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

and Manchester proposes to carry
out scheme of rapid trans
il invented by Mr.. Behr. The
line is to be mono-rail, with no intermed.-
ate station between the two cities, and
with no crossing The speed is to be 100
miles an hour, and cars are to be run
every ten minuets. The time of transit
between the two cities Is expected to be
twenty minutes.
The students of the Leland Stanford
University, In California, stirred up a
great commotion recently by placarding
fences and walls in the vicinity of the coll
lege with peculiarly designed posters ad-
vertising a play to be given by the I'M
dergraduates. The posters were printed in
two sizes of type, ingeniously arranged to
read two ways. One way described the
play, and the other read: DIR Jordan
(the president of the University will wear
boomers on the quad Tomorrow"
Something new in fire alarms has been
invented by the chief of the Kansas City
fire department. On a telephone circuit
connected with the headquarters there are
to be placed the usual thermostats, which
give an alarm whenever the temperature
in their neighborhood becomes dangerously
high. The new departure comes from the
addition of automatic monographs TO the
other apparatus. By their agency, when
the thermostat gives an alarm, the phon-
ograph proclaims over the telephone line
the exact location of the fire.
The electrophone seems to be meeting
with favor in England. There are many
places in the leading streets of London
where any one can, by the payment of a
small fee, be switched for quarter of an
hour onto any of the music halls. The
Duke and Duchess of York have had their
residence connected by the electrophone
with the leading theaters, so that they
may listen to performances, and they have
already heard several operate performs
ances at Covent Garden through that in
strument.
"A note OF progress indicating the trend
OF the times is sounded by the announce
ment that paper will be read before the
National Electric Light Associa ton at Its
meeting this week in Chicago on the cleo
tromobile as source of revenue to central
electric lighting stations. The money to
be made in supplying cities and towns
with electric lighting depends so largely
on keeping a constant load on the station
that every new source of possible revenue
is promptly and carefully investigated.
The electromobile may feel complimented
now that 1t is admitted to this class.
Most kinds of clay contains consid-
cradle proportion of iron the red color of
bricks, for example, is due to the presence
of oxides of iron. Whenever an object
nodded of clay is baken at the temperature
of the potter's furnace in the presence of
a magnetic field or influence the otherwise
homogeneous clay shows, when cooled,
traces of magnet srn in definite direction.
This inherent magnetism is sufficient to
show the direction and give an idea as to
the intensity of the magnetizing force that
acted while the clay was in the furnace
This peculiar property has been used to
solve some questions of great interest 20
scientific people in general An accurate
knowledge of the direction of the earth's
magnetic force in early historical times
has been deduced by several Italian ply
sicsts from study of the traces of magnet
ism shown by Etrurian vases and other
objects of clay exhumed from old tombs.
The conclusion reached is that the direc-
ton of the earth's magnetic field has va
ried very greatly in the five or six thou
sand years represented by the age of the
objects examined.
In hunting for a name for a strange new
malady recently developed in California
the doctors coined the word "topsyturvy-
opia." The case battles explanation. Mary
Terry, a seven-year-old daughter of a
Portuguese rancher in the southern part of
the state, was born with some defect Of
the optical structure which causes her to
see everything reversed, precisely as NOR
tails with normal vision see things in a
mirror. Little attention was paid to her
popularity until she. went to school.
Though marvelously bright mentally, she
could not make much progress and her
teacher was in despair. She learned to
read with reasonable ease, but when 1t
came to writing the trouble became most
prominent. She persisted In writing all the
characters not only hind foremost but up
side down. For long time the teacher
could make nothing out of her scribbling,
but by accident she looked through the
sheet of paper on which Mary had been
writing and then the letters appeared in
proper order and quite legible Fruitless
efforts have been made to correct her
strange defect and the child continues to
see the world topsyturvy.
The electrical engineer or central sta
ton manager of ten years ago would blink
his eyes in establishment were he to be set
down in one of our modern central sta
tions supplying current for lighting and
power in big city. He would miss the
whirring leather belts connecting steam
engines and dynamos; the badly designed
steam piping running around the station
overhead; the oll-soaked wooden floor: the
exposed wiring; the dirty fire-room clut-
tered up with piles of coal and all the
rest of it that, while it was the best prac-
tice at the time, is now as rare and out of
date as can well be imagined The mod
ern station, splendid example of which is
that of the Boston, Mass, Electric Light
Company, resembles in outward appear
ance handsome cotton mill. The dyna-
mo room is lofty, airy apartment, the
walls of which are finished in white glaz-
ed brick The floor is mosaic. The engine
and large generators are direct coupled
and all except the bright parts are painted
maroon color. No wires, no belts ana
but little steam piping are visible Every
thing is sweet and clean. In the boiler
and fire room all the coal and ashes are
handled automa tlcally by machinery, and
one is astonished at the smoothness and
CELEBRITY with which the many details are
carried out that result in the economical
production Of thousands of horsepower of
electrical energy.