The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.
The sound OF a bell which can be heard
| 43.9le feet in the water can be heard only
45s feet in the air.
Near MOdena, In Italy. the petroleum
gatherers dig hole in the ground, and 1t
is speedily filled with oil.
Gas from petroleum Is very extensively
made and used in Russia, Austria and
many parts Of Germany.
DioscOrides says that in Sicily ia his
time the rock oil or petroleum was col
lected and burned in lamps.
The French claim that gas-making was
invented by Lebon, in 1872. who made gas
by dry distillation of wood.
In Greenland the ''candle-fsh' is used
as lamp. It IS about six inches long
and burns for fifteen minutes.
The father Of gas lighting was William
Murdoch, who. in 1892 used coal gas Tor
lighting his works In Cornwall.
Egyptian lamps, dating. it is believed.
from 310 +. g. have been discovered
IN the catacombs along the Nile.
The Gas Institute of London. for the
purpose Of improving the methods in gas
engineering, was founded in 1862.
In 1900 splinters dipped in oil were used
N England and France 10 furnish light
Tor guests retiring TO their rooms
musical instrument the pyrophone,
has been invented, which extracts all the
tones OF the scale from gas flames.
The first gas lamps in Dublin were put
in position in 1915. and before 1875 the
entire Irish capital was thus lighted.
1t is estimated by engineers that the
leakage from the gas pipes Of London
I equals per cent. of the total manufac-
ture.
Dews are less abundant on islands and
on ships on mid-ocean. Seamen nearing
land can tell that fact by reason Of the
Z deposits of dew on the vessel.
one of the heaviest snowfalls in the
( history of this country was Feb. 10 to
q. III, when the snow remained five TO
seven feet deep all over New England.
Platinum has been drawn into smooth
wire fine that ii could not be dis
t!nguished by the naked eve, even when
stretched across a piece of white card
board.
Prof. Bonney saws that fall of 10 to
! 20 degrees F. in the average temperature
would be sufficient to account for all
known glaciation in the northern hem
isphere.
! Clay eaters are not confined TO our
southern states. Hunmbolt found them
in South America. The practice Of clay
eating IS common throughout the torrid
zone, and is not unknown in Sweden, Nor
way Finland and New Caledonia.
The United States have now about forty
vessels engaged in wh3ling-the remnant
of fleet which numbered 800 ships; The
demand for whale oil has so greatly de-
creased that the industry has dwipdled
away. II is now supported chiefly by the
demand for whalebone, which is always
greatly in excess Of the supply
Music teachers in New YORK nave dtfu-
/ Guilty in finding desirable places to live
in, that lis. If their pupils come to them
for lessons. Few hotels or boarding
houses will tolerate violin or piano teach
ing. one hotel in upper Broadway will
not permit a piano under its roof for any
J purpose, ana bOarders who are unsteady
inclined have TO surrender their instru-
ments or go TO live elsewhere. Even
apartment houses sometimes discrmi-
nate against pianos used for professional
purposes. Not every studio can be hired
. IL
l the New York sun, that music teachers
are often compelled TO put up with poor
accommodations. And for these accom-
modations they are still oftener. per
/ haps. Obliged to pay more than non-mus-
I zeal tenants would.
In regard TO the difficulty Of making
up lost time on railways. a writer in a
EOreiSn paper says. Thus to take a
case. 10 miles to be run at 90 miles an
hour, average line, suppose the engineer
is a couple of minutes late when he
comes 20 this length of 10 miles. which
he generally runs in ten minutes. If he
runs it at 70 miles an hour he is then only
making up one minute in every Is miles.
ana II he runs at 20 miles an hour. he
makes up one minute in every miles
He is probably timed to make il necessary
10 do the 10 miles about as fast as ne can
every day. so that trying to gain even
couple OF minutes in this length is out
of the question. Again. if he relaxes the
speed 10 miles, say. to 90, he Is losing time
at the rate OF one minute in every
miles. Thus, from speed of so an in
crease of 10 miles only gains one minute
in every Z miles, but a. decrease of 10
miles loses one minute in every miles
portrait Of the Virgin Mary and the
Infant Jesus, painted by St. Luke the
Evangelist, is attracting crowds to the
English Catholic church in the Avenue
Hoche at Paris. The picture belongs 10
| the Passlonist Fathers, having come to
them from Col. Szerelmay. a Hungarian
who obtained it in 1899 IN the Holy Land.
He there assisted a Greek monk in dis
tress, who died and left his belongings
to the colonel The picture is painted on
copper in ancient ercaustic colors ard is
ten inches by eight. The figures have
10 nimbus. Virgin and Child have jew
ish features, and the painting and draw
ing Is rude. The inscriptions on it are
in early Chaldatc, running like this:
Mine eyes have seen Jesus. Miriam"
Give strength to thy servant, Luke
ON sMhe back are inscriptions in Chaldaic
anRGreek of each of the first five cen
turtles after Christ. The picture was found
in stone coffin, buried in dried up we'll
near Jerusalem. Aside from any question
of authorship. it is a remarkable example
OF early Christian painting.
II. /. Benson Of New York. according
to a reporter of a st. Louis paper, takes
pains to be always provided with a pass
port. He says that it costs him but dol
lar and a little trouble to get it, and that
it saves him great deal of trouble
whenever he is where, he is not well
known. Says he: with the passport
never have to be identified at a bank.
postotice or other Institutions where
strangers tranSaCting business ALWAYS
have to be vouched for by somebody
known to the officials You see that the
body of the paper contains most minute
and unmistakable description Of me. to-
gether with my age and residence The
whole bears the great seal of the United
States government, thus making deceu-
ton or imposture almost impossible NV
description was sworn TO by notaries
public who know me before the state de-
partment at Washington issued the pass
port. With this affidavit and another one
certifying that | was a good citizen 7
inclosed 81 with my application to the
Secretary Of State and received the pass
port"
For nearly a century the old block
house in Pittsburg known as Boquet's
redoubt. famous during the revolution
was surrounded by tenaments so as TO be
invisible from the streets in the neigh
borhood. 1t was reached by a small and
unsavory alley from Fort street and was
occupied by a family of squatters A
Mrs. SchenleX, who owned the block
house and a row of small brick houses
extending out to Fort street recently gave
the ground on which they all stand TO the
Daughters of the American Revolution
The squatters have been evicted from the
redoubt the brick houses, which were
old and delapidated, have been RACED.
and the relic is to be appropriately pre-