The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

vest apples 1t IS cOnnned entirely 10
scabby apples. A white or pinkish
mildew appears upon the scab spot
and transforms them into brown,
sunken, bitter, rotten spots. On very
scabby apples these rotten spots soon
coalesce and ruin the fruit. The dam
age done is enormous. In western New
York thousands of barrels of apples
have been ruined. Upon investigation
it was found that the white mildew
on the scab spots is the cause of the
rot, and it is distinct from the fungus
from the scab fungus. The scab itself
will not rot fruit. but breaks the skin
wherever it grows, and thereby makes
an opening for this fungus to get into
the apple and rot it. The whole
trouble can be traced back to a lack of
thorough spraying. Had the apples
been kept free from scab by spraying
the white rot fungus could do them
no harm. However, the past season
has been exceptionally favorable for
scab and spraying has been less etfec-
tive than. usual.
The sale of poisons and narcotics
has become such a public scandal that
many cities and states have been en-
acting laws against it, says Amerl-
can Medicine. We wish correspondents
would keep us notified of the progress
of such reforms. The cocaine habitues
of louisiana and Mississippi are said
to number thousands, and that so
widespread is the degradation becom-
ing among the negroes that something
like an determination of the race is
threatened. In Ohio law has recent
ly been passed to stop the sale OF CO.
caine, morphine, cts, except upon a
physicians prescription. The victims
of the habit in Cincinnati are said to
he nd In x State
Board of Pharmacy has determined to
stamp out the abuse. The number of
habitues in Roanoke, Va, is estimated
at 500. In Pennsylvania the only con-
dition imposed upon druggists is that
the person buying 'poisons" shall sign
his name in book stating by whom
and for what purpose the drug is to
be used: of course. that is no restric
ton whatever The profession, and
especially the State Boards of Health,
should seriously concern themselves
with some method of abolishing this
pernicous abuse. The cough syrups'
and soothing syrups" contain NOR
phine or cocaine and cures for the
habitual use of cocaine and morphine
generally contain these drugs them
selves. Certain consumption cures"
are now put up in small bottles, be-
cause not being a, permanent mixture,
the last dose from the larger bottles
sometimes killed the patient, but that
the last dose from the smaller bottle
would contain too little morphine and
cannamis indica to prove fatal. And
this atrocious method of making money
out of inducing disease and death is
permitted and protected by a civilized
government! Worse than this, the
government sanctions, and, by its
copyright laws alone, permits, the
making of the diseased and detectives
I I'll A.. .-N
port in hospitals and asylums!
What is steel? Apparently this is
about as difficult as question as What
is electricity" The exact behavior
and methods of producing both, says
an lG;kchange, are well known, but
when it comes to defining either, even
the expert is non-plussed. Recently
a. suit was brought ia Sheffield by the
Cutters Company, against a manu-
facturer of forks because he stamped
certain -malleable cast iron forks with
the name steel. The defendant obtained
a decision in his favor, and as a re-
suit the entire metallurgical profession
of Sheffield, the center and home of
the steel industry in England, is up in
arms 1t is now proposed to estab-
lish a commission of experts, under
the auspices of the Sheffield Society of
Engineers ana M0IdlluTSlSlS 10 agree
upon a classification of what is and
what is not steel and to get the rec
concentrations of the commission en-
bodied in an act of Parliament. There
are four methods of determining the
nature of iron products, viz. Chemical,
mechanical. physical and microsco-
pical and yet no one of them is capa-
BILE of absolutely determining true
steel from it's fraudulent limitations.
4 lucf IN a bot INF
is reliable, but the chemical compost
tions of steel and malleable cast iron
overlap. Mechanical tests also fail,
as the tensile strength of certain
steels and some varieties of malleable
cast iron are exactly similar. Physi-
cal classification is also impossible, as
certain varieties of malleable cast iron
harden, temper and let down" just
like steel. Neither is microscopic clas-
sification infallible, as certain MALE
| able castings are identical in appear
ance with certain steels. Apparently
the only satisfactory definition of steel
| must be based on the process observed
in the manufacture, and il is suggested
that the use of the word steel be
confined to such material as was cast
in a fluid condition into an ingot, and
such ingot afterwards forged or rolled
into slabs, bars, plates, sheets or
| blooms or other finished sections. Prob
ably no more interesting technical
point in the Sheffield trade has arisen
in the last sixty years than the appar-
emily simple question of What is
| steel?"
For a number of years now in
ventors have been at work trying to
devise some satisfactory means of de-
| irving electricity direct from coal with
| out having to have recourse to the boil
| er and engine, says Electricity. In
| 1900 the so-called Cox thermopile was
| fully described, from which much was
| hoped for at that time. Since then
| other forms of thermopiles have been
| brought out, the latest apparently be-
| ing one invented by resident of New
| port R. l., regarding which, as usual,
| great secrecy is maintained and great
| things expected-by the inventor. The
| battery, and what it is claimed it will
| accomplish, are referred to as follows
| by Mr.. Jones, the chemist who devised
| it: II feel confident that 1 now have
battery which will produce electric
! ity from coal in sufficient quantity to
run street cars, locomotives, light the
streets, propel ships and turn the
/ wheels of large factories. The yield is
62.5 per cent. of the energy of the gas
| used up in my battery. This is about
| two and one-half times as much as
| is obtained from the best engines
hitherto in use. The ordinary gas en-
CINE yields rs per cent. The best gas
| engine of latest construction yields rs
per cent. of the energy of the gas used