The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-04-06
ITEMS OFF INTEREST.

cOmpHSned a snort time ago at DeltOlt'
when the switchboard, serving 5000 sub
scrbers. was cut in two and moved fif-
| teen feet without hindering the service an
1 instant For ten weeks forty-tWo electri-
| clans and scores of other men were pre-
| pairing for the move. which was made in
ten hours
A long-distance telephone repeater ar
rangement has been invented by which, it
| is claimed, messages may be relayed on
| the telephone in much the same manner
| as telegraph messages are relayed. 1t is
| also claimed that two messages may be
| sent over the same wire at the same time,
a sort of duplex telephony. The invent or
| is now at work upon system of quad
| ruplex telephony which, if successful Is
| likely to greatly decrease the cost of any
| system
| Among the many new inventions of
| incandescent lamps is one made by a res
| ident of Worcester, Mass. of which great
things are hoped. The filament is star
| shaped, and consists of q combination of
asbestos. iodine. aluminium. and alcohol,
| The asbestos is saturated in iodine and
coated with aluminium filings. Crystal
| lized alcohol is applied as dust to the
| coating of the asbestos, and the thread
! is then subjected to an enormous heat.
| The chief use for TINS lamp, it is said,
viii be found on railways where it can
be embedded in safety in the walls and
| ceilings of the cars.
The Allgemeine Elektricitat Gesell-
chaft will introduce the Nernst lamp in
| connection with a supply station, which is
being erected at Gottingen. The plan
| for the use of the lamp involves a charge
| of 80 pr az cents) per week for the hire
| of the lamp, and this will include the
| vybi iS 10 +
| ing the incandescent material This
| charge is in addition to the amount of
current consumed but each lamp is guar
| anteed 10 give a candle-power of twenty
| five Heffner candles with the same con-
| sumption of current as a ten-candle-
power lamp of the usual form.
The fifteenth annual report of the
Board of Gas Light Commissioners of
Massa chusetts for the year 1899 shows
| that there are twenty-four companies en-
| gagged in that stale in the supply of gas
| and electric light, and seventy-four in the
| supply of electric light only During the
| year the receipts of the municipality for
| electricity sold TO private consumers were
| sos, 2S4S3. OF the siXty-two companies OPP
Grated by private capital, twenty paid
| no dividend, and the following rates of
dividend were paid by the other compa-
nies' One company, 212 per cent; two
| companies, D per cent, seven companies
per cent; two companies, AZ per cent;
four companies. per cent. nine COM
| panies, per cent; two companies, Z per
| cent: six companies, 8 per cent.
The Detroit City Engineer has per-
| fected an electrical device for sounding
an alarm when the water in stationary
steam boiler has reached a low level,
| which has been approved by the city off
cial boiler inspector. In the device the
| lowest gauge-cock at the bottom of the
| water column attached to a boiler is de-
| tached. and a metal pipe inserted which
! is connected with an expansion pipe. The
| guage cock is then connected with the
water column by a T-pipe, and stands out
further than the two upper ones. When
! the water in the column reaches the point
at which the lowest gauge-cock is usually
| inserted, steam at temperature of $50
| degrees rushes out through the connecting
| pipe to the expansion pipe, which is in a
| contact with electric connections and a
| circuit is at once formed. This rings an
| alarm bell or as many as may be de-
| sired, and attention cannot fail to be
| called to the fact that something Is wrong
| with the boiler.
There are few departments of human
life where man has been so entirely an
ticipated and at the same time surpassed
| ny lile lOWtI dIllIldlS as III the Invention
| of armor. His cunningest devices of the
mailed fist order were none of them orig
| inal. If you examine a fine and fully de-
| VelOped suit of plate armor in the form
| which il assumed at it's highest zenith in
| the fifteenth century you will find that
| the trunk and limbs were completely in
| closed in a splendid-ftting jointed case of
! iron plates, all eXquistely polished The
! suit as whole was triumphant product
| of the armorer's art. Yet If you look at
Holsters tail you will see at a glance
that all these clever devices of man s i'm
| agining had been invented and patented
long before by nature and that the elab-
| crate workmanship of the Plantag genet
craftsmen who cased knight and horse for
| the battlefield or the tournament in glis-
| tening metal, was but a poor imitation
| of the ineffable skill with which the I'M
Needed crustaceans of the time protected
every vulnerable portion of their bodies
from the assaults and attacks of their
| submarine enemies.
The decision of the City Council of
London, upon recommendation of the city
engineer, to pave two new streets with
! wooden pavements, has caused new in
| terest to be taken in wooden paVements
| among builders and contractors on both
| sides of the Atlantic, says the New York
| Herald. This new system of wood paw
ing is said to be the most durable and the
| most easily repaired. 1t is said that it is
! the only kind of wooden pavement that
| can be relied upon to stand the traffic of
cities like London and New York In
| stead of fashioning the woo len blocks into
dice hexagons poygons or dove tailed
complications in any form by the new
| process barked trees of any size or dual
| ity are sliced into cylindrical pieces about
| - inches in thickness. The largest pieces
are put down first into a good founda-
! ton, and then the smaller sizes until the
| remaining int 'stices may he filled up wit
what may be called pigs. Ramming rem
ders the whole one solid mass of timber.
and not a chip is wasted. The surface pre-
sents end grain only. and with the diff
ferent sorts and sizes afford much better
foo' hold than either granite blocks or as
| Dh2lt.
There is in Berlin man who is the
proud possessor of a timepiece which is
considered to be the most marvellous piece
! of mechanism that human skill ever put
| together. Ingenuity and human skill have
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