The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


vised bridge. Seven or eight.lances are pass
ed between the handles and tops of a doz-
en- cooking kettles and are held firmly in
place by the handles, besides being tied
together with forage ropes. -Assdozen such
bundles fastened together. form one section
of raft or floating bridge and are cana
bic of sustaining half a ton of weight A
section can be put together in twenty-five
minutes. .e4 as
Hugo Gentle, the English traveller, who
recently visited the grave of Dr. Living
stone, under the old Mpundu tree in Afri-
ca, found that an ornamental fence, appar.
emily not many months old, had been
erected around the tree. When Mr.. Genthe
asked the natives who had done It he was
told that "a white man and his donna,
VINO mad come from the northwest of the
Lrapula, and visited the grave and caused
the fence 60 be made. Mr.. Gentho's discOv-
cry has excited great interest among the
European community at Zomba and Blan-
tyre, and speculation is rife as to the iden-
ttty OF the mysterious and unknown couDlt,
from the other side of the Luapula who
travelled 50 far in order to do honor to the
memory of Livingstone
The manufacture of charcoal from ordi-
nary peat promises to become an important
sively used for fuel and the supply of peat
is practically unlimited. The peat is work.
ed in machine to fine paste, and leaves
IL IN thick cylinders, which are dried in
the open air. After from three to four
weeks of drying, the sticks may be Hsed
as fuel, but it is considered more profta-
bic to convert the peat 10 charcoal in
retort. Three tons of the peat make one
ton OF charcoal, and as its cost is about
a Oh tszo e
wood charcoal is from SIG to $50 per ton,
the profit in the business is evident. The
process has been devised and patented by
Mr.. Blunden of England, and COM
pany has been organized to carry on the
industry IN Italy on large scale.
On the deck of ship lying at South
street wharf, says the New York SUM- APP
peared boys bicycle that evidently was
in use. 1t seemed a first a curious thing to
see on the deck of a ship, but the simple
fact was that it belonged to the captains
son. boy of six years, who sails with his
father whenever mis- mother does, and who
has made numerous long voyages, includ-
ing two trips around the world having be-
gun going to sea when he was a year and
a half old. This bicycle was bought when
the ship was in Buenos Ayres, in South
America The boy rides it around on deck
IN fair weather when the ship is at sea,
just as boy would ride bicycle ashore.
The ship, of course, heels, over some with
the wind, but in fair weather not so much
but that he can ride, and wheeling up to
the windward on the deck of the ship isn't
a much harder task than wheeling up a
billy street on the land would be.
AT Los Angeles, Cal, during the past
year company has been making a series
of experiments in which the force of the
waves of the ocean was used to generate
electric power for light and other purposes
wharf made of metal was built extend
ing $50 feet out into the ocean, and at the
end was placed the generating plant. which
included three floats connected with verti-
cal hydraulic compressors, which in turn
are connected with a storage -pressure
tank. The movement of the waves alter
nately raises and lowers the floats puun-
ing fresh water from a reservoir into the
storage-pressure tank, where the water is
subjected to sufficient pressure TO drive it
out with great force through a water
wheel. This Watermelon operates the
dynamo, and the water which has passed
from the motor flows into the reservoir to
be used again. The machinery is almost
self-Soverning,a as in, case of storm or heavy
sea the accumulated pressure in the stor-
age tank exerets itself against the nurnn
pstons and offsets the action of The floats
A thorough test of the apparatus was made
during the winter, when all kinds of
weather We're experienced, and the plant
is now to be enlarged to a capacity of 200
horsepower. 91
The use Of electrical appliances in the
ships of the United States navy has haen
more general than in the case of the war
vessels of other Powers, and, accordingly
the construction of the two new imperial
cruisers at San Francisco are NOT only
making use of all that has been done in
this line, but are eager to secure the may
lmum efficiency and adaptability from their
eIectrlc equipment. A complete system of
electric ammunition-hoists has been de-
Vised to send the shells and powder from
the magazines and deliver them in arnnor-
ca hoods on the main deck with rapiditv
depending on the caliber of the ammuni
uon. Ihus, the 12-pdr. and 215-pdr 1oists
can deliver four boxes of shells and Two
boxes of powder per minute for each of
these classes of guns, while the Sinch
moist can deliver three rounds per minute
TO its respective gun. There are ordinary
ana battle-crcuits to distribute the .ur |
rent, and in the case of the latter the wires |
are protected and carried entirely within |
the armored portion of the cruiser. A shin
equipped with the appliances designed for
the Chitose, as one of the new Japanese |
cruisers is named will be able to fire with |
an two hours all the ammunition she can
carry, SO rapid is the electric service ex-
pected to prove.
BY means of liquid air, says the Amer.
lean Machinist, the effect of temperature
upon metals can be studied with ease. and
it is seen that temperature has a great
deal to- do with ductility, tenacity and
hardness. When subjected to very lou,
temperatures the colors of MANY sinh.
stances change, and some of the most brii.
liantly co-ored salts become nearly white
when brought to the temperature of -1o1
degrees c. Again, it has become nossibIa
TO test the theory of the electrical co.,
ductivity of metals at very low temner,-
lures and to verify the laws which heforo
were largely based upon theoretical cor
siderations and tests between comnara.
lively high limits. All these. boweI,or
are laboratory experiments Bun uo,,id
not any one of them justify the thongbt
and work which have been devoted 10 3bo
production of liquid air? In the line ~
the practical application of LIQUID air littIa
has been done, but the possibilities seer,