Image provided by: Independence Public Library; Independence, OR
About The Polk County post. (Independence, Or.) 1918-19?? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1920)
HEAVY LOSS OF SUGAR STOPPED Chemists Perfect Process of Protecting Raw Product From Mold and Bacteria. PREY ON SWEETENING FACTOR A t Least $1,500,000 Worth of Sugar Destroyed Yearly by Tiny, Greedy Organisms— 70,000,000 Pounds Is Estimate. Chicago, 111.— More sugar w ill be available fo r everybody through the discovery of u process of keeping It from being injured by molds and bac teria. Fully one per cent o f the Cuban crop, or about 70,000,000 pounds of sugur a year and worth ut least $1.50T,- 000, It Is estimated, has been destroyed by the tiny, greedy organisms which compete with the sweet tooth of man kind. As the per capita consumption o f sugur in the United States is ap proximately 81.84 pounds annually the amount hitherto consumed by the 873,000 persons for u twelve month period. This would keep the sugur bowls o f a large city full. Counting each fam ily us live persons, 175,000 of such groups could be kept sweet tem pered during this period from the supply which has been wasted by the Invisible hordes. Mr. Nicholas Kopeloff and Mrs. L il lian KopelofT, bacteriologist and as sistant bacteriologist at the Louisiana sugar experiment station in New Or leans, and members of the American Chemical society, have just completed a bulletin on the method o f prevent ing the molds and bacteria from wrest ing sweet solace o f the beet and cane from mortals. Loses Sweetness. Sugar loses its sweetness because molds consume the sucrose, which is its sweetening factor. Although the nmount thus lost may be only a frac tion o f one per cent, and far too slight to be detected by the senses o f taste or smell in many cases, it is easily deterndued by the polariscope, an in strument especially designed for measuring the amouut o f sucrose pres ent. When sugar deteriorates not only does the polariscope detect the differences, but anyone who is suffi ciently observnnt will note that it will actually tuke a larger spoonful to give the same sweetening power. Thus, if a barrel of raw sugar should be kept through the summer months and it is infected with harmful micro-organ isms, it might be necessary to use an extra half-spoonful at the end o f »the summer to get the sume sweetening power that could be obtained before deterioration took place. As all sugar is sold strictly on the polarlscoplc ba sis, even small losses aggregate huge sums. The usual source of these molds is the air, which contains millions of mi cro-organisms at rest and in circula tion. Each individual mold, if it falls on an object which can supply It with sufficient food, such as sugar, can re produce 300,000 more individuals of the same species in less than a week. This reproduction, however, can only tuke place in the presence o f sufficient moisture, otherwise the organisms lie dormant. Cane sugar primarily un dergoes such losses by deterioration in transportation or storage, mainly due to the absorption o f moisture by sugar in damp weather or humid cli mates. For example, sugars made In Cuba are stored in the hold o f a vessel, often with Insufficient ventilation, which causes them to “ sweat.” While coming from a tropical climate into cooler water the moisture condenses on the surface o f the sugar. This also occurs when sugar is stored for any length o f time, especially at high temperature, ns In refineries, where some is melted up at once and the re mainder Is held In storage for varying ‘ periods, as dictated by business needs. * 1 Can Be Prevented. Having identified the injurious mi cro-organisms, Doctor and Mrs. K o pelofT developed a method by which the quality o f u given sugar might be determined In this res|>eet. By simply consulting n chart after a preliminary analysis, one may now find out wheth er or not a given sugar will deterio rate or lose its sweetness in storage. The sugars which are unsafe to keep may be melted up first, the sounder sugars being held in storage with safety. Doctor and Mrs. Kopeloff, by mak- lng bacteriological examinations at ev ery stage o f the sugar-nmklng proc ess, have found that sugar deteriora tion can be prevented by substituting dry or super heated steam for water In the final process of washing sugar in the drums in which sugnr is dried. These centrifugals, as they nre called, In their whirling suck up air from the floor which may be contaminated with germs. Also, it is common practice to make the color o f the sugar lighter by washing the crystals with water, which may be contaminated with molds and bacteria. In the new process, it is shown that dry steam Is successful In killing over 99 per cent of these avid molds and bacteria. W hile the practice of steaming su gars is not a new one, the results nre shown to have a direct practical value In eliminating losses which have been a considerable factor in the American bill for sweets. Monster Locomotive in Perilous Plight He Wouldn’t Stop Work for Wedding. i j j I Detroit.