The Washington times., 1913-10-12
WOMAN OFFICIAL
]. s. TEA TESTER
Dr.. E. Alberta Reed, at Bureau
of Chemistry, Solved Prob
lem For Specialists.

When Mrs. Average Housewife buys
q pound of rtca, she asks for her favor
ite brand and lets it go a that.
She knows there is a subtle distinc-
ton between green tea and black tea.
and catering to hubbys taste she orders
the five o'clGsk beverage best calculated
TO preserve domestic tranquility.
Ot IT'S authorship. ownership. origin
or kind she doesn't particularly concern
herself II she even looks for a pure
iood label she's an exception.
But just the same. Uncle Samuel is
looking after her interests
Of the thousands of pounds of tea i'm
ported annually. the Government keeps
a strict tab
Whether hohea. young hyson. gun
ro"der or l'ekoe Uncle Sam must have
a taste of IT before ii goes to Mr.. TIT
maie Consumer. if it is imported
FROM the time dealers were first sls-
petted of adding foreign substances TO
their product, the matter of tea testing
has been matter of great expense,
LABORATORIES containing instruments and
ChenlCaiS, to say nothing of the Sa Ia ripS
OF chemists and their assistants. were
maintained for the purpoS, of detect
ing the aduteraIion
Then somebody with the voice of an
thority walked up TO the fact that the
antiquated methods were loo cumber-
some.
Woman Found 1t.
So the department asked the tea ex-
perts III the bureau of chemistry to de-
Vote part of each day toward finding
shorter process.
= WOMAN was the FIRST to find it.
LII. r. Alberta Reed, one of the micro
ANALYSTS. was the discovered. and with
onIy the simple equipment that a house
wife might use.
IT consists only of n fne-meshed sieve
70
a knife blade "
Dr. Read is the only woman in the
SGoNeThlnent service who ever really
discovered anything of real economic
NdIue' is The way one of the officials
of the Department of Agrjculture do
scrlbeS her. Dr. Read is quite modest |
about her achievements however.
she was surrounded by her scales. |
her beakers. and other paraphernalIa !
when l found her in the micro-chemicaI
laboratory. Packages of raisins were
undergoing her careful scrutiny for
tea is only one of the many products
winch go to the food laboratory for ex-
animation. We make all kinds of
food tests here. you sec" she explained
and tea is one of the least of our
worries
-, But the tea test is quite simple"
with the tea sifted through it, Then,
with spatula or n knife blade the
particles are pressed on white paper
ht IoTelSn matter adhereS to the pa !
per, and IT is readily discovered by the
naked eye
Here she took down a portfolio from
one of the cabinets Here are the
traces of tea adulteTation," she said !
pointing to the tell-talc blue spots
which loomed up conspicuously. J
Took Several Weeks.
''1t took me several weeks to work il
out" she remarked The process has
the advantage of being cheap, easily
manipulated and quickly done, all i'm
portant elements in research work.
For years, even since the Govern
ment suspected that imported tea was
'doctored,' elaborate methods of testing
il were in use. 1t cost Uncle Sam a !
pretty penny each year to keep watch
on INSCRIPTIONS dealers, and the chem
ical methods We're found to be expensive
and slow. Then micro-analysts began
TO work for the shortest method. l
happened to be the first TO reach a So
luton
DIR. Read has been in the service of
the Government for six years. She is
the holder of four degrees. A. b, NJ. A.
Phi. D., and NJ. d. She was instructor
in histology at Cornell, from which she
Is graduate
She doesn't regard her recent inven-
ton seriously. even though her asso-
ciates say that it will prove an impor-
tant factor in the tea industry for
years TO come.
1T was simply part of the days
work" she says. EDITH LOBERT.