Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1879 — Disinfecting Letters. [ARTICLE]

Disinfecting Letters.

The disinfection of letters containing paper money during, the height of the Russian-plague panrc was effected on the Prussian border by exposing them for six hours in a peculiarly-constructed closed vessel to the fumes of sulphuric acid. It was not considered necessary to open or puncture the letters, since it was proved by experiment that the vapor of the acid penetrates the pores of paper, however firmly made. In the laboratory of the Berlin Board of Health blue litmus paper, inclosed in four thicknesses of paper, and in several envelopes tightly compressed, was intensely reddened by being subjected to the fumes of this acid.