The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-13
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


progress is being made with the bill to
establish national standardizing bureau.
The work for which this new department
is to be founded has been done for many
years by the Office of standard weig ats
and measures, which is a part of the
Coast and Geodetic Survey. In 1886 copies
of the standard of weights and measures
were ordered to be furnished to the sep
arate states. In 1866 metric standards were
supplied by the Office, and more recently
polariscopes have been tested and electr1-
cal standards and instruments examined
The Office was originally established TO
provide accurate standards for the GUS
toms service, and for that reason was
placed under the direction Of the Treas
ury Department In such a case as the
collection OF duties on sugar, where its
quality and the consequent duty is deter
mined by the polariscope, the Importance
of accurate instruments can be readily
appreciated.
A dispatch from st. Petersburg says:
Medical circles are excited over the dis
covery of a young Russian physician, NJ.
Mimi, regarding the curative properties
of blue light. Struck by the common no
ton among the Russian peasantry that
a sick person on whom sunlight falls
through blue glass feels relief from pain,
NJ Mimi began an elaborate series OF
experiments, and he now publishes the
result in a leading medical journal of st.
Petersburg. M. Mimi used electric light
through various shades of blue and violet
glass. He demonstrated that in particu-
lar classes of nerve disorders and in neu-
ralgia of the face blue rays alleViated the
acute pain. He also conducted success
full experiments with cases OF Internal
hemorrhage. DR.. Mimi uses an ordinary
siNteen-candle power 100-volt electric
lamp, the light of which falls through
pieces of blue glass. The length of time
during which the patient is exposed to
the light varies from ten to fifteen min
utes.
1t will come to the middle-aged practi-
toner as somewhat of shock, says the
Medical Press, to be required to unlearn
the conviction impressed upon him in his
earlier days that one of the functions OF
the bile in the human intestine was its
action as an antiseptic. The chief reason
for that cherished conclusion was the OBJ
servation that the feces became particular.
ly offensive when the flow of bile was OBJ
structed. a German investigator, Morse
has made an experimental research into
the power of bile to control the processes
Of publication and fermentation, both
med up, the conclusions were that bile eX-
erts no influence ON the putrefaction OF
albumin in the intestine; that the pres
ence of bile apparently increased the bac-
terial putrefaction of albumin outside the
body; that fermentation of carbohydrates
was increased in the presence of bile, ana
that concentrated bile retarded the growth
Of bacteria, but that the action ceased
after "a hours.
An official Of Cramps shipyard says
that it costs from $4,000 to $1,000 to launch
battleship. "The building of the ways
for the ship to slide down over is the
main item, and then comes the gts asing 4"
he said. every inch of timber over
which the vessel slides must be covered
with lubricant. Different firms use diff
ferent substances but soap and tallow
form the main ingredients of them all.
AT the Cramps we use a layer of beef
tallow and layer of soft soep, and. taken
altogether, between one and a half tons
of the stuff is required to put move on
the average battleship. The tallow is
spread on first, to the depth of about
three fingers, and the workmen use big
fiat trowels to make the surface as
smooth as possible. Then they pour over
the soft soap, which is just thick enough
to run, or about the consistency of tar.
AS a general thing, the double coating
answers the purpose admirably, and the
ship glides into the water as if it was
sailing on air. If it sticks. as has hap
pened in a few cases, it is likely to spring
some of the vessels plates, and acciden 5
of that kind are so costly that nothing is
spared to avert Them
Mr.. A. Larsen reports in a paper pre-
sented to the Institution of Mining Engi-
neers on some experiments recently made
with liquid air as an explosive in blast
ing in che Simplon tunnel. The cartridges
used, he says, consisted of a wrapper fill
ed with a carbonaceous material, such as
mixture of equal parts of paraffin and
charcoal They We're dipped bodily in Ii
quid air until completely soaked and were
so kept at the working face of the rock
until wanted for use, when they were put
quickly into the Shot holes and detonated
with small guncotton primer and de
tonator The author does not say any
thing definite about the results, but re-
marks that the life of such a cartridge
is unfortunately short after it has been
removed from the liquid air and that a
cartridge eight inches in length and three
in diameter has to be fired within fif-
teen minutes after being removed from
the liquid to insure its going off, and that
in consequence of this the SimplOn ex-
periments were discontinued. 1t would,
therefore, appear that they were not sue
cessful Mr.. Larsen, however, says that
the Germans are devoting a great deal
of attention to the matter and are max
ing investigations at three different CEN
ters.
A dispatch from Parkersburg, W. Va,
says: James Cahill, of Roneys Point is
the only person in West Virginia and
probably in the United States who has
in regular use upon his farm an elephant
which is used for farm work. With the
swaying beast hitched up to pillow he
can turn more ground than any of his
neighbors with a team of horses, and
when it comes to hauling logs the ele-
plant will walk away with ease with logs
which the best teams of his neighbors
cannot move The elephant eats little
more than a horse and does many times
The work of one, is gentle and do
Gle, and little trouble, and Mr.. Cahill is
more than pleased with his experiment
Several months ago small circus broke
Up at Martins Ferry and it's property was
sold at auction. Mr.. Cahill, who was at
the sale, bid in a few donkeys, the ele-
plant and a tent, and took them home
expecting to start a small show himself
His father, Patrick Cahin. a frugal
Irishman, decided that a beast of the
size of an elephant could not remain on
the farm and be fed unless It paid for
its beard with labor, 80 he harnessed IL