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Show MURDERER A PARAMECIUM Science Perfects 'Death Ray' in Battle on Civilization's Greatest Enemy, the One-Celled Micro-Organism By JOSEPH W. LaBINE f JfVhnTalCa192'S 3 S0ber yunS laboratory engineer for the Detroit Edison company was married. Dr. Robert F. James was his name, a World war veteran with an D- degree from the University of Michigan. pn,?nlCt2r a!? MrS'. James moved int0 an apartment equipped with an obsolete electric refrigerator which emitted a musty odor. They didn't like it. so thev did some- ' v i A yifi1 1 $ ' Inventors of the amazing Rent-schler-James process: Right: Dr. Robert F. James, whose ice box had a musty odor, and (below) Dr. Harvey C. Rentschler, Internation-ally Internation-ally known ray authority. thing about it. s That musty odor is indirectly indirect-ly responsible for one of the greatest steps in sanitation progress the world has ever taken. It brought about perfection per-fection of a new and economical economi-cal ultraviolet ray lamp that kills germs instantaneously butdoesn'tbother humans. Its inventors were Doctor James and another famous scientist, Dr. Harvey C. Rentschler. The device, called "steri-lamp," "steri-lamp," has just been announced. an-nounced. The new lamp has already shown its value in trial installations. in-stallations. At Duke hospital in Durham, N. C, it was placed over the operating table, immediately bringing about a reduction in post-operation post-operation infections. Meat dealers have installed it in their refrigerators with a resultant re-sultant decrease in spoilage. Bakers find it delays formation of mold on the products, and restaurants use it to sterilize their glasses. These are only a few of its applications. Sterlization by ultraviolet radia- I VaF. ' 'I, is . s 1 i L7 '' , .J jiiuihiuih)iiiih i.iiiii mm iummixm " iwwmwwwn1 w . wm i "vfvwmtWit u&g?v?:iWf I vA Vi lfiA How ultraviolet radiation purifies the air in an operating room, eliminating danger of infection from bacteria ia the atmosphere. Note the "sterilamp" in the ceiling, the long tube-like lights. bles were killed, while 80 to 90 per cent of the bacteria in far corners of the room also died. Helps the Butcher. Meat dealers have found the lamp invaluable. Forced to carry from 500 to 1,500 pounds of meat in his refrigerator at all times, the butcher butch-er has in the past suffered great losses from spoilage caused by mold and slime, the result of combined high refrigeration temperature and high humidity. Low refrigeration temperatures have been similarly unfavorable because too much moisture mois-ture is evaporated. But with the new lamp which gives little heat refrigerators need only be kept sufficiently suf-ficiently cool to prevent flabbiness. Bacteria and mold are killed immediately. im-mediately. Fresher bread and cake is guaranteed guar-anteed by bakeries where "sterilamp" "steri-lamp" has been tested. Two large firms used the lamp to retard mold growth on fruit cakes. Before installation, in-stallation, spoilage of the cakes amounted to about 15 per cent, a figure which dropped to 1 or 2 per cent after the lamps were adopted! Although physical limitations have prohibited attempts at sterilization in connection with farm products, progress can be made in this field. What of the Future? Today the lamps are being used regularly by a number of farms, not only in connection with milking, but in hen houses, brooder houses and hog pens. One of the nation's largest poultry farms has adopted the process to combat infection. Far-sighted scientists have predicted pre-dicted a day when the new lamp may free us from the worry of bacterial bac-terial infection. Obviously the next application of this process will be to the atmosphere itself, a field in which experimentation is already being made. The vast variety of fields in which the lamp eventually may be applied ap-plied appears to be virtually limitless. limit-less. Today one of,the best known cosmetics manufacturers in the country is regularly using the Rent-schler-James process to irradiate toothpaste and cleansing creams. Science, whose Twentieth century gifts to civilization are already le-gion, le-gion, has hurdled another barrier in, its drive to make the world a safe, happy and healthy place to live! Western Newspaper Union. tion is a far cry from the battle against micro-organisms waged by Pasteur and Lister, yet it is merely another chapter in the history of sanitation. For centuries man believed that all diseases could be "ascribed to demons" and millions forfeited their lives to ignorance before Van Leeuwenhoek discovered the tiny organisms responsible for plagues. Pasteur and Lister helped establish the importance of heat in killing bacteria. But even heat has its limitations. It cannot be used to preserve perishables per-ishables like food and meat; furthermore fur-thermore extreme heat destroys glasses and dishes. And, most important, im-portant, it is limited to small areas and small surfaces. Sunlight has a sterilizing action but its power is comparatively feeble. fee-ble. While it has long been known that sunlight carries some ultraviolet ultra-violet radiation that kills bacteria, it remained for Drs. James and Rentschler to isolate that small portion por-tion of the ultraviolet spectrum which is really effective. To use the entire spectrum would be like "killing rabbits with an elephant gun," in Dr. Rentschler's own words. So he set about inventing a meter to measure accurately the amount of invisible radiation of any selected wave-length being emitted by his experimental lamps. Trial and Error. "2537 Angstrom unit band." Then came months of experimentation until a sturdy, inexpensive and low-cost low-cost lamp was perfected. Now, after aft-er two years' trial in hospitals, bakeries, bak-eries, butcher shops and soda fountains, foun-tains, the "sterilamp" is ready for expanded use. Murder by Ultraviolet. Only a few weeks have elapsed since the Rentschler-James process was explained before a gathering of scientists in New York city. At that time the "death struggle" of paramecia was magnified and thrown on a screen. The first pictures pic-tures showed normal paramecia, one-celled animals going about their work busily, unaware of the impending im-pending doom. Then the "sterilamp" "steri-lamp" was turned on. The paramecia para-mecia speeded up their scurrying to a frenzy; then began to shiver and tremble. Finally they stopped and began to die. Within a few moments after they were subjected to ultraviolet radiation, radia-tion, every Paramecium was dead. That's how the Rentschler-James process works, but let's examine its practical application to our everyday ev-eryday lives. At Duke hospital "sterilamps" were installed immediately over the operating table long, narrow lamps that look much like neon tubing. It was found that virtually all bacteria bac-teria in the air about the open wound, supply and instrument ta- - '. . . . a ..liwflirffr"''' s -" ' ' ' - ''-'4 But let's get back to Detroit and Dr. James' musty refrigerator. Equipped with a knowledge of ultraviolet ul-traviolet rays, the scientist did perfect per-fect a lamp which he placed inside the refrigerator, resulting in sterilization steri-lization by radiation. The musty smell soon vanished. He knew the lamp would kill bacteria bac-teria but he had no way of knowing how much radiation should be generated gen-erated for any given sterilization job. Too much might be dangerous. It was while coping with this problem prob-lem that he met Dr. Rentschler, who developed the meter. Working at Bloomfield, N. J., the two men spent five years in experimentation. experi-mentation. With their meter they tested tediously and painstakingly, the effect of various ultraviolet wave-bands upon bacteria and other oth-er micro-organisms. Finally they found the right band, a tiny segment seg-ment of the spectrum which has , been mysteriously designated as the Drinking glasses, exposed to the "sterilamp" for just a few seconds, emerge complete sterilised and th- ch-ck Ih. spread of commn.c.fale |