The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-15
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

"A lightshlp experiment on Diamond
Shoal is to be tried within the next
month, we are told by. Engineering
News. "It is proposed to project a
1S-inch stream of light from the sea
to the sky, which will be visible forty
miles away. The electric lights on
the lightship now on the shoal can
only be seen thirteen miles. The
searchlight apparatus will be arranged
between the two mastheads, and the
rolling of the ship will produce a dis
tinctive wavering light to be reflected
from the sky"
The projected naval station in the
Philippines will cost at least $S0.000.-
600, according to the estimate SUBJ
mitted by Rear Admiral Henry c. Tay-
lor, U. S. N, in his late report. as presi-
dent of a special board appointed to
consider this project. THE station"
says Engineering News, would have
to be equipped with dry docks, ma
chine shops, and all the plant necessary
not only for overhauling ships, but
for building new warships. Defenses
are also included against sea attack.
The isolated position of such a sta
ton demands much special provision
for storage of material, housing of
workmen, hospitals, coaling station,
etc."
Properly speaking, giantism is a
disease" says the Medical Record,
Nov 8. "Dr. Charles L. Dana of this
city long ago gave out the opinion
that many so-called giants were cases
of excessive pathological development,
rather than cases of excessive physi-
illogical growth. According to Prof.
Brissaud. giantism is nothing else
than the acromegalia abnormal de-
velopment of the extremities.) M.
Brissaud has demonstrated that the
combinations of giantism and acrome-
gala are. far from being uncommon,
and that the general symptoms of each
one of these diseases are observed also
in the other. According to M. Bris-
saud, acromegalia is the giantism OF
adults, while giantism is the aef5me-
gala of adolescents."
The production of salt in the Unit
ed States. according to recent census
report, has increased 46 per cent. in
the past ten years, and is three times
as large as it was twenty years ago.
In 1880 only per cent. of the domes-
tic production was from rock salt
which Is mined and crushed: now 1871
per cent. of a total production OF To-
1877 S19 barrels is from the rock salt
mines in Kansas and other states. On
the other hand, the salt prepared from
sea water and natural springs by solar
evaporation forms only 6 per cent. of
the present domestic production,
against 1872 per cent. in 1880. Some
77.3 per cent, against 1878 per cent.
in 1880, is produced by boiling brine
obtained from artificial wells. Impor-
tation of salt has been cut down by
nearly two-thirds in twenty years,
OFpSanf annual iYfNnOrfC Amounting to
about 100000 barrels, against 3,400,00o
in 1880. The net home consumption
of salt has nearly doubled since 1880,
and as population meantime has in
creased by only about so per cent, it
follows that the per capita consump-
ton has materially increased. 1t
amounts to about 6O1A pounds, COM
pared with about 50 1-S pounds in 1880.
"A terrible fleet of icebergs seen on
a. voyage from New Zealand to Cape
Horn last August is thus described by
a correspondent of knowledge, Lon
don: I'VE awoke to find ourselves sur
rounded by seventeen icebergs, the
number increasing throughout the day,
until at one moment I myself counted
thirty-twos altogether, and there were
foes of ice all about US. On one oc-
casion, during the first night as we
of about three miles long, the captain
suddenly discovered that 1t was Joined
under the water to berg on our other
side. A great block had probably fall
en- away. 1t was just toward dawn,
and the light was so extremely bad that
1t was just mere chance that the rip
ping of water over the covered ice
showed our danger. To have continued
would have meant certain disaster. The
sol
so that the ship might turn more
quickly than she could have answered
to the rudder, and we rounded our ad
versery on the southern side. We were
amongst the icebergS altogether about
sixety hours, for ii was not before Fri
day at midday that we were finally
clear of them. Not only were they quite
unexpected, but neither the captain Tin
over fifty voyages round the world)
nor any of the officers in all their ex
Eerience had ever come across icebergs
either in size or number to equal those
which made ours record voyage"
During the last few years there
has been a perfect rage in Vienna for
pulling down interesting ancient
houses, says the Commercial Adver-
tiser. AS each pile is condemned fresh
groans arise from the old inhabitants,
anu fresh VI IcplOdCll dpPCdl
in daily papers. Some houses in the
Bognergasse, the place where bows and
arrows were once made, are ordered to
be leveled with the ground, as the
streets in the heart of the city are
all being widened. This time the out
cry is greater than usual, for Bee
thoven used to frequent a wine shop
in this street, the Black Camel. found
ed in the seventeenth century, and still
managed by descendants of the origi-
nal owners. To this shop a large gro
Gerry is attached, and letters from Bee
thoven containing orders for wine,
coffee and sugar. with promises of
speedy payment, are still preserved.
The regulations of this venerable place
of business, with its low ceilings and
cellar-like rooms, were at one time
exceedingly strict. No shopman was
paid his salary, but the sum was en-
tered to his credit in the ledger. II
he desired clothes or shoes he was
obliged to obtain the permission of his
master. BY this enforced economy, at
the end of some years, he found him
self in possession of a respectable sum
of money. The last wine garden with
in old Vienna, attached to the Minor
lite Church, is also to be sacrificed to
building requirements.
Silk is silk, whether 1t be velvet,
damask, brocade. satin, gauze or any
other fairy fabric with soft sheen and
changing hues, says the New York
Press. An old legend attributes the
discovery of silk to one of the sons