Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1874 — Ozone—A New And Correct Method of Supply. [ARTICLE]

Ozone—A New And Correct Method of Supply.

In Maryland—Postmaster-Gener-al Cresswell’s State—the excess of expenditures over receipts in the postal department amounts to $241 ,- CWi This is more than in either Of the hegro States of Florida, Tennessee or Mississippi, anti indicates that the Tackeys neither correspond very mnch not take many papers. It is reported that Mr. D. T. Halstead is considering the propriety of tendering his resignation as trustee of Marion township, being moved thereto by the fact that his Evangelical labors call him from home so muoh that it is not possible for him to give that attention to township business as public interest requires. In case he decides upon this course The Union ' suggests to the appointing powers that Mr. Ezra L. Clark is a gentleman possessed of the qualifications to fill this office acceptably. The unexpired term of Mr. Halstead’s office is a period of aboufr eight months. « It is rumored that the temperance people in Rensselaer and in Remington are talking about the propriety of organizing a women’s crusade against the drug stores and physicians in Jasper county, after the manner of the campaign in other parts of the country. Public sentiment seems to be ripe for such a demonstration, particularly at Rensselaer where the course of certain physicians and druggists who ere suspected of supplying habitual drunkards and young men with liquorj since the saloons were closed out, is being pretty freely discussed and very generally condemned. A spark, as it were, would set the community ablaze with ex- ■ citemeijt, anj if half a dozen or so j ■““determined’ wo men wo uldinaugu-: rate the movement they would be ' surprised at the encouragement r n 1 sympathy that would manifest itself from unsuspected sources. The good people of Mishawaka evidently appreciate the labors of Brother Jernegan to make the Enterprise a live local paper—a thing of beauty, and a joy forever.* They pet and pamper him; and he feeds upon the good things of the land wherein he dwells. Last week they brought him “a large, elegantly frosted and ornamented cake” j from the spoils of a public feast prepared by the lady members of the Catholic congregation in that thriving town. But it is written that man shall not live by bread . alone, and an admiring neighbor i brought him a large, fat, young I grasshopper—a firstling of the brood of 1874; and now' that edi- j tor’s family, though poor in the . possession of this world’s goods, I are made happy and bless the kind j charity of their patrons while de- , vouriug delicate sandwitches of sponge-cake and succulent grasshopper cutlets. The Board of County' Commissioners contemplate issuing bonds ‘ to the extent of $3,000, .at their meeting next week, for the purpose j of borrowing money to pay out-' standing orders. They can borrow money for about ten per cent, inter- ' est and think this is preferable to letting orders go to protest and thereby become- depreciated from ten to fifteen per cent, and then pay six per cent, interest on their face, which would be equivalent to j paying from seventeen to twenty- i five percent. This plan is all very j well, if it is necessary; but what we , can’t understand is why it has be-: epuie ncsessary to borrow money. ; No public improvements of any ; magnitude have been contracted* recently, it is currently reported that ilie delinquent taxes are collected up pretty closely, the tax-levy for oouuty purposes for a number of years-has been averaging along with the majority of counties in the State, the commissioners, auditor and treasurer are Republicans in politics and farmers by occupation, 'there dout appear to be any' extravagance in public expenditures, jhe cyunty has all of her public w orks paid tor. and settled long ago,, for; tw</or three years there was from . $20,000 to $45,000 of railroad tax laying around in the control of the tieasurer, most, if not all, of which was paying somebody interest; then consider the fact of the increased valne of real estate and personal property both from natural causes and from the operation of an amended law, and it does seem ■ remarkable that Jasper county should at this tiraq be reduced to the alternative of borrowing money

The use ofozone as a disinfectant in hospital wards and public buildings has amply demonstrated its virtue as a purifier of air exhausted by breathing or poisoned with emanation from corrupt or decaying organic matter. The only bar to its more extended use has Keen the lack of a simple and trustworthy means of generating it, safely and continuously, by a process not involving scientific skill or costly materials. The latest means suggested certainly bears the palm for simplicity, cheapness, and accessibility to all. It consists simply in the exposure to atmospheric action of common phosphorous matches moistened by water, the alleged result being the production ot nitrite of ammonia and ozone—both active purifiers of air. Knowing the efficiency of moistened phosphorusas a generator of ozone, the author of the match method, Mr. Sigismund Beer, of this city, set out one day to procure a quantity of that substance to use in sweetening the atmosphere of a room whose musty smell had sue- ' cessfully resisted the power of ordi- ! nary disinfectants. Failing to find : any phosphorus at the drug stores in his neighborhood, it occurred to Mr. Beer that possibly lucifer matches might furnish the needed element in a condition suited to his purpose. He tried them, dipping them into warm water for a few moments, then suspending them in I the obnoxious room. Their effect , -was—prompt- ami salutary ;.an d_, thereafter, by continuing their use, j he was able to enjoy “the luxury of pure air,’’ notwithstanding the room was in the basement of an old celhirless house on made land, the air of which wa s_ furth e r tainted by a quantity of moldy books and papers. In a paper lately read before the Polytechnic branch ot the American Institute, Mr. Beer narrates a number of subsequent experiments with the same simple materials, the success of which convinced him that he had made a ' veritable discovery of great import" I

mice. Touching the iaf'ety of the method he.proposes, Mr. Beer is confident that no overcharging of the air with ozone or other injurious matter may be apprehended from the use of matches in the manner he describes. —Both-tlre ozone and the nitrite of ammonia are generat ed slowly, and their force is swiftly spent by combination with the impurities they are intended to remove. It is obvious that the supply of the purifjing agentscan be easily regulated by increasing or diminishing the number of active matches. In the room above mentioned, six bundles of matches were kept active—some near the ceiling, others near the floor—by daily watering. ■ In another instance a- single bunch is mentioned as having I ■ • 1 sufliced foi quickly purifying the air of a room in which several adults and children were lying sick, but in this case the air was fanned against the matches while they were carried about the room, thus hightening their activity.— How long a match retains its ozonizing power, Mr. Beer does not say. In conclusion, Mr. Beer claims that, whatever may be said of his theory of match, action, the fact is indisputable that, intheiiseof matdies as he suggests, we have a handy, wholesome, and inexpensive means of freeing our houses from noxious exhalations and the long train of evils attendant on the prevalence 'of oad air. The matter is easily I tested and certainly well worth : trying.— Scientific American. I.* - ■