The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

with the value 1852 seconds by Prof. Au-
wers from heliometer measures taken at
the trausits of 1874 and 1882. If these are
reduced to miles taking the solar paral-
lax as $50 seconds) the resulting diameter
of Venus is y ISL kilometers of 1854 miles.
Mrs. St. Justin Beale is soon to open
a school in New York, to teach girls
OF all nationalties how to cook, wash,
sweep dust and perform all the practical
duties of a household. strong EFFORT
will be made to instill in them tact, po-
likeness, patience, tidiness, Kindness ana
silence. Lunches, fashionable dinners and
bail suppers will be served on the short
est notice. Dressmaking, millinery, hair
dressing and other things in this line are
to be put in.
An American living at Dawson City
writes, under date of Jan. 16, that in the
preceding two weeks the highest tempera-
ture was 50 degrees below zero and the
lowest 7515 below. 1t is easy to believe
bis statement that 1.-THE best we can do
when it is so cold is to stay indoors and
keep a good fire." A person venturing
out is apt to freeze nose, cheek or chin
in a few minutes. At such tempera-
ture the breath makes noise like es-
Gaping steam. Yet the native dogs sleep
out in the snow unframed.
THE island o. Molene, off Ushant,
which has recently been perilously near
starvation, has been relieved. For four
days there was no bread and the fisher
inhabitants had to dive on potatoes. So
terrible was the prospect that help from
ITeSt was urgently asked, and in spite
OF a heavy gale the steamer Titan man
aged to land supplies just in time to avert
a disaster to the little community, the
Mayer of which had sent a message OF
thanks o the marine project at Brest
Since last May the tallest skyscraper
in New York has been constructed at
the corner of Broad street and Exchange
place. 1t is an Office building, twenty
three stories high, covers 270OO square
feet and will cost $S,000,000. Ten thous-
and tons of steel have gone into the
framework, which rests upon 100 lines of
columns, each based on a separate steel
caisson sunk to bedrock Tenants are
to move in by May l. 1t is a wonderful
structure to have been originated, de-
signed and finished within less than a
year.
"A member of Congress has received
letter from constituent who has been
reading the many articles published re-
Gently in which doctors have asserted that
the diffusion of malaria is due to mos
quitoes, and who is much alarmed lest
his family and himself may be victims
of fever thrills and ague> chills in the
coming summer. This constituent has
learned also that dragon flies pursue and
kill mosquitoes, and he sends an anxious
plea to his congressman to get a stock of
dragon flies from the Agricultural De-
partment in Washington and to send the
insects to his home in order that his wife
and children may be protected from in
lection. 1t is of course, entirely unnec-
essary to mention the state from which
this plaintive cry for help goes to the
national capital
Exceptionally heavy rainfalls often
occur sometimes with disastrous effects.
For periods of five minutes rainfalls have
occurred at Bismarck N D., at the rate
of nine inches per house; at Jacksonville,
Fla, at the rate of seven inches, and at
Galveston, Tex, at the rate of six and
half inches. In periods of sixty minutes
rain has fallen at these three stations at
the rate of over two and one-half inches.
One inch of rainfall is equivalent to 271d
gallons, or 226,0O0 pounds on each and
every acre of the wetted area Rainfall
at the rate of nine inches per hour repre-
sents fall of 80, 800 pounds, or 4,079 gal
Ions, per minute per acre In five min
utes such a rainfall would cover each
area of four square miles with $1,000, 600
galons-a quantity much in excess of the
daily consumption of the city of Washing
ton.
Years have gone by since the sugges-
ton was first made that great orators
might enlarge their audiences through
the use of such a system of telephones
that their irrefutable arguments and
burning words might be carried over the
wires to many halls and homes at the
same time. Now comes a delightful tale
from a Michigan town, in which a small
pox quarantine has cut down the attend
ance upon church services to scanty
gatherings. This consolatory anecdote
AYERS that the central telephone exchange
of the town made up circuit at the usual
church hour, and over the wires hymns,
Scripture lessons and sermons fifteen
minutes in length were transmitted to
pious listeners. Evidently the telephone
managers in that Michigan community
are more devotional than those with
whom the great cities of the East are
familiar. Here in New York the tele-
phone is more frequently provocative Of
profanity than of piety.
The brilliant fire ball of Oct. q, 1900
was observed at more than $50 stations in
England and the orbit has lately been
computed by Mr.. w. +. Denning of Bris-
toll. 1t appears that the meteor first be-
came visible at q hight of sixty-eight
miles above a point near New Radnor and
moved for sixty-six miles at the rate of
eleven miles per second toward the earth,
disappearing at a hight of twenty miles
above Shifnal. The apparent diameter of
the fire ball was probably greater than
half the diameter of the moon. Its brill
liancy was sufficient to produce shadows
Separate leaves were distinguishable on
trees $50 yards away. 1t is probable that
the meteor was about as brilliant as the
moon. Its color during fight was blush,
after bursting, reddish. The shape was
pear-like. In it's course it emitted sew
eral brilliant flashes in quick succession
that resembled lightning, and a loud noise
was heard. 1t was noticed that birds were
disturbed by the noise or perhaps by the
light, of the meteor. This fire ball was
followed by others, the first nine minutes
later, the second fifty minutes, the third
an hour and twenty-five minutes, the
fourth an hour and forty minutes later.
All of them were bright, but none COM
pared in brilliancy with the first.
Prof. G. Sagnac of Paris, the discov-
erer of S-rays, contributes some new ex-
periments concerning those important ra-
diations to the Bulletin of the French
Physical Society. Prof. Sagnac discover