The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-02-09
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

DIR. William Gilbert, the famous ply
stefan to Queen Elizabeth, whose work,
DE Magnetic" published three hundred
years ago constitutes the bedrock Of
modern knowledge of magnetism, says
Nature, is to be honored by a full-length
marble statue placed in a niche in the
main facade of the new Town Hall of
Colchester, the city in which he was
born and where his remains are buried.
Alexander Beaubien the first white
person born in Chicago has just celebrat-
ed his seventy-ninth birthday AT the
time of his birth there were only a few
log houses near the mouth of the Chicago
river. He witnessed the building of the
first frame house in Chicago, the growth
of the manufacturing business and resi-
dence district, and children of the Potta-
Watomies, Winnebag goes and Sacs were his
pla INMATES. His father at that time rep
resented John Jacob Astors fur company,
and their home was always crowded with
the pelts OF different animals received
from the Indians in trade.
Some idea of what it costs to live on
Fifth avenue says the New York CORE
spondence of the Philadelphia Ledger.
may be obtained from the fact that five
lots of land on the corner of Fifth ave-
nue. and F'ifty-fifth street have been sold
for 5000 900, and that dwellings will be
erected on the site to cost at least $4,000.
Thus five private houses will represent
cost of $4,000 each Only a million
aire could afford such residence. Includ-
ing interest, taxes and insurance, this
means a yearly outlay of over $4,000 1t
would take at least $4,000 year to run
such an establishment. Yet the house
built upon lot % by 100, supposing five
residences are built on the five lote,
would not be a palace in its dimensions.
The expensiveness of it would be chiefly
in its location. A similar house in another
part of Manhattan could be obtained prob
abby for $4,000, and in Brooklyn for $4,000.
The Stockton Record gives a full ac-
count of a new and lucrative industry
which has been developed in several West
ern Kansas countries. 1t is the digging
of the root of weed known as the snake
plant. which is plentiful in that region.
This root is a powerful astringent and has
other medicinal qualities which make it
much In demand by wholesale dealers in
drugs. One man i'm Stockton employs
many hands and within eighteen months
has shipped out 5000 pounds of the root.
He supplied one Cincinnati company with
more than 5000 pounds. One hand aver
aged 100 pounds daily for twenty-one days
and the pay for the work was So 50 per
day. There is another wild plant in West
ern Kansas known as the "rosin weed"
which finds a ready market and is being
handled in large quantities. 1t also has
medicinal virtues. The digging time OF
both of these roots is from September to
March. when the sap is down
Two steamers, whose machiiery is de-
scribed and illustrated in Engineering
that Of the Inchdune and Inchmario. be-
longing to the Inch Line of steamers of
Liverpool, have proved remarkably Geo.
nomical says the London Telegraph. The
engines, constructed at the Central Ma
rine Engine Works, West HartleDool. are
a modification of the bankruptcies
hve-crank type, advocated by the late MIR.
Mudd and fitted to the steamship Inch
mona. The working pressure has been
increased to 267 pounds per square inch.
and the steam is superheated to a tenn
perature approaching 800 degrees Fahren-
heit. The general result is that on an
extended trial from Hartlepool to Dover
the coal consumption was at the unnre-
cedentedly small rate OF 81 pounds per
Indicated horsepower. If we increase this
to l pound, II works out to 15Is tons Der
day for a ship carrying 6170 tons at gb
knots, or to 1874 tons at knots. In other
WORDS, one ton is carried one nautical
mile on an expenditure of about one-third
of an ounce of coal Taking coal at 15s
a ton one ton Of cargo is carried $50
miles for an expenditure OF Id for fuel.
For the first time on record skin taken
from dead person has been successfully
grated onto living man, and the latter
is getting web says a Minneapolis dis
patch. The man upon whom the expert
ment was tried is Nicholas Sossong, who
was fearfully burned with nitric acid
some time ago. Huge patches of the skin
came off, and the surgeons tried in vain
90 secure enough skin from living per-
sons to supply the deficiency. one night,
when 1t was seen that a patient IN the
next room at the hospital could live but
a few hours preparations were made for
removing large portions OF his skin as
soon as the breath left his body When
death came the corpse was taken to Sos
songs room, and there in the gray hours
OF the morning the body was nayed and
the skin placed upon the exposed flesh OF
Sossong's body. Seventy-hve inches OF
epidermis was thus transferred and 10
the surprise OF the surgeons IL began 10
take root at once. In a week Il was pra,L
tically the skin Sussong has ALWAYS had.
Then another man died. and the same per
iormance was repeated. with the same re-
suit. All o. the gratis are 10 u remark.
able healthy condition, and sossonu Is on
che road TO recovery.