New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-24
Some Practical Applications
of Science in Wadleigh
High School.

IL canned peas become drug on the
market, and pink candies waste their sweet
ness on the dusty counters OF Harlem con-
fectionery shops, If the sale Of headache
powders and patent medicine falls on so
that the pharmacists go into bankruptcy
IL will all be the doing of a quiet little
woman in Wadleigh High School This is
Miss Elsie NJ. Kupfer. teacher OF biology
who has succeeded this last year In making
the connection between higher education
and the kitchen.
Time was when biology was numbered
among the fads and frills," Miss Kupfer
explained to The Tribune reporter, but
now 1t is recognized as one Of the abso'
Iutely essential studies. English and biol
ogy are the two subjects now required Tor
freshmen in the high school.
Biology Is the centre from which radiate
almost all other interests. Hygiene and
physiology are understood better when the
student has seen the structure OF animal
organisms. We study the frog here IN
Wadleigh. Then the study Of germs brings
US TO the subject of pure food and milk,
which leads us to both chemistry and the
sciences, and to current events and poll
tics"
If Miss Kupfer's class in germs has not
been the most popular in Wadleigh Hlgh
School during the year which Is closing,
1t is not because things have not hap
pencd there. Witness the day when the
girls saw a knitting needle get Itself copper
plated right before their very eyes. In
dish OF French peas. Maybe those daugh-
ters won't sniff suspiciously at the next
green peas which come out Of can for
Sunday dinner! If they are too green TO
satisfy her taste. the Wadleigh Hlgn
School girl orders a halt In the culinary
operations until she has passed on the
question whether those peas are tainted WIN
copper sulphate. It's perfectly simple. she
did il at school, you see. She demands
granny's knitting needle, then mashes
few OF the peas, adds little acid' and
10! the acid frees the copper and the
knitting needle IS quickly coated with the
telI-tale deposit. Into the garbage with
those peas!
Another lesson in the WadleIgh labora-
tories was even more exciting The girls
learned how TO detect bad meat, which
sometimes finds its way into Hamburg
steak and sausages They boiled sausage
which was under suspicion. There was no
perceptible odor, 80 further tests were in
order The sausage was cut open, and
little lime water added. Then there was
an odor, an extremely perceptible odor,
such that tho girls fed the room, and one
Of them lost her breakfast on the way.
The cheap jelles and candies, especially
Jelly beans" and Easter eggs came in for
their share Of inspection, and were not
found wanting in foreign dyestuffs. The
method Of II was this: The jelly was boiled
with a little water and then b't OF pure
white wool was dipped in the liquid. II
came out stained a deep red, OF course out
this might be a pure fruit stain. IL was
treated with ammonia and proved not TO
be a fruit stain. because IL came out.
one little bit OF wool the girls dyed AS red
ms red could be" from just one wee little
Easter egg-the kind their small brothers
liked best.
Alum in -four was detected by the appn-
cation Of logwood. which caused II 10 turn
purple. Logwood, Miss Kupfer noted, Is
the only material in all these experiments
which the girls could not easily have on
hand in their own kitchens.
They learned to detect chicory in ground
coffee by dropping some into a cup OF water
and seeing the chicory sink. This expert
mcnt was tried with the expensive as well
as ;he cheap cofrees, with the same re-
suits. 50 that the moral learned here was
always buy your coffee IN the beam
They learned to detect sand I'm sugar
simply by dissolvlng the sugar in hot
water; II the sugar didn't dissolve It was
sand Glucose in syrups and jellies was
detected by the addition OF alcohol. when
the girls saw a thick white precipitate
form. Glucose they were reminded wasn't