The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

In the cheese regions" of Switzerland
it is the custom to present to the newly
married couple a Register cheese" On
this cheese the whole history of the family
is carved, such as births. marriages, deaths
and other incidents which it may be de-
sired to make matters of record. Some of
these old Swiss family cheese records are
said to date back to the middle of the sew
enteenth century. At the agricultural fair
annually held at Gressenay a great many
cheese records have been exhibited, which
were known to be from $50 TO 200 years old.
The Oldest that has yet been displayed be-
longs to country squire living near Ores
senay, who shows his family record cary
ed on cheese made in 1860.
In the forest of the Bridal Veil Lum-
bering Company at Bridal Veil, in Ore
gon, there is a railroad which does BUSH
ness without cars, says Casters Maya
zine. Hauling great logs from log pond
TO the saW-mill is the nature of the bust
ness, and the train, so called, is made UP
OF an ordinary locomotive and a string of
logs, each one as large in diameter, and
some even larger, than the boiler of the
engine. Boards are nailed to the sleepers
between the rails and on these the logs
side Except on descending grades the
boards are creased, and the train moves
at good speed. Where the road is level
logs and where it is descending it holds
them back. At the mills of the company
the Manufactured lumber regardless Of
size, Is run into a flume descending about
l,2O0 feet in that distance Economy in
rolling stock seems to have been carried
to maximum on this road, but the SER
wee is quite as well performed as the con-
dluons demand.
THE secret of slack wire walking"
remarked Calcedo, the champion wire
walker, now appearing at the Alhambra
While in conversation with an Answers
contributor one day recently, lies in the
padding. The wire used is only a quarter
OF an inch in thickness, and, if it were not
that take good care to have my breeches
wen padded, it would cut me in two when
l come down upon it in the manner you
saw me do just now. "These breeches,"
continued the king of the wire produce
ing an article that looked like a cross be-
tween the pantaloons of a Spanish torea-
dor and the peculiar beII-bottomed and
plpc-seamed variety of 'trOusis,' affected
by the Whitechapel roster ARE made from
the skin Of the South African grysbok, one
OF the toughest, and, at the same time
one of the most pliable dress materials
known. It is practically indestructibIe
You cannot tear it, and to wear it out is
next door to an impossibllity. No fewer
than twenty-five complete skins were used
for that one garment and in places it is
over three inches thick. Expensive? I
wouldn't take a go note for that old pair
of breeches."
The work done by the machinery Of a
locomotive driven at high speed is thus
graphically set forth by the Boston Jour-
nal of Commerce: Take a passenger en-
CINE on any of the big railroads. At sixty
miles an hour driving wheel five and
one-half feet in diameter revolves five
times every second; now, the reciprocal
ing parts of each cylinder, including one
piston rod, crosshead and connecting rod
weighing about $50 pounds, must move
back and forth a distance equal to the
stroke, usually two feet, every time the
wheel reVolves, or in a fifth of a second
1t starts from a state of rest at the end
of each stroke of the piston, and must ac-
quire velocity of thiFty-two feet per sec
ond in one-twentieth of a second and
must be brought to a state of rest in the
same period of time. A piston eighteen
inches in diameter has an area of fifty,
four and one-half square inches. Steam
OF $50 pounds pressure per square inch
would, therefore, exert a force on the pis-
ton equal to 1915 pounds. This force is
applied alternately on each end of the
piston ten times in a second.
Among the many things not produced in
this country, says the New York Times,
and which there is no intention of produce
ing here, but which the new tariff bill re-
moves from the free list and burdens with
heavy duty, is the peculiar substance
known to commerce as "degras." 1t is
the Oil that exists, to a greater or less
amount, in ali wool when it comes from the
backs of sheep, and it is removed when
the wool is prepared for manufacture In
this country no attempt to save the oil
is made and, with other waste products
of the factories, it helps along the pollu-
ton of our rivers. Abroad, and especially
in France, care is taken to recover the "de-
gras" from the alkaline solutions in
which the wool is cleansed, and as it pos
sesses certain qualities not found in any
other oils, the business in it is of consid-
cradle proportions One merit of "degras'
is its complete freedom from any tendency
to spontaneous combustion, a Characters
tic which makes safe a process in the prep
aration of high-grade leather which, if
other lubricants were used, would be at
tended with constant danger and be made
commercially impossible. There is at pres
ent no known substitute for "degras" and
its importation must continue if American
manufacturers of these feathers are to
compete with those of France. something
which they are now doing with consider
able success. The demand for a duty on
wool oil comes from the makers of fish oil.
talloW oil, and other substances of a like
nature, not one of which can be used in
place of ''degras." That the latter could
be made here is quite true, but it is equally
true that TO do so will not be attempted
for years to come. If ever. for in this coun-
try each factory prepares it's own wool
and until this work becomes a special in
dustry as abroad, it will not pay to give
much attention to waste products of the
cleansing operation.
Few people, who have not experience
with Telegraph tolls, appreciate the ex-
pense of cable communication, says the
Chicago Times-Herald. Gable rates are
so much per word, instead of per message
of ten words. and the figures are very
much higher. Messages to England,
Fance and Germany cost 81 cents per
word from Chicago; Belgium's rate Is Sc
cents; Holland and Italy, 3S cents; Aus
tria, 40 cents; Greece, A cents; Egypt. GO
cents; Switzerland, IS cents; Sweden. As
cents; Turkey "a cents and SO cents: Rus
STA, 49 cents. The Cuban war has greatly
increased the volume of Geographic bust
ness in the West Indies. The lowest rate
is 40 cents per word for messages to IIa-
vana- Other Cuban points are higher, and
no town i'm the West Indies outside %