The morning news., 1897-02-01
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

PIoOdpiy De EXTENDED 10 OlneE government
departments.
A French physician has invented
method by which he says iron can lie
given in large doses. Hens. he noticed,
have powerful internal organs. They can
digest considerable quantities of iron, ard
then render it back, through the albumen
of their eggs, in form which is easily di-
gested by the weaker stomach of man
kind. So he feeds his hens with what he
calls "a very absorbent salt of iron"
mingled with grains of wheat, and they
lay eggs extremely rich in iron already di-
gested.
"A new invention which promises to be
a great convenience to the travelling pub
lie is an Improvement in railroad tickets
and bagga age-check, and a case for mile
age book, the object being to prevent peo-
pie from checking baggage without using
their tickets as is the case with all rail-
road tickets now in use. The mileage tick
cts and baggage checks are printed on op-
poslte ends and sides of the same strip of
paper and are easily detachable, and the
same system is used with the ordinary
card passenger tickets. Excess of baggage
is also provided for, provisions made for
stop-offs and al contingencies covered by
ingenious arrangements.
Actual experiments made in the New
York harbor have, it is stated by a New
York paper demonstrated that vessels fit
ted out with search lights may exchange
messages at night by means of the inter
national code of signals. During the Sc
we're weather of Tuesday night the expert
ment was conducted. Two boats, one hav-
ing powerful search light, were sent
down the bay and the signal flags of one
craft, with the rays of the search light
directed on them from the same boat
could be readily distinguished by those on
board the second craft some distance
away. Nearly all seagoing steamers are
now fitted out with dynamos and only the
additional equipment of a search light is
necessary to enable those on vessels at
sea TO communicate with each other at
night. av-s1.-s
The difficulty experienced of keeping
the Baltic canal open in winter has been
obviated to a large extent by the simple
device of using salt water, taken from
the bay of Kiel, to replace the fresh water
that was formerly in the canal Sluice
gates are opened at the western end of
the canal. which empties into the lower
Elbe, and a current is made to flow from
the lakes through which the canal runs.
AT high tide the Baltic end is used to
make up the supply of water exhausted.
and so, gradually, the fresh water has
been forced out of the canal and the lakes
One result of the change has been 10 XIII
off the fresh water fish that formerly oc-
cupied the lakes; but of course this is
too small matter to consider when the
difference of the freezing quality of fresh
and salt water is the advantage gained
by the change.
-One of the latest adaptations of the
wood pulp industry, says Paper Trade is
the manufacture of shoe heels. The wood
ie VaHf aaA -, h
after which the pulp is put into a tank
and mixed with alcohol, litharge tar, de-
gras and fish glue. The pulp is hardened
so that it can be rolled into thick sheets
and handled, shellac and borax accom-
plishing this; the pulp then having the
consistency of cement. At this point slack
ened lime is put in and, as this hardens
when dry, the pulp must be rolled into
sheets and cut into heels before the har-
dening takes place. The pulp is now
drawn from the tank in sheets A series
OF pressures through press rollers reduces
the sheet TO the right thickness, and it is
next placed quickly upon the bed of a
cutter and shaped into heels.
The local authorities seem to be 20
blame in no small degree for the spread
of the plague in Bombay. Instead of
stamping the germ out by drastic meas
ures, such as wholesale 5.whitewashine
disintecting and cleaning and the destruc-
ton by fire of filthy novels in the worst
quarters of the town. the only thing that
mas been done apparently is to isolate act
ual cases and recommend cleanliness in
an lndennite and general sort of way In
IS, OF course. difficult to make a bigoted.
half-civilized people conform to positive
sanitary rules and regulations, but if the
Bombay authorities had given the doctors
1ull power and had attacked the disease
at its start, as was done in Hong Kons.
whether the natives liked it or not, the
present awful condition of affairs, with
hundreds dying daily and the greater part
OF the population fleeing from the city 70
spread the plague elsewhere, might have
been averted. Having the Hong Kong
regulations as an example and precedent,
there seems to be little excuse for the
weak-minded manner in which the Bonn
bay authorities have acted.
Prof. Langley of the Smithsonian In
stitution, in his annual report to the
board of regents has this to say of his
recent hying-machine experiments: The
writer has, during the intervals of his
official duties, continued to experiment in
this manner until he has reached a meas
ure of success which seems to justify him
in making the statement here that me-
chanical flight has now been attained
on May l6 last mechanism built chiefly
made to flights of over half a mile. Since
that time this result has been nearly
doubled. In each case there was no sup
port from gas. The machine was a thou
sand or more times heavier than the air
in which IL was made to move. Dr. Alex
ander Graham Bell witnessed the first of
these. and communicated the statements
of results to the Academy Of France.
This, of course, has been before the scien-
tiic world. l do not know how far in
terest in this work may bias my juldg-
ment, but it appears TO me that in these
things, the final accomplishment of which
has come under the charge of the Smith
sonian Institution, it has made con-
tribution TO the utilities of the world
which will be memorable.
There are many geniuses and invent
ors hard at work to-day on devices for
saving time and money. says IIarpers
Round Table, and one might say that
daily the product of their thought is
placed before the world in machines that
seem almost human in their workings
The chief essential in saving time IS to
acquire a system. and operators placed
before new mechanical invention quick
" establish a systematic method of work.
ing IL, and eventually find a way Of i'm
UrOVing on These mon caIIa,,, ,..1At