— Devotion to duty prevented Nicholas Alexander, cook, from taking an hour off to get married. His fiancee, Isabelle M. Sahay- caw, applied at the county clerk's office for a marriage li cense and, in response to the clerk's question as to why the bridegroom-to-be had not come, site said Nicholus was too busy. She said further that they had agreed to marry a year ago, but they had a quurrel and Nicho las tore up the license he had taken out. A fter long and mature delib eration Isabelle came to the con clusion that she had been wrong and that if she did not admit it she ran a good chuuce o f losing Nicholas forever. She went to him In a penitent mood and found him receptive, but on one point he was ada- mant. He would not leave his work for a minute to get mar ried, and if she wanted to be come I.ls w ife she had to take out the murrlnge license, engage a minister and bring him to the kitchen where the ceremony was to be performed. They were married. Rooster Just Like Mother. Winsted, Conn.— A yearling Rhode Island Red rooster owned by Elmer Robbins is brooding a number o f chickens that weigh from one and a half to two pounds each. The young rooster also fills a mother’s role by calling the chicks when he uncovers worms. At night the chickens huddle beneath his wings. H H » The collapse of a bridge near Greencastle, lud., from under a battleship type o f locomotive developed an un usual problem for the wrecking crew. The bridge had Just been built and had been approved by engineers but the locomotive hud hurdly brought Its full weight on It before It snnk with a roar and a crush, the center fulling 25 feet to the ground, leaving the locomotive suspended with the trout wheels on the bustlous of one side of the bridge and the rear wheels on the other. GET RICH QUICK IS OLDEST BAIT So, too. In the latter part of the last century, when tlie Klondike ties came a word o f magic. Just as in the days o f ’49, there was a wild rush for gold, the prospectors being, In tlie main, men who were doomed to fail ure, although hundreds of them won from the frozen rocks nnd river beds the fortunes upon which not a few Story of Romance, Hardship and Vio American families base their ability to purchase a new seven passenger lence, of Adventure, Despair and car every year. Gullibility, With Sudden Trips One of tlie oldest and the most per Abroad Made by Promoters. sistently attractive lures o f golden affluence thnt awaits the fortunate Is Boston.— Ever since the beginning of the mythical buried treasure o f Capt. things men have been trying In one Kidd, the pirate, fam iliar to every fashion or another to achieve their schoolboy and to the schoolboys o f fortunes over night, to recover the Boston In particular. Midas touch of the fabulist, to “ get B'or tlie two centuries or more that rich quick.” Iinve elapsed since Kidd swung at the Sometimes they have succeeded. gibbet in Execution Dock, England, Sometimes they have nurtured tlielr expeditions have been continuously hopes only to come back to hard re gotten up with the purpose of finding ality with a hard bump. Sometimes I ills burled booty. All thnt has been in their haste they have been swindled. I recovered to date has been about From the days o f the sailing of | $90,000, most o f which was found at Jason upon his long quest of the one end o f Gardner’s island. The nu Golden Fleece, from the times of the merous search purtles, according to alchemists o f the middle ages, who some estimates, hnve spent a total of puttered out their lives among dusty ubout $700,000 In tlie effort. tomes, seeking with tired but hopeful To Pay 96 Per Cent a Year. eyes fo r the key to the enigma of sud Along with the popular quests for den wealth— the touchstone which “ gold In the raw,” or in hidden caches, should transmute lead to gold— to the there hnve also been scores o f clever days o f mushroom fortunes In "inter schemes for enriching people through national reply coupons,” isn’t such a marvelous “ new” discoveries and fa r cry a fter all, James H. Powers through manipulation. Massachusetts Writes In tlie Boston Globe. lias hud Its full share o