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

! to ascend, the door on the ground floor
| commences to close, and by the time the
| floor of the car is three feet high, it is
| shut and tightly locked. The door of the
| first floor landing begins TO open when
the elevator is about three feet below it,
! and is wide open at the exact moment
| when the occupants are prepared to step
| out. Further upward movement causes
the door to shut again, and the same Sc
| quence of operations again occurs. There
1 Is not rope or pulley or weight connect
| ed with the device, and the only spring
! used, which acts on the door catch. is
! small, always in sight and easily renew
ed. The doors are unlocked by the pres
sure of the moving elevator on this spring.
The latest form of slot machine is a
| collector and distributor of advertisements
| When used for collecting advertisements
| the throwing in of a coin causes the APP
| pearance of card with number, which
| is a receipt of the money that it is to be
paid. as we'll as for the advertisement The
"ad' is then written on the card and
placed. with the fee, less the amount of
| the initial coin, in a case which is put
| back in the box. A card outside of the box
shows what the price of each advertise
ment is. When the last card case has been
used an automatic arrangement closes the
machine, in refreshing contrast to the dis
| due course the machine is emptied, and the
contents are sent to their destination. In
the distribution of advertisements all the
names collected in a certain time are
| printed in little book, which can be OBJ
tanned by dropping a coin of the proper
value into the box in a separate place pro-
| vided for it,
In Iowa there is a cooperative colony
which has been in existence for ffty-one
years and is prospecting, its success in a
line where others have failed being as
| cribed to the modest wants of the Dutch
| people who compose it. II is known as
the Amanna Society, and is located at
| Homestead and vicinity, growing from a
| beginning with 1900 acres of unbroken
| prairie to over $1,000 acres of cultivated
| lands, on which, in addition to Homestead,
/ there are seven little villages of stone and
| brick dwellings. The cooperative iGea is
| strictly carried out, and no one colonist is
better supplied with worldly goods than
| his fellows. Each, on entering deposits
| all he has in the common store, and if
| he cares to withdraw, his contribution is
returned to him. Each man is allowed $50
| and each woman $50 a year for clothing,
| but the money may be spent for other pur-
| poses. Up TO a few years ago, only Dutch
was taught in the schools, but now the
|
are many men and women among the col
| onists who, born and bred on American
soil, cannot speak the English language.
in the April St. Nicholas Miss Ida Tig-
ner Hodnett writes of The Little Japa-
nese at Home" Miss Hodnett says: The
| old castles which were the homes of the
| damio princes were built of stone; but
| these, too, were constructed so as to offer
| as little resistance as possible TO earth
| quake shocks The walls slant from the
base to the roof, and are supported within
by immense timbers, the inward slope
| itself being a safeguard against danger
| from earthquakes. Buildings erected ac-
| cording to the Japanese idea of what is
| necessary to give security against earth
quakes have stood for centuries. Some
| wooden pagodas of great hight are known
TO have been in existence for 700 years !;
and the old wooden museum at Nara, in
which are preserved the NIikado's rare
treasures of ages, is fully 1900 years old.
| This is large, oblong building made of
| logs of keaki (kee-ah-kee), a reddish
| brown wood, put together in the log-cabin
| stlye, and it is supported merely on wood
| en- legs resting upon loose stones, as in
the case of the ordinary, house described
above. No part of the building has been
renewed except the roof and this has been
put on only three times. The present roof
is made of tiles, and is about $50 years
old. This is, in all probability, the old
est wooden building in the world, and Il
is certainly a notable example of the al
most imperishable nature of some Japa-
nese woods.
The operations of water engineers are
frequently hampered by the unpleasant
odor which 'characterizes some surface wa
ters stored in open reservoirs, and the diff
Guilty of dealing with such undesirable and
often unhealthy smells has been greatly
increased by the lack of scientific knowl-
edge as to their nature and origin, says
the st. Louis Globe-Democrat While
these odors are generally supposed to be
due to the decomposition of the organic
matter in the water, in many instances
they have been found to be caused by the
growth of microscopical organisms. This
subject has recently been carefully inves-
tigated and quite long list has been fur
nished of vegetable growths which inn
part disagreeable tastes and smells to wa
ter. The odor of some of these water
organisms was found to be due to the pres
ence of certain compounds of the nature
of essential oils, which make their appear
ance at particular stage Of growth; 9TH
ers gave off during decomposition a large
| percentage of hydrogen and a considerable
proportion of sulphur compounds; others,
again, revealed the presence of a large
amount of sulphur and of phosphorus. The
subject is of much Importance in connec-
ton with the storage of surface waters,
and the extension of knowledge in regard
to it will be of great value in enabling en-
gineers to judge beforehand of the likel-
hood of particular waters becoming inf1u-
enced by these unpleasant changes on
storage.
Electricians are greatly exercised over
the introduction of perchoid, a new prod
uct, and a substitute for gutta-percha,
the supply of which of late has shown,
such disquieting signs of collapse. Per-
chold the invention OF DR.. Napier Ford,
is oil which has undergone a high degree
of oxidation. Stimulated by the fact that
linoleum, like many kindred substances, is
oil, imperfectly oxidized, DR.. Ford exper-
imented for many years to produce a
method whereby OIL could be fully oxi-
died. and at last he succeeded. The re-
suit is perchold. The oil is heated with
ltharge, stirred long and continuously
and then allowed to cool Specially pre-
pared tow is then dipped in 1t, placed in