The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

When Lord Dunerin was viceroy of
India he was presenI sd with a novel paper
knife One day the Maharajah Hoi6ar Of
! lndore-who visited England some years
| ago-paid him visit the residency, and
/ asked for his ivory paper-cutter as a re
i mem brance LOrd Duuerin consented, the
| Indian potcntate left and the viceroy saw
him some months later, when HolIar il
rroduced o fine young elephant into he
room. \ pile of newspapers lay at Lord
! Dunerins side, the animal went up to
them, cut them neatly with his tusks
which had been purposely sharpened. and
! laid them in a neat heap on the floor
ready for perusal. This IS probably the
biggest and most expensive paper cutter
in use.
Still another process for making a sub
stitute for India rubber has recently been
! invented and consists Of an oil which has
undergone a high degree of oxidation. The
| oil, after being heated with Htharge is al
! Owed to cool, and then there is dipped in
| 1t specially prepared tow which is after
! wards subjected 70 the action of the air
| The OH which is admitted TO the hlaments
| OF the tow in this way become thoroughly
oXidized. The material Is then rolled and
! there results leathery substance closely
resembling India rubber The tenaeity is
! increased if sulphur is mixed with it, and
| the material is also available for making
!
not TO air. The new material is known as
perchoid and Is the invention of Dr. Ma
| pier Ford.
In one Of the streets in the neighbor-
hood of the famous London bridge there
has for some time been carried on an
| industry peculiar even to that city of Gu
rious and crowded occupations, namely, an
| eelskin leather factory. Here are prepared
| and manufactured an interesting variety
OF articles from the skin of the common
eel By means of numerous complicated
processes the skins in question are manip-
ulated until they resemble and
would be easily taken for
! leather, although of a more glu-
! tinous and phable nature. In one speciality
this strange substance is cut into long, thin
strips and plated veTy closely together for
! Whip-leshes and to cover portions of the
handles of more expensive whips. Certain
| kinds of lashes and harness laces are also
made from such skins, combining feXibih-
| ty ana toughness
One Of the results Of the rapid develop
ment of the overhead. trolley system and
its widespread use has been the discovery
of its limitations says the New York Post.
II is now thought to be Impossible to TRAN
smit by means of an ordinary trolley
wheel more than 100 amperes of current
without excessive sparkling ard loss.
! is considered
be the safe rate at which a trolley-car can
be operated over the usual run of track
( yet on well-constructed lines and with
| specially devised appliances II is possible
to make thirty miles an hour. Beyond
such a speed there is a tendency for the
wheel to leave the wire, and when this
| occurs serious damage is likely to ensue
Consequently for heavy currents and high
speeds ii is PROBABLE that a conductor near
the surface of the ground will be substitute
ed for the trolley wire, and numerous ex-
periments in this direction are now being
| made.
"A very curious lawsuit is about to be
inaugurated by Henri Rochefort against
the Duke Of Talleyrand, or, rather, against
! the trustees OF his estate, since this no
| bleman, who was for so many years the
leader Of Partisan society, under the name
of Prince Of Sagan, is now an imbecile
says a writer in the WASHINGTON Post
The purpose of the suit is to secure DOS
session of the historic castle of Valencay,
| the principal country seat of the Talley-
rand family. For several centuries Valen-
cay was the ancestral castle of the noble
| house of De Rochefort fLucay. But in 1908
| the Marquis de Rochefort Lucy Of the
day was compelled sorely against his own
will by the first Napoleon to sell the castle
and estate to the great Talleyrand 1t
now seems that there were a number OF
|
| noncompliance of stipulations by Talley-
rand, and il is on the strength of these
that the Socialist and journalist, Henri
Rochefort, who, as Marquis de Rochefort
| Lucay, is the present head of his house,
is now suing the Talleyrand family for the
possession of Valencay
A Paris electrician is giving special at
tention to the use of very small incandes-
cent lamps in decorative lighting, and his
efforts in that direction have resulted in
some unique effects, says the Philadelphia
! Record. He manufactures a number of va
riously shaped lamps mostly of diminu-
tive size, and the variety of applications
| of which is quite surprising. He makes
lamps for medical purposes; others for
| neckties and trick buttons; others, again,
for merely decorative purposes; some to
look like the flame of a candle; others
with merely a luminous point, for the
sighting of large guns. His finest work,
! however, Is in the composition of electric
flower pots, bouquets girandoles and gar
| lands. He has been making these fancy
| electric light decorations but short time,
but he has the market entirely to himself.
He cannot furnish the work rapidly
| enough, for each new piece is master
| work by itself. AS long g he confined him
| self merely to hiding small lamps within
the chalces of artificial flowers ne only did
| what others did before him, with, perhaps,
a little more taste. But now he makes
| chains composed of lamps, small incandes-
cent lamps forming the links of the chain,
and each lamp being SO connected with
| the ones next to it that one metallic cir
cult joins them all. OF course, this work
! is exceedingly delicate, and the inventor
! commands his own prices for it. But there
| is nothing more beautiful than such a gar
land of light hung in front of a dark back
ground. 1t is like a sight Of fairyland.
Many and strange are the methods
adopted by Queen Victoria for honoring
the memory of her husband, who died
close upon half a century ago. says a
writer In the Washington Post. But the
queerest of all assuredly Is that to which
only those can bear witness who have
had the privilege of obtaining a glimpse
of her bed room at the palace, where she
| happened TO be in residence at the time.
Her majesty sleeps in one OF those large
and almost square beds which are such