The morning news., 1892-03-26
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

THE largest heather temple in the world is in
Seringhan, and it comprises square, each side
being one mile in length, inside of which are six
other squares. The walls are 25 feet high and 5
feet thick, and the halls where pilgrims conpre-
gate Is supported by 1000 pillars, each cut from
single block OF stone
In the ceratotus. or lung fish of Queensland,
the swimming bladder present In ordinary fishes
had become modified SO that it functions as a
lung In Africa protopterus a form closely allied
TO ceratodus mages for itself cocoon of mud,
in which, during the hot dry season, it lives and
can breathe by means Of Its lung.
IT is SAID that many of the German colonists
on the Volga river who are sufferers from the
Russian famine. in order to save fuel, have dug
holes In the ground, subterranean shelters in
which they burrow like foxes. They FORM un-
doubtedly, the only instance of civilized people
who to-day are living the lives of troglodytes.
PROBABLY the longest single span OF wire rope
in the world is that now in use in the construc-
tion Of the great Austin dam at Austin, Tex.
The main cable is 1850 feet long and 21f inches
IN diameter, and the ho1stinR is done with a
three-fourthsinch steel rope. The hoisting ar-
paratus will lift weight of seven tons and
carry 1t the entire length of the span in about
minute and half. 81
IN the backwoods villages Of Oxford county,
Maine. one sees scarcely any other industry but
spool-making, and every one is in some way In
terestep in the business. The factories have
been eating into the Maine birch forests for
years, but there seems to be enough left to feed
them well for years to come Hundreds of
thousands of feet Of logs are cut and sawed into
spool timber annually ,fx.
A CONTRIBUTOR to a New York paper saws: ST
met hotel chambermaid the other day whose
lower teeth were nearly all missing and from
singular cause. She had been, for q great many
years, in the habit of holding the pillows in her
teeth while she drew on the slips with both
hands. TogntAd n a
gradual loss of those teeth upon which the
strain was the greatest"
THE whole interior of Newfoundland is an un-
known territory. Only one white man has ever
made the journey from east to west a Mr..
Cormack, who accomplished the feat in 1929.
Consequently there is no map oil Newfoundland
extant which is in any degree reliable. 1t is a
very curious fact that valuable tract of land
with coal, iron aud silver in its bowels and per-
fectly accessible to the explorers, should remain
so long unknown.
No PROVISIONS for ships were ever found equal
TO the Gallapageous tortoise, which were said
| to remain in good condition for a year without
| food or water. supply OF the latter was car
ried by the animals in a bag which contained as
much as two gallons sometimes. They were
| sagacous, and, when kept on deck, could be
| taught to conhne themselves to any place ar
| ranged for their accommodation by whipping
| them gently with ropes eud when they went
| out of 1t.
| COUNT HERBERT BISMARCK has recently been
cruising about the Mediterranean on board the
! Namouna as the guest of James Gordon Ben
| nett During the course Of their cruise they
landed at the Island of Elba. and also at the
| Island OF Corsica. visiting in the former the
house where the first Napoleon had lived while
| In exile and in the latter the house where he
/ was born. Count Herbert and Mr. Bennett
have been intimate for some time past and
| only short time ago Mr.. ,Benaett was invited
to spend few days with the ex chancellor at
| Fr!edrichsruhe.
A HORSE will travel 400 yards in Az minutes
at walk, 400 yards in minutes at trot 400
yards In minute at gallop, says the Humcne
| World. The usual work Of q hors4 Is taken at
| p, 500 pounds raised one foot per minute for
| eight hours per day. A horse will carry $50
| pounds twenty-five miles per day of eight
| hours. An average draft horse will draw 900
| pounds twenty three miles per day on a level
road, weight of wagon included. The average
weight OF horse is 1000 pounds, his strength is
| equivalent to that of five men. In a horse mill
| moving ot three feet per second track twenty
| five feet diameter, he exerts with the machine
| the power of AZ horses. The greatest amount
/ horse can pull in horizontal line is 900
ponnds but he can only do this momentarily:
/ In continued exertion, probably half of this is
the limit. He attains his growth in 5 years,
/ Will live 25, average 10 years. horse will live
twenty-five days on water without solid food,
| seventeen days without eating or drinking, but
| only five days on solid food without drinking.
| SIR WILLIAM THOMSON of London. says the
| Gentlemdn's Magazine has calculated that the
| quantity of fuel required for each square yard
of the solar surface would be no less than 13 500
pounds OF coal per hourl-equivalent to the
| work of a steam engine Of 5000 horsepower
| This enormous expenditure of fuel would be
sufficient TO melt thickness Of about forty feet
OF ice per minute at the SUMS surface Sir John
| Herschel says: "Supposing a cylinder of ice
| forty five miles in diameter to be continually
| darted into the sun with the velocity of light
| and that the water produced by its fusion were
| continually carried off, the heat now given off
constantly by radiation would then be wholly
| expended in its liduefaction, on the one hand,
| so as to leave no radiant surplus; WHILE on the
| other. the actual temperature at its surface
| would undergo no diminution." He also saws
| that the ordinary expenditure of heat by the
| sun per minute would suffice to melt a cylinder
| of ice 1874 feet in diameter, and in length ex-
| tending from that luminary Co Centauri AS
, to the actual temperature at the suns surface
| very various estimates have been made by diff.
| rerent computers. Secchi supposed it to be
thermometer and Sporer $4,000 OF
the same scale, while NJ Pouillet
thinks that it lies between 1,461o and 1,761o O.
| NJ. Becquerel, Prof. Langley and Sir William
| Thomson consider that the temperature of the
| solar photosphere cannot exceed 8. .0OJo c. Ac-
cording to NJ Saint-Care Deville the tempera-
ture is somewhere about 2,eO00 to 2,s000, and
| this agrees with subsequent experiments by
| Bunsen and Debray. Sir Robert Ball says that
| I'VE shall probably be well within the truth if
we state the effective temperature of the sun to
! j
ems" page 495.) Secchis estimate is probably
| very excessive and the smaller determine ion
nearer the truth. The actual heat of the sun
! must, however. be very great. Prof. Young
says: when heat is concentrated by a burn
| ing glass, the temperature at the focus cannot
rise above that OF the source OF heat, the effect
| OF the lens being simply TO move the object at
the focus virtually toward the sun, so that if
we neglect the loss of heat by transmission
through the glass, the temperature at the focus
should be the same as that OF point placed at
such a distance from the sun that the solar disk
would seem Just as large as the lens itself