The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

There lives twenty miles from Oak Hill,
Tex, a blind girl. Mary Ashby, who
has from a few acres Of land cultivated
by herself cleared about 800 each season
for several years by the growing and sale
of vegetables. She began with no capt.
tai and an unfenced piece of uncultivated
land. There is now neat fence about
her domain, well and pump in the cen
ter, and She has in addition to purchas-
ing these, paid for a piano, and a wagon
to take her vegetables to market which
is twenty miles from her home. Every
morning during the dry season she wat
ers certain number of plants until shJ.
has gone over the entire place, when she
begins and goes over il again in the same
way. The active sense of hearing which
nature has given this blind girl in lieu of
her sight enables her to detect insect
life easily, and by feeling with her sensi-
tive fingers she can distinguish the ma,
ture and size of the plants and vege-
tables she raises.
The typewriter has found its way into
Siam, and many machines fitted with the
Slamese keyboard are now being shipped
there from this country, says the New
York Herald. Students of stenography
VIII almost recognize some of their word
signs and phrases in the curious charac-
ters which ornament the seVenty-six key
tops of the Siamese typewriter. with
which it is possible to make leo charac-
tiers. The secretary of the Prince of Siam
was sent to this country by his superior
on a special mission to have typewriters
built for Siam. In Siamese writing and
printing there are no capitals. There is
no Siamese script, so that in that language
all writing is printing" In numbers the
Siamese employ the decimal system. The
accents are upon dead" keys, keys that
when struck do not cause a movement Of
the carriage, so that the accent may first
be printed and then the letter without
having to move the carriage back. In some
words it is necessary to use as many as
three accents.
"A medical student, before he can be-
gin active practice in France. must write
treatise on some medical subject which
viii be approved by the government ex-
perts, says the Kansas City Journal Dr.
Noel, who recently obtained his diploma
wrote treatise on cancer, which has at
tracted the attention of scientists. Ac-
cording to his opinion cancer is due to
vegetable germs, which infect the human
system either by manual contact or
through absorption or inhalation of the
poison with water or food. According to
statistics, cancer prevails more in dis
tricts surrounded by forests and along
the banks of rivers than in places where
careful investigation around his home at
Lyons. Birch elm and willow trees pre-
dominated. He tested sap from thous-
ands of these trees and in a score of
specimens found cancerous germs A dog,
inoculated with these. in a few DAYS show
ed every symptom of cancer. DIR. Noel
states that the percentage of deaths from
cancer is much greater among persons
whose business it is TO handle wood ana
vegetation than those employed in trades
where wood is not used
Although the alarm when spread
through the ranks of expert stenograph-
ers when the photograph, as a CONNER
cial intrument, was launched on the
market, has passed away, and the man
who can write good and quick short
hand is just as sure of being able to
make a living as he ever was, one some
| times hear of the phOnograDh in other
| capacities than as purveyor of music
and sOng-in-slot machines. A case in
point is reported from Spain BARGE
| Iona company owns a large telephone net
work in the northeast of the country. The
| trung lines alone comprise some 500 miles
| of conductors. Messages of the nature
of Geographic dispatches are written out
| on a typewriter and duly delivered. For
merly the receiving officials would write
| down the messages in shorthand, and then
| transcribe them on the typewriter But
| the supply of stenographers became scanty
and the operators had to fall back on the
| photograph Now that instrument is reg
| ularly used the words received being re-
peated into it. As the speed of the phono-
! graph in repeating the message to the
| typewritist can be raised or lowered at
| will, the skilled shorthand writer is not
| missed, and it is claimed that the dis
patching of messages is expedited by the
| innovation.
The Lamb system of electric towing,
which has been tried in New York ex-
perimentally, Is about to be introduced
into Germany. Recently considerable i'm
! provements have been made in the appa-
| ratus, which, ii is declared promises to
| supersede every existing method of canal
! tOwage It consists, it will be recollect-
! ed, of an electric motor mounted on a
! cable, taking current from a conductor
fixed on the same standard. The opera
tor is seated aloft, working the motor from
! his elevated position. The motors design
| ed for the German canal are only five feet
| high instead of the nine feet of the earlier
| models, which in some cases necessitated
| the digging of bitches on the tOw-path on
! the occurrence of tunnels and other OBJ
| stacles. The worm gearing formerly en-
! ployed has been done away with, and the
| gearing made by direct spur gear by two
| reductions in speed which has increased
| the tractive efficiency of the motor by at
| least so per cent. The elliptical grooved
sheave which engages the traction rope is
put about a cylindrical electric motor. the
| field of the motor acting as the axle for
| the sheave Thus there is practically
a differential block working a capstan,
and the combination of these two powerful
mechanical forces is applied directly to
the tonnage of the barges. The weigh,
of the motor, too has been reduced from
! 5000 to 1.3OO pounds.
1t has long been known to physicists.
! says an exchange, that the cooling of an
electric conductor reduces its resistance.
! and from data at hand it would appear as
| though at absolute zero electrical resist
ance would disappear entirely Prof. Elihu
! Thomson, having this fact in mind. calls
! attention to the possible use of liduefed
| air as an insulator for electrical circuits
! and also as means of transmitting en-
ergy in itself without depending upon
electricity. Liquid air, while an excel
| lent insulator, has a temperature of 1S5
degrees centigrade below zero or IS de-
grees above the absolute zero, and at this