The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


as fuel for fire engines, and is being
replaced not so much on account of
the cheapness of oil as compared with
the coal, but because of the advan-
tages, says the New York Sun. Ex-
tensive experiments made by Capt.
Wells. chief of the Metropolitan Fire
Department, have shown that, while
oil is only a little cheaper than coal as
fuel by using oil in the engines steam
can be got up more quickly than with
coal or even wood. A low flash of oil
is being used, avoiding the tendency
of oil to carbonize and fill the tubes,
and thus make it dangerous to light
the fire. Three new oil burning en-
gines have been added to the equip
ment of the london fire brigade in the
last few weeks, and six others are soon
to be built. New York has not yet
tried fuel oil in its fire engines. Exper-
iments have been talked of, but moth
ing has been done about it.
Postmaster General Payne has
just issued an order to the effect that
logs and bags of dirt and such things
cannot be sent through the mails,
particularly when they weigh in
single case as much as two hundred
pounds, says the Philadelphia Press.
This is the result of a complaint by
the Agricultural Department that some
postmasters refuse such packages
while others accept them. 1t appears,
according to the complaint of the Ag
rictultural Department, that some of
its agents have been in the habit of
sending through the mails packages
containing sections of logs weighing
from one hundred to two hundred
pounds" This seemed to have aston
ished Postmaster General Payne and
on investigation he found not only
were logs shipped as mail, under the
department frank but also that bags
filed with dirt or "soil' were sent in
the same way. He has just issued an
order to postmasters stating that he
will hold them responsible if they per-
NIT the law to be violated in that
way. Some years ago it was discovered
that roll-top desks and things of that
kind were being sent through the
mails under franks, and that was
particularly true at a time when the
mails were being, weighed to deter
mine what was to be paid to certain
railroads for carrying the mails.
If you picture in your mind an
enormous sickle, having a handle also
at the hooked end, you will have the
Mississippi river as it flows in yellow
swiftness past the city of New Or
leans, says Ainslee's Magazine. A
hundred miles to the southwark it
pours through its many mouths into
the broad blue gulf. In the crescent of
the sickle, which gives to the city its
name, lies New Orleans, and no sharp
blade in the hand of the husbandman
thrust into the ripening grain was
ever surer of its destructiveness than
would be this vast crescent of the
Mississippi when once it should be
given sway. Sometimes when the
river is at flood it's surface will rise
twenty feet above the level of the
city's streets. In the center of the
stream it will be nearly 200 feet deep,
with a powerful current, which, were
it not for the protecting leVee about
the city must sweep everything before
it. This giant river which has made
this city possible, drains an enormous
basin, its watershed being greater in
area than that of any other river ON
the globe. The volume of water which
flows past the city is equal to $50 900, 900
cubic yards. There are now nearly L.
500 miles of levees on the lower Missis-
sippi, and Louisiana alone has spent
since the Civil War nearly 10000, 600
on the river. while it costs the state
10000 annually to maintain it's le
wees. Strange as it may seem, the
deadliest enemies of these great earth
en- entertainments are the insignificant
crawfish and the muskrat; for once
the slightest hole is made in the levee
by either of them, the relentless river
finds it's way through and vast loss
ensues.
In an address on measurement and
calculation Prof. Woodward of Column
bia University presents an illuminat-
ing view of the philosophy of the sub
ject with examples of special applica-
tons. The whole address Gas printed in
Science for June 20) should be read by
those interested. A few paragraphs
on a special topic are here presented.
To begin with quantities near the low
err limit of determination, think, for a
moment, what is going on in the air
around us. 1t is known that there are
about a million million millions mole
cules in a cubic millimeter of air Not
withstanding this apparently crowded
assemblage, the individual molecules
move about in the liveliest manner,
their average speed being about 500
meters per second. The average length
of their unimpeded journey is barely
visible in the best microscopes. Each
molecule collideS with it's neighbors
about 5000, 100000 times every second
The properties of the individual mole
cules are especially interesting in cases
where they are made up of two or
are probably compare BILE in complex
ity with the Marian and Jovian sys-
TENS of our solar system and exhibit
certain constant habits; for instance,
their rates of vibration, as determined
by the spectroscope, are invariab BILE.
The vibrations are executed at the rate
of some hundreds of millions of mil
lions per second. Cadmium molecules,
for example, vibrate about 60o,0 000-
000 900 times per second. Recent in
designations point to the conclusion
that there is another order of bodies
of much smaller dimensions, possessing
still more wonderful properties. These
sity is only about one thousandth part
given off by several of the so-called
move with speeds of the same order
as that of light.
Curtis ]. Lyons, in the Monthly
Weather Review, gives some inter-
esting facts concerning heavy rain
falls in Hawaii as follows: 1.-THE
principal features of the month were
the heavy storms which character
lied the first and last ten-day peri
DDS, with continuous fine weather in
most parts during the middle of the
month. A northeasterly storm set in
on the 9th of February, and was rec
ognized on Hawaii Island as a north
err AT the foot of the north slopes of
Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Ha-
leakala, the rainfall was unparalleled;
at kukiau. Hamakua, Hawaii, 1000