The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Deen successfully appiled 10 the sharpen
ing of files up to the present is Thigh
mans sand blast Fine sand is project
ed on the file with a steam pressure of
$50 pounds through rubber hose fitted
with cast-steel nozzles. The harder the
surface to be operated on the more Wig
orous the action of the sand. Cutting
edges might be readily sharpened by dis
solving off extraordinarily thin, even
film of the steel. A large number of ex-
periments were made for the purpose of
determining the best conditions. The best
results were obtained from a solution of
ferric chloride with high current densi-
ties.
The investigations on agricultural
soils which are being conducted in this
country are probably unsurpassed in quail
ity and extent by those of any country,
unless it be Russia, where very syste-
matte and extensive line of investigations,
including survey and classification OF
the soils of the whole country has been
in progress for a number of years, says
the Popular Science Monthly. The work
in this country has been carried on main
ly by number of the agricultural ex-
pertinent stations and the division of soils
of the National Department of Agricul-
ture. The report of the field operations
of the Division of Soils for 1899, by Prof.
Milton Whitney and number of his as
sistants. lately issued, is a report of
progress in surveying the soils of the
United States. During the year areas ag-
sregating about 10000 acres were studied
in the field and mapped.
AT the time of the Introduction OF
electric lighting it was supposed in many
quarters that gas lighting was doomed,
and for a time the decline in the shares
of gas companies bore out this belief The
actual result has been a stimulus to in
ventors and such marked improvements
in the methods of using gas as an illumi
nant that it has more than held its own
against the formidable competition thus
encountered. In 1877 the gas lighting was
accomplished by the use of bat-wing
burners, used either singly or in groups
When, in the same year, the Jablochkoff
electric candle was introduced, the gas
burners were improved by using COM
bination of tips aided by a stronger draft
In 1885 the incandescent mantle was in
vented by DR.. Auer Won Welsbach, but it
was not until the close of 1891 that it was
manufactured in commercial form. Mr.
Rudolph Langhans, an Austrian engineer
has discovered and perfected a chemical
complex, which, when added to Wells
bachs thoria-ceria mantle, converts it
from loose, weak, ash structure, scarce
1y able to sustain its own weight, into an
elastic glass, wherein the constituents are
chemically combined and not merely me-
chemically piled together.
LIN one form of Poulsen's recording
telephone the message is impressed in the
form of magnetism on ordinary pinaforte
wire. The wire is wound helically round
brass cylinder rotated by an electric
motor. In another which is adapted for
longer messages, thin steel ribbon is
wound on and unwound from two rolls
alternately. The curious thing here is
that although no magnetic screen or in
sulator is interposed between the sue
cessive layers of ribbon, the magnetiza-
ton produced in every portion of them
is preserved unaltered. In a third form d
continuous steel band is stretched be-
tween two revolving pulleys; at one point
is placed the electromagnet connected
with the transmitting telephone and be-
side it any number, limited only by con-
siderations of space, of electromagnets
connected with receiving telephones, each
of which in turn receives the message i'm
pressed on the ribbon After the ribbon
has passed all these electromagnetic it is
subjected to the influence of several per-
manent magnets by which it is, so to
speak, wiped clean and prepared to re-
ceive another series of magnetic impress
sions.
AT the last meeting Of the North Caro-
lima section of the American Chemical
Society, Charles Baskerville presented a
paper dealing with the existence of a new
element in thorium. The specially puri-
ned oxide was found on fractionation to
possess a varying specific gravity, one
varying from "a to 1914. While atomic
weight determinations have not been
made, there is much evidence going to
show the existence in these oxides of a
new element which he has Professionally
named carolinium. His excuse for pre-
senting the matter in this incomplete
fashion is based on the fact that he made
his observations some four years ago, and
that in the interim he has been fully en-
gagged in securing from monazite a suffi-
cient quantity of pure thorium salts The
authors work is interesting on account
of the support which it affords to a re-
cent paper by Dr. Brauner of Prague,
published in the proceedings of the Lon
don Chemical Society, in which he stated
that he had fractionated thorium oxalate
into two bodies which he named TIL a and
Th.b.
The subject of the definite determine
tion of death is one of great Importance
mitted, says the Medical Journal The
latest one suggested. as we learn from
the American X-Ray Journal for April,
which quotes the passage without, how
ever, stating its authority, is that of Prof.
Ottolenghi, of the University of Siena
The professor is said to have discovered
that while ID is easy to apply the rays
to the lungs of a person who is alive or
in trance, it is extremely difficult, in
deed practically impossible, to apply them
to the lungs of a person actually dead.
The reason is that some Intervening OBJ
stacle prevents the rays from penetrat ting
into the body. He has repeatedly made
a test OF this kind, always with the same
result. Prof. Ottolenghi therefore sug-
gests that, as this test can easily be
made by any physician. it should in fu-
ture be employed in all cases where there
exists doubt of death. II seems to us
that the value of this test could be easily
settled by experiment and that its fur
Their investigation is desirable.
If you should want an island, that is,
an uninhabited island. for the purpose Of
occupying it alone. Robinson Crusoe like
or to use 1t for romantic fiction. or for
any other purpose, to the exclusion of all
others in the world, you need have no
trouble in finding one II you see fit to