The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


sand other sources of information. Yet the
simple statement that 212 degrees is the
boiling point will not hold good every
where 1t will do in Pittsburg. In Munich,
Bavaria, however, water will boil at 209I2
degrees, while in the City of Mexico a heat
of only 200 degrees is sufficient The differ
ence is caused by the variations in the ele
walton of the points named above sea level.
The greater the pressure of the atmOs-
phere, the greater the heat required. IN a
glass bell from which the air is exhausted
by means of an air pump, water would
boil at 70 degrees.
Southern Arizona and Mexico produce
a weed called the mariguana, which, mix
ed with tobacco and smoked, produces a
more powerful effect than opium or any
other known agent of fumigatio Under
its influence even the sedate Mexican be-
comes noisy as a cowboy and has TO be
lassoed and put in a calaboose to cool off.
Gen. Shriver of the prison force at Yuma,
has just discovered a quantity of the sub
stance prepared for smuggling into the
prison for the use of the convicts, who pay
81 an ounce for 1t, and are obstreperous
and hilarious while it lasts. With such
potencies the mariguana may have COM
mercal future before it, and be employed
in wider uses Of stimulation than those
which relate to greasers and jaibirds, on
whom its operation has hitherto been eX-
cluslvely bestowed.
Prof. A. e. Dolbear writes to Science
as follows: Those who have occasion to
have copies of engravings or pictures of
any kind made for use with the lantern
may be glad to know that such may be
printed from the plates used in ordinary
printing IF sheets of thin transparent Gel
luloid be taken. Gelatin also may be used.
The latter is liable to roll up more or
less and needs to be protected by inclosing
between glass plates of the ordinary size
for lantern slides. Celluloid will not
trouble so much in that way. yet it is best
to mount such pictures in the same way.
Photographic half-tones show very well
indeed the fine meshing not being noticed
upon the screen at the distance of a few
feet. Such copies need cost but few
cents apiece if the electro can be got to
print from; and if celuloid be used with
out the glass cover, perhaps one cent
would be the full cost. I iIclose a couple
of samples that you may Judge of the
quality of such pictures.
The royal British antiquarian and
archaeological societies, notes the Scientific
American, have lodged a petition with
Lord Salisbury protesting against the pc
culiar form of prison labor in Egypt since
the khedive's penitentiaries and jails have
been under English management. 1t seems
tAdI bHe COnNlClS, OF WnOm there are l,2UO
in the Jourah prison alone, are employed
in manufacturing bogus antiques for
which there is reported to be a large mar
ket, especially in America. The petition
ers declare that the forgeries are so clever
as to be scarcely distinguishabe from the
real article. AS yet only antiques of rel
atiTely small dimensions have been pro
duced but the prison authorities express
the hope of being able in course of time to
turn out full-fiedged mummies and sarco-
phagi. The scientific societies in England
point out with some degree of justice that
while this form of prison labor may have
commercial advantages, it practically rem
GERS the British government a party to
| fraud.
The various experiments made with So
lar engines by the French in Algeria.
where the sun is never overloaded and
shines with great power, have been attend
ed in some instances with marked success
says the Philadelphia Record The best
apparatus is stated to be a simple arrange
ment of boiler and concave mirror the
steam generated being condensed in a
coiled tube surrounded by water this be-
ing intended merely for distililng water
But in India an inventor has contrived
some machines with which more varied re-
suits are accomplished. One Of these is
what is termed a cooking box made of
wood and lined with rejecting mirrors. at
! the bottom of the box being small copper
boiler covered with glass to retain the heat
of the rays concentrated by the mirrors
upon the boiler. In this contrivance any
sort of food may be quickly cooked, the
result being stew or boil if the steam is
retained, or if allowed to escape it is a
bake. The heat with this device may be
augmented indefinitely by increasing the
| diameter of the box.
1t is fortunate that the comments of
many sportsmen, while attempting to I'M
tangle set of decoy ducks and lines with
anchors made from old doorknobs. railroad
spikes, chunks of lead and miscellaneous
scrapiron, in the teeth of a brisk lev
breeze, are carried away on the wings of
the wind. The experience as all duck
hunters can tell. is to the last degree ex-
asperating. A new method of anchoring
decoys has been devised, which its in
ventor claims is destined to be a great
moral influence. When this anchor is
used the lines cannot become entangled
and the setting of decoyS is accomplished
as rapidly as a sportsman can pick them
up from his boat and throw them to the
desired position. Another ADVANTAGE is
that when, after a days sport, the shooter
starts to pick up his decoys he finds the
anchors unfouled with weeds These an
chors are made from a single piece of
cast iron of an elliptical shape open wide
enough at the broad end to drop easily
over the head of the decoy after winding
the anchor line about it's body.
The mountain air. says the London
Standard, has the following effect: Sup
pose weakly, or even a eonsumptive pa
tent goes up into the mountains. His bad
ly nourshed condition renders his tissues
an easy prey to the microbes which have
contrived to effect a Judgment under The
unsanitary conditions of his present life.
But when he breathes an air less richly
supplied with oxygen his blood is not able
to absorb enough for its requirements: a
reaction" is set up; new corpuscles are
formed, which gradually acquire the nor
NAL amount of haemoglobin, and thus a
host of recruits is added to the pygmy car
riers, the work of transference of oxygen
is much more effectively performed ana
the result is the better nutrition Of tbe
body. 1t resists the assaults of The des-
tructive microbes; they no longer increase
and multiply, but dwindle-perhaDs are
slaughtered for such things do occur nv
the army of defense. When the patient de-
scends to lower altitude the red corpus-
clpS decrease n ntlno baY. a,,t