NEWS
July 25, 1941 ters and sizes, they are of the modified brazier head and countersunk types, the latter permitting the flush riveting re quired by modern high-speed planes. The rivets are installed in the age hardened condition and do not require the re frigeration after heat treatment so neces sary with solid rivets in the same alloy. In shear and tension, these rivets develop values approximately the equivalent of driven rivets, the type now most widely used. The du Pont rivets are safe and may be used without fear of serious injury, al
though they should be handled with reasonable care. Numerous safety tests have indicated they will not detonate in mass and are quite insensitive to shock and friction. Fire or high heat of any kind will, of course, cause them to expand. Several million explosive rivets have already been sold and are being used in American aircraft actually in service. It is believed these rivets may find many applications in other industries. Manu facture in still larger sizes and in other metals, including steel, does not seem beyond the realm of possibility.
Rodent Repellent Tests η-Butyl Mer capta n against White and Wild Leonard A . Ford Donald F. Clausen
TΗΒ protection of commercial feedstuffs from depredations of rats and mice is both expensive and time consuming. In place of the common method of using poison and trapping, the authors have applied the principle of repellent odors for the protection of sacked commercial feedstuffs. This method, which involves the use of a re pulsive odor on the feedsack, was tried with a varying degree of success. Experi ments ( 0 have shown that the nose of man is extremely sensitive to certain odors. Should not certain scents like wise cause a reaction in rats and mice? To test the effectiveness of various scents it was decided to use mercaptans and thioesters which are present in the characteristic odors of weasels, skunks, ferrets, and minks. These animals are the natural enemies of rats and mice. According to Parten (2) the presence of ferrets and skunks on a farm will drive rats off until the former have left or are removed. The active ingredient of the odor of skunk, n-butyl mercaptan, was placed on the food of caged white rats. The food was untouched until the odor of the volatile mercaptan had disappeared. The hair was seen to rise on the backs of the rats and they became nervous and excited when the odor was present. The smell seemed to precipitate fights among them. Other volatile irritant compounds, such as carbon tetrachloride or denatured alcohol, had much the same effect but to a lesser de gree. The effect of the odors on the rats diminished during the months in which the experiments were conducted. To be effective as a rat repellent the 1 Present address. International Milling Co., Minneapolis, Minn.
feedstuffs treated with mercaptans may have been due to the fact that the treated substance wras not regarded as food. This leads t o the interesting question whether it would be possible to disguise feedstuffs with more agreeable odors than those of mercaptans so that rats would not regard them a s food. References Cited (1) Ford, Leonard Α., J. Chem. Educ, 17, 17 (19403. (2) Parten, Η . Ε., Minnesota State Exter minator, personal correspondence.
New Treatment Heals Lye Burns
Rats
State Teachers' College, Mankato, Minn. 1
783
ED I T I O N
Hubbard Milling Co. Mankato, Minn.
mercaptan must be absorbed in a sub stance which will retain the odor. In these experiments a substance which would hold the volatile mercaptan for four or five months was desired. It was found that honey held the odor for four months, dead mouse two weeks, and fat scraped from a rat skin six days. The following substances held the odor overnight: rat hide, stock concentrate, glycerol, soap, and castor oil. I t was hoped that print ers' ink would retain the odor since it is used on commercial feed sacks, but the odor disappeared from ink very quickly as it did from lard, mineral oil, petroleum, and many other substances. Commercial feedstuffs are ordinarily stored for periods up to four months. For the following investigation honey was selected since its ability to retain the odor of the mercaptan was still pronounced after this length of time. Honey con taining η-butyl mercaptan, when placed on feed on a farm was untouched by rats for four months. Rats here were accus tomed to eating from pans containing un treated feed. When this feed was treated with the honey-mercaptan mixture they refused it. When the same experiment was con ducted at a city dump it was found that the mercaptan had little repellent effect after three days. This would seem to indicate that these rats were used to the odor of mercaptans formed in decaying organic material. That the food supply was limited and the number of rats large also may have had a bearing on the results. These investigations have suggested the possibility of using mercaptans or similar substances to discourage the attacks of rats and mice on commercial feedstuffs. The failure of rats to eat commercial
ΠΡΗΒ daily press has recently described the use o f hydrosulfosol solution de veloped after "three years of research at the Institute of Pathology, Western Penn sylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, Penna.r to alleviate pain and promote healing of burns caused by sodium or potassium hy droxide as well as b y ordinary causes. The report describes the use of this solution in t h e case of a man who had re ceived the contents of a quart jar of com mercial lye solution full in the face. His nose, mouth, eyes, tongue, and ears were burned, and t h e eyelids and eyeballs were severely burned. Physicians sprayed the burned areas thoroughly with hydrosulfosol solution every hour during the first 24. The patient i s reported as having regained the full eight of one eye, other parts of the face have healed, surprisingly free of scars, and treatment of the other eye is being continued. The solution laid down a thin coating over the burned areas, thus reducing pain because oxygen is excluded and speeds the healing process through stimulating growth of new cells.
Medicinal Imports into British Malaya Increase IN 1940, according t o the U. S. Department of Commerce, import trade into British Malaya of medicinal, biological, and pharmaceutical preparations was valued at S$5,548,207. The united King dom, China, and the United States, in the order named, are understood to have been the most important sources during the year, althongh trade with Australia, Hong Kong, and India also increased con siderably in compensation for the generally reduced trade with Europe. The United States is important as a sup plier of tonics and blood purifiers, tablets and pills, elixirs and tinctures, and various salves, ointments, mouth washes, laxa tives, cold and cough preparations, milk of magnesia, a n d similar products. During 1940 malaria, and fever preparations were an importarrt item, i t is understood.