f such ven It is a story of romance and hard tures In the last half century, and ship and violence, of adventure and Boston has been the center of the ac despair and sometimes absurd gulli tivities o f not a few. bility and sudden trips abroad made More than forty years ago, for In by promoters with gripsacks stuffed stance, there was the notorious “ Ladles’ Deposit,” conducted by Mrs. with cash. Sarah E. Howe at 2 East Brookline Mad Rush for Gold. In America the story really begins street. Mrs. Howe hud a sensational with the mnd rush across the prairies enreer In giving people "something fo r and The mountains In '49 to the gold nothing.” fields o f California. There had been The “ Lndles’ Deposit” wns nn Insti other “ gold hunts” before this, but tution based upon her statement that none o f them developed such a nation she wns the agent o f a legney amount al fever as resulted from the announce ing to more than $1,500,(KM), which was ment o f this discovery of nuggets left by a Quaker who wanted to be a “ weighing as much ns half a pound benefactor o f “ widows and single nplece,” thnt percolated through the women only.” With this money she wns supposed East and started thnt famous uproar. Enthusiasm rose to unbelievable to establish n foundation In Boston heights. Families stnrted out from which paid such women, whose in Massachusetts, New York and other comes were Inadequate to permit them eastern sencoast states without even to live In comfort, 90 per cent a year bothering to sell their houses. By on deposits made at the “ Ladies’ De horseback, fnrm wagon and by ship posit.” Mrs. Howe was no parsimoni tlie migration got under way. Parties ous person. She paid interest three o f prospective millionaires chartered months In ndvnnce. schooners and sailed all the way Three Years In Jail. around the Horn in their excitement. Mrs. Howe Is described ns being And upon the retina of the Inner “ short, fat, ugly looking nnd Inde eye of every one persisted the dream scribably vulgar.” She co#ldn’t write picture o f "marble halls,” dnd n grammatically and this was one o f the “ span,” and the imagined luxury of onuses o f her downfall In Boston, for doing nothing In particular, while her Inek o f culture aroused the sus obedient luckeys hovered about for picion of the authorities at last and ever nfter, like the genii o f Aladdin's they began on Investigation which landed her In Jail. lamp, awaiting orders. Then It came out In the court trial The California gold rush enriched thousands, though at the price o f vast that Mrs. Howe's "Quaker" was n day hardship and sacrifice. Thousands of drenm and despite the fnct thnt during others It ruined, when they became the last days of “ Ladles’ Deposit,” stranded In a wilderness, 5,000 miles when tlie run started, she paid out from settled civilization, on their Ill- between $75,000 nnd $100.000 In one fated claims. Tlie best thing about day, the Investigators found that her it wasn't tlie wealth it produced at insolvency amounted to $200,o*K), with all, tint tlie fact that It began the the “ bank” and some cheap furniture definite expansion o f the United profusely covered with gilt ns assets. Mrs. Howe Insisted to tlie last thnt States. she wns merely a salaried agent, re Capt. Kidd and the Klondike. "Something for nothing,” ninny ceiving $120 a year for her work from years later, drew thousands more the “ Quaker organization,” hut that Americans down In tlie Oklahoma ter dl<l not keep her from serving three ritory when tlie government an years In Jail. Boston wns in an up nounced that It would permit home roar during the whole proceeding and of fascinated hopefuls steads to he "rushed” on a certain hundreds dnte. A ll the man who wanted to thronged the Institution during the become a property holder had to do week before the crash. Received Secret in a Vision. wns to he on hand when the signal Then there was the masterpiece of was given. Government officials lined off the nil strokes o f tlie Imagination, the start, as If It were a 440 yard dnsh of Rev. I ’. F. Jernegan's scheme for get today. Fences were built and every ting gold out o f sea water. As a “ get claimant had to be behind the bulwark rich quick” scheme this Is yet unsur ready. Then, at n given signal, down passed— both from tlie romantic aspect went the harriers and tlie swarm of o f the undertaking and In the sheer fortune hunters piled Into the plains, audacity with which It was worked pellmell, to stake their claims and be out. Mr. Jernogan wns a former Baptist gin their new careers, and be happy minister, a graduate o f Brown uni- ever after. Hope of Getting Something for Nothing Springs Eternal in Human Breast. RADIO GUIDES MANY SHIPS IN FOG Finders of Naval Stations On Shore Give Angle, Mathe matics Does Rest. WAR NECESSITY MOTHERED IT Navigator Who Wishes to Know His Latitude and Longitude Sends Out Wireless Message and Listen, lng Stations Give Bearings. New York.