The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-03-15
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.
In the courts Of Venice, says the Westmin-
ster Review when a prisoner is about to be
condemned to death a tall and -hostly indi-
NldL a.. dressed tn q long black gown walks
maJeSucally TO the center Of the court room,
BOWS soIemnly 10 the judges and ia a cavern
Gus voice pronOunCeS the words: "hemen-
Der the baker, Then he bows again and
stalks away. About 800 years ago a baker
was executed in Venice for "a crime OF which
be was not guilty. When his innocence was
established the judges who condemned him
gave sum Of money TO the city. the interest
on which was to be devoted TO the setting up
and perpetual burning Of a lamp. known as
tIe Lamp OF Expiration, Ia the Palace of
the DOges.
One Of the mostnotable Of the present cen
fury s small inventions is an air-pump for
cleaning purposes. saws the Cincinnati En-
qulref. A hose pipe charged with air under
nifty pounds pressure to the square inch is
turned upon the article or room to ue cleaned
IL IS used II, precisely the same way as the
water and hose for washing purposes. 1t Is
iaf more elective in It's results than br0Oms,
oedters or brushes. as 1t searches out and pen
etfaJes every creVlce and fold Of material and
every crack and cleft in WOOL work. This
device Is at present applied to cleaning cars.
Dut so perfect IS its work that it is only
question of time when it will come into use
Tor other purposes. Hotels and large build
ln&S might he swept out and busted in an IN
credlnly short space of time. Carefully man
a &, this air pressure would rid the room Of
every particle of dust. clean furniture. car
pets and the heavier articles of bric a-Orac
ana ornaments. 1t would do the work of
aozen people. 1t Is now in order for some
nome missionary to invent some simple de-
wee that VIII work an air pump and current
Tor household use. Its Introduction would
reVolullonize housekeeping and solve the
heretofore hopeless problem OF clean rooms.
ana Wen kept furniture covers and carpets 1t
would re e. OlOmlCal, IS il would render less
service necessary and would save a large pOc-
ct r1aslf -Nf In 8 r.
tiles. In houses where there is hydraut wa
ter, II would not be at all diJ1cult 10 attach an
alr-pumplng apparatus to the kitchen or ba h
room faucet. ana thus furnish power Tor every
moor some years ago. it was said that there
would never C an invention that could sweep
ana dust, but at the present rate of thin e
this pro lem is practically solved by this sim
PIE and easily used device.
BY calculation made year or two ago by
an American statistican, it seems that sew
entE citizens Of the United States possessed
among them an aggregate wealth Of E5400)J,-
90. says Chambers Journal. Tia. gives an
average OF about &, 10000 apiece TO come
10 particulars: There was one cState-we re
traln here from mentioning returned
as worth no less than t@00J0,0JO, there were
i've individuals valued at 300 0 900. one val
ued at tl4,GOO,OOO; two valued at tl2 go 90;
SIX valued at 10000 900; six valued at - 600
600: tOi valued a - 600 900: thirteen valued
at 70 700 GO; ten valued at 5000 90: four val
ueu at &4,5UO,OO and fourteen valued at
t4,WOOCO. The brain reels Lefore such figures
Ihey express measures of wealth which the
ordinary mortal is powerless to grasp.
BESIDES these seventy colossal fortunes
there are fifty other persons in the northern
states alone valued at over 2.0OJ,UOJ each.
thlrty OF them being valued In all at EQ0,U0J.-
OOJ There were some little time ago pub
lIshed lists Of siXtv-three mllliOuaiUes in
pennsylvania possessing in the aggregate
tbOOOJtOJ ana of sixty persons in three VII
lagos near New York whose wealth aggre-
gated ElO)OJJOOO IN Boston. fifty families
pay taxes on annual incomes OF ABOUT e2O1. 900
each. We have nothing to compare with such
Individual cases OF wealth in Great Britain.
Baron ROthSehud and Lord OverstOne clCh
left about 43,5O60JO; the late Lord Dudley
left tiOUO000; the late Duke Of BuclleuCh
estimated TO be the richest Scotchman, LETT
estates valued at &c COO. Cns living Eng
llsh duke is valued at $1,000 900. and another
at A6,OJOO0O; but not many names could be
added TO these, TO Place against the above list
OF American fortunes. In 1884 there were only
IOt persons IN the United Kingdom whose in
comes from business pro its were returned as
over $50 900 year. In 1886 there were only
seventeen estates which paid PROBATE duty on
about E-5J,COO each.
An experiment is being made at Besancon
in France, with a substitute for silk which
will be watched with interest. says the Edin-
burg Scotsman. The inven ton, that of Count
de Chardomet, is to convert wood pulp into
soft, Sllken thread. durable, luminous and
elastic. The silk threads produced from
the wood pulp were first shown at the last
Paris exhibition, where they enjoyed good
deal of attention among those interested in
the SILK Industry. But the process was at
that time far from complete, and many i'm
prOYementS had to be made before the lnYeu-
ton could be regarded as a commercial sue
cess That point, in the opinion Of Count de
Chariomet, has now teen reached, and a mill
has been Quilt for rhe manufaltlre Of goods
from the new material. There are ST. II some
details in the process which must be i'm
proved before capitalists ara likely to EMBARK
on the venture. One of the great difficulties
| it appears that has to be overcome is the
swapping Of the threads while they are be-
ing spun, owing to the unequal pressure
which is exercised in forcing the wood pulp
through an exceeding small aperture so as to
convert It into thread. This Is defect how
ever, which the inventor is confident he will
soon overcome, After the wood has teen
reduced to the consistency of pulp. il is dried
In an oven and then PLUNGED into a mixture
OF sulphullc and nitric acids washed in sew
eral baths OF water, and dried by alcohol.
The product is afterWarI dissolved in ether
and pure alcohol, and the result is colo lion
similar to that used in photography. This
cOllodiOn, which is a sticky vlScous sub
stance, is lnclOsed in a solid receptacle fur
uished with filter at the lower end An air
pump sends compressed air into the receipt
acle, and by tins pressure the cOlOliOn is
forced through horizontally in the form OF fine
threads. AS the thread is forced out it passes
through a vessel filed with ether and alcohol
which SOlidti eS the COllOdlOn and MAKES it
elastic and as brilliant as silk. If the inven-
ton turns out as successfully as its inye utor
important industry.
A dispatch from kittanninF Pa, printed
on Wednesday last, said that the wife of
David Roseuberger had given birth to five
children on that day. says the New York Sun
There is no authentic record of a case of
quintuplets being born in or near this city so
far as the many PHYSICIANS who know were
seen by the sun reporter on the day the fore
going paragraph appeared. Register Nagle
of the Bureau of Vial Statistics said that
the record Of births in this CITY contained no
parallel to the case reported from Kittanning
and several physicians. who have Condsierable
OIstetria practice IN the city. asserted that
even triplets were exceedingly rare. occur
ring not oftener than once year DR.. Char
penter, the famous obStetrician in his
treaties on Obstetrics" which has been
translated into English by Dr. E. H. Grandin
gives the following statistics that we're gath.
cred by DR.. WappOeus: Among ~ SOS 500
cOninements occurring in various countries
Of Europe there were twins in 216S)7 cases
triplets in 2.623 cases, quadrupIets in 50
cases ana quintuplets in 1 case. Splengler-
Ploss has a record of lSl.l54 births
OF which 2,509 were twins, two were triplets
and one quintuplet. 1t is possible however
that this case Is identical with the one re-
ported by WappOeus. Out OF 1870 874 lahors
noted by Sickel there were forty-six ouadru-
plCtS and only one OuintuDlet Charnapt{ar