The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-14
ITEMS OF INTERE EST.

Science announces that the Austrian
steamship Pola has gone to the Red sea
for scientific explorations and will this
year cover the ground between Dschedda
! and Alden. DR.. Franz Steindachner, the
/ ichthvologist has charge Of the zoolog-
ical work, and observations viii also be
/ made in physical geography.
The International congress on the pro-
! lection of birds at Provence.
France last month was arranged by the
/ LigUe Ornithophile Franchise. The protec-
/ ton of insectiVOrouS birds useful to agri-
! culture was the chief matter discussed,
/ and il was decided to forward to the gov
! ernments of Europe, through the French
! minister of foreign affairs, the resolutions
1 which were formulated Public educational
| bodies are also TO be approached in order
! to obtain, if possible, the serious consid-
/ Grafton of this important subject by school
masters and government school inspectors.
! Numerous French and Italian agricultural,
! horticultural, and sporting societies were
| represented at the congress. and delegates
! from the Selborne Society and the Society
! for the Protection of Birds from England,
were also present.
1t is said by some that we owe the fife
-"ear-p piercing as Shakespeare calls it
/ to the Swiss. and Sir James Turner, who
! busted himself in writing on military mat
ters names it the "Allemaine whistle"
| says Chambers Journal. In France it was
/ employed at least as early as 1884, in which
! year it was ordered by Francis I that each
| band of 1000 men was to have four drums
and two flies. A few years later, in Eng
| land, we find "drommes and fyffes" in
| Guided in the muster of London citizens
! Shakespeare refers to the musician, not
| the instrument, when he speaks in the
! Merchant of Venice" of "the vile squeal-
| ing of the wry-necket fife" And old
writer observes, indeed, that "fyfe is
wry-neckt musician, for he looks away
! from his instrument" About the reign of
! James II the fife lost its popularity for a
time, Sir James Turner observing: with
us, any captain may keep a fifer in his
| company and maintain him, too, for no
pay is allowed him-perhaps just as much
4 as he deserveth."
A reduction in the price of aluminium
within the last few weeks has led to a dis
cussion by the technical journals of the
possibility of it's replacing brass in some
of the industries. The various discounts
| on sheets sold in quantities make the act
| ual price about 32l2 cents pounds. At
| the present time sheet brass costs from
1912 to Is cents a pound. But the latter
| metal, If cast, is 3.25 times as heavy as
! aluminium, and if wrought 3.19. In any
given article, the size remaining the same,
there would be more than three times as
many pounds Cor ounces, or grains) if it
! were made of brass than if it were COM
| posed of aluminium. Multiplying the price
of brass per pound by 3,19, one gets a
fraction over sc cents. The material going
into a brass object, then, costs about 10
per cent. more than that going into an
aluminium object of the same size. This
fact is likely to make a good many wide
awake manufacturers ask themselves how
far aluminium is suited, in other respects,
to take the place of brass. Its tensile
strength, electrical conductivity, resist
| ance to the corrosive effect of moisture
and acids are all important qualities which
are likely to come up for consideration in
this connection.
The yearly report of United States Fish
Commissioner John ]. Brice shows that
$50 600, 900 Of Goldfish eggs were collected
from which 9S,C0O0OO of cod fry were lib
Grated on the natural spawning grounds
along the coast of Massa chusetts. This
was an excess over the previous year of
about 100000. OF winter founders the
output was over $4,000 900 OF fry from about
100000 of spawn. The work of propagat-
ing Holsters has been largely extended
and, although there was a poor catch OF
females with eggs, over 12S, O00 900 of spawn
was secured, from which We're produced
over 115000,0O0 of fry, an increase of 90
100000 over the output of the previous
year. Of shad spawn over 20S, 100000 were
secured, some s. 000,C coo more than during
the previous year. OF whitefish the take
of eggs was 2O00 600; of lake trout, 49,
100000; of Atlantic salmon, Z, 500, 600; of land
locked salmon, 100000; of qunnat salmon
100000, and the season for these had not
ended when the report was compiled. TIC
test the probable value of the quinnat sal
mon in eastern waters, 1900, 600 of fry were
| liberated n la
Hudson, and Delaware rivers in New York
and in the Indian and Penobscot rivers in
Maine, and $4,000 were held to be liberated
when yearlings in the Penobscot.
The wholesale copying of American
tools in Germany is thus touched upon by
Hiram Maxim in the Engineering Maya
zine: When the German government COM
menced to make rifles on the interchange
able plan, they imported a large quantity
of making tools from the United
States manufactured for the most part by
Pratt & Whitney. The superiority of
these tools was at once apparent. The
result is that the Germans at the present
moment are making machine tools of the
American type in vast quantities, but,
vast as the production is, the demand is
still greater and to-day the great firm
of Ludw, Loewe & Co. has four times as
| many orders as it is able to fill, and is
now putting up extensive works at a cost
of 100000. 1t was only a few years ago
that any one equipping a machine shop in
Europe obtained the greater part of his
Woodworking machinery from England,
but to-day the obsolete, awkward and
comparatively high-priced English tools
have been completely driven out of the
market by the German-made American
tools. Not only have the Germans secur-
ed this market, but they are also sending
their tools in large quantities to England.
1t is true, however, that these German
tools are not quite up to American stan
dards. The iron is not quite so good, and
the accuracy is less. Nevertheless they
are very much superior to the ordinary
English tools, and Germany to-day is the
most serious competitor that England has
This may not be very agreeable reading
for Englshmen, but there is nothing to
be gained by suppressng facts.
Some remaining problems of the water
tube boiler are considered by w. NJ Nc
Farland in the Engineering Magazine.
First of ALL he says, the water-tube boil
er does not lend itself readily to large
power in a single boiler. There are proba-