have considerable quantity
of beets piled alongside an open drain.
A very heavy rainstorm came on, and
when 1t was over it was found that the
beets had not only been carried to the
very door of the factory, but were
cleaned as we'll From that time on
every factory has flushed Its beets
along pipe from storage to plant and
saved money by combining the two
operations Of transportation and wash.
ing
Thomas Kingsford discovered the
process Of making starch from Indian
corn by chance Starch could be made
from potatoes and from wheat, but 1t
had always been found impossible to
separate cornstarch from the accom-
panying gluten The wheat starch
methods did not answer. Kingsford
was mechanic working long hours.
and all his experiments were made In
his own kitchen with his wife's pans,
tubs, and buckets as his laboratory
utensils
The unsatisfactory result of one OF
his eXperiments-a mush Of cornmeal
and water-he disgustedly threw into
garbage tub. A little later his wife
threw into the same tub some lye
emptying the tub the next day, Kings
ford was surprised to find a small
amount of fairly pure starch at the
bottom. His wife fortunately remem-
bered throwing in the lye. and thus
the basic principle was discovered
Kingsford soon worked out a practical
process for making cornstarch com
mercially, and made great fortune.
In l742, Thomas Bolsover. me.
chanic, Of Sheffield discovered the art
of silver-plating He was repairing
the handle Of a krife In which both
copper and silver were used Acct
dentally the two metals were fused
together. Based upon this observation
he developed the new process Upon
a thick ingot OF copper he bound by
iron wire a thinner ingot OF silver
The whole was then heated In re-
verberatory furnace until the edges OF
the silver ingot were observed to be-
gin to melt. The two ingots were
then removed from the furnace, slowly
cooled and picked, cleaned and rolled
to the desired thickness. The result
was a plate OF copper more OF less
thinly covered with silver on one side.
This was the first Sheffield plate. For
fifty years following, the copper was
plated on one side only. and the cut
edges showed the copper. Later, the
process was 80 perfected that no cop
per was left exposed. All the silver
plate OF the world was made by this
process, until electroplating was dis
covered and made commercial.