The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-03
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Granite is not usually considered to be
an insulator, but one of the electrical
journals reports That insulators are made
as follows: Maine granite is crushed and
nodded into form and fused at 1900 de-
gress Fahrenheit. Ii resists all but hy-
drohuoric acid, and does not crush at a
lower pressure than 1850 pounds per
square inch and gives a tensile strength
of 4S0 pounds per square inch; $500 volts
were required 70 pierce one-quarter of an
inch OF this material in the shape of cup
insulators.
M. Henri Moissan has recently devised
a new process for the production Of ozone,
which he has described in a communica-
ton TO the Paris Academy of Sciences. 1t
consists of the decomposition of water by
fiuorine, and the operation takes place
when the wafer is a the freezing point
and has fuorine passed into it rapidly.
The oxygen is set free and when analysed
IS found to contain percentage of ozone
which in some experiments was as mucn
as IA per cent The ozone thus produced is
said TO be practically pure and there is
possibility that the new process will be
available on a commercial scale.
"A remarkable collection of films for
moving-picture. machinery is now being
developed at the laboratory of Mr. Edi-
son in West Orange. The pictures are Of
Inc Klondike and are intended for the
exhibit Mr.. Edison Is to make al the Paris
Exposition. The entire series will show
actual life in the Klondike as it has never
before been shown The positive pictures
on the film are nine time the size of the
ordinary ones, and in order to use the
larger film it was necessary to reduce the
speed of the camera from forty-fve to
twenty pictures a second. The reduction
of speed has, of course, resulted in gain
in clearness.
Much discomfort was aroused among
the blacks of German West Africa when
short time ago orders We're issued by the
colonial government that all firearms in
the hands of natives should be stamped
and registered. Lieut.. Eggers, in Damara-
land, however had no trouble in persuad-
ing the natives of his province to submit
to the new regulation. He had inoculat-
ed cattle for the rinderpest three years
before, as the Damaras saw, with good
results He, therefore, announced that ne
was ready to Vaccinate their rifles so as
to insure their shooting straight and do
ing no hurt to their owners, and the Da-
maras crowded to him to get their guns
stamped.
The children of the desert were filed
with ave when first the silence of the
"a liAAC Ncl SOhtuNC was DiOhGb ny tie pull
ing of the steam engine. Down at the
other end of the Cape to Cairo line the
simple Matabele, when first confronted by
a locomotive, were certain That the strange
machine was worked by the labor of an in
definite number of oxen, which they as
sumed were shut up inside. Hence, when
the engine stopped they gathered in curl
GUS crowds waiting to see the door open
and the oxen come out, nor could they for
manV DAYS he perS11ade6 that ba Of
the locomotive could come from other than
the strength of the OK. The Arabs of the
Soudan, more imaginative than the Mata-
belle, saw in the fire horses OF the railway
one of the Djinns of the Arabian
Nights" harnessed by the magic of me
infidel to the long train of cars. The
steam engine was to them a living, sem
tient being. OF which belief there is Curl
Gus evidence in the fact that on one occa-
/ sion a sheik made an imprisoned re-
monstrance against the cruelty of making
SO small an engine draw so large train
The Cook Islands in the South seas
constitute a federation under the British
flag, and have Parliament of their own,
which for orderly conduct and attention
to public business affords an example
which the Legislatures of other and pro
fessedly civilized countries might advan-
tageously emulate. The whole of the mem
bers are natives and regard it as a duty
to uphold the dignity Of their office Re
Gently they had under discussion the rec
tihcation of a mistake made by the early
missionaries, who, forgetful of the longi-
tude in which the islands are located,
| placed Sunday on the wrong day of the
week. The Roman Catholic missionaries
who arrived later, avoided this blunder.
with the result that there have been, for
many years past. two Sundays in each
week. To end this anomalous state of af-
fairs, the Cook Islands Parliament has
passed an act whereby Dec. "A and Dec.
20, Christmas Day. will be kept as enc
day, Dec. 26 being made Tuesday instead
| of Wednesday, thus enabling Sunday to be
| observed in common by the various relig-
| ious denominations. 1t is said that the
| speeches made in the native Parliament
on the occasion were charact erized by con-
siderable intelligence and common sense.
Among the magicians and sooiheay-
ers of ancient times the fir gures 9 ard 8
had certain amount of myste and sac
redness attached to them ard voumes
have been written in explanation Of their
meaning in connection with The his ory
of men and the world. Apropos Of this
a curious coincidence is noted in the fact
that nearly all the great mining discove,-
les of recent times have been made in
years ending with the magic fgure9 saws
find in California fell in thu ar 1919
Ten years later, in 1859 markable 4 s.
| coveries of the same metal wre rada
simultaneously in Austria ia am Brit sh
Columbia. causing great rush # for u e
hunters to these points. In 1859 the famous
Comstock lode find became known to the
world; in 1879 the go'd-bearicg region
| around Leadville, Coll AMI Tomb t. e.
Ariz., began to attract attenti n, a. n
1889 the diggings at Clover Creek and in
Lower California became the objective
points of great multitudss Of excited ana
anxious seekers after sudden wesl h. Aud
now again, at the end of aaot e. decade.
| history repeats itself once more. Thu e
| markable gold finds recently made at Cape
| Nome surprising in richness ard extent
anything yet discovered in the Yulon dis
| trict, bid fair to make this year 1897 as
notable as any in the annals Of goldmin-
| ing,
In, Tpdio