The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

| -Sappy. the great Psychologist. says that
! glands which are used In secreting gastric
Juice.
India rubber tips on lead pencils date
/ from the year l152. They were first sug-
gested by Carlos Magellan. descendant
| of the great navigator.
| Theoretically speaking, says Timber
| tLondon), the oak Is the wood which can
| be put to the greatest variety of uses, but
/ as mat ter OF fact the pine is most used
| on account Of its abundance. The timber
| Of the oak, which combines in itself the
! essential elements OF strength and duTa-
/ bility, hardness and elasticity in a lie
| gree which no other tree can boast has
/ been used as a material for shipbuilding
| since the time of King Alfred. 1t is also
| employed in architecture cabinetmaking,
] carving, mill work, coopering and a thou
/ sahu ana one other ways, while the bark
] Is OF great Value as furnishing tan and
! yielding bitter extract in continual de-
/ mand for medicinal purposes. The timber
/ OF the pine is also used in house ana
| IS extracted from II. and much tar, pitc1,
/ resin, and lampblack. Spnnters of the
| resinous roots serve the Highlanders III
| stead of candles. Fishermen make ropes
| of the inner bark which the Kamchat-
| dales and Laplanders steep in water, and
| utilize for making coarse kind of bread
| The oil obtained from the shoots of the
| dwarf pine is a kind of universal medl-
| cine among the peasants of Hungary,
| while the soft grained silver fir is in much
| requisition for the sounding-boards OF
| musical instruments, and the Germans
| employ it almost exclusively in their
/ vast factories. In the manufacture of
| lucifer matches and above all paper pulp.
| thousands and tens of thousands of acres
1 of pine forests are cut down every year
| and the timber, constituting the chief ma
| terial Of English and American builders,
| is more used than all other kinds of WOOD
| put together.
| A most successful electric light in
| stallatiOn on somewhat novel lines has
| been effected at a New Brunswick lun-
2tic asylum, SAYS the Pittsburg Dispatch.
| Near the asylum, to the north, is a piece
| OF high ground. upon which a vertical
| windmill Of 10IhoIise power has been
| erected, to be used for driving a dynamo
| 10 generate electricity for charging the
| storage cells at the institution This mill
| differs materially from the ordinary wind
| mills 50 much in vogue in Holland and
| from the more modern American type.
| all of which have to be brought up to the
| wind by means of vane, or worked
| around by hand, thus losing time and
| wind. 1t Is constructed to move in a
| horizontal plane about a vertical axis
| Thereby bringing quite new feature into
| practice fer the utilization of the much
| neglected wind power. 1t consists of eight
| semi-cylindrical boxes: each II feet long
by s feet neatly and securely fixed on the
! endS or eight pitch pine arms, q feen
| long by inches square. These are con-
| nected to an upright shaft attached TO
/ a pit wheel, which moves fly wheel con-
| nected to a 1O0-hOrse power dynamo. For
| two months the mill has worked steadily.
| day and night, without requiring any at
|
| of attendants. 1t is found to be eXcep-
| tionally staunch, and is unaffected by
| DreezeS that carry away Wtnd-mills of or
| binary construction. 1t is fitted with an
| tact as soon as the gearing is moved
| around, so that the electricity generated
| passes along two overhead wires to the
| cells situated in building $50 yards dis
| tant The machine takes up very little
| room, and it stands the wear and tear
! Of work so well that II promises to be-
] cOme-1n a
| cheaper constructions faVor,te means of
| water pumping. Prof. Mitchell, who has
| subjected the vertical Windmill to a
| thorough test in the gene ration of cleo
| tricity, claims that such mills are spec
tally applicable for lighting light houses
| and country houses and factories so sit
uated that the mill could be placed on the
roof and thus be in an exposed position
The venerable old frigate Constitution,
| OF glorious memory, now lies, stark and
! gaunt at the dock in the almost deserted
| navy yard at Kittery, Me, says the Lewis
| ton Journal. She is housed in and with
| her OLD fashioned lines, her sides "tum-
| bling home as ii is said when they in
! cline inwards, her stern gallery in which
! her captains were wont to take the air and
their, pipes and barracS in pleasant wealth
ef, she presents quaint sight. OF the
| original ship only a small section of the
| deck and few iron stanchions remain.
| But she was rebuilt much upon her origi-
nal lines in 1S4S and 1876 first by the son
| and again by the grandson of Hart, her
original builder, SO that she is practically
| NIiS same snip MnlCn OulSd1leu ADMIRAL
| Brooke's squadron and outfought every
| thing at which she backed her topsaiis
| The Portsmouth people regard her as their
own lndlNldual properly, and raise an aw-
| full howl every time it is proposed to take
| her away. 1t was, however, a mere acct
dent that she happened to go out of COM
| mission at klttery navy yard about fifteen
| years ago, and the navy being then in the
| chaotic state which preceded the creation
| OF the new navy, she simply was allowed
| to remain there. Her guns We're of no use,
| and of no historic value, as those with
| which she had walloped the Guerrero the
| iowa, the Cyane and the Leyant had long
gone the way Of destruction. So her ar
| mament was removed and everything else
| of value. She was housed in and left to
| her fate: Her planking is decaying, but as
| long as her stout timbers stay in the water
| they Will keep as hard as iron. 1t is
| thought that some time III the next few
| years the Constitution will be refitted like
| the Constellation, and made into a train
ing snip Tor boys, also. Like the COnstel-
| lation, she has never had steam in her
but when she has been rugged with great
| square sails, and given spread of can
| vas worthy of her, she has been known to
leg 1t at fourteen-knot gait during the
| best part of a cruise. These two frieates
are the sole survival of the great frigates
| of the poetic age" of the navy, and nor
all the steel battleships going can alto
gether deprive them of their usefulness
| The Kittery navy yard Is as dead as Hec-
| tor, for the present. The people grumble
| at 1t and complain because the modern
| steel ships are not built or even repaired
| here.
| Halle, the little German. salt-making
| city, whose inhabitants are supposed to
be descended from an early race of differ
emit blood from the modern Germans. has
curious fete of its own, which has been
| celebrated annually for many centuries.
| says the New York Sun on that dav tbe
| masters and the salt-makers, clad in red
mantles follow to church the cake of the
feast borne aloft by a youth. accom-
panied by his sweetheart. After the re
| 1gious rites follows a banquet and a
dance to the music of instruments spec
tally devoted to the purpose The fete
originated in an incident that took place
so long ago that the very date has been
lost. A mill belonging to the commune
was burned and the family of the miller
was saved by the salt-workers When the
| mill was rebuilt the commune voted to the
| salt-boilers, in perpetuity, an annual cake
OF 100 pounds to be blessed, carried in
| procession, and then eaten solemnly 10
the music of drums and hfes. The cereo
| mony had been going on thus for genera-
| tions, when in 1876 there was a new fire
| in the city, which destroyed the CITY hall
| but spared the salt works and the dwell