Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-04-09

agreeable to tho taste that 1t makes q
good throat spray or mouth and tooth
wash. In addition 1t does not attack
fabrics or tarnish metals.
This happily discovered disinfectant
is In reality sort of liquid soap and Is
made from pine-oil. a by-product from
the manufacture of turpentine. rosin
and household I've. The compound In
its concentrated form is a rather thick
reddish-brown liquid. For use it is di-
luted heavily with water and produces
the milk-white fluid that the public
health service has found SO useful for
general distinction work
~
The relatively recent growth in i'm
portance and popularity of concrete
roads has presented prob
Concrete lens entirely new to road
builders. who for genera
"oooS' lions have been accustomed
different form. The solution Of these
new concrete road problems Is COM
ing to occupy more and more the at
tention Of the once of public roads of
the Department of Agriculture.
Because the use Of concrete surfaces
for draft vehicles is SO new the gov
eminent road experts have found that
it is not even known by engineers
sand and stone in the mixtures at pres
ent in use are the best to give the
desired results. For the lack of better
knowledge. engineers have adopted a
mixture rich in cement, and one OF the
interesting questions now is whether
this is too rich for economy or whether
it should be made still richer At the
same time highway engineers are in
the dark as to whether a better road
will result from Embedded stone-or
aggregate" as 1t Is called-of excep-
tional toughness or of as nearly as
possible the same texture as the ma
trix. or as to whether 1t Is more adj
vantageous to use angular crushed
stone or rounded gravel.
All these questions come down to a
matter Of the wearing quality of the
surface, and 1t is just here that trou-
bles have been encountered. for there
has been no satisfactory way in the
past to determine road wear accurate
ly. Recently, however. A. T. Bo1dbeck,
an engineer of the government office
BILE little device that makes 1t possible
easily to measure wear on concrete
roads even to the nearest one-thou-
sandth of an inch. 1t Is believed that
after a series of observations on roads
constructed of different mixtures of
specihca tons for the best possible con-
crete highways to meet given traffic
conditions.
The instrument which tells the story
fractions of an inch is extremely sim
pie. 1t consists of a specially con-
structed anchor block for one side of
the road. very fine piano wire which
is stretched across the roadway. a
tension block for the other side of the
fri Tod al a
micrometer or measuring instrument
and a "buzzer." Small holes are drilled
in the concrete at the side of the road
at frequent intervals, and in them are
placed bronze plugs incaSed in steel
tubes to serve as accurate stations. A
steel leg Of the anchor block rests on
one of the pairs of plugs. while the
tension block is pivoted on the other.
stretching the threadlike wire at ex-
actly the same tension whenever used
A small steel base Is placed under the
wire at measured points across the
roadway and the little threaded meas
uring device is extended until the buzz
Of the signal indicates that it has
touched the wire. The reading COM
pared with that made for the particular
point on the last occasion shows the
wear.
That cherry pits should be SO nu-
merous anywhere In the country as to
be Of consequence. even
Cherry Pit as nuisance, Is doubt
n1 less news to the aver
age person. Yet the
rapid growth of the fruit pa cking in
dustry has greatly stimulated the pro-
duction of cherries, and at numerous
canneries. the Department of Agricul-
ture finds, considerable item of ex-
pense is the matter of carting off and
getting rid of the little seeds.
The bureau of chemistry of the
Department Of Agriculture has late
ly discovered that there are three
valuable products locked up in cherry
pits and an equal number in the juice
that is now being lost in the seed-ex-
tracing process. There is little rea-
son, therefore. why these two waste
substances should not more than pay
their own way SO great Is the pro-
this country in various preserved
forms that nearly three and half
million pounds of pits accumulate at
the packing plants each season:
In the Department of Agriculture
laboratories In Washington the food
product experts Of the bureau Of
chemistry have made thorough anal
yses of the kernels in cherry pits and
have found that by appropriate treat
ment they will yield two oils. One of
these is fixed" and is practically the
same as almond oil. which is extern
sively used by pharmacist The other
is volatile and practically identical
with the oil of bitter almonds. which,
in addition to use incidentally. is gem
orally used in the manufacture of per-
fumes. favorines and confectionery.
After both of the oils have been ex-
tracted there remains kernel meal
which as a stock food compares very
favorably with soy bean and cotton
seed cake and with the meal from
many other seeds and grains. The
lions also has been studied in the
laboratories and has been manufac-
tured into highly satisfactory table
strip. jelly and alcohol.
1t is estimated that from the pits
now wasted each year there could be
valued at from % to As cents a pound:
more than 5000 pounds Of volatile oil.
worth from SO to S11 pound. and over
$50 tons of meal, worth approximately
$40 a ton. More than 5000 gallons of
pure alcohol. 10000 gallons of strip
from the waste juice. it is estimated.
The chemists who have studied the
possibilities of utilizing cherry by
products are of the opinion that with
present methods 1t would be necessary
to gather together the pits and juice
treat the material prof1tably. They
hone. however. to perfect methods that
will make it profitable for each cannery
of reasonable size to recover its own
by-products.
The bureau of chemistry made earlier
studies of the products obtainable from
the pits of peaches, apricots and
prunes These nroductS are muck the