The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


feet deep and cost $500
Tusks Of the mammoth have been found
OF a length OF nine feet, measured along
the curve.
The greatest velocity attained by a
whale when struck by a harpoOn is nine
miles an hour.
It is believed by microscopes that the
highest powers OF their instruments have
not yet revealed the most minute forms OF
animal life.
Judge Russell has on his farm in Arcadia
Valley. Mo. two apple trees that have
born fruit every year for the last nfry-1Ve
years They were planted in lsJi.
Dean Hole appeared in Toronto the other
evening in the apron, the small clothes
and the silken hose appertaining to the
English ecclesiastics Of the higher rank,
according 10 Toronto paper.
The Pacific ocean covers 81, coo Of the
1SS, 600 900 square miles which compose the
earth's surface, and the Atlantic covers
3i,p0,W0 more. Thus these two oceans
comprise more than half the area OF the
globe.
A new law in Germany provides that
a husband who may be habitually cruel
or unkind to his wife shall work all
week, turn over wages to his wife on pay
cay, and go 10 jail Saturday night and
sunday.
The New York Herald says that while
counterfeiting is steadily increasing,
Jnere is cause Tor congratulauon IN the
TACT that nearly 200 arrests for this crime
by the United States secret service were
made during the past fiscal year.
When the common earth worm is cut in
two, to the tail there grows head and to
the head there grows tail, and two ami
mails are formed AS the wound heals
small white button is formed, which
afterward develops into rings and per-
feet extremity.
a Chinaman's pigtaiI caused the death
of its owner at Mortified, Ore, few days
ago. The Chinaman fell from a railroad
train and rolled clear of the wheels. but
his lOngr braid q rarlr1 and canphf
in the brake, and he was dragged under
the wheels and killed.
The citizens of Mount Ayr. Ind. held the
most novel ratification OF the campaign
the other night. One hundred ROSTERS
were made into soup, and from 200 to 500
republicans partook OF the broth in the
light OF an immense torch thirty feet
high that cast weird light over the
scene.
The greater part of what we see when
we look at Jupiter is probably a mass of
around the hot core of the planet within
a cloud ball. $1,000 miles in diameter. Above
Jupiters equator the surface of those
clouds is whirling along at the rate of
more than q 0o0 miles an hour in conse-
quence of the planets rapid rotation on its
axis.
Pocketknife blades are very unevenly
tempered. Even in so-called standard cut
lery some blades are hard and some are
soft. For the latter there is no remddy, but
the temper Of hard ones can easily be
drawn SllBntlN. rake a Kitchen poker ana
heat IL red hot. Have the blade that Is TO
be drawn bright. and hold il on the poker
for moment When the color runs down
to violet blue stick the blade in a piece of
tallow or beef suet until cold.
Substances liable to explosion are, as it
were, says Prof. G. A. Mitchell, in a state
of unstable equilibrium. and often a slight
cause is sufficient so to disturb that equi-
| ltbrium that a fresh arrangement of the
particles takes place-in other words an
explosion. A somewhat analogous in
stance of instability. he adds, is seen in
the case of water cooled slowly below its
freezing point without solidifying. as oc-
casionally happens in bedroom pitchers.
When the pitcher is lifted the movement
destroys the equilibrium, and the water
suddenly becomes ice.
In the accidents which have attended the
manipulation of liquid air and other sub
stances in his laboratory. NJ. Raoul Pictet
| has distinguished two degrees of burns
from the intense cold, says London Public
Opinion. In the first the skin is Redeemed,
turning blue the next day. The spot
doubles in area on the following days,
there is intense itching, and five or six
weeks are usually required for healing. In
the more severe burns, those of the sec
ond degree, the skin is rapidly detached.
A long and stubborn supperation sets in,
and healing is very slow and altogether
different from that of burns from fire. On
one occasion M Pictet, while suffering
from a burn due to a drop of liquid air,
seriously scOrched the same hand The
scorched portion was healed in ten or
twelve days, whereas the cold burn was
still open six months afterwards.
One of the latest uses to which paTer has
been turned is the making of telegraph
poles, says an exchange. The paper pulp
employed is saturated with a mixture of
bOraX, tallow and other substances. The
mass is cast in mould with core in
the center, forming a hollow rod of any
desired length, the cross pieces being held
by wooden keys driven in on either side of
the pole. The paper poles are said to be
lighter and stronger than those of wood
and to be unaffected bV the weather
influences which shorten the life of the
wooden pole. 1t is doubtful, however
whether the paper pole will come to be
anything like a rival to the iron pole
which is now high in favor for the carry
ing of all kinds of wire lines. The value of
iron telegraph poles has been we'll tested
under the most irving conditions on the
line between Europe and India, and again
across arid stretches of country in Aus
tralia. Insects that eat out the core of ev-
erything in the shane of wood, leaving the
shell only, and bird bores that drill holes
in the toughest of trees, let the iron pole
pass, and even wandering tribes cannot
chop it up for firewood.
We have all become so accustomed to
the use of the expression Setting the
river on ire as a synonym of impOssi-
| bility that we have long since recognized
it as such, says Electricity. Yet in evidence
of the untruth of this idea the chemist
teaches us that it is a simple matter to
burn water If we have but proper igniter
The chemist, in illustration of this drops
a piece of metallic sodium upon the sur
race or the water, when II bursts immedi-
ately into flame This experiment is at
tended with some danger, however since
the evolution of heat is so rapid as to i'm
mediately transform into steam that por- 1
ton of the water closely adjacent to the
sodium, and this passes off with explosive
violence. The chemist will also aver that
the fire thus kindled of water is unuuench-
able by water, and will prove it apparently
in the following way: He will tie a weight
to a large piece of sodium so as to cause
it TO rapidly sink, and then throw ii into
the water. The sodium thus weighted, be-
fore its virtue is gone, will have been
dragged perhaps many feet below the sur
face, but the combustion will proceed
with unimpaired rapidity, and the result
Will be violent explosion, which will pro
Ject a column of water high into the air
as does dynamite or nitro-glycerine when
subaqueously exploded. The philosophy of
this is as follows: Metallic sodium has
such an affinity for oxygen that it will rob
even water of what it demands, and water
which consists of two parts of hydrogen
and one of oxygen, becomes thus decom-
posed, the hydrogen, which is very com /
bustible, being liberated and the oxygen |
gong TO the metal. So much heat is gen
Grated by the oxidation of the sodium that |
the liberated hydrogen takes fire at once |
1t comes in contact with the atmosDhere |
II is not, therefore, the water that is |