The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-25
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


has been told by his physician that his
passionate outbreaks are shortening his
life.
Count de Jotemps, a Frenchman who
has recently been in this country contract
ing for automobiles for European use,
says: THE American patents on horse
less vehicles are the only ones of practi-
cal value on the market In Europe we
have nothing that can compare with the
American motor vehicles, either in light
ness easy running qualities, rightly or
stability. We are satisfied that America
VIII furnish the horse. ess carriage of the
future, and it is our idea to control the
supply" ..
German science announces, says the
New York Sun, that everything needed to
make man weigh $50 pounds can be found
in the whites and yolks of 200 hens eggs.
Reduced to a fluid the average man would
yield ninety-eight cubic meters of illumi-
mating gas and hydrogen enough to fill a
balloon capable of lifting 1856 pounls. The
normal human body has in it the iron need
ed to make seven large nails, the fat for
fourteen pounds of candies, the carbon for
sixty-five gross of crayons and phosphor-
US enough for COO matches. Out of it
can be obtained, besides twenty coffee
spoons of salt fifty Jumps of sugar and
forty-two litres of water
"A new German invention is designed
20 prevent damage to water pipes from
freezing Into the iron pipe as far as it
is above ground there is inserted a second
narrower pipe of thin sheet tin or lead,
which Is filled with an elastic substance
such as rubber for instance. This inser-
ton remains unaffected by ordinary pres
sure, but if extreme cold should cause the
water to freeze the elastic insertion is COM
pressed by so much as the volume Of
water is increased by freezing. In thaw-
ing the insertion expands again to its
original circumference. The tin or lead
around the insertion is for the purpose of
preventing the water from assuming an
unpleasant taste or odor. Water pipes
provided with such insertion withstood
cold test of 40 degrees c., while others
that were not provided with 1t burst every,
time.
After the announcement of any scien-
tifc discovery it Is quite usual to look
for some practical use to which the new
substance, machine. or method may be
put and in the case of the hquef faction of
hydrogen, which was accomplished dur
ing the year just past, we have num-
Der of uses to which the liquid gas has
been applied by Prof. Dewar One of these
is its employment as a condensing agent
in obtaining very high vacua. The method
consists in immersing in the liquid hydro
gen the end of a closed tube containing
air, which then becomes condensed as solid
air. If now the portion of the tube from
which the air has been removed by con-
densation be sealed with a blow-pipe IL
will contain a vacuum so high as to scarce
ly allow an electric discharge to pass. The
time required for the immersion is less
than minute, and Prof. CrooBes is quot
ed as saying that the resulting vacuum was
higher than he could obtain with the or
binary pump after several hours work.
ALI of the governments have fallen
back upon copper, or compositions in
which copper is the predominant metal, for
sheathng their warships says q writer
in the North American Review. Electro
plating the bottoms of ships with copper
has recently been experimental extern
sively with, and this does away with many
of the old objections to copper sheathiug.
Where the copper plates were nailed on
the ships, pitt ting nearly always start
ed at the nail-holes. If the salt water
was allowed to enter here even in the
smallest quantity, corrosion would begin
at once, and in a short time do great dam
age to the steel hull. In ectropiating
however, the copper sheathng is put on
in one unbroken mass, and there is no
danger from "pitting." When the whole
surface has been electroplated with copper
a smooth and unbroken mass, and there
is no danger from "pitting." When the
whole surface has been electroplated with
copper a smooth and unbroken surface is
presented, and it fits so closely that the
sheathing cannot be removed without
sometimes chipping off the iron.
AN inventor in Newark, according to the
New York Sun, has succeeded in finding
compound which will hold alcohol in
suspension in a solid form, and he de-.
clares that his discovery is both new and
useful. Whether it be true that no one
else has ever before succeeded in getting
alcohol into solid form, it is certain that
no one has put it into the market in that
shape. There is no doubt as to the u-e-
fulnes5 and advantage of such a com
pound. The inventor CONCENTRATES Its use
solely as a fuel. Whether it could he
used for other purposes does not appear.
but there seem to be other. possibilities
for it. Although il smells strongly of The
alcohol, the mixture seems to be stable.
and samples which were put up in two
ounce tin boxes three months ago have lost
little by evaporation If a lighted match
is touched to the alcohol paste it melts
on the surface and takes fire. burning
freely with the characteristic blue alcohol
flame, only with a tinge of yellow added
at the outer part Burning freely in the
box and giving flame big enough to heat
chatting dish. a two-ounce box of paste
kept lighted for about two hours, where
the same alcohol in a liquid form would
have burned out in ten minutes.
"A Washington dispatch says: very
curious report comes 10 the state depart
ment from Consul Frankenthal at Berne
Switzerland, on the manufacture of arti-
flclal silk from gelatine, The consul saws
that his information is from Prof. Hum
mel of Yorkshire College, in Leeds. Eng
land, who is the inventor of the process
and who has submitted specimens of his
product TO Swiss silk manufacturers. The
accuracy of the statements contained in
the report must be guaged by this stand
ard. The gelatine to be turned into silk
is heated to certain temperature which
keeps it constantly in liquid form. The
reservoir containing this liquid has a
cover with innumerable small openings
through which the gelatine oozes in very