Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-09-08
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

OF GENERAL INTEREST.
All of the Washington coins, both
of silver and copper, were minted in
England as patterns for the American
coinage, but the designs were not ac-
cepted. because it was considered con-
trary to the principles of our govern
ment to stamp the head OF the president
upon coins
Squirrel hunts on the roundup plan,
after the manner of the jack rabbit
hunts in the Dakotas, are becoming
very popular in Washington state. A
party is formed and either works rs one
band or divides into two sections, the
section bringing in the fewest tails
paying forfeit for dinner.
Railway engineers are interesting
themselves in what seems to be useful
adjunct to the ordinary semaphore sig
nal, consisting of a whistle operated by
compressed air. Thus, when the blade
is at danger spring lever is made to
rise, SO as to lie along the inner side of
the rail; this lever projects slightly
above the rail, and, when depressed by
the wheels of passing engine. pierre
ing shrek is emitted by the whistle at
the side of the track.
A chimney piece carved from wood
over six thousand years old has recent
~ been erected in a house in Edin.
burgh. The wood, an oak tree, was
found in sand pit in Musselburgh,
thirteen feet below the surface Prof
Geil1e. of the geology chair of the Uni
versity of Edinburgh, after personally
examining the strata in which the oak
was found, said the tree, which was
five feet nine inches in diameter, must
be at least six thousand years old, and
describes it as relic of neolithic man.
1t was in a fire state of preservation,
due to the sand, and was easily work
able.
Petroleum. when stored in bulk,
either in tank steamships or in tanks
on shore, must be provided with means
for expansion when the tenpera ture
rises. a drawback in appliances has
been the admitting of air on the con-
traction Of the oil. The manager of
large works in West Hartlepool, En-
gland, has devised an apparatus that
will prevent the access of air. In cylin-
drical Gomes on the top of the tanks he
fits pistons, the rods projecting through
the tops and moving freely. The pis-
tons rest on the surface of the oil and
rise and fall when it expands and con-
tracts.
Few chess players could guess the
origin of one of the most important
terms in their games The word chess
is said to be corruption of the Arabic
81, Of III
The game came westward by way of
Persia, where the word sheilh becomes
shah. It was the game of the king.
The term check is merely to give no
tice that the king is attacked, and
''check-matc" means 1.-The king is dead"
the verb ''rnata'' being from the same
root as the Spanish matador, the slayer
of the bull. The word check, whether
verb or noun, may be traced through
several curious ramifcations back to
the Persian and Ara bic Even the word
exchequer is curiously tangled up in
this verbal network.
The recent capsizing of a vessel
tied up to pier in Brooklyn is suffi-
GENTLY unusual in that port to excite
comment, but it is common enough at
tributary streams. The usual rise and
fall OF the tide along that bay is from
forty to fifty feet, and high tides some
times exceed sixty feet. With the fell
of the tide all crafts are left high, but
by no means dry, with an area OF choc-
olatc-cOlorcd mud all about them. The
mud is too shifting 10 hold a vessel in
safety. so each pier is provided with
one or more strong wood frames called
shoes, fixed at the bottom of the stream
or bay. Upon these shoes all vessels
rest at low tide. 1t frequently happens,
however, that a vessel does not get her
shoe snugIy on, so to speak, and If
strong wind comes when she is thus ILL
balanced, over she goes into the mud, to
be buried forty feet under the next
rising tide.
One of the most curious of the
many natural barometers consists Of
half-pint glass half full OF water, a
piece of muslin and leech. The leech
must be put in the water, and the mus
lin tied over the top of the glass so that
the creature cannot get out again.
When fine weather is to be the order of
the day the leech will remain at the
bottom of the water, curled up in spiral
shape, and perfectly motionless. If
rain is to be expected it will creep to
the top of the glass, and remain there
until there is likelihood of more set
tied weather If there is to be storm
of wind the little animal will comfort
itself violently and squirIn about For
some DAYS before thunder it will keep
out of the water almost all the time,
and will occasionally move it's body in
a convulsive fashion. For frosty
weather it behaves in the same manner
as for fine, and it foretells snow in the
same manner as it does rain.