Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/292

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Simple Home Tests for Tea and Coffee

THE commonest adul- teration in the case of tea is the addition of what is known as "dress- ing." This is really a matter of dyeing. Poor tea is treated with cer- tain substances in order to give it a fine, black color. The presence of "dressing" in tea may be detected by rubbing a sample of tea in a piece of fine white lin- en. A pocket handkerchief serves the pur- pose very well. If the tea is pure, only a little dust will be left on the handkerchief, and this dust may be blown away by your breath. If the tea has been

treated, a dark stain will be found on the material.

The test for coffee is equally simple. Fill a tumbler with water and sprinkle a few grains of coffee on the surface of the water. Pure coffee will float, because the coffee bean contains so much oil that each

grain is coated ^

with a film of oil. If the coffee has been adulterated, the grains will sink and the water will become discolored. If chickory has been added to the coffee, the chicko- ry grains will sink very rapidly while the coffee grains will continue to float.

Thus easily you can determine the purity of tea or coffee.

��Popular Science Monihhj

����Above: Adul- terated tea leaves a dark stain onlinen. At right : Pure coffee does not dis- color the wa- ter. At left: Adulterated coffee sinks and rapidly discolors the water

��There Is An Increasing Wastage of Adult Life

A CHILD born to-day has about ten times as many chances of liv-ing and growing to maturity as had the child born thirty years ago. On the other hand, a man forty years old has fewer years to live than had the man of the same age thirty years ago. Medical statistics prove that infant mortality and preventable diseases are decreasing, whereas degen- erative diseases and cancer are increasing. However, the gravity of the wastage of adult life will not be appre- ciated until there isanation- wide registra- tion of the sick.

����With the aid of the raised letters on the cards, the blind can read them easily

��The Blind Have a Deck of Cards All Their Own

CARDS that have recently been de- vised for the blind have raised letters in the top and bottom corners that reveal their identity. By placing his thumb over the letters, the blind man can tell what cards he holds nearly as quickly as the or- ordinary person. Dots form the let- ters. "Two D" means that the card is the Two of Diamonds; "J.H." means the Jack of Hearts, and so on. At first the blind experience a little difficulty in read- ing the cards read- ily, but they soon become proficient.

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