The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

window: Ito SLIP Is to lean over the
window sill and watch the happenings
in the street. and "silling" Is the act
Of continually leaning over the window
sill. These words are the outgrowtn
of the elevated railroad system.
in ST. Louis, where street car trans
fers are good only within an hour OF the
time of their issuance, an ordinance has
been introduced in Councils to compel the
companies to place a clock In every car.
The companies make no allowance for
mistakes of the conductors In punching
the time on the transfers, and the object
OF the proposed legislation Is to enable
passengers to call the conductors to &C
count when they err.
Every wearer of eyeglasses has no
ticed how they become dim with mois-
ture when subjected to sudden change
of temperature-as, for instance, when
the wearer goes from the cold outer air
into a warm room. The reason is, of
course, that the cold glass causes con-
densetion of the vapor with which the
warm air is laden, and thus becomes
coated with little globules of water. A
German scientific paper says that this
may be prevented by rubbing the glasses
with soft potash soap every morning.
They may be polished. bright after the
soap is applied, but an invisible film Is
left on them that will prevent the deposit
of moisture.
has been perfected by the use of which
the velocity of projectiles may be regis
tered at sixteen successive points be-
fore 1t leaves the gun. 1t is used in ex-
periments with high power explosives,
x.-t1 civ nf and
more a second and will register time
to millionth of a second. Formerly,
when the velocity did not exceed 1900 or
1000 feet second, the projectile regis
tered its time by knocking down series
of steel triggers projecting into the bore;
but with a velocity of $500 feet a second
1t has been found that the trigger, in
stead of dropping, frequently plows a
groove in the projectile. Hence the in
vention of the chronoscope.
Ia geological and geographical expe-
dition to Labrador, Iceland and Green
land, says the Scientific American, is be-
ing planned for the coming summer. Last
summer five Harvard men went to Lab
rador with DR.. r. A. Daily of the univer-
sity museum. This years expedition will
also be in charge of DR.. DAILY, and will
be larger than tho previous one. The ex-
petition will embark ON a large steamer,
and 60 men will probably be members of
it, including students of geology, geog-
raphy, botany, zoology, mineraIogy and
all branches of natural history. The ex-
petition will visit Iceland and the glac-
iers Of West Greenland A hunting party
will be landed on the west coast of Green
land and in Labrador The expedition
will start June g. and return Sept. 20.
Modern science throws light on many
dark problem Of old times. 1t is on
record that a Flemish scientists, three
centuries ago, made an experiment to
determine, If possible, how and why a
plant gains weight in growing. In a pot
of earth weighing 200 pounds he planted
a willow-branch Weighing pounds. He
kept the plant well watered, and at the
end of five years found that the plant
had gained 1874 pounds In weight while
the earth in the pot had lost only two
ounces. His conclusion was that the
gain in weight was due solely to the wa
ter that he had supplied it with. But
modern botanical science throws an en-
tirely different light on the matter by
proving that the gain was due principally
20 the carbon that the plant absorbed
from the air.
The long-mooted question of whether
toads are able to exist for long periods
sealed up In stones, has been lately solv-
ed by experiment. Several toads were
buried under varying conditions. The
weight of the toads was ascertained be-
fore sealing up the cells. Both stones
were buried under three feet of earth for
10 months. All of the toads in the sand
stone cells were found to be dead and
their bodies were decomposed, showing
Aak fHOxr kol IN.nx. g.
Rod. The majority of the large toads in
the block of limestone were alive, says
the Engineering and Mining Journal and
in every instance the glass covers were
cracked. The toads were weighed, and
it was found that they had decreased in
weight. The conclusions drawn by the
naturalists were that the toads cannot
live a year totally excluded from air, and
cannot live two years if totally deprived
of food.
During the late Queens girlhood, says
Leslie's Weekly, the supreme triumph of
astronomy was the first measurement of
the distance of a star; what a stride from
that to the resolution of a multiple star
and its movements, with the aid of spec
trunI analysis! Geology and the history
of organic life in geologic periods have
been completely revolutiouized. In polo
gy the record mas been even more WON
derful. 1t has been the era of the doc
trine of evolution. In 1887 it was the gem
eral belief of educated people that the
world had come into existence very much
in it's present shape; in 1901 it is the gem
eral belief of educated people that the
world is perpetually changing by imper-
ceptible changes from moment to moment
and that the accumulation of such little
changes may produce differences as great
as those which distinguish one geologic
period from another. Evolution Is the
distinctive note of the Victorian age.
There was a serious accident on the
Great Northern Railway. of England in
the year of 1895, caused by a steel rail
breaking into II pieces. The case was so
peculiar that the Board of Trade APP
pointed a committee to investigate the
cause of the breakage. After more than
four years consideration, the committee
reported that the particular rail in ques-
ton had several abnormal characteristics,
the precise nature of which they could
not determine, but their investigation led
to some discoveries of scientific and prac-
tical value One of these discoveries is
the astonishing effect OF crack in the
upper surface of rail 1t was found by
experiment that a rail nicked with a
chisel to a depth of 1-64th of an inch
broke under a weight of 800 pounds drop
ped from a height of 10 feet while .he
same rail, not nicked. did not break when
subjected to a fall Of ton weight from
height of 20 feet.