Removing Oxygen with a Mushroom

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 27, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 21.

Removing Oxygen with a Mushroom

A SINGULAR way of removing oxygen from the air by the aid of a plant is described by Dr. T. L. Phipson in the Chemical News. Inside a glass bell jar, suspended over water, is placed a mushroom, and sunlight is allowed to fall upon the plant. The mushroom absorbs the oxygen from the air in the jar, and the carbonic acid formed during the process is absorbed by the water, which gradually rises in the jar to one-fifth of its height. The mushroom now dries up, but its animation is only suspended, as may be proved by introducing beside it a green plant, when it will recommence to vegetate, being nourished by the oxygen exhaled from the fresh plant.