The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-25
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Tho North Carolina Experiment Sta
ticn has discovered that the flavor Of eggs
| is determined by the food. After giving
| hens chopped onions for two weeks the
| eggs became so disagreeabie in favor
that they could not be used. Wheat
! shorts, cottonseed meal and skim milk
| increased the number of eggs laid. but
! the eggs Rad a disagreeable flavor. Crack
ed corn and corn dough resulted in fewer
| eggs. but larger ones and of better
| flavor.
Two murderers whose crimes attracted
unusual attention in Europe have just
been executed. One was the Swede, Nord-
lund who killed seven persons on the
steomer Prinz Karl in May. The other
vas Gonczi who killed rich widow and
her daughter in Berlin three years ago
and was convicted after having been eX-
tradited from Argentina. where he had
! taken refuge. He protested that he was
irnocent and left unsolved the legal knot
as TO whether mother or daughter had
been killed first. The distribution of the
victims property, which amounts to sew
eral million marks, depends on the deci-
sion of that question.
The word mosquito, says the Quarterly
Review, has no scientific import De-
rived from the Spanish or Portuguese, it
simply means little fly" it is used popu-
larry 10 denote a gnat which bites, and
most gnats bite, when they have a
chance. The word is sometimes extended
to include midges. The Dipterous fam
lily Cuiicidae, to which the gnat belongs.
contains, according to Maj. Giles. some 2i2
species, divided among eight genera. The
great majority of species (some 800, how
ever, belong to the genus Culex. Ano-
x1rhi1 ba ind
er are divided among the other six gen.
era, none of which are large. The coEec-
lions which have recently been made at
the British Museum are said to contain
ten species of Anopheles new to science,
SO that If all Maj. Giles species are ac-
cepted we have a total of some forty
species of the genus which has been hope
Iessly convicted of being the medium by
which the malaria parasite is transmit
ted from person to person.
Prof. Rowland has shown that NOV
ing eIectrostatic charge produces magnetA
ism, very much as magnetism is pro-
duoed by an electric current, says the
Baltimore Sun. On this fact William
Sutherland bases an explanation of the
earths magnetism. If the earth in its
rotation about its axis carries with it an
electrostatic field of force it would nor
mally be magnetiZed with its axis of mag
netization coinciding with its axis of ro-
tation. While this is observed to be APP
proximately true, the author of the theory
thinks that the variation of the magnetic
poles is due to lack of symmetry in the
magnetic permeability of the earth, and
to the latter cause is escribed also che
induction of earth currents, which in turn
he believes to produce secular magnetic
variations. The daily variations are ac-
counted for by the theory that under the
action of the SUMS rays the oxygen and
ozone of the atmosphere become a sort
OF vast secondary battery whose alter
nate charge and discharge give rise to
displacing currents.
On the Interoceanic Railway of Mex
leo a part of the track has been laid on
ties of jarrah wood imported from Aus
trala for this purpose. The jarrah wood
is obtained from one of the largest trees
of the forests of Australia, the Eucalyp-
tus diversicolor. which grows to an aver
age hight of 200 feet, and is about four
feet in diameter at the trunk. There is
usually an interval of $50 feet to the first
branch, or in the case of a tree of ex-
IRENE hight, such as 300 feet as much as
$50 feet. These trees furnish timber which
is sound in every respect, there being an
absence of dry rot, gum veins and other
defects that often characterize large
trees. In one instance 100 tons of timber
were cut from a single tree, and the wood
is always hard, tough and elastic. 1t is
used in Europe for paving, and as il has
extraordinary strength due to its grain,
is particularly desirable for engineering
work. On the Mexican Railway, where
ties from the jarrah wood are being tried
it has been found that oak ties rotted
speedily, and it was necessary to use steel
for this purpose.
In comparison with the size of the
great ocean steamer, says a contributor
to Ainslee's Magazine. the dimensions of
the propeller which drives her through
the water at the rate of twenty-five miles
or more per hour seem hopelessly made
quate. For instance, if one stands be-
meath such a ship when she lies in dry
dock and looks up at her great hight, and
along her hundreds of feet of length, il
seems impossible the propellers can fulfil
their task. AS matter of fact, however,
their efficiency depends upon the speed
with which they are reyolved rather than
upon their size. Nor are they small in
themselves. The propeller of a steamship
of the largest size, together with the stern
tube in which they are carried weigh
close to 100 tons. Moreover, they are one
of the most expensive portions of the ship
The propellers are so essential to the
ships progress that they are made of the
toughest metal obtainable. Nickled steel
was formerly employed for this purpose
but at the present time manganese bronze
is the favorite material manganese
bronze cost in the neighborhood of $500 per
ton, and this makes the total cost of
pair of three-bladed screws amount 10
$4,000 or $4,000.
One of the most interesting inventions
for which letters patent have been grant
ed within the last few weeks. says the
Scientific American. is a process of coat
ing one metal with another devised by
Samuel II. Thurston, of Long Branch,
N. J. The metal to be coated CASUALLY
iron or steeD /. avst so thoroughly clean
ed thak al n1eign matter is entirely re-
moved. After this thorough cleansing
the metal is ready to receive it's covering.
The coating metal is systematically beat
en- against the metal to be coated This
beating process is produced by vtbratory
beating-rods, pivoted to bars secured on
a rapidly revolving drum. The drum is
located above bed plate arranged to
move beneath or over the radius of ac-
tion of che beating-rods. On the bed
plate the metal pate to be coated is
ed 49,