The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-07
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

rylng the nat INTO the mouse Oh ENcLLS-
sentatives with him, and now leaves it in
the cloak room.
A cargo of 1000 tons of American btu
minous coal will soon be shipped from
Philadelphia to Cape Town. South Africa. |
This is said 10 be the first shipment of the |
kind from this country to South Africa, |
though it is scarcely expected that regu- |
lar trade will be built up now. AT the |
present time a large amount of coal is
shipped from Wales to Cape Town.
The Prussian government owns and
works seventeen collieries, eight Ignite |
mines, fourteen iron mines. five metallifer- |
Gus mines other than iron and three rock |
salt mines, together with five iron works |
and seven works for smelling the other |
metals, six salt works and five quarries, |
which together produced an output OF
total value during the financial year |
1856 of more Than $4,000. 600. Besides the |
above, the Prussian state owns one COT
lery that of Ibbenbuhren, in the Osna-
bruck district of Westphalia, which pro-
duced during the last working year, 9,9OS
tons, the collieries of Deister and Oster-
valid in the Clausthal district, producing
together 0,421 tons, and half the Obern-
kirchen colliery in the same district.
in recent number of the Annales de
Micrographie, DR.. MIGUEL gives the results
of some interesting observations made by
him I'm respect to the vitality of disease
! germs. In May, 1881, he toAll some earth
| from the Montsouris Park at the depth OF
| ten inches below the turf. This he dried
| for several days at a temperature OF 30 de-
| grees Centigrade, and then he placed the
| dust In Theoretically sealed tubes, which
| ne put aside in a dark corner of the labor
| atory When taken the soil contained an
| average of six and a half million bacteria
per gramme. After desiccation the num-
| Der had fallen to rather less than four mil
| lion. Sixteen years later, that IS 10 say,
| last year he still found three and a hal1
million per gramme and he was enabled
to isolate the specific microbe of tetanus.
| The incubation of this soil in guinea pigs
| determined death from tetanus after an
incubation period of two days, showing
the remarkable vitality of pathogenic mi
crobes under favorable conditions.
Edward Verney in an article in the
American Druggist on 1.-THE Inhabitants
of MILK states that if a drop of milk
be mixed with gelatine and examined I'M
der a microscope some hours afterward it
| will be found that three different opera
! lions have taken place through the engi-
| neering skill of bacteria. In one part OF
the gelatine excavations have been made;
| in another little hillocks have been thrown
formed. Through the careless methods
employed in milking COWS and the subse-
ouent exposure of the fluid to contamina-
tions it should never be used as a bever-
age, except after heating at tempera-
ture of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. OF the
infectious influences to which milk is open
Mr. Verney mentions, among others, the
non-reiection of the first flow from the
udder of the COW, the dust and dirt on the
coat of the animal, and the unclean hands
of the mixer. From a COW where absolute
cleanliness was enforced the milk contain
ed only $50 bacteria. The same volume
taken under the usual conditions from
mixed herd showed 1900 bacteria. Prof.
Fleischmann says that thorough sanitary
precautions are almost totally ignored in
the liking of COWS.
"A Scotch firm is manufacturing an ar
, tificial stone which is said to stand every
test, and to be impervious to all vagaries
2 of the weather. The process is a simple
r one, and the ingredients of the stone,
chiefly lime and sand are not expensive
commodities, so that it is belieYed that the
artificial product will be able to compete
4 with the real. The lime and sand having
been thoroughly Incorporated, are passed
r into molding boxes, which may be of any
t convenient size or shape, and these are
r placed within the converter. Water at
a high pressure, and having a high temper
ature, is then pumped into the converter
, | to cause the necessary chemical union be-
r | tween the lime and sand, and the molding
e boxes are also submitted to a tempera-
ture of about 400 degrees Fahrenheit by
t the action of superheated steam In about
: thirty hours the surplus water is run off,
- but the heat is continued in order to re-
o move moisture from the molding boxes,
: for another fifteen hours The boxes are
# then removed from the converter, and the
" stone within them is practically ready for
use. Experiments are now in progress
s from which it is hoped that other products
e of natures laboratory, such as slate and
q marble, will presently be successfully inl-
tiated.
= The average annual output of wood
# novelties in Maine has a value well over
: 81, 900, 600. One of the most interesting
k branches of the industry is the manufac-
t ture of wood rims for bicycles. The fac
o tory where the manufacture is carried on
has a floor space of 1880 feet; it's daily
n output averages about ], 800 rims, and the
/: value of its yearly product is about $12O,-
d 900. The wood used is rock maple, and
7, each rim is composed of three pieces glued
and pressed together with such force and
t, exactitude that the rim appears like one
piece, and only the most searching exam
/. ination can detect the joints. After these
1 pieces have been steamed, bent, and glued
re they submitted to an enormous pres
sure in steam-power machine. They are
then taken to the lathes, one of which
turns the concave surface of the outside
} and another the convex surface of the in.
side of the rim. After passing on to the
sandpaper machine for smoothing they
N are stained and vanished and bored for
is the spokes, and are ready for shipment
v The wood must be perfect, and not the
g least defect or discoloration is allowed tc
- pass. Much of the machinery has beer
- designed expressly for this plant, and the
~ machines as well as all the steps in the
). construction of the rims require the SUI
pervision of skilled mechanics.
= The Secretary of War has received
r. some curious suggestions from patriotic
people who would like to assist in the ma.
- tional defense, says the Washington CORE
spondence of the Chicago Record. One
-, gentleman from the South writes him tc
% say that palmetto cabbages are the mos
- impervious to cannon shots and bullets Of
r1.~N,