The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The unfortunate death Of Capt. E. Y.
Watson in the Indian frontier war is
matter of great regret to those who are
interested in the scientific treatment of
the study of insects. Capt. Watson was
well known to entomologists as student
of butterflies, and mis- contributions to
knowledge were highly esteemed.
A sham battle between Great Britain
and Japan took place LAST month in the
gulf of Pe-chi-li The British Asatic
squadron of eight vessels met Japanese
squadron by preconcerted arrangement
and both engaged in sham battle. Each
squadron formed . battle line the guns
and torpedoes were worked and every eff
fort was made by each side to outmaneu-
yer the other. The British officers are said
to have been surprised by the smartness
of the japanese in working their ships.
Causes of spontaneous combustion of
oils in impregnated porous stuffs are indi-
Gated by experiments conducted by Ger
man investigator. In accordance with OBJ
serVations a maximum Of weight by abb
sorption of oxygen in the case of raw and
boiled linseed oil only appears after sew
eral days, while with OILS treated with
metallic oxides this is the case already af-
ter twenty hours, old linseed oil showing
one of 1916 per cent, young products up
to 10 per cent at most The spontaneous
combustion is well eXempiied by the fol-
lowing experiment: A piece of wadding
which had been used for the filtration of
oils that contained, besides copal, rosin
and turpentine oil. chiefly Hnseed oil boiled
with metallic oxides, was laid in q place
exposed to the wind, SO as to prevent a
supply of heat from outside A thermom-
eter stuck into it soon showed 60 degrees
then 1873 degrees, inside Of forty-five min
utes it had reached Z75 degrees, and sud
denly rose above 300 degrees (Centigrade0.
On folding the waddng apart, the interior
was found to be strongly charred, and in
the charred places glimmering was al once
percepHble which passed into ignition
upon admission of a draught of air.
Bloody as was the record of the
French revoutonists, they did not begin
to make war upon women until nearly four
years after the fall of the Bastile says the
Pittsburg Dispatch In April, 1898, SEN
tence of death was passed upon Catherine
Clere, a drunken serving woman who
shouted give lie Roi' in the streets of Va
lenciennes. Some of the members of the
convention were Mortified by the affair, but
that did not save the unfortunate woman
The taste of wOman's blood frenzied some
of the revolutionists. Two months later
three Breton women were executed; then
came Charlotte Corday, and following that
a calendar of bloodshed, the like of which
In the month of Vendemiaire, a woman Gn-
Guiding Marie Antoinette) and men were
guillonned; Brumaire, women Including
Nine. Roland and 81 men, Frimaire 10 Wo-
men Qncluding Nine Dubarry) and 81 men;
Nivose, 10 women, 81 men; Pluviose, wo-
men, 60 men; Ventose, II women, 105 men;
Germinal, y women, 143 men; Florial 27
women Gncluding Princess Elizabeth), 327
men; Prairial 80 women; Thermidor mine
days., 50 women, 2S3 men. If Robespierra
had not been oVerthrOwn, the record for
this last month would probably have ag-
gregated 25O women and over 800 men.
IA unique magnetic experiment is that
lately conducted by an italian electrician
who has been testing old Pompeiian and
Tuscan vases with the view to determin-
ing their polarity, his theory being that
they would retain the same direction of
magnetization as when baked, and that
this would correspond with the magnetic
dip at that time. 1t will be remem bered,
says the London Electrician, that he was
trying to discover the magnetic dip. say,
at the time of Romulus, by the present
magnetizatiOn of Tuscan vases. He proved
that the clay they are made of is magnet
lied in the direction of the eartn's magnetic
force during firing, and retains that mag
netism indefinitely after cooling. Some of
these vases, notably the wine jugs, ONO
choai, could only stand upright in the fur
mace and might, therefore, serve as self
registering indicators of the magnetic dip.
Now the most curious fact brought to light
is that the NOTWITHSTANDING pole of these
vases has a variety of dips from % de-
grees above to % degrees below the hori-
zon, but never more than that Hence, our
author argues the dip cannot have been
! anything like its present value go degrees
at Florence) at the time of the Roman
kings. He is inclined to think that the
north-seeking pole pointed a few degrees
| above the horizon in the eighth century
B. c., and that the needle was Tor would
have been, had it existed horizontal a few
| centuries afterward.
There is a man in the city who has oc-
casion many times in the course of a day
to regulate the flow of water here and
there from pipes in an establishment in
which there are many streams constantly
flowing, says the New York Sun. He car
ries wrench in his pocket Just as a man
might carry a lead pencil. A wrench of
the ordinary kind would obviously be too
heavy to be carried conveniently. and so
ne made wrench to suit himself out of a
hickory. On each side of the mead is laid
a thin steel plate, running riVets through
the two plates and the head. one on each
side of the eye. This wrench served its
purpose perfectly, and it was light and
convenient 70 carry. VITA the laDSe Of
time the plant Of this establishment was
steadily increased. More pipes were intro
ouced, Tor various purposes, and, with the
new fittings the various series of valve
stems to be turned finally included three
sizes, and the convenient hickory wrench
was no longer sufficient. But the ingenuity
OF the man who made the hickory wrench
was equal to the occasion. He had
wrench made, now of aluminium with
three eyes of the requisite sizes. This
aluminium wrench as light and handy
ana handsome tool, and it serves its pur
pose perfectly, and it IS perhaps the first
wrench to be made of the white metal.
DR. L. W. Curtis says that a large pro
portion Of the people in some of the United
states are virtually insane on the subject
OF the heating Of cars and rooms in the
cold months. They have drifted into the
vicious habit of being parbolled, and it will
take some years before the era Of nodera-
tion and therefore of healthy, interior air
sets in. One great cause of colds. catarrh
bronchitis and pneumonia is that the svs,
lem mas become weakened by being in hot