The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

interests of tailors says that there are
men who always include a coat of
mail in their wardrobe" and that "a
well known firm in the west end has
made during the past few years more
than one of these garments for the
Duke of Orleans" The dukes life is
probably not in any danger, but per-
haps he considers that as rightful king
of France he ought to be in peril of
assassination and protects himself as
an assertion of his kingly right.
"A guidebook is generally regarded
as harmless. Not so in Turkey, as a
German traveller has learned to his
grief. Officials found in his trunk "a
guide through Turkey and confscated
it. The next morning the book was
returned to the German, but with more
than a hundred pages containing a
description of Constantinople torn out.
The traveller went to the censor's Office
to complain of this inexplicable treat
ment of his book. But the censor ex-
planned to him with irresistible logic
that an accurate description of Con-
staninople could not be suffered, since
knowledge of the locality was call
culated to facilitate an attempt on the
Sultan's life.
In an experiment whose purpose
was to trace the stages of development
of babys mind the infant was placed
before a mirror daily. During the ear
Hest stage of the test he simply looked
at his reflection, as birds do. He next
showed fear of ii, as do many of the
higher animals. He then grasped at it
with his hands, as cats strike at re-
flections with their paws. Later he
looked behind the glass to find the OBJ
Ject, as cats and monkeys have been
known TO do. But on the four hundred
and twentieth day of his life he DELHI
erately turned the glass at different
angles to obtain required reflections,
an intelligence not possessed by any
animal other than man.
"A curious instance of the trans
mission of sound through the earth was
noticed by two French engineers at
Kef. On July % they happened to be
in an excavation in a volcano in the
Dyr mountains which has been extinct
from time immemorial. The altitude
of the excavation was about 3,400 feet
above the sea level. Suddenly they
heard the sounds of heavy cannonad-
ing, the reports following at regular
intervals. Returning to Kef a day or
two later, they read in the papers that
in the course of some naval maneuvers
the French fleet on the day and at
the hour at which they had heard the
reports had been engaged in lombard
ing Bizerta. The sound, therefore,
must have been transmitted through
the earth from Bizerta to Dyr, a dis
lance of somewhat over hundred
miles.
Louis Kauffeld, a European glass
worker, makes extraordinary claims
for new kind of glass he has just dis
covered. 1t is a glass of such nature
that will not break, that can be mold
ed into any desired form, that can be
hammered without catastrophe-in
short, glass that will be as mallea-
BILE as lead or any other metal. With
an ordinary goblet made OF mis- new
material he can hammer a nail into
tough board. He can bore a hole in
glass pane, and then patch 1t with an
other piece of the same kind of glass.
Coffee pots and tea kettles can be made
of the new substance, and will no more
crack, even under the most intense
heat, than would steel. While Kauf-
fields process is unknown to anybody
except himself he recently volunteered
the information that the lime and lead
that are used in the manufacture of
ordinary glass do not enter into the
composition of this. THE secret les"
used in making this glass and the pro-
portions in which these chemicals are
put into it,
Two unknown climbing plants, says
the Hongkong Daily Press, were dis
covered in Hongkong in 1899 and
brought to the Gardens to be grown
until they lowered in order to identify
them. Flowers were produced in 1900
-
ested to hear that one was found to be
Canavalia obtusa, D. c., and the other
a. species of Iligera, which is apparent
ly the same as specimens in the her
barium which were collected on the
Lofau Mountains in Kwangtung prov
ince. These bring the total number
of plants, exclusive of MOSES, lichens,
sea weeds and fungi, indigenous to
Hongkong, up to 1874, that is thirty
eight more than Bentham gives as in
digenous to the whole of the British
islands. Bentham in the Flora Hong
kongensis published in 1861, described
1858 plants as found there. About ten
years later DR.. H. F. Hance in his sup
PIGMENT enumerated or described an
additional seVenty-fVe plants, and now
Charles Ford has a further list of
about 253 later discoveries, which make
the total number 1897 species.
The Kaiser of Germany is encour-
aging every effort toward the use of
alcohol for lighting, fuel and power
purposes, and under the stimulus of
prizes offered to inventors and engine
constructors it is being largely utilized
in various ways. Alcohol is economi-
cally made from a number of products
in Germany and consequently the sup
ply of it is very large. At a recent ex-
hibition demonstrating the use of alco-
hol there were shown a number of mo-
tors, farming implements and similar
things propelled by an alcohol flame
There were also lamps which displayed
great efficiency. In a report recently
made to Washington, Consul General
Guenthel writes from Frankfort that
the chief of the fire department of
Hanover has recently invented an al
cohol firing apparatus, used in connec-
ton with an automobile fire engine,
which is said to be very satisfactory
in practice. The engine is driven to
the scene of the fire by an alcohol mo-
tor, and while on the way the steam Is
gotten up by the new invention noted
above so that the engine. is ready for
operation Immediately on it's arrival on
the ground. Ordinarily it is necessary
to keep the engine constantly fired in
order that the steam supply may be
Immediately available. Otherwise much
time is lost in getting up steam.
The life of insects is beset with
many perils and the chances that they
will live to "a green old age" are ex-
ceedingly remote. Honey bees and in
sects and bugs of less degree find pit