The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ISlSploAe business OF New YORK has in
! creased vastly of late years, but it has
| not increased, says the Sun, more than
1t has been improved in the public con
Venience. There are now nearly 100000
! telephones in use in the United States.
| and the total miles of telephone wires ex-
| coed 10000
The musical or whistling tree is found
| in the West Indian Islands, in Nubia and
the soudan, says Tit Bits. It has a pecu-
| liar shaped leaf. and pods with a split or
| open edge. The wind passing through
| these sends out the sound which gives the
| tree its peculiar name. In Barbados,
| there is a valley filed with these trees,
and when the trade winds blow across the
| Islands a constant moaning deep toned
| whistle is heard from it, which in the still
| hours of the night has a very weird and
| unpleasant effect. A species of acacia,
| which grows very abundantly in the Sou
| dan, is also called the whisting tree by
| the natives. Its shoots are frequently by
| the agency of the larvae of insects, dis
! torted in shape, and>swollen into a globu-
| lar bladder from one to two inches in diam
| eter. After the insect has emerged from
circular hole in the side of his swelling,
the opening. played upon by the wind, be-
comes mus1cal instrument, equal in sound
| to a sweet-toned flute.
We are now nearing the great meteo-
rio orbit, and very soon there will appear
| in the heavens a vast number of comets
| or shooting stars, says the London Mail
| Astronomers the world over are prepar-
ing to witness the display, which will be
| at its hight about the middle of Novem-
Der. On its present journey the earth will
| only meet the advance guard of the
| stream of meteors that In its revolution
about the sun pours itself across the No
vember section OF our orbit but as the
| stream of meteors is about eight years
| long-that is, eight years being required
| for the entire stream to pass a given
| point-we shall meet it again in Novem-
Der, 1897 and the next November, and the
| next, when we are due to pass through its
| most dense portion, which is about 100 600
| miles in thickness. Then for several years
| its numbers will grow less until the last
| straggler has passed, when it will con-
tinue to sweep on its course and return
| to US again after a third of a century has
| elapsed. AS far back as there are any
! records this stream Of meteors has regu-
| larly appeared every thirty-three and a
| quarter years, and each time has been Wis
| ible from the earth eight Novembers run
| ming.
| "A Frenchman has recently ingeniously
made folding kite from an umbrella. He
calls it the aerophile. The frame, which
| is metallic, and like that of a parasol or
| of offering great resistance, of assuring
| perfect stability to the kite and of being
| capable of closing so as to take up but
| little space in trunk or handbag. The
| covering is of cloth, and there is, there
| fore, no tearing to be feared at the first
| collision with some object. AS for raising
| the kite, that is a very easy matter. The
| frame having been spread it suffices to
| fix the string to the central ring either by
| knot or by means of a small hook that
| ifneed be, may be formed of a hair pin.
| The tail, which is formed of ribbons three
or four yards in length, is provided at its
| lower extremity with pockets designed to
receive sand or pebbles as ballast. These
pockets are filled more or less, according
| to the strength of the wind and are closed
| with string or a rubber band. The
| aerophile is capable of raising relatively
! heavy weights, and may, therefore be
| used for experiments that necessitate the
lifting of certain apparatus of light con-
| struction, such as Photographic or regis
| tering apparatus.
&c. H." of East st. Louis, says the
| st. Louis Republic, asks the following
curious question: eff it were possible
| to bore hole foot or more in diameter
| entirely through the earth, and to then
start UNDERGROUND bali to falling
| through this 5000 miles of hole, at what
| point would it stop?' In answer to this
| We will say that weight, in the sense to
| which our correspondent alludes, is the
| measure of attraction of gravtation; or
| in other words, it is the measure of force
with which a body is attracted to the
| earth. This attractive force decreases
! both ways from the earths surface
| Therefore, If a ball should be started on
| the tour outlined in your query its weight
| would decrease to a certain extent with
| every yard of it's flight Tor falD until fin
oil 1I.s..
| earth IL would have no weight whatever
| This curious state of affairs would be
| brought about by the gradual lessening of
| the force of attraction, or gravitation, I'M
| til the center of the globe Is reached. at
| which point the ball would be held in sus-
| pension, as though fixed by numerous
magnetic points. In other words, at the
| center of the earth the phenomenon of
| weight is entirely wanting.
-Fingerprints are now being stu
died from a scientific point of
view. and although the evidence
accumulated is as yet insult
ticient to enable us to realize their value
to the anthropologist, they have been so
| combined with the Bertllon method for
prison purposes that any prisoner can now
be identified with almost absolute certain
ty and in very short space of time 1t is
estimated that the chance of two finger
prints being identical is less than in GA
| COO,OOO0O, and when it is considered that
the number of the criminal population is
relatively small and that other personal
evidence would be available in any doubt
tul case, mistaken identity ought now to
be thing of the past. The method of in
deXing finger prints in prisons is at first
sight somewhat complicated; but in prac-
tice about five minutes suftices for the COM
plete veritication of any one of 1852 sets
forming a directory. A specimen direc-
tory of 300 sets has been compiled. togeth
er with numerous fingerprints The meth
cd of obtaining the prints is to press the
finger or thumb upon a plate of conner
which has previously been coated, with a
very thin film Of printers ink The linked
fingers are then pressed or rolled upon the
card which is kept as a record