The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

sian government for fourteen locomotives.
These are for use. it is said, on the reg
uiar lines IN European Russia, the old
engines being transferred TO the Siberian
road. This makes in all thirty-four loco
motives that are now in process of con-
structlon for the Russian government at
Baldwin's.
A communication was recently read be-
fore the Paris Academy of Sciences on
'"rhe Melting Points of Gold and Silver"
| by NJ. Daniel Berthelot The metals in the
form of wire were heated in the furnace
and the temperature of fusion measured
by platinum-iridium thermo-couple the
| latter being standardized in place by the
interference method of air thermometry.
| The temperatures found were $50 degrees
centigrade for silver and 1,064 degrees for
gold.
The Helena, Mon, Independent says
that John Creighton of Deer Lodge re-
Gently found on Mount Powell what lnay
prove to be the finest specimen of opal
| known in the world. While going to his
work recently his attention was attracted
to a stone of peculiar brillancy He pick
ed 1t up and submitted ii to Prof. Thonp-
son of the Montana University at Deer
Lodge, who pronounced it an opal. It's
cnlef value perhaps, is in its remarkable
! size, for the stone weighs nine ounces,
troy.
In New Zealand, the Indigenous fora
has given away before new species accli-
matted by TIE white settlers. 1t is not the
| larger species which are driving out the
smaller ones, but the smaller species which
| are supplanting the large ones. The smaller
| species, according to Mr.. Thomas Kirk, in
a paper published by the Philosophical So
cdety of Wellington, New Zealand by
numerous and varied mechanisms gradual
| ly succeed in eliminating plants which at
first sight appear to be vigorous and well
adapted for the struggle for existence.
The danger to which flying machines
would be exposed in aerial navigation can
be readily comprehended by an observer
on the Atlantic coast when heavy storm
sweeps across the sea- says Our Animal
Friends of New York. 1.-The most san
guine Darius Green does not expect the
future airship to be as strong and perfect
as the powerful-winged birds of the air,
and if the latter are tossed about by a
| strong gale the fate of the flying machine
would be disastrous A lost bird in a
gale may drift thousand miles out of its
course, and even the petrels have fallen
under the dominion of the wind so that
they have been cast upon unknown and
inhospitable shores"
Prof. Agasslz of Harvard has recently
| returned after an absence of some months
on the South seas, spent in studying the
| formation of the coral islands. 1t is said
that he is now prepared to demonstrate
in opposition to the theories of Darwin
and Dana, that the coral islands are not
built up from the bottom, but are formed
| by a comparatively thin crust of coral
upon tops of submerged mountains at
points where the ocean is comparatively
shallow. In nearly every Instance where
borinSs have been made in the coral the
coral has been found to be shallow. AT
| few places where it seems to have great
depths Prof. Agassiz says that the ma
terials into which deep borings are made
is lime OF a former age of the earth.
One of the most puzzling things about
the cathode and X-rays which Campbell
swinton of the Royal institution of Great
Britain is investigating, Is the existence
simultaneously in a Crookes tube of pos
Tive and negative streams of atoms, the
bulk of The atoms being positive and NOV
ing with comparatively small velocity
while those which formed the smaller
stream coming from the cathode were ne
gatlve and rapid in their velocity. These
two streams could be verified separately
by means of a tube containing movable
! revolving vane like radiometer. Put in
the cathode stream, it rotated very quick
| ly in one direction, but when brought
nearer TO the glass the vane came under
the influence of the positive stream, and
began to rotate slowly the opposite way.
-Spitzbergen is not an unbroken Ice
sheet, as many persons supposed it to be-
| says Chambers Journal. Glaciers there are
in plenty, but there is much open ground
and fine mountain scentry. Fogs are pre-
valent, and Mr.. Garwood described a, pc
culiar effect, due to this condition of the
| atmosphere, which does not seem-to have
been ever noted by Alpine climbers. He
| has seen the face of a mountain covered
! with spicues of ice-a kind of exaggerated
| hoarfrost-some of the icicles standing out
| horizontally from the wall of rock, and
measuring as much as eighteen inches in
length They are evidently generated by
the action of fog-and grow by the con-
| slant addition of moist particles. Fogs will
often continue for many days1ogether, and
they are so dense that one cannot see a
| companion who is more than two or three
| yards away
Men shake hands with strangers of
their own sex with far greater readiness
| than do women, says an exchange. Two
| men, on being presented to one another
| will frequently extend the hand in a grasp
| of greeting, which gives opportunity to
| form a general idea of each others make
| up, and know whether they are attracted
| or repused. Occasionally there is a man
with sufficient good nature and courag e
| to refuse another mans hand without
causing offense. There are men who
have been so impressed with the discov-
| cries of bacteriology that they maintain
| handShaking to be the cause of dissemina-
| ton of disease germs. The bare hand
| comes In contact with innumerable germs
| looking for pasturage on some vulnerable
| spot IN our anatomy. A cut or abrasion
| on the hand leaves the door open for the
| admission of an enemy. Therefore it is
with reason that men argue against pro-
| miscuous handShaking out of the home
| among the men met in business life Sci
ence long since frowned upon the practice
] of promiscuous kissing, which prevailed
among women. Is the ung!oved handslrake
also doomed?
The largest tank steamer in the
world" win soon be launched for the
| Standard Oil Company at the Roach shin |
l IL, n. rrrL