The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Beers recently destroyed at johannesburg,
the Electrician of London states that all
the machinery In the plant was driven by
electric power, and that originally it was
the largest engineering works of the kind
in South Africa, the machinery alone hav-
ing cost some $40O, 600
"A cable from Vienna says: Engelbert
Hohenberger, a Bohemian shoemaker re-
siding at Bodenbach a little town about
eighteen miles from Dresden, has invent
ed walking Shoe which is heated by
means of an electrical apparatus in the
heel, with tubes conveying heat under the
surface of the sole. Unherveer, the in
ventor of the ordinary winter shoe, says
thatsit has been concluSively proved that
the new electrical invention gives abso-
lutte protection from snow and rain at a
cost of % forms (S1D.
The last rails were laid on the Trans
Baikal section of the Siberian Railway
Dec. %, thus completing a part of the en-
terprise and establishing a communica-
ton between Western Europe and St Pc
tersburg and the eastern limits of the
Russian empire on the Pacific coast. The
length of this section is 693 miles, says
the Engineering and Mining Journal. The
trains are transported across Lake Bal
kal on an ice-breaking ferryboat. The rail
line is under construction from stretensk,
lllIOuSA hlducuuTId 10 1OfL arthur.
The coal crisis has become so serious
in Russia that the Minister of Finance
has been obliged 10 ask permission OF
the Emperor 90 allow all railways TO i'm
port foreign coal free of duty over all
frontiers of the empire up to Sept. I next
provided that such coal be used exclusive
ly in the working of the lines states a
correspondent of the London Times The
deficit in the supply of native Russian
coal this year is estimated at close upon
100000 tons Some concern has been ex-
hibited in the London press at the news
of large consignments of Welsh coal for
one of the foreign Powers. There can
hardly be any doubt that Russia is the
Power referred TO, a railway commission
having been sent from st. Petersburg to
buy coal Sixty-four thousand tons of
Cardiff coal are on their way to Rus
STA via the Black sea- ostensibly for the
Kursk-K harkoff- Sevastopol Railway, but
many people are surmsinig that it is in
tended for the use of the Russian navy.
-Edison's early wanderings, says. Col
lier's Weekly, brought him at II years OF
age to the Cincinnati office of the West
ern Union Telegraph Company, where his
absorption in electricity and predictions
of it's future power confirmed the sobri-
quet "Luny," which chung to him even
until his fame was established. I'VE have
the craziest chap in our Office" said the
telegraph manager to the editor of the
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette; The does
all sorts of queer things. 1 wouldn't be
surprised if he should turn out a genius
some day. Let me tell you his last prank.
We have been annoyed for some time by
cockroaches. They infested the sink. They
don't now. Luny fixed them. He Just
ran two parallel wires round the sink and
charged one with negative and the other
oil ~faft
were then scattered, and when Mr.. Cock
roach appeared and put his little feet on
the wires, ashes We're all that were left
to tell the tale" In this cockroach "anni-
hilator" was the germ of the incandescent
light.
Poker playing has been prohibited in
Vienna and tire police have strict orders
to see that the edict is carried out The
craze for the American game threatened
to disrupt the family life of the city vi
emma matrons of the better classes of CO.
ciety have developed such a passion for
poker and have INDUCED in ii to such an
extent in the last few years as TO have
caused actual financial cataStropheS in
several homes The chief source of in
come to the clubs is also now derived from
the tax on card playing and at soirees
and other social gatherings in private
houses all intellectual pleasures all art
the background by the rage for card play
ing. Scarcely is supper over than a gen.
eral rush TO the poker tables commences,
thousands of forms change hands and the
mistress of the house is forced either to
run into debt or to confess to her hus-
band her gambling losses. The conse-
| quent family tragedies are by no means
| few, and have led TO police interference,
| and even TO appearance in public courts.
"A ny n .bo
| New York, New Haven and Hartford
Railroad Company says Electricity, to in
| stall a large electric storage battery at
the Union Station in Hartford, Ct. to be
used as an auxiliary 60 the electric plant
| at Berlin for the operation of the third
| rail electric system to Bristol and for the
| further extension of the system to Rock
| vile 10 accommodate the continual growth
| of travel from the suburban towns east
| of Hartford large storage room is TO
| be built under the elevated tracks, adjoin-
ing the union station. 1t is designed TO
receive the overflow of electricity which
is not used by the cars, for often hap
pens, the dynamos in the power house at
Berlin are in operation when no cars are
running on the system and all of the cur
rent now goes TO waste. 1t is intended
that the new storage battery will absorb
all of the spare electricity and apply it to
the propulsion of cars when the current
falls below the fixed standard, and es-
pecially in starting cars out of the I'M
ion station.
Electric power can be supplied profit
ably in very many instances, says DIR.
Louis Bell in the Engineer Magazine, at
rates which put The small user in the
small town on a parity with his larger
rivals, aside from the immediate gain that
that can be made by subs tituting motors
for steam or gas engines. The develop
ment of wafer power gives an opportun-
ity for building up, all over the country
industrial communities that will infuse
new life into the dNng prosperity of the
rural districts. And one OF the most curl
Gus features of the growth of electric
power transmission, which has made this
possible is the way in which unutilized
water powers have come to light in the
most unexpected fashion and in the most
improbable places. Some one remembers
that years ago, before the great Western
Rot hAfn rafGa nd