The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.
Calais. the man who started last
summer TO wheel his wife around the
world in a wheelbarrow. has returned 20
Harls with a story that they We're attack
81 Dy wolves IN forest Of Croatia, and
MS wife was so badly hurt that she Cicd
soon afterward at Belgrade.
Glass bricks are blown in silesia and
closed under a temperature of so degrees
They possess internally "A hollow of about
One-third Of their entire contents. when.
being flled with rarifed air. acts as a
non-cOnductOr of heat. They are intend
ed Tor plant houses and winter gardens
ana may possibly be employed as roofing
IN semi-circular form. dispensing with iron
Tor support. In houses built of this mate
raj many advantages are Obtainable, in
ciudlhg greater economy in heating. No
windows would he needed, save as conve-
hiehces Tor viewing the exterior world.
Canada has a forest in the Labrador
and Hudson bay district which extends at
least leo by 100 miles: South America
mas one in the basin of the Amazon, which
IS ZlOo by 1880 miles: Central Africa has
a forest region 100 miles north and south
and of unknown width east and west.
Pernaps, however. an these are cast into
the shade by the Siberian 'urmans'' or
tarGas, which are vast woods Of pine,
larch and cedar at least 5000 miles from
east TO west, and 1000 miles from north to
south. They are so thick and gloomy that
the natives call them places where the
mind is lost"
"A new French invention, the enregis-
treur musical, gives IN instantaneous
transcription of imprOvisatons on the
piano As fast as the fingers run over the
keys II marks on a paper the position and
length of the notes and the division OF
the measure, using a stenographic nota-
ton, not the ordinary musical signs The
a roll Of ~
nIty meters long, ruled and prepared in
a. pecuHar manner, while a pointer me-
chanically traces the signs to indicate
the night and length of the notes and
rests The signs are horizontal lines,
longer or shorter. as the case may be to
indicate the duration of the notes. while
the place OF the signs on the paper gives
inc degree of hight. The photographic
copy can be written ont in ordinary must
cal notation by cOpyist after five min
utes' study.
The wonderful penetrative power and
scope of the Edgecomb binocular tele-
scope are rendering rare and valuable aid
70 research in that line, the two object
glasses in this latest construction being
pronounced so perfect in quality and like
ness that the eminent maker himself AL
van Clark. declares his inability to discov-
et the least defect or difference between
them, SAYS the New York Sun These glass
Is are of six and dVe-sixteenths inches
aperture and ninety-four inches focus, and
III lAls idlleF element they DO not differ
by loo Of an inch. So perfect is the paral-
lelism secured and maintained mat they
are considered unriValed by any other OBJ
1eCt glasses in the world Prisn1a tic eve
pieces bring the pencils of light traVersing
the two great tubes to within the proper
distance apart to be received by the ewes
ana, by the same means the image of the
ooJect, viewed is presented In the natural
or "rlght--side-up" position. the instru-
ment being thus suited equally for terres-
tiial and celestial uses. Each eye, by this
q mi ,fwraer
by six and one-quarter inch telescope
OF perfect defining power. In practice,
minute spot Of light p feet distant, is ex-
hibited by the reflector clear and bright
with every detail of its dial perfectly de-
fined, as in a gold watch.
The following explanation is by Willis
L. Moore, chief of the weather bureau,
concerning Chicago's black snow: "The
black snow that has lately fallen in Chi
cago and the northwest is entirely similar
10 the great fall OF January, 1895, the ma
ture of which was thoroughly inVestiga-
TED by the weather bureau at that time.
Notwithstanding the theoretical suggestion
that the black deposit of last January
nilShL nave come from beyond the earth
ana might be meteOric, or cometic, or
might even be the volcanic dust from
Alaska or Japan, careful investigation
showed that ii was due TO none of these
causes. On the contrary. microscopic eX-
animation proved that the black deposit
contained about 4 per cent. of the most
uellcdte organic structures (Such as dia-
toms and spores) and about 96 per cent.
Of the finest possible inorganic matter,
sueh as make up the ordinary fine silt
and clay soils. All this fine material is
easily caught up by the dry winds when
ever they exceed twenty miles per hour,
and is carried to great distances before
II mas time and opportunity to settle on
the ground. 1t is easily brought down in
large quantities by snow or rain, but il
Is only perceived by the ordinary observer
when there is a clean surface of snow for
g
try. from Nebraska southwark to the
gulf, are covered by this fine soil, whose
depth sometimes is 100 feet A gale of
wind has been known to carry away six
inches of the surface soil from freshly
cultivated field and spread it over the
land hundred miles away. The black
ness is due to the fneness of the silt and
not to any magnetic iron"
Quite a few members of the fish family
are complete storage batteries in them
selves, says the Chicago News. The tor
pedo ray is the most familiar. A fisherman
once said his arm was nearly paralyZed
by coming in contact with one of them
Not many years ago the fishermen of Italy
believed they were bewitched by a power
that came up out of the sea. and it was not
till Redi the Italian naturalist discov-
cred that 1t was the torpedo fish which
eXerted the strange influence that they
recovered from their fright. The benumb-
ing sensation experienced by contact with
the torpedo is more like that which comes
"
thing else. The fish is a perfect battery.
constructed on the principal of the voltaic
pile. 1t consists of two layers or series of
cells, more than 2,000 sometimes being
found in one fish, with a jelly-like fluid
between them. Experiments have shown
that while the torpedOis not strong enough
to kill man, the shock it gives will kin
a reed bird: Even after death it's powers
are apparent and those holding the dis
sectlng knife are sometimes seriously in
terfered with. The most powerful of all
living electric batteries known is the cleo
trio eel of South America Richer. the as
tronomer, presented his experiences with
the eel to the French Academy of Sciences
and a.n1d was laughed at for his palms. Not
till seventy years later was the story of
an electric South American fish credited
A Dutch naturalist has compared this eel
to Leyden jar. The large cells, ten to
fifteen feet in length. are dangerous to
human life. One captured for the British
museum Frustrated a horse and rider in
the struggle and when dragged ashore
by two natives, gave them such shocks
that they screamed aloud. An English
man., who rushed forward and cut the
line, himself received a shock One of the
African catfishes is an excellent electrician
and its powers are appreciate by the ma
tiVeS. who use it for various DurnOsaS Ae