The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Thebes and dates from the seventh CEN
fury before Christ 1t is not only re-
markable as a work of art, but for the
presence of platinum which analysis has
detected. The emineht chemist thinks
that platinum was extremely rare in
Egypt and that the metal workers treat
ed it as they would treat silver or gold,
beating it out by hammers into very thin
leaves and applying it in decoration in
the same fashion.
In Berlin a very perfect system of
milk publication on a large scale has
been established. In 1871 the Berlin es-
tablshment distributed 100000 gallons of
milk; to-day it supplies 100000 gallons,
this amount being consumed by $4,000
families. By means of special apparatus
all the milk which is received is pasteur-
lied; while other products-such as but
ter cream cheese and the like-are made
under equally stringent regulations as
to their purity The effect of these meas
ures on the infant mortality of Berlin
has been excellent. In 1871 the mortality
per 100 children born was 80; in ten years
it fell to I'll. and in 1899 decreased to 23.4
The University of Pennsylvania is about
to erect, at cost of more than 100000,
exclusive of grounds and equipment, a
medical laboratory building which will be
uneXeelled in every respect. The trustees
are also contemplating the erection, in
the future, of new medical hall, anatom-
ical building and auxiliary buildings
which will adjoin the new laboratory
about to be erected, and which will form
one of the most extensive systems OF
buildings devoted exclusively to the teach
ing of medicine in Europe or America. The
new medical laboratory building which
will be erected at once, will be quad
rangular in shape and will be located on
the south side of Hamilton walk, between
Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh streets.
The building will be two stories in hight
above a high basement and measures $40
feet front by nearly 200 feet in depth. The
long front faces north securing a maxi
mum amount of the best light for lab
ora tory purposes. All along the front
are arranged small rooms for research,
rooms for professors and their assistants
a library, etc.-these open into a private
corridor, so that men employed In these
rooms may pursue their work without in
terruption from students passing through
the main halls.
Prof. David Shepard Holman of Phil
adelphia, the inventor of the Holman life
slides and other accessories to the micro
scope, died on Monday although to a
great extent self-educated, and with
out the advantage of scien-
tific training, was skillful micro
scopist, and devoted many years
of his life in this city to the invention
of devices for illustrating with the mi
crosope the vital forces. In 1870 he be-
came connected with the Franklin Insti-
tute, and the following year he was elect
ed actuary of the society, which position
he held until 1885. During this time he
perfected many of his devices and inven-
tons, delivered lectures and, forseeing the
great advantages of the typewriting ma
chine, he established a school of stenog-
raphy and typewriting at the institute.
which was very successful He afterward
taught stenography and typewriting at
Girard College He was a member of
the Academy of Natural Sciences. After
leaving the Franklin Institute he identi-
fed himself with the Atlantic Refining
Company, and for number of years was
in charge of the laboratory for testing the
viscosity of oil. In this connection also
mis- inventive genius led him to devising
the ''viscosimeter.
The visitor to the national capital who
has seen the Washington monument only
once has just begun to see it, says the
New York Evening Post. A plain, I'M
adorned obelisk, it would appear the sim
plest object in the world. but, in fact. it
is as changeable as the clouds. Never
Is it twice the same Every change in
the point of view reveals the monument
in a new phase. 1t is a chameleon to
the weather. Go close to it, and it's walls
seem to rise abruptly to a hight that is
overpowering. Sail down the Potomac,
and the thinly cleaning white shaft seems
to be waving a graceful farewell. Often
it is gray and solemn, part of the
everyday world of work and duty. Some
times in the varying lights it loses its
perspective and is a flat outline against
the sky; again. each line will stand forth
with the crisp clearness of an intensified
photograph. In the early morning 1t is
beautiful in the first rays of the rising
run; on a moonlighted night it is like
thing from another world, cold glesm-
ing unreal Many times in the course
of season the sharp point is lost in
clouds, and the shaft rises like pillar
supporting the armament. The setting sun
paints the monument with its most bril-
liant hues, and its last rays are reflected
from the cleaning tip. AT night, under
the starlight, the shaft is solemn like
sentinel. In storm it stands a type
of all that is steadfast. In the clearness
of a bright summer day II seems tremu-
lous in the pulsing air. Always the same
vet always different, it is like a thing
with life, a personality to be known aud
loved 1t has relatively little for the pass
ing stranger. but many condolences for
the old acquaintance.
"A demonstration was given in Plmiico
of the practical applications of DR.. Hans
Goldschmidt's process for the production
OF high temperatures by the combustion
of aluminium, says the London Times.
This process which has already been re-
ferred to in the Times, depends on the
intense heat developed by the chemical
reaction when a mixture of finely powder
ed aluminium and oxide Of iron is ignited.
This reaction is very easily started. but
II does not take place If the mixture,
which has been named "thernhte." is wet.
nor does 1t occur spontaneously or by
percussion. But when once begun 1t pro-
ceeds with extreme rapidity and in the
course of a few seconds a mass of molten
iron and corundum is obtained. the tenn
perature of which may be 5000 degrees
Cent. Yesterday the application of Their
mite to welding steel tubes and rails was
Illustrated. The tubes-which may be Of
any size up to six or seven inches-have
their ends cut square and pressed togeth-
er by clamps. The place to be welded
is then incloeed IN a small sheet iron box
with Jacket of wet sand. and the Their
mite, ignited in crucible is poured into
the box. The result is that the ends of
the two pipes are quickly heated up to
the welding temperature and thus united,
the clamps being slightly frightened at
this stage to force the ends more firmly