Evening star., 1926-05-23

used also in California, Ohio. Penn
sylvania and other States.
While the practice of measuring
gasoline by "f1ow meter" is not so
prevalent in this part Of the country
as it is farther West. the inspectors
constantly are on guard against faulty
meters. In this type OF measuring de-
vice the flow of gasoline through a
special metering mechanism operates
a dial on a meter attached to the
| pump. Experts are not sure that
| these meters are accurate, and it has
been found that some of them will
register not only the flow OF gasoline,
but the flow of good old American free
air. This is hardly fair to the motor
! ISL it is believed.
x X y
EEvER, while not classifiable as n
commodity" is nevertheless some
| thing taht requires accurate meas
! uring. The slightest variation of q
degree In the temperature of a patient
may be a matter of life or death. If
q thermometer should register a tenn
perature higher than that actually
| affecting the patient. undue alarm
may be caused and improper meth
DDS of treatment hurriedly resorted to,
| perhaps to the injury of the person
| column of mercury should lag in re-
| porting a patients actual condition.
attending physicians might be lulled
| into state of complaCency extremely
harmful for the one being examined.
The Bureau of Standards yearly
tests thousands of clinical sthermom-
eters for the manufacturers prior to
| their entry into the marts of trade.
| Each instrument so tested and found
| true is marked to that effect. Thou
sands Of thermometers sent broad
cast throughout the country have not
been so tested, however. The danger
of such a practice is apparent to the
medical profession, and Senator Cope
| land of New York. himself a ply
sician. has attempted to have adopted
regulatory laws governing the sale Of
| clinical thermometers. He has intro
duced two bills in this connection, one
requiring that all clinical thermom-
| eters be tested, and the other provid-
ing for a licensing system to permit
manufacturers to test their own prod
ucts under Federal supervision. Both
| bills have been heard in committee,
but have not been acted upon by Con-
gress. The various proposals regard.
ing this Federal regulation will be dis
cussed in detail at the conference this
week.
| The troublesome question Of what "a
package" is has bothered officials for
years. The net weight amendment to
the pure food law requires that the
weight of the net contents he stamped
on all food packages. No such a law
can be invoked by the inspectors with
regard to shoeblacking, paint or
thousand and one other common
household commodities. Buying such
|
buying pig in a. poke" Packaged
goods vary in size of container and
in amount of contents. to say nothing
of quality. Two bottles of the same
outer dimensions may hold widely
different quantities of liquid, due to
| thick walls, false bottoms and so on.
The general trend of weights and
mea sures experts is to encourage ex-
tension of the net weight law to cover
all commodities. There being no Fed
eral law of so broad a scope, the
States have been devoid of a model to
guide them in adopting State regula-
tions. as was done in the case of the
net weight provision Of the pure food
law. The movement to secure Federal
| legislation of this character will be
thoroughly gone into by the assembled
delegates
THE Ice cream problem is one of out
standing importance at this time.
| There appear to be widely divergent
views among officials as to whether
| ice cream should be sold by weight
or by measure. Many interesting fac
| tors are involved in a discussion of the
| subject, which was taken up in earn
est about a year ago after ice cream
| retailers had protested that the tooth
some desert had a. bad habit of shrink
ing. 1--WE buy 8 gallons Of cream"
they walled, but we are only able to
sell about gallons or So
At the time it was proposed that all
ice cream be sold by weight This
| suggestion met, with strong disap-
proval on the part of the manufactur-
ers, who pointed out that this would
involve added labor and increased eX-
pense to the consumer. The house
wife. they claimed, does not want to
buy ice cream by weight. anyhow.
She wants to purchase a, definite guam.
tfty-suff1cient to fill a certain num-
ber of plates, and she is not particu.
larly concerned about how much it
weighs.
| Furthermore, it was declared that
various brands and kinds Of ice cream
weigh more than others, due to the
| consistency and the whipping pro.
cesses used, and that whereas a pound
| Of ice cream one day might produce
six plates, the same amount tomorrow
might fill only five.
The question finally revolved itself
around the amount Of air in ice cream.
Those who claimed they did not want
to pay for air were answered by the
manufacturers with the statement
| that but for the air content, ice cream
I would be nothing more than frozen
milk and cream, properly sweetened.
1t would not possess that fluffy tex
expert even declared that. 1t is the
air in ice cream that serves as a cush.
ion to prevent the cold from causing
the familiar pain between the eyes
that comes from eating the. cream too