The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-25
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


way of intensifying weak Photographic
pictures, not by chemical but by physical
means It is well known that weak pos
tive transparency shows much greater
contrasts of light and shade when held in
front of a white sheet of paper than when
held up to the light. This is due to the
| fact through the transparent parts the
white paper is seen with little loss of
brlliancy, while the more opaque parts
act, as it were, twice over, once when the
light passes through to the paper, and once
when it is reflected back to the eye. LORD
Rayleighs method, based on this fact, is
to back a weak negative with fiat pol
ished reflector, and TO copy it in the cam
era by means of the usual condensing
lens, with the light placed as much in
line with the copying lens as possible. The
positive thus obtained can be used to make
a still further intensified negative in the
same manner. To get rid of the effect
of false light reflected by the optical sur
faces, it is necessary either to give
slight slope to the condensing lens, or, il
this is not used, to attach a prism of glass
to the face of the negative to be copied.
"A species of lobster from the Pacific
coast has lately. been supplied to the mar
kets of the interior cities of the country.
It is known, says the Kansas City Star,
as the Bermuda lobster, and is very I'M
like the Atlantic lobster, although of the
same family. The advent of this new
species is very timely, as the Atlantic lob
ster is growing scarcer and of smaller size
and poorer quality with each succeeding
season. The Bermuda lobster is gathered
on the southern coast of California, and Is
shipped here from San Diego Cal, at
cost of five cents a pound less than the
Atlantic lobster. In general appearance
| the Pacific coast lobster, which gets its
name because it originated in the Bermuda
Islands, where it is now nearly extinct,
resembles the ordinary Atlantic species,
but careful examination brings out many
| little features that are not found in the
! Atlantic lobster. The BermudaS are con-
! siderably larger as rule than the others,
| and the boiled ones have richer red color.
| The Bermuda has no shear claw" which
| is a distinguishing feature of his Atlantic
| brother, but he has a row of legs or creep
! ers on either side of his body that more
| than make up for the big SHEAR claw of
the Atlantic lobster, and he is all meat.
An interesting experiment in tagging
Goldfish is described by the New York Sun.
! These cod are tagged at the Woods Holl
| fish Matching alton for the purpose of
carrying out experiments to determine the
! habits and movements of food fish off the
| New England coast. Several hundred fish
! have been turned loose in the waters of
| Vineyard sound, each having a numbered
| tag. The tag is a small piece of copper
or tin securely fastened by copper wire to
the dorsal or caudal fins. Goldfish do not
| live long after they are taken out of the
waters where they have been caught, and
they have to be handled very carfully in
the process of tagging or they will die.
The record of each fish is kept at the sta
| ton This gives the weight of the cod,
when caught and where released. Circu-
| lars have been sent to the fishermen and
dealers requesting that when cod having
tag comes into their hands to remove
! the tag and forward it to the United
| States fish commission either at Washing
ton or Woods Hon ground, the date when
the cod was caught, on what grounds TAX
en-, the weight before being dressed, total
| length from end of nose to end of tail, and
whether male or female 1t is believed
that this inquiry will show among other
things the rate of growth of the cod, the
| frequency of it's spawning and the extent
to which the individual fish migrate. The
work of liberating the tagged fish will not
be finished before next spring.
A machine, about as high and not so
broad as a man, is doing the work of
eight men at a bakery in Indianapolis. Half
of its hight is taken up by its legs, so that
the working part of the machine is COM
| pact. At the top is a trap door, opening
downward The dough falls on this door
and passes through four sets of two roll
lers each placed at different distances
apart When the dough leaves the last
pair it is an-eighth of an inch thick, and
has been thoroughly kneaded. 1t falls on
a piece of canvas attached to two rollers.
The rollers come together, forming pock-
ct with the canvas, which forms the dough
| loaf-shape, and when the rollers separate
| again the dough is thrown out upon a
table. The operator, however, usually
| grasps the dough as the rollers open and
| places it in the pans on the table ready
| for the oven. Running at easy speed the
| machine will knead and mold thirtyfour
loaves a minute. The dough is fed into
the machine by chain carrier, on which
tin cups as large as a saucer but deeper,
are fixed every two or three inches. Each
| cup holds enough dough for one loaf of
bread. Just as the cup reaches the trap
door it turns over pulley to go back to
the dough table and the dough falls on the
trap door. Two men at the dough table
| fill the cups as they pass. Only two ma
chimes have as yet been made, and they
are being operated in Chicago and Indian
apolis bakeries, owned by the inventor.
"A proposition for a new system of
railway night signaling has come out of
the increasing use of the electric head
light for locomotives BY giving the pro-
jector a tilt the beam of light can be
thrown up perpendicularly, and it has
been found that in that direction it may
be of even greater service than in the
horizontal position for which it was orig
| inaly intended. In the latter case it is
visible for only a comparatively short dis
tance, and in a mountainous district it
may be temporarily shut out of sight by
the winding course of the line. When the
beam is projected skyward the approach
of the train is heralded for miles in adj
vance, and it is now suggested that in
| the same way as the Telegraph flashes
messages from peak to peak by night the
| rays of the locomotive headlight can be
made TO transmit signals by night. The
| ACCESSIBILITY of such a system has pre-
scented itself very forcibly on a line in In
diana, which runs, for the most part
through a billy country. The line, a sim
| gle track, is unprovided with the block
system, although trains are operated by
Geographic orders, and it is most impor-
| tant for engineers of freight and extra