— Fogs, clouds and storms are losing their terrors for naval men. In the not very distant past n ship that could navigate when the sun was hidden became the subject of wild sea faring tales, but the radio direction finder has eliminated many o f the per ils due to the absence o f the sun. To day a navigator who wishes to know his latitude and longitude has only to send the follow ing wireless message: “ This is the (ship’s name). Where am I?” And the data supplied by the various listening stations w ill give him his bearings. The wireless direction finder Is not n new device— finders were patented as long ago ns 1907— but war developments have empha sized the value o f the Instrument for general navigation, says a writer in the New York Evening Post. It consists o f a loop of wire at tached to receiving machines. When messages nre being received the waves set up a current in the two sides o f the loop. I f the waves strike both sides of the coil equally there L no differ ence in voltage. But when the waves strike the coll In such a manner that there is n difference in voltage be tween the two sides o f the coil the re ceiving machines indicate the extent of this difference. By making mathe matical calculations based on this d if ference It is possible 'O determine the direction o f the ship which Is sending Heard Wireless Phone Talk in Europe in relation to the port which is re ceiving. In order to locate the ship’s posi tion exactly the data from at least two receiving stations must be com pared and it Is desirable thnt another station send its dnta to check the ac curacy o f the finding. W ar Necessity Mothered It. Especial attention was paid to the development o f the radio direction finder during the war when many fight ing ships found that fog wus almost on a par with submarines ns a naval menace. Experts thereupon experi mented to discover a certain method of giving n ship her “ reckoning” when the sun was obscured’ The radio di rection finder In its most modern form was the result. It is now proving its great usefulness in time o f peace. "Merchantmen nre constantly using our stations to find out where they nre,” snid a naval officer. “ I should say that for one warship that calls for its bearings there are ten privately owned vessels. Our radio direction- finding stations nre really becoming public service Institutions.” The navy has erected and is operat ing stations at the entrance o f nlmost all o f the large commercial ports In the country. There are several sta tions near New York harbor, Including Montauk Point, Fire Island, Sandy Hook and Far Rockaway. On clear days the men on duty at these posts have more or less o f “ sinecures,” but on a foggy day they are constantly at work directing ships which have gone astray. All (he listening stations transmit their information to head quarters and headquarters tells the skipper where he is. Some elderly naval men were skep tical about the radio direction finder when the nnvy department first Intro duced tlie device, hut one experience with the instrument usually suffices to convince them o f Its worth. Re cently a new destroyer left Norfolk, Va., bound for Newport, R. I.— ordi narily no great feat o f navigation. However, the compass was new and untried, and the captain and the navi gating officer prayed for clear weather. It Beats an Erratic Compass. Despite their prayers they ran into a heavy fog. and from the time they left Cape Henry until they sighted the reef lightship at the entrance to Newport they could see nothing. N ev ertheless. the run was made without mishap, owing to the directions sent out by the finding stations, and on landing the officers, who had been skeptical, were converts. It was dis covered Inter thnt the magnetic com pass, by which they would have steered under the old methods might ha\e brought them to grief, fo r It showed an error o f more than ten degrees. “ W e are handicapped In extending this work,” remarked the naval officer, "by lack o f personnel. In fact, we’ve been compelled to close up one or two stations recently owing to n shortage o f men. But eventually we hope to have a station n< prnctlcally every moderately large port— and that I think, will cause making port In fogs to be considered a very ordinary and not at all dangerous achievement.” Just Two Feet to Death. Bowling Green, Ky.