The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-21
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


Roentgen rays are applicable only on the
assumption of "a fourth state of matter"
neither solid, liquid nor gaseous. I'm study
! ing this fourth state of natter he said,
we seem at length 10 have within our
| grasp and obedient TO our control the little
indivisible particles of matter which, with
| good warrant, are supposed to constitute
the physical basis of the universe" Since
| then various and novel theories have been
offered by scientists to explain the radiant
matter in the Crookes tube. but they have
| been dropped one by one, and the original
| theory of the discoverer appears to be es-
| tablished. And this. too although remark
able advances are being made in radogra-
ply.
| The manuscripts of the Ne~ Testament
are more ancient than the Old. 1t is
thought that the original copies of the Old
Testament were first written on bricks of
clay. Bible means book For 200
! years the Bible was printed as one long
| chapter, in one verse and one paragraph.
| The book of Genesis is the oldest; it is
! thought to date back TO the period between
40o4-1635 B. C. The First, Second and Third
! Epistles of John are the most recent. They
are believed to have been written between
| the years 9096 A. d. The Wickliffe Bible
| was never printed. The discovery of the
| text of the New Testament was made in
an odd way. In 1874 NJ. Tischendorf stop
| ped for the night in the monastery of st.
Catherine at Mount Sinai. While in the Ii
| brary he noticed some leaves of very an
cient Greek writing in waste-paper bas-
ket. These he found to be parts of the now
celebrated Greek Bible. At considerable
trouble and expense Tischendorf recovered
all of the undestroyed portion, but unfor-
| tunately many of the most valuable leaves
had already been destroyed by the monks,
| L.. ~
In view of the accuracy of the long
range small caliber rifles, interesting e1S-
periments were recently conducted by the
| society of civil engineers in Paris, in or
der to determine the visibility of different
colors. To designate the visibility of COL
ors al great distances numbers from one
to eight were taken, eight signlfying in
visibility 1t was regarded as a matter OF
Importance to determine how these num-
bers compare in clear weather, in cloudy
weather and at night. The result of OBJ
servation at 500 meters $3.50 YARDS is given
as follows: In clear weather white Is
most distinctly visible q, then comes
hussar blue, light blue (2, scarlet 90,
green o. gray and the color of dry foil
age are almost invisible and were marked
IT, Dark blue was called 6. In cloudy
weather nothing was altered in case OF
l
becomes less visible 81, so also scarlet "a;
on the other hand, green becomes more
visible 49, At night the results were the
same as in cloudy weather, except that
white becomes invisible and so passes from
1 to s.
The kiss was unknown, 1 think, among
the aboriginal tribes of America and OF
Central Africa, says a writer in Science.
From the most ancient times, however.
it has been familiar to the Asiatic and Eu-
ropean races The Latins divided it into
three forms-the osculum, the basium and
the suavium; the first being the kiss of
friendship and respect, the second of cere-
mony, and the third of love. The Semites
always knew the kiss, and Job speaks of
1t as part of the sacred rites as it is
to-day in the Roman Church. The Mon
golian kiss, however, is not the same as
that which prevails with us. In il the
lips do not touch the surface of the per-
son kissed. The nose is brought into light
contact with the cheek, forehead OF. hand:
the breath is drawn slowly through the
nostrlls, and the act ends with a slight
smack of the lips The Chinese consider
our mode of kissing full of coarse sug-
gestiveness and our writer's regard their
method with equal disdain. Darwin and
other naturalists have attempted to trace
back the kiss 10 the act of the lower ami
mails, who seize their prey with their
teeth, etc.
"A simple experiment for determining
the source of the rays from a focus"
tube is described by Dean Molloy in Sci
entifc proceedings of the Royal Dublin
society" DIR. Molloy took a deal board
measuring seven inches by five and into
1t drove fifteen slender nails in three rows
of five; this was attached to the back of
q Huorescent screen mounted on a stand
so contrlYed as to allow of the apparatus |
being revolved in circle about the focus
tube, with the screen always tangential
to the circle. BY noting the directions of
the shadows of the nails, the exact posi- |
ton of the source of radiation could be |
determined. On adjusting the focus tube |
so that the central nail pointed toward |
the platinum plate in ali positions of the
screen, 1t was found that this nail gave |
only black spot for it's shadow, the shad- |
ows of the other nails radiatine symmet. |
really from this spot as center 1t fol- |
lowed that the source of radiation was |
IN the line of the central nail produced. |
and was thus shown to be at or about the |
center of the platinum plate. DR.. Mollov |
then proceeded to determine the size of |
the area of radiation by means of pin |
hole image. and found it to be an irree- |
ularly circular ill-defined patch about a |
quarter of an inch in diameter, coincid-
ing with the patch which first begins to
glow when the current is turned on.
Last week the PENNSYLVANIA Railroad
Company placed an order with the Schoen
Pressed Steel Company of Pittsburg. for
LOGO steel cars, the contract approximating
100000, says the Iron Age. This is the
largest single contract ever given for steel
cars, and the fact that it was placed by the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company leads to
the belief that other smaller lines viii
quickly adopt the use of steel cars. and
that additional orders will soon follow
The works of the Schoen Pressed Steel
Company in Lower Allegheny have been
enlarged to many times their original size
and have been operated night and day for
some months past The concern has at
present contracts on its books sufficient
90 keep it fully employed for probably a
year 10 come. The 1000 cars ordered bv
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company will
be the largest and strongest ever built.
Each will be ten feet high from the ton
Of the rail. This will permit of an enor-