The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-22
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ORIGINALLY there were no pews in old English
churches; the only fixed seats were stone
benches carried along the sides Of the churches,
of which examples still remain in Salisbury
and other cathedrals, In Romsey church, Hants
and Portbury church, Somerset; and many
other of the other old Parish churches.
LAFAYETTE KNIGHT of Camas Prairie, has
sent the East Ore0onidn a remarkable curl
osity-a sheet Of paper made from natures
loom. It was found in an open seam in tama-
rank tree. 1t is as soft and velvety as q baby s
skin, ana resembles wood pulp in appearance.
The sheet is fully foot wide and two feet long.
WITHIN three years passenger rates on the
railroad across the Isthmus of Panama have
been reduced to 10 and cents mile for first
and second-class tickets. Up to that time the
charge for passenger transportation on the
Panama railroad was the highest 10 the world,
being 1925 in American gold for flrst-clasS and
$40 in gold for second-class passengers.
Two ORDERS of knighthood for women have
been instituted in Great Britain during her
msiesty's reign, viz: The Royal Order of
Victoria and Albert, consisting of four classes,
the first two for royalties and the third and
fourth for peeresses and ladies in attendance on
the queen; and the Imperial Order Of the Crown
of India, founded in 1873 for royalties and the
wives and relatives of Indian princes and high
Indian officials.
PROF. BRIGGS has begun to prepare defense,
for he knows that he will be compelled to
make one before the Presbyterian assembly.
This entails additional work upon one of the
busiest men in New York In speaking to a
friend on Wednesday, Dr. Briggs said that he
was overwhelmed with applications for maya
zine articles, for sermons and for lectures
which, had he accepted it, would have made
him a comparatively wealthy man, He de-
clined 1t, believing THAT he should not make
pecuniary capital out5of this affair. He is, how
ever, preparing course of sermons which may
be delivered during the summer, in which he
will treat the subject and his views in great
detail, but he will not do this for money con-
sideration.
A CURIOUS STORY, says the Jeyelers' Revie1g,
is told of the introduction of the Florida sea
bean into the manufacture of jewelry. About
twenty years age Capt. Haig OF small trading
schooner making trips between Jacksonville,
Fla, and the Islands south and southwest of
Florida, noticed on one of the Windward islands
several varieties of these beans. Thinking they
might be of some value as a curiosity, he pur-
chased from the natives for a barrel of pork q
large number of sacks filled with them. TAX
ing them to Jacksonville he sold them to
Damon Greenleaf, the jeweler, at the price of
cent apiece and went off rejoicing at his bar
gain. On his next trip to Jacksonville he found
that Mr.. Greenleaf had polished them mounted
them in various ways and was selling them at
81 so apiece. They bit the fancy of the north
ern tourists and the leweler is said to have
made somewhere ibthe neighbOrhood of SIS 900
by his venture. sea beans are still used in
iewery manufacture, but only in a minor de-
gree. $50 GO
NOT many years ago it was problem for the
oyster packers to devise some means Of dispos.
ing of the great heaps of shells which rapidly
accumulated around the packing houses, says
the Baltimore NeTs. Low lands were filed in
with them and roads were 'shelled" but still the
shells kept on accommodating until the yards of
some OF the oyster houses threatshed to bury
the buildings. Finally some enterprisng and
thoughtful men came along and commenced
shipping the shells to Long Island sound where
they were dumped on the oyster beds where
they serve better than anything else to catch
the spawn and increase the supply OF oysters
Oystermea here took the hint and now many Of
the shells are taken down the bay as soon as
the oysters are shucked. A gentlemen remarked
the other day that such is the value of the
shells of their ancestors to tie young and
growing oysters that not a single one should be
used on roads or for the purpC 50 OF burning for
lime. All should go back TO the bottom Of the
Chesapeake. The oyster shell problem has
solved itself
IN petroleum engine lately constructed in
Eng and on principle which is claimed to over
come the objections heretofore met with in
similar attempts the plan pursued is that Of
injecting oil directly into compressed and heated
air in vessel which acts as vaporZer and COM
bustion chamber combined. A valuable ad.
vantage secured in this construction is that the
gear for firing the charge is dispensed with and
heavy intermediate oil is ignited and completely
burned when injected into the compressed and
heated air in the red-hot vaporizer This
chamber Is heated up at the start with a special
lamp supplied with air blast by small fan: and
every charge of oil is forced by a pump into the
vaporizer at the proper moment for ignition
just after the hot air has been compressed and
the piston is on the return stroke The oil sun
ply is regulated by governor, and runs at 2lO
revolutions per minute, working very steadily
In some primary experiments with a six-horse
power engine, during a run of about thee
hours, using oil of specific gravity S54 and flash
ing point 220a F., the consumption was less
than pint per brake-horse power per hour
THERE seems TO be no question as to the sue
cess of recent experiments in soldering iron
with nickel the adhesion of the metals in fact
being so intense as to render their separation
impossible by mechanical action, chemical
analysis also showing a perfect assimilation
although the soldering had been effected at a
temperature of from 500' to 600 below the fus
ing point. The volatility of iron when heated
to cherry redueSs is another fact which seems
to have been established recently. In this case
two plates of iron and Nickel superposed being
submitted to the same degree of heat, the iron
passing into the nickel to a notable extent
without soldering or adhesion of the surfaces
resulting. On the whole surface Of the sheet OF
nickel an alloy was formed with the iron, which,
in the case of one-miliimetre Sheets penetrated
to 0.05 of their thickness, and contained on the
average "a per cent. of that metal, the proper
ton being naturally stronger on the surface
In any case, the exceptional welding properties
which iron possesses in comparison with other
metals must. it is asserted, depend on a par
tial volatiization at temperature much be-
low the fusing point.