The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-25
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

AA-EA a Gay ellIElt lOE mouse luolll-s
which he claims can be manufactured at
slight expense and IS very durable. II IS
said that the machinery for making these
shingles is on hand. and that contracts will
soon be entered into 10 supply them by
the million.
The lighthouse board are experiment.
ing with gaslit buoys. They are huge
bubbles of metal which float on the wa
ter, filled with compressed gas. and their
brilliant lamps viii burn day and night
for more than three months without re-
ceiving any attention or replenishment.
Before long they are likely TO replace
lightships 10 a great extent. A nghJship
costs $500 TO begin with. and its main
tenance comes TO 81 200 or $50 "A year.
one Of these buOys can be bought for
$2.ooe. and ii may be kept going for S25
year The huOyS come from Germany,
and a remarkable point about them is that
nobody knows how they are made
Aluminium rims for bicycles. says the
Age of Steel. are opening up a new field
for that metal Il is light and strong.
and while in case of accident it is easily
susceptible of indeRtation, it seldoms
fractures or breaks. \ metal that CON-
bines the strength OF steel with the light
ness OF wood and with these qualities Is
not too obtrusiVe on the pocketbook Is
bound TO be a special feature in the BIZ
cycle industry. This metal has had the
usual misfortune of all new metals of be-
ing Overrated in some particulars ana
unreasonably deprecated In others. but
where its special and inherent qualities
are beyond doubt, its extended use is
simply a question of time and intelligence.
In the bicycle Industry il has a future.
There seems to be no question, says
the New York Sun, as to the practical util-
ity of the new though crude wind engine. -
which is now coming into use in some
parts of the west According to the des-
cription, II resembles the paddle wheel of
a sternWheel boat, with a shaft u to IA
feet long, II to is feet across with six or
eight arms; the lower half of the wheel
Is shielded from the wind, so that the air
acts only upon the upper vanes. A crank
upon one end Of the shaft connects with
the pump Power can be indefinitely in
creased at any time by simply increasing
tire length. The wind acts upon this sort
of paddle wheel from all points of the
compass except two and ii seems to re-
quire no governor" but simply pumps
more during a storm. No tower is provided
for. and it is placed so that the radial
arms will be clear of the ground. One of
these wheels now running in Kansas is
stated TO be Il feet in diameter, q feet
long, and has eight fans. The largest wa
ter-wheel in the world is said to be an
oyershot wheel in the Isle of Man. 1t is
72l2 feet i'm diameter 6 feet in breadth
with crank stroke of 10 feet, and gives
200 horsepower.
Recently the Morning News published
an item with regard to street paving with
compressed marsh grass. which attracted
some attention. The following. from the
Springfield Republican. contains addition
al details: Baltimore is to make a Gu
rious experiment in paving. The material
employed is swamp grass, which grows
luXuriantly in the salt marshes along the
Atlantic coast. II grows very compactly.
and in many places TO a hight of six or
eight feet. LabOrers go into the marshes
with large, fiat boats and cut the hay,
which falls into the boat as it is poled
oil rsa-h Q he -Hla fol
Is then put into bundles, and cut up into
the proper length by machine similar
to the ordinary hay-cutter. 1t is after
ward subjected to moderate pressure,
and made into blocks about six inches
thick by sixteen long and twenty wide.
These are then fastened by wires, very
much in the manner that hay is put up.
Before the blocks are shipped from the
factory they are treated with a prepara-
tion of "deda OIL and they are then
ready to lay upon the streets. The cost
of putting down this pavement complete
including the preparation of the concrete
foundation. is given at from $40 to 10
per square yard
Submarine cables are usually imbed-
ded in the Shiny bottom of the ocean,
but at certain points they hang like wire
bridges over deep submarine valleys, so
that whales, and other large inhabitants
of the deep may become dangerous to
the cable. once in while II is the ca
BILE that becomes dangerous to the whales
as recently shown in an accident to the
Western Brazilian cable There was some
trouble with the wire, and after many
futile efforts the seat of the trouble was
discovered SeVenty-Sfx miles north of San-
ia Catharina. The repair ship Viking
was sent to repair the damage, and be-
gan to take up the cable near where the
seat of the trouble had been located
After the cable proper had been Crap
pied and was taken on the large drums
provided for the purpose, it was found
that it fioated very much easier and was
more buoyant that was ordinarily the
case. The reason was discovered when
in d loop of the cable the carcass of a
whale of more than sixty feet in length
came up with it. 1t appears that the
whale had become caught under the cable
and not being able TO lift it nor to go
forward or back. IL suffocated since it
could no more rise to the surface. BY it's
last spasms or attempts to free ITSELF
the whale had damaged the cable so
that the insulation was rubbed off and the
wire became useless. This is the thirG
once happened in the Persian gulf and an
other on the Peruvian coast.
The most recent discoveries among the
tombs of the ancient kings and queens
of Egypt are perhaps the most interest
ing that have yet been made says a
cable in the New York Sun. NJ. de Nor
gan mas resurrected the mummified re-
mains of Princesses Khnoumit and TIA
These two princesses lived at the end
of the third and the beginning of the
fourth dynasties, or about 500 years
before the Christian era. Their tombs
had been concealed with good deal of
ingenuity. There was ample evidence of
the fear of being disinterred by prowl-
ing nomadic bands of robbers, apprehen-
sions which continually dwelt in the
minds of the ancient Egyptians There
were several sham funeral chambers cut
in the rock near the real tombs, some
of them bearing misleading inscriptions
intended to deceive marauders The ac-
tual tOmbS We're inscribed with WARNINGS
which threatened terrible penalties upon
any intruder. The remains of the two
princesses were inclosed in rich sarcoph-
agi within a fine vault. An imposing ar
ray of sculptured figures stood guard
over the stone collins. The bodies them
selves were still decked with the dia-
dems, rich necklets and other Jewels
which had adorned the wearers at the
court of the Pharaohs. Princess Khnou-
init wore an deliberately chased old crown
and an additional head ornament in gold
filagree representing feathers. Princess
tia had at her. side a finely chased dag
ger set in a handle of solid gold. All
fI1 IN,