The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-06
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

out IN that country. 1t is expected that
Prof. Koch viii be engaged in this bac-
THEOLOGICAL work for six or eight weeks.
An interesting picture has just been
purchased by King Edward VII. 1t was
painted by the Empress Frederic, then
Princess Royal, in 1885, to be sold for the
benefit of the widows and orphans of the
soldiers who fell in the Crimea. 1t is
called 1.-THE Battlefield" and was origin
ally bought for 800 guineas, but recently
reverted to a dealer.
Gen. Sir Evelyn Wood, V. c., G. C. B.,
adjutant general of the British army, has
just entered upon his fiftieth year of ac-
tive service, having joined the royal navy
on April IS, 1852, when he had but recent
ly completed his fourteenth year. In 1855
he left the navy for the army receiving
comets commission in the Thirteenth
Light Dragons, now the Thirteenth Hus-
sars.
Notwithstanding the Baroness Bur-
dett-Coutts' eighty-seven years, she has
several seniors among the British peers.
First comes the Earl of Perth and Mel
fort, who is 81. Next is Lord Gwydyr
who is 81, and then the Earl of Devon,
one of the few parson peers in the House
OF Lords, who do not sit on the Episco-
pal benches, who is 80, and then Lord
Field.
Five submarine boats of the Holland
improved type are being built by Messrs
Vickers, Sons & Maxim for the British
navy. They are 6S feet in length over all
II feet inches beam and 100 tons dis
placement submerged. Their maximum
surface speed will be nine knots. and their
speed submerged seven knots. When sub
" TIIr hxy ale ri n
motor worked by storage batteries.
John F. Hayford of the United States
Coast and Geodetic Survey, gives in Sci
ence an account of a new connection be-
tween the gravity measures of Europe
and the United States. completed last
year by G. r. Putnam, assistant sur
veyor. The result gives the gravity con
slant at Washington, as nearly as it can
be determined from the data at present
available, value of 9S0111 dynes, equiv
alent in English terms to 32.155 feet.
Within the last three months Mrs Jen-
ME Springer, of Troy, Kan, has instituted
as many suits for divorce against her
husband, but each was dismissed before
the time of trial. Last week she began
the fourth suit, declaring to the court
house officials that her mind was unalt-
| erably fixed this time, and that there
| would be no backing down. Two hours
later the sheriff went to the Springer
home to serve the papers on the hus-
band, and found the pair ''hugging each
| other as loving as two kittens"
The war in which the American an
thropological museums are growing is a
continual source of congratulation. says
| London Nature and at the same time of
envy on our part and of regret that there
| is such Indifference to the science in Brit
tain. After giving, as an instance, brief
account of the Hopi collection of the Field
Column bian Museum of Chicago, due main
ly to the generosity of Mr.. Stanley Nc
Cormick, Nature adds: I'VE have moth
ing in the whole British Empire to COM
| pare with this"
At a recent meeting of the Academy
of Sciences of st. Louis, John S. Thur
man delivered an address on the many
| industrial uses now made of compressed
| air, illustrating his remarks by apparatus
| in operation, including electric motor air
compressor, compressed air, auger, drill,
| disinfecting atomizer, sculptors' and
stonecutters' tools, carpet renovators and
similar things, and set of lantern slides
showing the practical uses made of these
and other implements and machines oper-
ated by means of compressed air.
| "A correspondent in San Francisco in
forms Science that the bill making it a
felony to publish that cholera or bubonic
| plague exists within the state of Cali
| fornia, unless the fact has been entered
on the minutes of the Board of Health,
| after having been passed by one branch
| of the Legislature, was dropped. The ac-
| ton of the United States quarantine Of
| af so Etron 70 fb@ In,
vestigation of the plague in that city was
due, has occasioned much bitter comment
by the San Francisco press.
| AT the last regular meeting OF the
Anthropological Society, of Washington,
President w. H. Holmes exhibited sever
| al fine obsidian knives from California
| One of the blades was 2015 inches long
| and inches wide, and with it was shown
| mass of solid obsidian of the size from
which such an implement could have
| been made. The work of manufacture
| must have been attended by enormous
difficulties. Mr.. Holmes explained briefly
the process of manufacture of these re-
markable specimens of stone working. On
the same occasion DIR. l. Casanowicz ex-
hibited Babylonian, Assyrian and Persian
seals, and four magic bowls from Hill
| len, the bowls having inscriptions on the
inside in early Aramaic and Syrian char
| acters The inscriptions consist of for
mulas for exorcism, but so far there is
no clew to the method of their use.
"A Springfield (Mass,) man has secured
a patent for novel railroad tie. It Is
composed entirely of leather, ground into
pulp, and treated by a process similar to
that with which pulp is treated to make
1t into paper and cardboard. After un.
dergoing this process the leather is treat.
| ed chemically to make it impenetrable by
| water. 1t is then cut into strips the
| width and thickness of the tie. and MANY
OF these parts are put together to make
the length of the tie. These parts are
pressed together under an immense pres.
sure, which makes the tie a perfectly solid
mass of leather. Claims made for the
invention are that 1t has all the merits
OF wooden tie, besides many qualities
| which the wooden tie does not possess
II has all the elasticity of wood, wall hold
a spike as well as wood. If not better
and will not rot, thus giving it a much
longer life than the wooden tie, whose
durability is about eight years AS the
leather tie can be produced from waste
| material, old shoes and the like, 1t need
| cost but a trihe more than the present
price for wooden ties. Aside from these
claimed advantages, the new tie, If sue.
cess, will furnish a needed substitute fol-
chestnut ties, the laying of 100000 oil