The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-27
ITEMS of INTEREST.

and black rubber together alternately I'M
I'll a sufficient thickness is formed, and
then cutting the mass in slabs slab
IS wrapped around a form and the fiat
tube is vulcanized and cut into bands.
"A few months ago the minister of ag-
riculture at Melbourne decided, in order
to encourage an export trade in Vic
toria-grown tobacco leaf, to send a few
samples of the article to London, to test
its value in that market. He thought
that profit. be prices would be realized
for it there, and in that way keener COM
petition would prevail in Australia for
the leaf, with the result that there would
be rise in the selling price The grow
ers, however, did not respond to the offer
made by Mr.. Tavener, but they now re-
greet their inaction, owing to the absence
of any competition in the local market
for the Leaf. Mr.. Bondurant, the govern
ment tobacco expert, hopes, however, to
send to England next year a consign-
ment of leaf which has been sown and
planted according to his directions. 1t
will also be cured in accordance with his
instructions, and he believes that re-
muneratve prices win be obtained for it.
There are many Jews, and some rab-
bis, who desire that Sunday, instead of
Saturday, shall be the sacred day for mod
ern Judaism, says the New York Sun.
The leader of the movement for a change
is Rabbi Emil G.. Hrsch of Chicago, in
speaking of whom the American Hebrew
says: He thunders forth against the
Jews of the east who have the hardihood
to still observe the Sabbath and who de-
clined to allow the council of Jewish wo-
men TO put themselves on record as fav-
oring a Sunday tn. They cannot
be good citizens of the republic, he says
practically, unless they are willing to ac-
cept the customs of America. Sunday
is as much national institution as
religious institution. he urges" 1t must.
however be remembered that Rabbi
HlrschS orthodoxy is a negligible guam
tity. He goes very far in his liberalism,
DR.. Isaac VI. Wise of the Hebrew Union
College is regarded as the leader of the
reform party in Judaism, but he still sup
ports the Mosaic Sabbath and most of the
ancient Jewish customs. In some syna-
gogues regular services are held on Sat
urday and moral lectures delivered on
Sunday.
Railroad signaling by electricity has
been attempted in various ways for some
time, but the most successful effort in
this direction seems to be that devised
by an Engl5shman, which is being tried
on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln
shire railway. Although many electrical
systems of communicating with trains in
motion have been devised they are either
too complex or some mechanical method
is adopted of making the contact. In this
system an electromagnetic on the road act
yates two needles in the engine cab, and
each of them completes a circuit which
works two miniature Semaphores in front
of the driver and at the same time rings
a bell The use of the duplicate needles
is to avoid all risk of a danger signal
failing to be received. The signalman
&c hrs (. 1a1
cation with the engineer, even when the
train is going at full speed. If this sys-
TEN will stand the test of further ex-
perience it will make semaphores and
colored lamps superfiuous and do away
with the present barbarous English sys-
tenn of fog signaling, which consists in
placing decorators on the tracks.
in lecture recently delivered at the
Royal Victoria hall, London, says the
Practical Engineer, Professor Carlton j.
Lambert stated that 81 cubic feet of gas,
which is valued at one penny (two cents),
and weighs about IA pounds, can generate
about one pound of water when burned.
and about 10 cubic feet of carbonic acid. 1t
can boil eight gallons of water from so
degrees to 10 degrees for a bath, or it can
boil eight gallons of water in good kettles
and make tea for 81 persons. 1t can work
one-horse power gas engine for one hour,
or lift a weight of IS tons 10 feet high do
ing the work of six men for one hour. 1t
can melt 10 pounds of iron and make
casting in % minutes, which ordinarily
would require two hours and 30 pounds of
coke. 1t can brave a metal joint in two
minutes, which would require 20 minutes,
in a forge If burned in siX-inch flue for
ventilation purposes it can induce $4,000
cubic feet of pure air. 1t can give you
brilliant light (Welshbach incandescenD of
50-candle power for nine hours. 1t can, i'm
a good radiating stove. comfortably warm
a room Is feet square for an hour. 1t can
easily cook a dinner for eight persons.
The attention OF the medical world will
probably soon be directed toward Port
land, Ore, attracted by the case of Harry
Whitley, d 13-year-old boy who is SUI
fering from a peculiar malady, says tie
San Francisco Cali His affection is a
predisposition on the part of his head,
trunk and limbs to grow, and so rapidly
that within a few months he has devel-
oped into a being of gigantic proportions
His is one of the strangest cases on rec
ord. The Whitley family came from Og-
den about two months ago. They had
consulted the best physicians in Chicago.
but without avail Harry's feet, which
are always clad in wooden socks, are too
large for any shoe that is made His
hands too, would do credit to a brawny
nsted giant. His head and chest are
wonderfully developed, and he must weigh
at least $50 pounds Mr. and Mrs. Whit
ley have other children, but they are not
similarly afflicted. This disease, which
has seized young Whitley is pronounced
by medical men to be acromegaly. Fhe
physician who is attending Harry says
that it is a nervous disease and in some
way connected with a lack of oxygen in
the system. For the past six months the
lad has been gaining flesh at the rate Of
ten pounds a month. The physician in
attendance says that the increase in avoir-
dupois will be much greater until some
successful method of checking the malady
is devised.
"A remarkable discovery was made a
few years ago in the sandstone rock at
the Nevada state prison. says the St
Louis Republic. The find" was considered
wonderful, not only from a geological
standpoint, but from an chronological point
Of view also. While the convicts at the in
stitution were unearthing some huge
blocks of stone they uncovered some pc
culiar fluctuations in one of the slabs
Closer investigation proved that these
queer marks were the tracks of some gil
gantic beast of antediluvian time-perhaps
a rnqetOdon ~ -