The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-03
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

red and destroyed as quickly as if placed
in a hot oven As an agent of destruction
liquid air is powerful, but no useful offices
has been found for il as yet.
There is a likelihood that a new and
novel industry viii soon be started in
Ontario, says a Montreal telegram. The
company which carries on the peat indus
try near Welland has discovered a meth
Cd of making marble out of gypsum, and
has already secured a patent. The gyp-
sum is Gated with a chemical solution,
which causes it to become crystallized,
after which il can be worked with turn
ing lathe or chisel. 1t is understood the
company is at present obtaining gypsum
from the United States. but there is an
abundant supply of the mineral on the
Grand river. The new product is capa
bic of taking a high polish.
-Winan's cigar steamers quite famous
a generation ago, which have lain idle in
Southampton water for the last twenty
five years are now to be broken up and
large and entirely inert Investment, and no
further experiments in marine cons Lruc-
uoh on the pI4nclples which they embody
is to be looked for. They will always rank
among the curiosities of shipbuiding. and
stand as a sign that the experimental mil
lonalre and his money are sometimes
speedily parted; but they possessed no
ntness for the function designed, and had
not enough go" in them even to find their
way TO DaVy jones' locker so they will go
to the scrap heap, instead.
Electricity has come to the rescue of
the long-suffering stockholders of corpo-
rations to whom the bell punch has been
a vain reliance against the forays of the
employe who knocks down" fares. The
Brooklyn Elevated railroad is trying a
new turnstIe device. It is connected by
Wire with dial in the main office of the
company, and every time a passenger
passes into the station the fare is thus
checked up at headquarters The first of
these has been put in use at the bridge
siatlon. II 1t does what it's inventor
claims each one of the seventy-seven sta
lions along the road will be similarly
equipped. The returns from the stations
and the figures of the dial will have to
balance. The company will have an in
stantaneouS and complete total of the
traffic over the road in sight all the time.
The officials expect great things from the
new machine.
For the past two years, says the Bos-
ton Globe, Prof Trowbridge, rector of the
Jefferson physical laboratory of Harvard,
has been perfecting a battery for electri-
cal discharges 1t is now the most power
ful apparatus of its kind in the world,
and has already been used in several in
designations of the X-raV. 1t is the only
battery strong enough to send discharge
through an X-ray tube; all other batteries
send the spark around the tube 1t has
been used repeatedly to show the skeleton
of the hand. An idea of its power can be
had from the fact that it. has a voltage
OF l,2OO,U00, and the voltage required to
run an electric car is only 500. This in
strument can evolve a spark fifty inches
in length, and in doing so gives a loud re-
port like lightning. Prof Towbridge
has lately been able to prove by this APP
paratus that the length of the spark is
accurately proportional to the voltage.
This fact, which has long been doubted
by various German scientists, can be used
to ascertain the voltage required to send
a flash of lightning a given distance.
of all collecting fads the most singular
one is the assemblage of inkstands, says
the New York Times. The old square
cork inkstand is a curiO to-day. That ar
fist in ceramics, WedgWood, devised beau
tiful inkstands, supported by dolphins,
and fine specimen was sold last year in
London for % guineas. In a collection,
inkhorns shou-~ figure. The inkhorn was
originally the small, followed horn of a
goat-juSt as is the Scotch null, and the
inkhorn was suspended, properly stopper
ed, from the girdle. The inkhorns of
Well-to-dO people of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, and later than that,
Were handsomely decorated. When ink
was not TO be had for the asking it be-
came necessity TO carry il about in a
convenient form. The inkhOrn was the
symbol of the pedant and so a dull man,
prating of his lore, was said to use ink
theless, users of the quill have been gener-
ally able to fight it out with their own
weapons, and have followed Shakespeare's
advice which was: Let there be gall
enough in thy ink; though thou write with
goose pen, no natter
An interesting operation was perform
ed in Dublin some time ago by Dr. Samuel
Haughton, says the Boston Transcript. A
magnificent tiger. one of the finest ami
mails in the Dublin geological, was threat
ened With gangrene in the paw. One of
its claws becoming distorted, had grown
into the foot, and to save the tigers life
1t was necessary TO cut away the diseased
portion. The operation was to put it
mildly, an exciting one An immensely
strong net was, in the first place, thrown
over the tiger and i'm the net he was
drawn, struggling desperately to the door
of his cage. Four keepers each of whom
must have been endowed with uncommon
courage as well as strength, then held
the animals paw while DR.. Haughton cut
away the improving claw. Meanwhile the
tigress, which had been temporarily plac-
ed in an adjoining den was frantic with
the bars in her mad efforts to come to the
rescue of her lord and master. When she
was readmitted to the tigers den after
the operation, she examined the wounded
paw most tenderly, purring the while, and
licking her mate as if to soothe him.
1t is claimed that by a new process
the artificial aging of whisky can be ac-
compished in a few hours. In principle
the new PROCESS is a revival of the ancient
practice on West Indian sugar estates of
'mellowing' for immediate consumption
the cane-Juice rum that had not long left
the still "A puncheon of this new shirt
was placed on q raised platform Twenty
yards away was an empty puncheon mac
ed at lower level. Stretched from the
head of the lower cask was line of omen
pipe made by splitting bambeos in two
and cutting out the joints This concave
gutter was carefully exposed to fire and
charred along it's whole length 1t was
then ready for service. The spirit from
the upper cask was allowed to drip down
slowly, and as the stream was exposed
in its passage to the influence of both the
atmosphere and the charcoal, by the time
1t reached the lower cask its harshness
was considerably tempered. The new pro
cess consists in exposing the maximum
surface of spirit and air to each other nv
means of a spray and under the influence
OF temperature at freezing point The
air and spirit only come into contact once
and the low temperature condenses the
spirit and prevents its losing aroma on,
flavor. The time of working is from fonr
to five hours, according to the size of the
plant and the quantity of spirit TO be
treated.
"A board of health warning has been
sent out in regard to the danger of using
carboic acid, either as a disinfectant or
as cleansing wash for simple wounds
says the st. Louis Globe-Democrat Even
IN an ointment it is not safe Local gan
creme rs said to be the penalty of foo
strong an application, or of q weak an
plication too long applied Another pojnt
OF lnforma ton advanced by the board lie
that CarDOliC acid is used in e11rgar,y -.