— T w o feet sep arated Robert Fulton, oil well driller, from death. His employers, a Cincin nati concern, had given up hopes of | striking oil and ordered abandonment o f the “ dry” well. “ We'll go two feet further,” Fulton said. At the second This 1» the wireless telephone station on Signal Hill, SL Johns, N. F., I" foot oil was struck, and In the fire which operators recently heard a wireless phone conversation that was being which followed Fulton was burned to death. carried on In Europe. WILD SCHEMES TRIED versity and o f tlie Newton Theological seminary. A fter a few years In the ministry his health broke down and he went south to recover. It wns on the way hack that “ the heavenly vision” came to P. F. Jernegan, and the “ Electrolytic Marine Salts company” took shape In his brnln. The “ heavenly vision,” according to the claim o f Jernegan, showed htin a marvelous way of getting “ something for nothing” — of getting gold from the water In the ocean by a secret process. H e formed a company. He opened offices In this city at 53 State street and 235 Washington street. The "M a rine Suits company” became a slogan of amazement nnd wonder. Mr. Jerne- gnn showed to the doubting Thomases he met several thin metal plates upon which there had been crystallized small deposits of gold. He suggested the wonderful secret In his possession nnd spoke vaguely o f the fabulous fortune that awaited him. Financiers, men and women of wealth, poor and prosperous— folks thronged his offices to buy shares of his stock. There wus. he affirmed, about four cents’ wortli o f gold In every ton of sea water. Now, Just think of it, four cents’ worth In every ton I And the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, A r c t ic - all the oeenns In the world were to pay tribute to his scheme, to mnke their deposits o f gold In the pockets o f his shareholders. Mr. Jernegan estimated tlie possible returns at 72.000.000,000 tons o f gold. Boston went into a frenzy. All New England went Into nnother frenzy. Mr. Jernegan wont to New York, where he deposited $08,000 with one of the larg est snvings hanks there. Soon after he made nnother inrge deposit. The deposits were checks. A few days af ter this he drew out $20.000 nnd then $75,000 In hills. Then the bank told him thnt they didn’t wnnt tils account. n e told New Yorkers thnt he In tended to Issue 2 500.000 slinres of stock at $1 a shnre. Meanwhile, his friend, one "Frank W. Thompson,” took the money withdrawn from the New York bank nnd between (hem tlie pair bought $150,000 worth o f govern ment bonds. Machinery Never Came. Meanwhile, ut North Lubec, Me., the “ Marine Salts company” began opera tions. A dam wns raised, and when the tide receded It left water twenty feet deep behind the dnm. This was to lie flowed over the “ secret” ma chine Invented by Mr. Jernegan, and by a “ secret” process the metal plates, called accumulators, were to gather the gold from the sen. More than CO0 workmen were hired, nnd the buildings were begun. By this time 2,400.000 shnres o f the stock had been sold and the capital wns In the hands o f the ex-clergyman who had had the “ vision.” T o work the plant nt Its proper ca pacity, machinery, of course, was nec- essury. Mr. Jernegan nnd Ills partner hoarded a French liner for LcUavre, France, to get the machinery. Mr. Jernegnn took passage ns "Louis Sin clair o f Chicago,” with "the necessary funds” — thnt Is, nil o f them. The dny after his departure gold censed to crystnlllze on the plates of thnt marvelous "secret” machine up In Lubec, Me. Tlie company suspended business nnd the 000 workmen on the new buildings were out o f a Job. The shareholders In “ Electrolytic Marine Salts company” were without their money, too. The gold crystals on the plates had been “ planted.” Iu spite o f efforts to bring nbout ex tradition, Jernegan and his pal es caped in France. T h e y later sent some of their money back to clear up the activities o f the company, but they did not move hnck to Boston. So the story runs, year after year. The "Luck Box” is nn affair of only yesterday. T o niuke one’s fortune without an effort, to hope desperately for “ good luck" In “ tnklng a chance.” to find a silver mine or become heir to a kingdom, to dig for Kidd's treasure or to buy n machine which will turn out crisp new bank notes in a legal manner; above all, to avoid as much work as possible in the whole affair, has been a human trait ever since Adam fared forth from Eden, where he wns not bothered with such dreams.