The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

"A collection Of 5000 saIffed birds viii
| be one OF the attractions OF a mus ss III
I Holland. the building will in size out
rank anything OF the hind m the WORM
except the British Muse. an
"A concrete bridge haN ing clear span
recently constructed ov, T the la! Dsn up 9e
at Munderkingen. in Aus ria Stone Is
scarce and dear there. viii le good cement
is produced in large quaint TIES
The project 10 build ar aerial tram
way at Niagara Falls is lik. ely 70 De car
ried out the coming sumo T. Inc pan
is to run cage-lke car on negse cane s'll
strung across the river immee lately over
the falls. 1t will be operate & by cleo
tricity-
The town Of Chicopee. Mass. recently
passed at ordinance which impoz IS a me
be caught throwing into any street ; lane
or alley ashes, glass, crOckery, scp~aP iIoIi,
tacks, nails or any other articles winch
might tnjure the tires Of bicycles
Among the treasures of the ~ sstrian
crown are some religious relics that lVogld
make the fortune Of a church. Tn e1' IN
clude nail from the cross, a frag IN emf
Of the cross itself, a piece of wood IRON
the manger at Bethlehem, fragments OF
the apron worn by the Virgin an
tooth of John the Baptist.
In ordinary chemical analysis the O ne
Observation-Disclosures of a grain .ap-
prOaches very nealy the lowest limit of
practical determination. The spectr o.
can tell the presence of a substance whe n
the quantity is nearly two million time 8
less than this, or two-hundred-and-fort {
millionth of grain.
"A young man named Bennett has put
his bicycle to profitable use in the Austria
liam gold fields by establishing with it a
postal route between Coolgardie, the CEN
ter OF the mining district, and Dundos,
which is $50 miles away. Strapped on the
wheel - a small letter-box in which he car
ries letters between the two towns for a
smiling apiece and kilograms for five shill-
ings, making one round trip week. A re-
volver, a sharp knife and a water-bottle
comprise the rest of his outfit.
The following were the rates of postage
IN this country In the year 1900: Every let
ter composed Of a single sheet of paper
conveyed not exceeding forty miles, s
cents: over forty miles and not exceeding
100 miles, l2l2 cents; over l59 and not eX-
ceeding 800 miles, II cents; over 300 miles
and not exceeding 500 miles, 20 cents;
over 500 miles, % cents. Every letter COM
posed of two pieces of paper, double those
rates; every letter composed of three
pieces of paper, triple those rates; every
letter composed of four pieces of paper
weighing one ounce, quadruple those rates
and at the rate of four single letters for
each ounce any letter or packet may
weigh; every ship letter originally received
at an Office for delivery with cents.
An engineer has pointed out that one
inch of rain falling upon an area of one
square mile is equivalent to nearly II, 800
900 gallons, weighing 145, 100000 pounds or
l-iUuV TONS. Assuming THIS wafer 10 nave
fallen from clouds about half a mile, or
say 1900 feet above the earth, we have the
energy represented by 1t about p 600 horse
power. With pumping machinery working
at the low rate of consumption of two
pounds of coal per horse power per hour,
II would take 200 gross tons of coal to raise
the water represented by one inch Of rain
on a square mile to the assumed distance OF
5000 feet AS a matter of fact rain often
falls from clouds which are at much great
er hight than 5000 feet above the ground,
figures
conservative ones.
"A correspondent states that the circu-
lar saw was first invented in America
in 1850 by cOmbmaker named Hartshorn,
| who used a common handsaw to saw out
the horn between the teeth, thus forming
one of those old-fashioned horn combs,
says the Philadelphia Record. Finally,
thinking it rather a slow process, he took
what used TO be called a "Bungtown cop
per- filed it down thinner drilled a hcle
through its center, then squared the hole
and cut the teeth around its outer edge,
placed it upon mandrel true and per-
manent, then put ii into his lathe, and
with the fiat horn laying upon a wooden
rest he sawed out his combs. From the
copper he shortly cut up his backsaw,
and converted it into circular saws. This
man HartshOrn lived and died in Mans
field, Conn. He also invented the screw
and lip augur. also the bits such as are
used in the brace. He was asked why
he did not put in his claim for compen-
sation long afterward when we had
patent office. His reply was that If he
had done anything that was benefit to
his fellow men they were welcome to it.
Among the important announcements
made by Prof. Huxley and which Gre
ated stir among scientific men, was one
that the coal beds of England were not
| formed, as previously supposed chiefly
from trunks of trees, but almost wholly
from pollen of lycopodiums tree ferns and
other cryptogramous plants As. he held, 4
there was no wind during the carbonifer-
GUS period the pollen fell annually in lay
ers of almost even thickness. From these
LAYERS IL
ration of the carboniferous period, and
his figures showed II to be the shortest
| of all preceding the present one, aggre-
eating something less than half a million
years.
In comparing the four great tunnels, says
the Chautauquan, it is interesting to note
| that time is an extraordinary element in
| the cost The oldest tunnel-HoOsac-cost
1873 a foot; Mount Gents, the next oldest,
cost 1855 foot; ST. Gothard cost 1929 a foot,
and the most recent tunnel of the four
the Arlberg-cost only $l54 a foot All
four were in old-settled countries, with
abundant labor and the very great differ
ence in cost per foot plainly marks the
progress of science, because it was the in
vention and Improvement in tools that
made it possible to reduce the time and
thus the cost To observe the difference
between the work on the three great Eu-
ropean tunnels. built by government aid
In old-settled countries. it may be well to
observe for moment the work done on a
comparatively small tunnel built far from
civilization through the Cascade mountains
on the line or the Northern Pacific rail-
road. The mountain through which the
tunnel is cut is $3.50 feet above the sea, and
the peak is lbs feet above the floor of the
tunnel To understand the magnitude and
difficulty of this undertaking it must be
observed that the site of the tunnel, at the
time the contract for its constructor was
signed was an unbroken wilderness. At
the then existing terminus of rail connec-
ton everything-men and tents, food
horses, machinery, lumber hospitals, and,
in fact. the material of the arny-had to
be transported over improvised roads
eighty-two miles through forests, through
snow and mud, to the east portal of the
tunnel and eighty-seven miles to the west
portal. Six months passed before all the
machinery was on the spot. Rivers had
TO be turned aside bridges built. camps es-
tablished, and men and horses collected.
fed, housed and cared for nearly 100 miles
from a locomotive. The tunnel is sixteen
and a half feet wide and twenty-five feeI
high, and the entire distance Is. $50 feet
was bored through the mountain in twen-
ty-two months the rate of progress with
the power drills being ALB feet month.
and the cost of the completed tunnel was
only $l.1S a foot. and the entire work was
completed in twenty-eight months from
the signing of the contract in New York
city.