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New method speeds tests of cotton moisture
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CURRENT TO~'ICS.
[J. F. I.
appeared in some wells within the Basin and along its coastal edge. The report says t h a t with respect to the ground water supply, therefore, three critical questions have arisen. Is the quality of t h e ground-water supply deteriorating gradually owing to t h e incursion of ocean water, oil-well brine, or industrial wastes? If such deterioration has taken place, in what degree will it continue if present rates of withdrawal are maintained? To what degree are preventive or remedial measures feasible? Local agencies and others have made available to the Geological Survey a great mass of information, including several thousand chemical analyses of well-water samples and many tens of thousands of measurements of water levels in wells. The scope a n d character of this information is brought out fully in a report entitled " I n d e x of Factual Data from W a t e r Wells on a Part of the Coastal Plain in Los Angeles a n d Orange Counties, California" which has been released by the Geological Survey. R. H. O.
New Method Speeds T e s t s of Cotton Moisture.--Speed or the time factor, is often important when there is need for laboratory testing of materials a n d products used in industry. Therefore, an improvement in efficiency in such a common test as the one for moisture content of cotton, recently developed in t h e U. S. Department of Agriculture, may prove a welcome saving in many plants. The new test was applied by cotton technicians of t h e Southern Regional Research Laboratory after others had used it on cellulose, cardboard, cotton linters and wood pulp. In testing cotton a n d cotton textiles it is likely to replace oven-drying in measuring the moisture taken up by cotton cloth after weaving, of cotton before it is spun, and of yarn before weaving. The new method, applied in the cotton textile field by JOHN F. KEATING and WALTER M. SCOTT of the Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering, requires no heating a t all. W h a t is known as Fischer's reagent is used to measure t h e water in a solution made by treating cotton or textile with synthetic methanol. The entire test requires only a b o u t 30 minutes; t h e oven method from 5 to 7 hours. The oven method when carefully carried o u t is accurate, but the quick new method is just as accurate. The scientists who developed the new use of the method have tried it on cotton and on cotton twill and broadcloth. R. H. O. S t u d y Boron RSle in Plant Life.--Ten parts in a million of anything seems too minute a quantity to make a difference. Yet, to
CURRENT TO~'ICS.
[J. F. I.
appeared in some wells within the Basin and along its coastal edge. The report says t h a t with respect to the ground water supply, therefore, three critical questions have arisen. Is the quality of t h e ground-water supply deteriorating gradually owing to t h e incursion of ocean water, oil-well brine, or industrial wastes? If such deterioration has taken place, in what degree will it continue if present rates of withdrawal are maintained? To what degree are preventive or remedial measures feasible? Local agencies and others have made available to the Geological Survey a great mass of information, including several thousand chemical analyses of well-water samples and many tens of thousands of measurements of water levels in wells. The scope a n d character of this information is brought out fully in a report entitled " I n d e x of Factual Data from W a t e r Wells on a Part of the Coastal Plain in Los Angeles a n d Orange Counties, California" which has been released by the Geological Survey. R. H. O.
New Method Speeds T e s t s of Cotton Moisture.--Speed or the time factor, is often important when there is need for laboratory testing of materials a n d products used in industry. Therefore, an improvement in efficiency in such a common test as the one for moisture content of cotton, recently developed in t h e U. S. Department of Agriculture, may prove a welcome saving in many plants. The new test was applied by cotton technicians of t h e Southern Regional Research Laboratory after others had used it on cellulose, cardboard, cotton linters and wood pulp. In testing cotton a n d cotton textiles it is likely to replace oven-drying in measuring the moisture taken up by cotton cloth after weaving, of cotton before it is spun, and of yarn before weaving. The new method, applied in the cotton textile field by JOHN F. KEATING and WALTER M. SCOTT of the Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering, requires no heating a t all. W h a t is known as Fischer's reagent is used to measure t h e water in a solution made by treating cotton or textile with synthetic methanol. The entire test requires only a b o u t 30 minutes; t h e oven method from 5 to 7 hours. The oven method when carefully carried o u t is accurate, but the quick new method is just as accurate. The scientists who developed the new use of the method have tried it on cotton and on cotton twill and broadcloth. R. H. O. S t u d y Boron RSle in Plant Life.--Ten parts in a million of anything seems too minute a quantity to make a difference. Yet, to