The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-12-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ing.
One of the buildings at the Tennessee
centennial exposition will be erected en-
tirely with money provided by the child
rem OF the state. Everything in il and
around it Will be arranged for the pleas
ure and profit of children. In the tower
will swing a fine set of silver chimes.
A Detroit CIich) dispatch says: E.
G. Salter of this city has discovered the
lost art OF tempering copper so that the
metal may be utilized in place of steel
for many purposes where corrOsion puts
steel at disadvantage. He has made
both coiled and fiat springs of great elias
best of all. is able to weld the metal
itself and weld il to iron or steel. Mr..
Salter says his process give pure copper
all the qualities which it possesses when
the secret process of tempering is employ
ed. Trolley wheels made from tempered
copper have outworn several sets OF
wheels made in the old way.
"A war ship of an entirely new class is
being built in France, SAYS the Fhiladei-
phia Record. In general design she will be
fast cruiser, but instead of carrying a
strength will consist of sixteen small tor
pedo boats carried on her deck and which
can be quickly lowered into and raised
out of the water by means of strong der
rlcks. The mission of this new vessel will
be to overtake a hostile fleet in the dark
ness OF night, put her sixteen little destroy
ers overheard, and. after the latter shall
have worked all the havoc possible, the
wicked brood viii return to the mother
ship, so to speak, as the young serpents
in moments of danger are tabled to be
received again into the parental womb {,
and then, up steam and awayi If :he YES
sci shall prove as successful IN practice
as in theory she will be worthy her name,
lie Foudre, meaning Destruction.
There is a wayward white oak tree
near Laporte. Ind, that may well puzzle
naturalists with the vagaries of its
growth. The tree is nine feet in circum-
ference at the base, and there are no
branches of any size below fifteen feet
from the ground. There the great bole
divides into a number of limbs. Two leav-
ing the trunk about twenty inches apart,
grow west. their lines diverging for some
six feet and then each rending toward
the other. Twelve feet from the body of
the tree they unite again. making a per-
feet oval, and out of this grows two small
er branches As if not satisfied with that
expressed disregard for the laws of ma
ture, this old tree has performed another
feat. Six feet from its base grows an
other white oak, less than half its size.
and no sooner does the smaller tree ar
rive at the charmed circle of those branch
ing limbs than one of them grows right
into it, and is absorbed. The second tree
is very much larger twenty feet from the
ground than at its base.
A novel scheme for saving his cattle
from the droVes of coyotes that infest the
region has been hit upon by a rancher of
Glen Rock, Wash. He has placed bells on
the necks of great number Of cattle in
his nerds, and the result has been to
scare the coyotes away. In the two
months since he belled his herds he has
not lost single animal, while previously
his loss averaged one steer a day. Coy
otes are becoming more of a pest every
season in many parts of Washington and
Oregon, despite all efforts of the cattle
men and farmers to eXterminate them.
Thousands of dollars are spent every
year in waging war on the beasts, but
with little results. Poison aVailed for
the poisoned carcass of steers strewn
about for their consumption The only
way of killing them is by shooting them,
and this is feeble and wholly inadequate
means. Occasionally the residents com
pine and have grand roundup hunt,
driving the coyotes toward the center of
circle, and slaughtering them there,
and this is the only means of apprecia-
bly, thinning them out occasionally. In
some regions the packs of gray wolves
are as numerous and troublesome as the
coyotes. The coyotes are particularly
adept chicken thieves, and, indeed, are a
general pest around the farm yards.
1t was reported some time ago, says
the Phliadelphia Times, that at a bali
IN south America the mistress of the
mouse wore dress made of spider silk.
IL Is nearly two centuries since a French
scientist made the first attempt to utilize
this SILK. A certain NJ. Bon sent to the
Academy of Sciences some mittens and
SOCKS OF spider silk, and Reaumur was re-
quested to examine these articles anG
make report. There was no disputine
the fact that the articles were genuine
but Reaumur showed conclusively that
tne game was not worth the candle"
Vt took ninety spider threads to equal in
strength one silk thread, and $50 to make
a thread strong enough for sewing pur-
poses. Moreover, it took twice as many
spiders to produce a given quantity of
silk. And to produce one pound of silk
2S,COO cocoons would have been required
Reaumur recommended that spiders in
warmer countries could be experimenfed
on. This suggestion was carried out bv the
Able de Termeyer in Brazil; he pur-
sued his object for thirty-four years, but
with very poor results. A few years ago
an English manufacturer obtained some
large tropical spiders, and kept them in
a room heated to temperature of 60 de-
grees; into this room he caused to slowly
evaporate liquid composed of chloroform
ether and alcohol. The result was far
more favorable than that hitherto OBJ
tanned, but rs the cost of the silk was
nearly $3.50 per pound, it cannot be said
that spider silk dress is within the
reach of all.
DIR. Stejneger thinks there are more
popular errors in regard to the ma bits
of the snake than of any other animal
says the New York Sun. This is strik,
ingly eXemplified in the matter of the
growth of the rattle 1t has been a com
mon belief for a long time that each
ring on the rattle of a rattlesnake rep
resented a year of its life and that its
age consequently could be ascertained
by simply counting the number of rings
DR.. Stejneger asserts that this common
belief is entirely erroneous. The rattle
is a delicate instrument which breaks
easily Old and large rattlers are fire.
quently found with only one or a few
rings; a variable number of Joints are
added each year and the production of
ring can be accomplished in the course
of three or four months. These are all
facts proved by observation and experi-
ment. The use of the rattle is still an
unsettled question. Students. when AT
tempting to explain the utility of the rat
tie, have often failed, because it seems
that the rattle, so far from being use-
full to the snake. in most cases appears
to be disadvantage, for it has led To
the almost total extinction of the rattIers
in the cultivated and more densely inhab
tied districts of the country. The theories
as to the use of the rattles are nunner.
Gus. One suggestion is that It is a prov
idential arrangement to prevent injury to
innocent animals and Man,, Another ihs
DRY is that it is used as a lure for game Nv
the imitation of sounds OF birds ana
certain insects. Other people hold thai
the rattle is used by the snake to cali
its mate. The suggestion of Herbert
Spencer, that the wagging of the dog's
tail and similar movements of that an
pendage are an escape of nervous force
restrained from other modes of exnres
sion, is taken into consideration nv mr.
Stejneger in discussing the use Of The
rattle. S
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