The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-13
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

man cooking and cares only for French
cuisine. When his relatives Of the house
OF tuscany visit him, TO please their
tastes. he has Italian dishes served. On
certain Occasions. the empress, who is
Bavarian. orders German dishes.
"A curious application Of the Rontgen
rays has been made in France by Prof.
Buguet Of Rouen. and the chemist, Il
discard. They took true and false dia-
mOndS for the experiment and obtained
entirely different results When the rays
were applied to the false diamonds only
indistinct images appeared on the pho
however allowed the rays TO pass, and.
as a result, much darker pictures were
produced on the plates. Thus a certain
method of discovering the quality of dia-
mOnds is assured.
The post mortem examination OF one
of the flock of ostriches owned by Bar
mum & Bailey which was on exhibition
at the Central park menagerie. revealed
surprising condition of its interior, says
the New Ork Tribune. The small boy is
supposed TO carry around in his pockets
a wonderful collection Of articles. but
the stomach of the huge bird contained
an even more varied assortment The
digestive capabilities of an ostrich are
even greater than those of a Harlem goat,
and 1t is less particular as TO what it
swallows. The ostrich, which was dis
sected by a taxidermist, G.. Rowley, a
few days ago, had in its stomach the fol-
lowing articles: One wooden clothespin;
two pieces of glass, the bottoms OF beer
bottles; a mouth harmOnica, five inches
long and two inches wide; a metal skate
key; the ferrule of an umbrella, with
a piece of the stick in il about four inches
long; an ordinary brass door key. i've
inches long; a woman's black horn comb:
a wOman's silk handkerchief; two pieces
OF coal, about an inch thick and three
stones ABOUT an inch thick with some
cabbage, grass, lettuce, celery. common
art, and few minor pieces of vegeta-
bles. The ostrich did not die from the
q 81
but from tuberculosis. The bird viii be
mounted in the museum, and perhaps the
point out the evil effects of indiscrimi-
nate eating, but to show the use to which
an ostrich's stomach may be put
"A fireproof man is Jacob H. Boyer of
Phoenixville, Pa, says the New York
journal. He can step into a furnace
where the temperature is more than 20
degrees Fahrenheit: he can work there
with little discomfort, though the heat
singeS his whiskers and burns the soles of
his shoes. And yet this human salaman-
der Wits under the first strong rays from
the sun. Boyer is a mason, employed by
the Phoenix iron works. and he draws a
big salary. His duty is to repair furnaces
when they are in use. The capacity of a
single furnace is estimated at forty tons
of best Phoenix steel every twenty-four
hours. The ingots to be heated vary in
size, the largest being a foot in diameter
and eight feet long. These ingots are
heated for the rolls, and it occasionally
happens that an accident occurs to the
furnace while heated. To take the heat
out and cool the furnace would be a great
loss of time and a big Inconvenience to
the company. Right here is where Boy
er's wonderful ability to stand the heat
comes i'm handy. He can repair the break
down without the loss of a moment. His
thorough familiarity with the details of
the furnace work and his freDroof quail
ties have made him one of the highest
salaried men in the employ of the COM
pany. Boyer's shoes have frequently been
scorched, and his whiskers and hair have
often been burned off to the roots Once
he repaired a smelling furnace while it
was so hot that the tools he was using
were bent double. Several of the fire
bricks had fallen out of place and Boyer
used a long, iron-handled instrument TO
put the bricks i'm place. The job was ac-
complished only after the greatest diff
Guilty
Ordinary rife balls have long ago been
found unsatisfactory. not only in hunt
ing the elephant and rhinoccros but also
Such balls seldom penetrates the thick
skin of an elephant or hippopotamus, or
the skull of the large feineS and, if
it does, it usually only irritates the pune
tured animal Hence explosive balls are
now generally used. The body of the
explosive balls is Of lead, enclosing a
brass shell closed at both ends and filled
with powder Into the bottom of this
shell is fitted percussion cap, to be ex-
ploded by a pin whose head projects be-
yOnd the shell, but which the still further
projecting leaden envelope prevents from
premature action. When the shot is fired
the powder gases drive the brass shell
forward, the broad foot of the shell be-
coming firmly wedged in the lead. The
mead of the pin then projects so that,
on contact with the object fired at il
strikes the percussion cap, exploding the
ball These projectiles are called Pode-
Wis balls. In the balls usually en-
ployed in hunting elephants in particular,
there is no brass shell. The steel pin is
inserted in through the point of the hol-
low ball; the cavity is then filled with
powder and closed with a screw carrying
the percussion cap. A still more original
and more expensive ball for the same
kind of sport is that invented by Baron
having an outer covering of lead. The
front end of the tube is finely tempered
and sharpened. This wicked, hollow pro-
Jectlle cuts like punch through flesh
and bone, through thick and thin, and so
far remains unsurpassed in the elephant
killing business.
One of the most marvellous facts of
the present is the wide field of usefulness
of aluminium. So varied are the uses to
which it can be put that it is estimated
the output the coming year will be fully
3,OO0,0O0 pounds an average of 10 900 pounds
a day. In 1894 there was practically but
one aluminium reduction works in the
country, located at Pittsburg, and the
output for that year was $4,000 pounds.
In 1895 this was increased to $50 600 pounds
and now that the plant has been removed
Niagara Falls, it is estimated the output
VIII reach 100000 pounds. In addition
to this there is claimed for the plant iust
reaching completion at Fairlawn, a sub
urb of st. Louis Mo-, a daily capacity of
10000 pounds. This plant is described as
consisting of one smelling furnace, with
capacity of 100 tons of clay daily: one
reducing and refining furnace of ten tons
daily capacity of bauXite ore. From the
clag left from the process of making alum
mum is made remarkable product known
as mineral wool, which is used for steam
pipe packing, in. place of asbestos and i'm
the manufacture of refrigerators, storage
trunks, etc. The most recent practical
use for aluminium that will, no doubt
largely increase the demand for the metal
is its especial adaptability for the powder
chamber of cartridges. Anything that
Will reduce the weight of soldiers amnnu-
milton must become popular with military
authorities. The saving in weight with
the new cartridges is % per cent, enabling
soldier to carry % per cent additional
rounds of ammunition. Another use is in |
the making of oil cups for crank pins of
high-Speed locomotives. Oil Guns Of con-
per per are frequently broken by the trench
douS centrifugal force developed as thew
are Whirled about. This danger. is Ie-sr~,'