The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

A LENS for seeing under water is described as
producing an effect which is both astonishing
and delightful. 1t gives distinct vision to OBJ
iects from twenty to thirty feet below the SUR
face. and which are usually out of ordinary eye
range. The eyes loss of extended vision when
under water is owing to the fact that an entirely
different focus is required. The spectacles
which can adjust this focus are made by putting
two watch crystals back TO back or with the
concavities outward.
AMONG the curiosities preserved by the Min
nesota Historical Society is Autographed copy
of an engrossment of the emancipation proc
lamation. The engrosser, one w. H. Pratt, of
Davenport, Ia, was so very skilful in his ma
nlpulatlons of the pen that he succeeded. by
careful and exact shading of the letters. in pro-
duclng very excellent portrait of Abraham
Lincoln the author of the famous document, in
the centre of the copy. In other words the let
tering itself is made TO form a portrait of Mr..
Lincoln.
THERE is no need now for any man forgetting
his engagements. no matter however much &C.
cupied his time may be. A recent invention is
made up OF a switchboard, connected with a
clock and an alarm, so arranged that, by plug
glng the proper hole in the switchboard, the
alarm will be rung by an electric current at any
time desired. All man has to do in order to
be sure to remember his engagements is to plug
up the proper holes in the morning, and when
the times for keeping them come around, the
alarm will be automatically rung.
The American Baptist Year Book, just out,
gives the total Baptist membership last year as
3l64227. The total this year is 1865, 1906 an in
crease OF l05,579. The number reported bap-
tized in 1890 was 1400Ss in 1891, i6O247 The
total contributions reported In 1890 were Sill
2l5579; total in 1891, S11S86, 55S. slight in
crease, not proportioned to the increase in num-
bers and wealth. In the contributions of this
year three states exceed S., 900, 0O0 in the fol
lowing order: Massachusetts,, 81, 1887, 49S; New
York, S1,640, 534; Pennsylvania, S2,012, III.
A PETR1FIED Indian cigar from Oregon was
laid before the members present at the meeting
of the Academy of Sciences at San Francisco
last week. IL had been lit and partly smoked
and thrown away. The ashes remained intact.
1t was perfect and very remarkable specimen,
and was considered by the assembled scientists
great find. There were also two immense eer
rings, weighing about three pounds apiece, and
petrif1ed portion OF the human body was also
placed on exhibition. The specimens had been
collected by a number of men who had Travelled
through the Indian sections of oregon.
MAYALIPURAN, INDIA, is graced with seven of
the most remarkable temples in the world each
of these unique plac IS of worship having been
fashioned from solid granite powders. Some
idea of their size may be cleaned from the facs
that the smallest of the seven is "a feet high, Il
feet long and ~ feet wide, and is divided into
upper and lower stories. Travellers who have
carefully examined these relics say that it must
have taken centuries of labor with the crude
tools OF ancient times to carve these graceful
edifices from tue native rock. The architectural
proportions are perfect and the work well ex-
ecuted, the carved minarets on some of them
being equal to the finest work done by the
skilled marble cutter Of to-day.
The ''Hevasa-Goda- Ga" the largest
of the seven, is 3I6 stories high,
its outlines resembling those Of an Atlantic
steamship. The inside of the bowlder has been
chiseled away until the walls do not exceed
eight inches In thickness. The two floors above
that of the foundation are each about a foot in
thickness, and seems as solid the rock Of
ages. The upper stories are reached bys spiral
stairway, carved from the same piece Of granite
that the temple itself is fashioned from, which
is an architectural triumph that would puzzle
the finest workman on the worlds fair build
ings to duplicate. The second largest of these
single-stone temples has portico II feet wi ,
ana II feet long, ornamented with four crouch
ing lions and two elephants, all carved from the
same bowlder which goes to make up the main
building.
IT REQUIRES but little effort to estimate what
the words twenty billions of miles" really
mean, says the st. Louis Republic. billion is
one million millions, and l shall endeavor to
convey an idea OF this amount by few simple
illustrations. Surprising that our great fore
father. Adam, had begun to count as quickly as
he could. and that when his life was ended his
son commenced where the father left off, and
that he spent his whole lifetime, day and night,
counting as fast as he could. and surprising that
upon his death be had enjoined upon his heirs
an eternity of counting, and that they continued
doing so up to the present moment, their united
efforts would not yet have reached the
amount OF one quarter of a billion
What depths OF mystery Another
illustration may be given to con
vey an idea of that unthinkable distance. If
we were to take a sum equal to five times the
amount of our national debt and were to expend
it in 2-cent postage stamps, we would get about
100000, 900 of them. Now, draw line around
the great city of London, including every house
in the suburbs, and then take area OF equal
size, cleared and arranged Tor the purpose and
stick your 1000, 000, 900 stamps side by side
touching each otner, over the entire area, and
you will not be able to get them all on After
every irch of that immense surface has
been covered you will have countless
thousands of your 1000 1000 stamps left
That star is 10000 600 miles away. What q
wonder in distance! We cannot grasp it In our
imaginations, nor are we more successful if we
try to make map of it. Suppose we proceed
by first laying down the sun, and then placing
the earth one inch from it, that being the rela-
tive distance. Then, if we require at what dis
lance TO put your star, using the same scale, we
will find that it must be placed a dis
lance of eleven miles Knowing the
distance of the nearest fixed star and
feeling the wonderment which that very
distance excites, what are we to say of the dis
lance OF the furthest Of those which are visible
to usg Here, indeed, is the puny mind of man
bewildered beyond expression.