The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


part of grain may be easily seen by the
naked eye.
During the present century the food
supply of the principal nations has in
creased in much greater ratio than the
population.
Interesting Information has been pub
lished regarding the Keeling Islands. or
the Cocos, as they are some times called
which are situated in the northeastern
part of the Indian ocean, says the New
York Commercial Advertiser. They are
said 20 have the most prolific soil in the
world FOR the growth of cocoanuts. Gu
ME Ross is monarch of the island and his
father, a Scotchman, landed there some
seventy years ago. The population of the
place consists of about a score of members
of the Ross family and about 500 people,
who are immigrants from the various
East Indian Islands. The Cocos are prob
ably the most out of the way place in the
world.
The Mohammedans have always toler-
ated other religions, although a Moslem
is not allowed to change his creed, says
the New York Commercial Advertiser. At
Constantinople many Jews have reached
high positions at court while remaining
faithful to their religion. At the present
time the sultan's physician is Jew. Kai-
mil Pasha, one of the ablest and most en-
ightened Turkish statesmen, was a Jew.
But there is no record of any high-born
Jewess having found place in the sui
tans harem. There is an interesting COM
munity of Jews at Seraievc, in Bosnia,
where they have been well treated by the
Turks for centuries. They are the de-
scendants of Spanish Jews, who found
protection there before the Armada sailed
to conquer England.
The feat of Baltimore bicyclist, who
rode 10 miles in twelve hours, and 314
miles in twenty-four hours, seems to
show that the new motor is superior to
the horse in more ways than one says
the Philadelphia Ledger. 1t is not only
insensible to fatigue, but it is superior in
points of both speed and endurance. Prob
ably the best record ever made by a horse
was that of the animal ridden by Count
Strahrenberg, in October, 1892, which COW
cred the distance from Vienna to Berlin,
400 miles, in seVenty-one hours and thirty
four minutes. This was far inferior to the
314 miles made by the human muscle, with
the aid of the wheel, in twenty-four
hours. The horse can go where the bicy
Gle cannot, but given good roads, he stands
no chance with it in race against either
time or distance.
The existence of clear, crystalline
duces two images of a single object is
one of the curiosities of science. says the
London Daily News. 1t is stranger still
that the only known supply of this dou-
BILE refracting spar is found in Iceland,
and is controlled by the Danish govern
ment. The mine is located on the east
coast of Iceland. about four miles from
the trading station of Eskifjord, on a
mountainous slope $50 feet above the sea
level. This mineral is used largely in OPP
teal instruments, polarization apparatus
and the like, and as the supply of the
mined mineral has been exhausted, the
mines having been closed for some years
the Danish government has recently leas-
ed the mine to its former owner. A pound
of this mineral is worth 60 los (about SD.
Both for exterior and interior work the
use of glazed bricks is notably on the in
crease, and they have become quite for
midable rival to the enameled brick, says
the Builder. While possessing all of the
advantages of the latter, the glazed brick
is cheaper and to be preferred from the
fact that the glazed surface forms an in
tegral part of the brick and is made of
the same substance as the body of the
brick while the face of the enameled brick
is made of a foreign material, such as
porcelain or earthenware Glazed bricks
are made as usual, and while still green"
are dipped into a mixture of fine clay and
then the faces are coated with salt after
which they are fired They are imper-
vious to moisture, easily cleaned and proof
against acids present in the air and rain.
Glazed bricks, besides being of unques-
tionable durability, are to be preferred on
account of the great variety of color,
varying from orange to light red and deep
red brown. thus giving wide scope for
decoration in interior finishing.
Nickel steel is considered the building
material of the future, says the Boston
Journal of Commerce. 1t is produced by
the combination of iron and nickel and
the principal condition for a successful
alloy in the purity of the nickel used. The
latter metal is found mostly in Canada
and New Caledonia, and the reduction of
the ore has been, of late. greatly simpli-
fed. Most of the New Californian product
is melted in Germany, while that from
Canada is exclusively exported to England
and the United States. Nickel steel while
somewhat lighter in weight than steel
is two or three times as strong; its power
of resistance and its resiency also ex-
ceeds those of steel. These properties
permit a considerable saving in dimensi
and thereby in weight and in cost, as
compared with similar constructions of
ordinary steel. Its principal uses are ar
NOR plate for men-of-war boiler plates
especially those for marine engines: screw
propellers for ships; wires for submarine
cables, also wires for rheostats, ETC., on ac-
count of their excellent power of resist
ance; gun barrels and guns; the more i'm
portant parts of locomotives and pins and
couplings Of railroad cars. Quite recently
nickel steel has been employed in the
production of bicycles, and a German
wheel built of this material and tested
Tor its strength. compared favorabl to
bicycles made of common steer. while its
weight was less than two-thirds of the
latter, or twelve and three-quarter pounds.
The report will be hailed with enthus-
iasm that a well known Washington scien-
tst has invented a machine to double
ones mental capacity through the appli-
cation OF electricity, says the Buffalo Cou-
rier. The apparatus generates the cleo
trio MUD and stores IL in an insulated
ware mouse for shocks, producing what is
described az a high potential" in the air
Let IL not be inferred from the nomen-
clature that the machine is i'm the airship
class. Il is something different. Under tho
influence OF this high potential stimulant
all mental processes arc so intensified