The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-28
ITEMS OF INTEREST,"


ing the male relatives of the deceased, go
out to the appointed SPOT, bearing a large
basket Of eggs. STOPPING down, one of the
natives lets an egg drop softly on the
ground Its breaking is considered an i'll
omen and another spot is selected. In this
way the party often wanders about for
hours, dropping eggs until one strikes a
place where the shell does not break.
Says the London Chronicle, Admiral
Dewey's interruption of the battle of Ma
Mia bay TO give his crews the opportunity
OF breaking their fast recalls our own
glorious LIST of June when Earl Howe,
before he gave the French such ham
merinS off Ushant, hove to for an hour
before attacking to permit of his men forti-
flying themselves for the coming fight with
a good meal-a pause which caused much
conjecture in the minds of the astonished
French. 1t has ever been the Anglo-SaXon
way to fight, if possible, on full stom-
ach. Wellington once said that if ever he
wanted an Irish or a Scotch regiment to
reach a particular point by a certain hour
all he had to do was to promise the former
a drink on getting TO its destination, the
latter its pay but that the corresponding
bait to an English battalion was a good
dinner of roast beef"
An automatic surveying instrument has
been invented by John Ridden of Sche-
nectady, N. Y. The device is intended 10
make an automatic record of the distance
and profile of any road or path along
Wnlch wheel can be rolled. 1t consists
of drum actuated by a worm and worm
Wheel receiving its motion from the
crank shaft of bicycle, upon which the
instrument is supposed to be mounted
through cord belt. In the interior OF
the drum is a screw, turned by the same
belt, through train of gears and friction
disks, when thrown into action by the
change in position of the pendulum A net
travels on this screw to which is attached
the pencil movement used to record the
various movements upon a strip of paper
wound from a supply spool upon the re-
VolYing drum. The action is exceeding.
ly simple. A continuous proportional
movement of the drum results from any
movement of the bicycle, and a raising or
lowering of the pencil, due to the pen
dulum, follows the inclination of the wheel
tread upon the incline. The record made
is continuous line, closely following the
changing level of the ground passed
over.
"A matter of cOnsiderable Importance to
textile interests is the process recently
brought forward by a Frankfort-on-Main
chemical company for preserving powder
from loss of active chlorine when shiDped
the occurrence of even a single perfora-
ton is sufficient to cause rapid decomposi-
ton OF the material consequent on the ad-
mission OF air, when the iron cases of
whole shipment rapidly become eaten
through, says the New York Sun In or
der, therefore, to counterfeit the injurious
influence of the atmosphere, the alterna-
tive has been resorted to of converting
The bleaching powder into a solid, cohesive
mass by pressure, the moisture set free
from the slaked lime on conversion into
hydrochlorlte acting as the binding agent.
IL Is mentioned as a noteworthy face that
under the influence of pressure the densi-
ty may be raised from or or O75 to 16
without any rise of temperature, or exhi-
bition of elastic action. In some previous
efforts, the plan has been resorted to of
applying pressure to bleaching powder in
casks and COMPRISING it into cakes or
bricks, but this has not proved desirable
in practice.
An immense hydraulic project, in con-
temptation by the government of Western
Australia, is subject of much discussion
by lne people concerned in gold mining in
that country, centering especially in the
Coolgardie region. Lack of water retards
It's development, and 10 meet this want The
government now proposes the construction
of works capable of supplying millions of
gallons daily. The operations for this pur-
pose involving the building of a pipe line
some 32S miles long from Darling hills near
the coast, where there is a good rainfall
and where sites for reservoirs can easily
be found. The intended source of supply Is
the Helena river, 800 feet above the sea.
where concrete dam 100 feet in hight and
900 feet upper surface length VIII be built
with a rock foundation There is a water
shed drainage with an area of about $50
he
that less than per cent. of the rainfall
in that area, if impOunded, will furnish the
desired supply. The service reservoir. as
planned at Coolgardie, 328 miles inland.
would be $50 feet above sea level. or !. 33O
feet above the supply reservoir on the
coast, and the proposition is to connect
these two reservoirs by 32S miles of 9O-inch
steel pipe.
The recent decision of the French
Chamber to legalize Greenwich time in
France has called forth opposition, and
the Senate, before rahfying it. has invited
scientific light on the matter NJ. Berthe |
lot has given his opinion in favor of the
new time as q, practical measure NJ Ian
ssen says it is not necessary to ADOPT |
what he calls English time" In prac |
tee 1t viii suffice for French railways to |
retard their clocks by four minutes. "At |
the conference of Washington we. along |
with Brazil rejected Greenwich time IF |
we accept it, it will be necessary to alter |
the knowledge of time in all our naval |
charts and it must also be said that we |
shall wound the sentiment of the French |
marine. To adopt English time is to rem |
der obligatory the meridian of Green |
wlch' M Poincarre has found a solution |
of the difficulty. AT bottom" he admit
ted the adoption of the meridian ar |
Greenwich wounds the national self-love |
En- bein! There is a town In France |
which has the same meridian. namely Ar
gentan. Let the French adopt the rneri-
dian OF Argentan, and everybody will he
SATISFIED Crires unanimes) Finally il
was decided to get reports from the
geographical and astronomical sections Of
the Academic des Sciences.
Scientists who are devoting themselves
to the study of bacteria find that the frr-
Their they advance, the wider the borizo,
in front of them becomes. saws tha G.
Louis Globe-Democrat Certain facts con.
corning some kinds of bacini- which w.
supposed to have been established are mn,
being modified. or falsifed. For inst,n.a
typhold fever is recognized as bacterial
and the bacillus typhosus is commo,,I,,,
regarded as the specific cause. II is he
contamination of food and drink ,,-;.l -