The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-06
ITEMS or INTEREST.

Thomas A. Edison was asked the other
day what he thought of those Chicago
men who claim to be manufacturing gold
from the baser metals. The inventor. it is
said, did not reply categorically TO the
question, but smiled significantly and
picked up from his desk a cablegram
which had just been received from Italy.
The dispatch read TO Edison Orange,
\. J: Have invented perpetual motion.
VIII you help me perfect it?" You will
notice he said, with far-away look,
that great many remarkable discover
les are being made this year"
"A st. Louis photographer has perfect
ed a process by which he is able to pho
tograph carpets, dress goods, etc, and
retain all the colors exactly as they are
in the original. He does this by permit
ting the rays of light to pass through
a prism, which separates the various col
ors. \ plate is made from each color
and the finished picture is secured by
printing from each of these plates. The
invention means much to art, and also 10
commercial travellers, who will be enabled
to carry photographs instead of bulky
samples of the articles they have for sale
The latest of the ''bewildering and pris-
matte" cures for consumption is cabled
produces
most of these scientific discoveries that
fash and disappear, says the Hartford
Times This new one is made by Prof
Landerer of Stuttgart, who has been eX-
perimenting for years in the treatment of
tuberculosis. He has treated 400 pa
tents with a soluble salt of cinnamic
acid. He believes that almost all the pa
TENTS so treated have been permanently
cured" Cinnamic acid is a white, crystal
line, odorless substance, formerly OBJ
tanned from storaX and oil of cinnamon
but now made from benzine or some Of its
products.
Seton Kerr recently displayed at the
Royal Institution some of the prehis-
toric stone implements, axes, wedges,
spearheads, rings curved knives. etc.
gathered by him during his five late ex-
petitions into Somaliland, which. he
thinks, was the cradle of the human race.
He believes that Somaliland and Egypt
were inhabited 200,0 600 or 300, 600 years ago.
and that Father Adam or his near de-
scendants may have delved with the very
tools discovered by the explorer. They
are Identical in form with those of France
and England, thus showing the unity of
the race during the age of stone and go
back to rude civilization in comparison
with which the early Assyrian empire is
a thing of yesterday.
The Northwestern Lumberman saws
that new industry has arisen in Michi-
gan, namely, the conversion of pine
stumps into shingles. 1t is stated that
stumps of trees which were cut twenty
to twenty-five years ago remain enduring
and obdurate distractions to the cultiva-
ton of the soil They are still sound and
turn out excellent shingles when so util-
lied. This shows the lasting quality of
white rine. In the early days of lumber
ing in Michigan the tree was cut high
from the ground, and these old stumps
which the farmers are cutting into bolts
represent the method of that period In
later years economy in a material had be-
come too valuable to waste dictated the
cutting of stumpage as near the ground
as possible.
The Prussian government is very
much stirred up over the discovery that
during the last quarter of a century
many. of the documents which tell of
the greatness of the fatherland have been
threatened with complete destruction, ow-
ing to the bad quality of
the paper upon which they
were written. Ten years ago Dem
mark found that its records were incur
ring a like fate, while in Italy the records
of the young kingdom were actually fall
ing to pieces The poor quality of modern
paper is the alleged cause for this decay
learned German professor has been an
alyzing the paper used in something like
a hundred scientific reviews and has
found that only six of them could be
guaranteed to last long time.
The sanitary trustees of Chicago are
about to build the most stupendous swing
bridge in the world across the drainage
or irtv II
avenue, the construction to be under the
direction of the most eminent engineering
skill. The total length of the structure
as planned is 400 feet, and its width 100
feet. The center columns will reach a
hight of 68 feet; Roadway under the
bridge, is feet, and a depth of "A feet of
water in the channel. The bridge will be
of steel, involving a weight of 100000
pounds, and capable of supporting the
enormous weight of 100000 pounds Three
railways, it IS expected, will use this
structure, crossing on eight tracks. The
turn-tabe will have a diameter of not less
than so feet and the bridge will be swung
in one minutes time, probably by electric
power.
"A new and novel kind of blotting paper
is made in this way: One hundred parts
of oxalic acid are dissolved in 400 parts of
alcohol, and thick, white absorbing paper
is dipped into that solution until it is thor
oughly saturated. The sheets are then
separately hung up on stretched strings
to dry in the air. The combination of an
ink-absorbing article with blotting paper
which is capable of absorbing Immediately
a blot while it is still wet, deserves the
preference over other ink blotters on ac-
count of it's usefulness and it's convenience.
Unfortunately the action of this paper is
confined TO ferrous inks. Aniline blots
cannot be removed by this paper.
freshlymade and consequently still wet
ink blot resulting from ferrous inks can
be removed by absorption, and a dry blot.
first moistened, can be removed in the
same manner.
English manufacturers are investigat-
ing the merits of thin manila paper for
the manufacture of bicycle tubing. The
process of manufacturing is ingenious, the
paper being wound upon a mandrel and
coated with glue by means of a spray.
thus ensuring the absolute joining of the
paper, which is made solid by means of
great pressure. When the tube has been
constructed. some forty layers of paper be-
ing required for this purpose, it is subject
ed to great pressure from the inside Of
ter the mandrel has been removed and the