The morning news., 1897-03-29
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

States commercial agent at Weimar,
Germany, says that locomotion by means
of electricity is gradually gaining ground
in Europe, though not to the same ex-
tent as in this country. In mileage of
electric railways Germany stands first
Then follow France, Great Britain and
Ireland Austria-Hungary, Switzerland,
Servia, Russia, Belgium and Spain in the
order named. OF the Ill lines operated in
Europe in 1895, 81 were worked on the
overhead surface system, u on the under
ground system and by means of accu-
mulators In Germany alone the capital
invested is $23, 10000 1t is estimated that
the number of new lines to be established
this year in Europe will exceed those es-
tablished in 1895 The city of Berlin,
which now has only horse tramways and
omnibuses, will soon introduce electric
tramways The electric tramway sys-
TENS of Hamburg and LeDpsic are nearly
completed
-Grandfathers and grandmothers are
very proud, says London Answers, when
they can boast of having paltry score or
two of descendants, but no one seems to
be aware of the grounds he has for boast
ing of the number of his ancestors. Has
it ever occurred to you to count back in
a direct line? If not, try 1t now, and you
will be astonished. AT the first remove
you have two-father and mother. At the
next remove You ha- four-,@o grand
fathers and two grandmothers. Each of
these, again, has had two parents so that
at the fourth generation back you have
sixteen ancestors, at the fifth you have
thirty-two, at the sixth you have sixty
four, and at the seventh you have 128. AS
you go a little further they rise to thou
sands, tens of thousands and hundreds of
thousands, so that, if all your direct an
tv ha 1ad
together, they amount to over a million.
and If you go back another twenty degrees
they total 100000, 100000, or more people
than there are in the world at the present
moment, if you leave out Asia. Now, as
forty generations are equal to only about
1890 years if you were to calculate back
to the beginning of the world, you simply
couldn't find figures to express the number
of your blood relations.
is it possible to bring into existence
a good artificial substitute for india rub
ber? asks Industries and Iron There
was never an invention more urgently
wanted, for the Introduction of the pneu-
matte cycle tire has caused such an in
road upon the india-rubber trees that the
future supply is already severely COM
promised, and something like an india
rubber famine must be looked forward
to, unless new areas of supply are dis
covered in the meantime. The remedy,
according to report made to the foreign
office by Sir Henry Dering, points to the
necessity of cultivating the tree on a lar
ger scale if the market is to be kept sup
piled. But it has to be borne in mind that
the india-rubber tree requires at least
five years to mature, and although the
yield TO the capitalist at the expiration
of that period is a, royal one, being COM
puted to be, at only half of present cur
rent market prices, at the rate of 400 per
cent, yet we have these five years or
more to surmount before these maturing
supplies would be available. The easiest
way out of what appears about to be-
come difficult position would be the pro-
duction of some chemically or mechani-
cally prepared substitute for india-rub-
Der. The problem. though essayed num-
berless times in vain, is not to be consid-
cred as totally insoluble and its resolu-
tion just now would come at a very well
come period.
An ostrich egg, with a romantic his
tory is the curiosity owned by Miss Marie
Lopez of No. AIS South Fortieth street,
says the Philadelphia Record. The egg
was presented to Miss Lopez by Joseph
Pulsiver, to whom it was sent by his
brother, who is superintendent of an os-
trich farm in South Africa. Accompany
ing the egg was the following letter from
the sender: Il send the ostrich egg, and
know your longing for peculiar curiosities
will receive a boom when you learn its
history. We had a man on the farm
named Carr, who was noted for his skill
in breeding and raising the ostriches. He
had raised the mother of the egg 1 send,
and she had been one of his greatest pets.
This was thought strange, as she was
known to be a savage bird, and would al
f. l.,
Breeding time came, and the ostrich was
soon watching over a setting of eggs. Our
farm matches artifcially, the eggs being
removed from the mother and placed in
an incubator. Carr was the one selected
to secure the eggs, on account of his great
command over the bird. He entered the
pen and began picking up the eggs. In
an instant the. treacherous pet became
furious and started to strike him with her
powerful feet. We had to shoot the mother
before we could get her away, and then
found we were too late, Carr's skull hav-
ing been battered in. In the struggle
all the eggs were broken with the one
exception, which I send to you"
Several more or less dangerous articles
of chemical manufacture are becoming so
largely employed for a variety of useful
purposes now. says the London Lancet
veyance, and storage are, in the interest Of
the public safety, imperative. Certain sub
stances that were previously regarded as
chemical curiostities have ceased to be so,
and are now important commercial com
modities and made on a very large scale
Thousands of gallons of "liquid" carbonic
acid gas in steel cylinders under high COM
preston may now be seen every day being
conveyed in carts from place to place, and
similarly other gases are stored under
pressure in tubes" as, for example, oxy-
gen, hydrogen, nitrous, oxide, and so on
all of which may expose the public to dan
ger. Solid bricks of metallic sodium,
again QSept under naphtha, of course) are
every day carried from port to port as
part of a ships cargo, and very serious ac-
cidents have occasionally arisen from the
intermixture of various chemicals on
board ship by the damaging effect of a
rough passage upon the packages. The
trade in cylinders of compressed gases has
already been placed under control Still an
other chemical substance of comparatively
recent discovery Is now so extensively
used as to have given rise to the necessity
of home Office order being recently is
sued. We refer to carbide of calcium
uyhfch on eirnnlv becomfuo moist givae off