The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


apanik, a .Galician schoolmaster, is de-
scrbed as consisting of two mirrors so
adjusted as to separate a picture of what
is occurring into a number of dots along
an endless line. These dots represent rays
of light and differing vibrations and pro-
duce in the apparatus electrical currents
| of varying strength which are transmit
ted by wire 10 the second apparatus, where
they are changed into light rays, and rec
combined by means of mirrors into a unit
ed picture.
A new form of electric seismoscope is
| described by DR.. G. Agamennone in the
last Bolletino of the Italian Seismological
Society, the chief merits claimed for "
by its inventor being it's comparatively
slight cost about 80 francs) andeits great
sensitiveness. In most seismoscopes the
movement of pendulum is magnified by
long pointer, whose tip just passes
through hole in metal place contact
with which completes an electric circuit
and starts a clock previously set at r. In
the new instrument the metal plate is not,
as usual fixed, but is connected with a
second inverted pendulum, the bob. of
which is near the top of its supporting
rod, while that of the first is near the
base.
The uses of electricity on Howard
Goulds new steam yacht are manifold.
The electric plant Of the Niagara will be
as complete as has ever been installed on
board ship. 1t will consist of two dyn-
amos, each capable of furnishing 400 49,
candle-power lamps, and a storage battery
with capacity of eighty lamps. When
desired the dynamos can be made to oper-
ate 800 display lights at night also a pow
erful searchlight on the bridge. Electricity
will be employed in every conceivable way
| on board the Niagara. There will be cleo
trio heaters, curling tongs smoothing
irons, ranges, warming pans and lifts
Electricity will operate the laundry and
drying-rooms; it will heat chatting dishes
and bring out the music of the big orches-
trion. The ship will be electrically and
steam heated throughout with radiators
coils and pipes in the usual manner
According to a recent German patent.
in order to make hides transparent end
| hornlike, the skin is heated in oil, vase
line or fat without any previous tannage
The skin thus treated assumes horny
structure to which a CLASSY appearance
can be given by polishing. The skin be-
comes thicker during the heating; the
length of time necessary for the heating
| process depends upon the structure and re-
sistance of the skin. When thus treated
the skin is pressed, dried and polished
| 1t is almost transparent and any degree
| of toughness can be impaired to it; it can
| be shaped into any desired form and
treated in any convenient manner to pro-
| duce articles of commercial value 1t
| is almost incombustible and can be used
| in place of celluloid horn and wire, and
can be used in electrical work to replace
hard rubber, being cheaper and more dur
| able.
Belgian engineers, backed with Belgian
capital, and using Belgian machinery, have
about completed the railroad, two hun
! dred and sixty miles long, from Maladi to
| Stanley Pool, going round the rapids of
| the Congo river, hitherto the main obsta-
| Gle to commerce in Central Africa along
the line of that immense river, fed by its
| innumerabe navigabe tributaries. Up 10
| this time commodities have been carried
around the rapids on mems backs, an 5+v-
| erage in recent years of 100000 loads being
| thus conveyed each season. A part Of the
route was of much difficulty, requiring
deep rock cuttings and tunnels, and there
are in all eight bridges from 50 to $50
yards in length, some of them constructed
| in the face of formidable engineering OBJ
stacles. Trains are expected to make the
! trip around the rapids in about twenty
| four hours, only low rate of speed being
permitted, owing to the Sinuosities and
other peculiar conditions of the road.
To measure the current strength of a
lightning FASH says a technical journal,
seems almost impossible, yet it has been
| determined by noting the amount of per-
manent magnetism in certain rocks on the
surface of the earth. The amount of mag
netism in these rocks seemed out of pro-
portion with the ordinary magnetism of
the earth, so the proposition was advanc-
| ed that it was caused by an electric cur
rent either passing through them or in the
immediate neighborhood. Herr z. Pock-
els has recently made an investigation of
| sections of the basaltc rock of the Win
| terberg in Saxony, which show very irreg-
ular magnetism that must have been caus-
| ed by a current of at least $500 amperes
passing over the surface of the rock or
else in the immediate neighborhood Some
| basalt cut near tree struck by lightning
| afforded him a better opportunity for es-
| timatng the strength of the current which
he has computed to be nearly $500 am
peres.
AT the present day the electric current
is slowly, but surely, superseding COM
pressed air and steam as a motive power
for various purposes, notes an electrical
journal, especially on vessels of the Unit
| ed States navy. Electric power is gener-
ated on men-of-war not only for lighting
! purposes, but for controlling searchlights,
! operating small ventlating fans and for
| signalling at night By no means the
most unimportant use to which electricity
| is put at the present time on most of our
men-of-war is in operating what is kno vn
! as the Fiske range-finder. This ingenious
device, which has frequently been de-
scribed, enables the distance Of an eneny's
! ship to be exactly determined by means
| of two telescopes electrically connected
| through a well-known trigonometrical
! principle. Knowing the length of the base
| line and ascertaining the number of de-
grees in the two angles at the base of the
! triangle the length of one of the other
sides is automatically registered on a dial
The greatest light in the world, Ian
tern which has an illuminating power
equal TO 100000 candles, thrown in a
beam nine feet in diameter, is soon to be
erected upon the Highlands Just above
! Sandy Hook, to show mariners where thcy
can find the entrance TO the harbar of
New York, says the Chicago Record. 1t
will stand 2i6 feet above tide water, and at
that distance will be visible about thirtv
!