The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-10-13
MOOD OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

lowering the cost of production and raised the
yield TO such a point that the Introduction of this
alcohol as a motor fuel seems likely, particularly
with gasoline going up as it has been. AS Mark
Twain said, What chance has prohibition when
a man can take a ripsaw and get drunk on a fence
rail or drink the legs off the kitchen. table?"
Western larch has an unusually high percent
age Of %galaCtan, which it is believed can be con-
verified into a fermentable sugar for use in making
grain alcohol. This sam galactan in oxidation
yields large quantities of muric acid, and muric
acid can take the place of tartaric acid in the
manufacture of baking powder. A number of lun-
bermen recently visited the laboratory and one OF
the chemists made baking powder from wood, and
his wife made biscuit with it. Another advance is
the preparation of a fine, sweet strip from galac-
tose, a sugar derived from g~alactan. So If the
people of Montana, the home of the Western larch,
get hard pressed they can make their fapjacks
with larch baking powder, bake them over a
stove heated with larch alcohol and sweeten them
with larch strip.
Converting cellulose obtained from wood into a
gelatinous material known as a viscose opens up
another field for research and adds a new line of
products running all the way from sausage cas-
ings to tapestry. Five million dollars worth Of
silk socks sold last year got their silk from wood,
as did many silk neckties and fancy braids. Prob
ably it won't be long before the whims of the silk
worm will have little control over silk market con-
ditiOns.
Kraft paper Is made from s%ulphate pulp, and
the method of making it came to this country
from Sweden ten years ago. Kraft is much
stronger than other papers. 1t is brown, like what
we usually think of as wrapping paper. Large
quantities of 1t are used for that purpose and 1t
is particularly suitable for large envelopes. Kraft
is used for book covers, for imitation leather and
for cardboard ~suitcases. An attempt is being
made to produce a paper Irvine that will replace
the binder twines now made from imported
hbers. This question has become more active be-
cause of the recent shortage of these other fbers
on account of the conditions south of us. A sue
cessful paper substitute would provide for the
utilization of n large amount of wood waste and
at the same time build up a home industry indie
pendent of foreign raw materials.
The problems put up to the laboratory to solve
are many and complex. One man in the frog bust
ness was suffering heavy losses from the death Of
his tadpoles. He asked the laboratory to find out
if there was anything in the wood which when
washed out poisoned the tadpoles.
The government chemists undertook to study
the matter. They could not locate the trouble, so
1t was put up to the section of timber tests. After
a few experiments it was found that the resonant
croaking of the large frogs produced vibrations in
the boards of the tanks. The vibrations were
transmitted through the water to tine ganglia of
the tadpOles Uhey have no brains), causing a dis.
ease somewhat akin 10 infantile paralysis.
The remedy was simple. The man was advised
to separate his tadpoles from his large frogs, thus
combining the vibrations to the older generations
This was done and the mortality among the tad
poles decreased wonderfully.