Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1895 — The Electrician at Play. [ARTICLE]

The Electrician at Play.

“An electrician who amuses himself by devising odd applications of electricity, which may or may not have practical value, tells chemists that he has a much better plan for removing the glass stopper from a bottle than the usual holding of the bottle neck for awhile over a Bunsen burner. This method is open to the drawback that the bottle must be held In a horizontal position, and the fluid may easily be spilled out of the bottle. The up-to-date improvement is an adjustable clamp with coils of plantinum wire embedded in a strip of asbestos attached. The clamp, which Is connected to a battery, is put on the neck of the bottle, the current is turned on, and the glass is brought to any desired heat. This is, in fact, an adaptation of the electrotherm, or heating pad, which Is now used In hospitals ,in lieu of hot water pads formerly in vogue. Another novelty of this resourceful electrical trifler is an electric annihilator of moths, flies and mosquitoes. It consists of an incandescent electric lamp placed inside a large globe, which is coated externally with a mixture of honey and wine, or any other seductive sticky mass. The window and doors are to be closed, the blinds pulled down, and the room is to be made as dark as possible. The

current is then turned on, and in an hour the insect life of the room will be found sticking to the glass globe. Tha final instructions are to “remove the victims with hot water and set the trap afresh.”