Evening star., 1938-10-23

geries that defy other means of ink eXanina-
ton. Once the convict is jailed, the lamp may
make him marked man. A temporarily in
deble brand on his brow will advertise him
if he escapes. The mark will fade in four
months, so that the treatments can be dis
continued toward the end of his term.
This lamp won't be on the market for
general use for some years probably, not
until we're sure it's fooproof.' Mr. Hibben
said In the meantime we're glad to make
it available to science, hoping at least it will
be useful to medicine and surgery.
Dr. Rentschler pointed to his office ceiling
where slender glass tube gave soft blush
light There's another ultraviolet lamp.
sort of father of this little fellow with the
thin window he remarked. 1T S the Steri-
lamp, now in practical use for killing bacteria
in the air or on the surface of inanimate OBJ
jects like dishes 1t isn't strong enough for the
job on living tissue. but it gave us the idea.
What the lamp with the thin window
promises to do for medicine. said DR.. Rent
schler. the Sterilamp is already doing in the
preventive field.
We've proved we can kill bacteria in air
and on exposed surfaces with the Sterilamp,'
he said. But the virus, also disease cause,
is harder problem. We're experimenting
now to see if this lamp will kill the virus of
common colds Perhaps we have here the
complete answer to ages of search for sterile
air. sterile food, sterile liquids and sterile
surfaces.
This Steriamp uses only about as much
electricity as a Christmas-tree bulb. Yet,
within distance of four inches it will kill
IS per cent of the typhoid germs in clear
water in about eight seconds.
A septic-sore-throat epidemic in the New
York area was traced last year to soft drink
stand in railroad terminal. In two days it
had spread to several towns. DR.. Rentschler's
staff studied public places in those towns.
On each cleaned glass" in one eating place
they found thousands of colonies of microbes.
They put Sterilamps under the counter where
the dishes were washed and reduced the
germs to an average of three to seven colonies
a glass Common STERILE washing fluids
were shown up. In one beer parlor. glasses
before washing had only "a bacteria colonies
each on the average. They had so, 100 apiece
after dousing in mixture of water and
chlorine That rinsing solution itself held
5000 bacteria to the cubic centimeter. At
Grade A dairy barn. test plate caught $50
bacteria colonies. This dropped to three with
Sterilamps on the job. There were 100000
to each gram of meat in one meat market.
The number was cut to 5000 by a lamp in the
refrigerator. Chopped meat. that would keep
only short time on ice before. now lasted
several weeks in perfect condition at ten
degrees higher temperature and a large saving
in ice.
A year ago. the experimenters picked the
little town of Suffern, N Y. as municipal
test tube and conducted six-months' study
of how to fight bacteria with lamps under
ordinary conditions in an average community.
a popular diner put a lamp over the dish
washing and drying tray and kept its dishes
medically clean. A meat market installed
them in its display case and
refrigerators. The rays not
only checked spelling of the
meat but the higher tempera-
lures they permitted reduced
the drying out process, and the
meat retained its freshness
several days.
A model dairy farm near
town tried the lamp in its COW