The morning news., 1899-01-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

to 'swells, undertakers and Englishmen."
In order 10 make the extent of fine
cracks in tools, etc, visible it is recon-
mended by a German technical Journal to
moisteu the surface of the cracked article
with petroleum, to rub off clean and to
wipe off the surface with chalk. The pc
troleum which has entered the fine cracks
sweats out and the rent is visible in its
whole extent.
The clock for the public building in
Philadelphia is the second largest in the
world. The dials are 25 feet each in diam
eter, which gives a distance of about a
foot to be traversed by the end of the
minute hand every minute. It's place is $50
feet above the street. The cost was about
$4,000 The clock in st. Rombold's Cath
edral, Mechlin, Belgium, as regards diam
eter of dial is nearly twice the size of the
Philadelphia clock.
-Rossington Elms of St. Louis, n years
old, was the first messenger boy in St.
Louis. He is the Oldest telegrapheF in
America. He is Oldest in service of all
the employees of the Western Union Tele-
graph Company in the United States. He
has served III every position in the tele-
graph office, beginning as a messenger and
superintendent He has been an empoye
OF the Western Union and its predecessors
just fifty years. In these fifty years the
company has paid him in wages $4,000 an
average of little more than $50 month
An ingenious Frenchman has invented
fishing gun which he expects to revolu-
tiOnize this ancient sport The device
combines at the same time the pleasure
and excitement of shooting and angling,
so the inventor says. The weapon is made
in the form of a gun with a long iron
barrel. The projectile is sent on its way
by means Of a powerful steel spring. II is
not a bullet, but a three-pronged spear
with cruel barbs and a handle Is inches
long. The theory of the new weapon is
that the fisherman will be able to harpoon
the fish by hitting it with his spear. The
ammunition" is connected with the gun
by stout string, and the fish can be tow
ed ashore after each discharge
There is an invention of the English,
notes Harpers Bazaar, which means so
much comfort to the householder that it
should be imported. 1t consists of a couple
of puseys and ropes for the opening and
shutting of heavy windows. The pulleys
are high up in The frame work of the win
dow, and there is some little arrangement
in the sash which fastens the cords. Two
handles at the end of the two pieces of
rope faN where they can be conveniently
reached. One is dark, the other is light.
The dark one is for down" so that when
the window is TO be opened one has only
to pun the dark handle and down comes
the window. When the window is to be
closed the light handle is pulled, and the
window-sash is lifted
The Coolgardie project, so frequently re-
ferred to in the newspapers, proposes the
delivery of 100000 gallons of water per
day at a point in the mining regions of
Australia 32S miles from the reservoir i'm
the mountains near the coast where it is
lmponded. To force the water through d
pipe line fer this long distance it has TO be
actually raised a total vertical distance of
$50 feet Further. the district through
which the pipe line passes is desert whose
soil is impregnated with salts which are
said to be so corrosive to iron that il is
deemed safest not to bury the pipe in the
ground at all. Another reason for having
it exposed is that in a pipe line of such
great length avoidance of leaks is essen
tial. The work win require 246 miles of
steel riveted pipe, 81 inches in diameter,
and 81 miles of welded pipe, 26 to % inches
in diameter The specifications require
acid Open-hearth steel to be used.
r. G. Clyne of Manchester, N. H, has
for years, says the New York Tribune,
been perfecting a machine that will fold
newspapers as they come from the press.
wrap them, paste the wrapper, and then
print an address on the latter The ma
chine occupies about the space of a small
job press, and carries a big roll of wrap
ping paper of suitable width. 1t is also
provided with ink rolls like those of a
Gordon press. The addresses are print
ed from stencils of thin aluminium cards,
each about one inch wide and two inches
long. The plates receive their inscrip-
ton from special form of typewriter and
are prepared in advance The edges of
the plates are furnished with simple means
of linking them together, so that any
number of them may be formed into a
chain or endless belt. whose width cor
responds to the length of the component
cards The impression made by the type-
writer sinks the letters of the address
and as the rest of the plate takes the
ink, the address stands out in white
against a black background 80 far as
l have been able to find out" saws Mr.
Clyne. there are no other machines which
do all this work combined. | know of
machines for placing the address on the
wrapper: also machines for folding news
papers; but l know of none which takes
say, the Weekly Tribune, after being
stitched or printed, giving it the neces-
sary folds for mailing placing the wrap
per thereon, and also the address at the
same and one operation. ali at a speed
Of from 4,O00 TO 5000 per hour"
At Newcastle-on-Tyne says the New
York Press, there has been launched the
pioneer ship of pelaglc ice breakers. The
employment of large ice breakers had been
confined to the great lakes of Canada un-
I'll the direction Of the Siberian Railroad
ordered a powerful vessel of this class
which is being built on the shores of Lake
Baikal. in Siberia. The work which she
is to undertake is much more ambitious
Than anything that his hitherto been con-
sidered practicable. and it is held by manv
men of experience in navigation amid
frozen waters that there will be no great
difficulty in keeping open many, if not
ALL Of the principal trade routes of the
world which now are impossible every
winter. The ice-breaking ferry steamers