The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


I gas burned In the best burners
Weeds along railroad tracks are now
/ killed BY the electric weed-killer-" II
WHICH sends beavv ea crTrlnt into 1 s sorp
/ Of rake Of fine wires dragging among the
weeds on each side Of the track. As the
/ wires touch them the weeds are "elec-
Ttocuted down to their smallest root
\ lets II Is proposed TO introduce the SANG
/ system in farming.
A big snake. over four feet long. was
/ caught at Rochester, Pa, the other day,
/ and his captOrs determined TO try cleo
/ tricty on him. They took him 20 the
/ power house, fastened a wire to each emo
/ OF MIN and turned on a powerful cur
/ rent, strong enough to kilia dozen men,
4 The snake writhed and twisted a mo-
ment and then Strengthened out, and the
| when he was laid out in the sun, he start
| ed TO crawl off. Again he was treated 20
/ 10 the electric dose without effect, ana
| f1nally he had to be killed with CLUB.
The Connecticut wooden nutmeg is,
/ OF course, myth; but Connecticut man
/ has just patented a. machine for. making
hats out of Wool says the New York
/ Tribune. A log of wood. cut square, fed
| ITO the machine, is converted into fine
/ strips of wood, much resembling excel
/ sior II is claimed that when these are
moistened they can be worked much more
1 readily than straw, and make a dura-
| bic hat The inventor says the substance
IS lighter in weight than straw, and that
| because OF the easier manipulation and
| liver cost, II will supersede the straw now
used for headgear.
| "A serious trouble. causing many rail
| road accidents, is that our rail is not con-
| tlnuOuS, says Engineering Magazine. be
1 ing broken in a number of places by
| switches and frogs. Perhaps only a
/ higher wisdom than ours can tell us how
/ to avoid accidents caused by open switch
/ es. as long as these dangerous devices are
not eliminated from the track. This
/ should be done even if the cost of other
/ wise setting off the cars be more eXpen-
/ siVe. Let us make our rails absolutely
! continuous and transfer cars bodily to
/ adjacent tracks by the use of hosting ma
! chinery. Such devises are used in Eng
land course, under the control of
! block system-and are fOud very safe and
/ satisfactory. Particularly should tracks
/ on which the very fast trains are run be
/ made contiguous, as accidents to such
/ trains are much more serious than those
| that happen to slow trains.
M. Moissan, the noted French cleo
! trician, expects to reVOlutiOnize the dis
| ullatiOn of alcohol He has discOVercC
/ an Inexpensive method of obtaining al
| cohol from acetylene which is the new
/ gas that came to the front so prominently
/ a rev months ago as probable substi-
/ tute for ordinary illuminating gas owing
/ to its cheapness. NJ. Moissan pursues the
same method of producing the acetylene
gas by subjecting a quantity of coke and
quicklime to the heat of an electric fur
mace in order to effect a direct union or
/ their elements and produce calcium car
| blde, which decOmDOses when thrown in.
water into acetylene. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
GUS sulphate absorbs this gas, and by the
AID OF heat transforms in into ethylene.
/ The ethylene is passed into hot sulphu-
/ ric acid, and sulphovinic acid is obtain
/ ed, which by the addition of boiling wa
I ter, produces the alcohol that then only
demands reCtfication. The cost of best
quality alcohol produced by this method
/ Is stated to be from to cents per quart.
in the matter of amusements the
/ EsquimauX are not badly off, says the
/ Pittsburg Dispatch. They have a form
| of cup and ball, the ball being a block of
! ivory with holes at different angles. into
! one of which the players strive to insert
! an ivory peg as the block falls the po-
/ sition of the hole determining the value
| of the stroke. Another game closely re-
/ running as high as double thirties,' but
! the sequences are not regularly carried
| out, the breaks in them seeming TO be
| without SYSTEM When they can borrow
| or purchase a pack of cards they win play
with considerable skill; and they also en-
! JOY draughts, having learned these games
/ from the whalers They have a game
/ exactly like solitaire with the exception
/ that ivory pegs take the place of glass
balls. The special amusement of the wo-
] men is a species of eats cradle" which
has been brought to such perfection that
! they develop from 20 to 30 different figures
| in it. Indeed, they are extremely clever
in performing tricks with string, winding
anu tWlStlns piece IN ana out among
| their fingers, and then disentangling ii by
a single pun al one end.
II was on my bicycle" writes a man
!
! ing very large field where number
| of sheep were grazing. As I passed
! sheep ran toward me in an excited state,
looking up at me like pet dog, and bleat-
/ ing in most pitCOuS way. l was so in
terested in what I saw that I stopped
| and instantly the sheep galloped to the
! further end of the field in the same ex-
| cited way, ana then raced back to me
| again, beating and looking up at me
just in the same beseeching way as il
/ did at first. Had it spoken, il could not
been
| should go with it to the other end of the
field. ! could see nothing but a few trees;
| still, felt compelled to go with the sheep
| so Enthusiastically did it let me know that
it wanted me to go with it. So l went
the sheep galloping on before me till it had
| reached the spot at the end of the field
| where I felt sure it wanted me to 60 Till
! reached the place the animal ran round
| and round the same particular spot in the
| same excited way, as if it wanted to say:
Make haste come as fast as you can
| When l arrived | found there was deep
! stream of water, and one Of the sheep
had fallen into it and was struggling to
get out!
An Odessa letter of recent date says:
zone of the oldest vessels afioat arrived
a few days ago in Odessa, and is now
moored on the lower. quay. She belongs
called the Holy Prophet lila (Elias). She
| is brig-rigged and sail under the Turkish
| flag, but Greek cross Is carried on both
| mastheadS and she differs from the ordi-
! nary Turkish ships by her scrupulous
cleanliness. The captain is Jeromonach.
a monk ranking higher than friar, and
all the sailors are monks or lay brothers
| still, they are expert seamen. The pilot
| Father Iraklij (Heraclius) has crossed all
| the oceans and zones, sailing around the
wide world since 1886. The entire crew
| speak both Russian and Greek. Service
on the ship alternates with worship in the
| little church in the forecastle 1t is quite
a curious sight to behold these monks in
their long frocks and sandals climbing
up the masts, along the yard-arm, reef
| ing sails, or hanging almost over the wa
| ter on the foremost point of the bowsprit
i The brig brought here load of bricks
from Constantinople, and goes in ballast
| to Marinpol whence she will take a corgo
of flour, corn, fish and other provisions,
which are to furnish a supply for the con-
| vent for whole year. According to the
sailor-monks own statements the HOLY
Prophet lila is smart sailor, and runs
| II knots an hour in a fair wind She Is
105 feet long and carries a cargo of 200
tons.
| "A patent has been taken out for a sin
| gular, but ingenious, process for making
glass veneers. The invention relates pri-
marily to the production of ornamental
| glass, which may be either semi-trans-
| parent or Opaque, and is made to repre-
| sent highly polished wood of anV descrin-