The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-12

hairs are forced to dye them to secure
work.
Goldsmith wrote THE Vicar of
Wakefield" in six weeks. It is said to
have been a story of his own recollec-
ton.
In the japanese temples there is a
large drum used in worship. 1t is call
ed the kagura-taiko. 1t gives a tone
much like a gong, and is used in de-
votion.
The kin, or scholars lutte, of China,
has seven silk strings, fastened to the
front of a lacquered wood board. Its
length is four feet and its width eight
inches.
The records left US by the Phoe-
nicians, Assyrlans and ancient Per
SLAMS show that among all those ma
tons the use of perfumes was very
common.
The largest dome in the world is
that of the Lutheran Church at War
saw. It's interior diameter is 200 feet.
| That of the British Museum Library
is 100 feet.
A cubic foot of the best English
oak when green weighs seventy-one
pounds ten ounces; when seasoned the
wood is reduced to forty-three pounds
eight ounces.
The machine which cuts rifle bull
lets from rods of lead stamps them
into shape by means of steel dies and
drops them, finished. into box at the
rate of 1000 an hour.
The common cheese fly is only
tenth OF an inch long. 1t deposits
about $50 eggs in the cracks of cheese,
| though, if not able to find this sub
stance, 1t readily selects another
The wasp is an insect highway
man. Wasps have often been observed
to rob bees while these industrious
workers, laden with the fruits of an
expedition, are returning to the hive.
A New Yorker who carried matches
which ignite only when struck on the
box added some chlorate of potash
lozenges to his match pocket contents.
The fire resulting from the union OF
the chlorate with the phosphorus on
the box ruined his clothing and emp
tied the street car in which he was rid
ing.
-Eulogio de Cells, of Los Angeles,
who once lorded it over thousands of
acres of the finest land in Southern CAL
ffornia, in San Fernando valley, has
met with reverses, and now has no
place to lay his head that he can call
his own. Cells is a man of brains and
education, but he became blind and
lost the wealth that was once his.
In Vienna every mans home is his
dungeon from 10 p. m. to a. m.
Vienna is a city of flats, and at 10 p. m.
the common entrance door of each
block is closed and bolted. Thereafter
persons passing in or out must pay a
fine of I'd to the concierge until mid
night and 4d from that hour to a.
m. To go out to post letter costs I'd,
and the same amount to return. TO
| prolong a visit to a friend after 10 p.
m. means I'd to get out of his house
and I'd more to enter your own. A nat
ural result of this irritating tax is that
of all capital cities Vienna is earliest
to bed.
One of the most difficult pieces of
engineering on record was successfully
completed with the recent opening of
the great Aspen tunnel on the Wyom-
ing division of the Union Pacific Rail-
road. The geological formation through
which the tube" was cut is of a car
stages of the work unusually hard rock
was encountered, then shale, and final
| ly a curious formation that has been
named by the excavators Stacking
groUnd"-and right there the real diff
f1culties of the work began. This
ground, says a writer in the Engineer
ing and Mining Journal was very much
of the nature of an old-fashioned pot
of yeast; or it might be likened to an
asphalt bed. AS soon as air was adj
mitted to the tunnel it swelled after the
manner Of quicklime, irresisibly 1t
was at first thought that Oregon pine
| beams twelve inches square would suf-
fee; but these were literally smashed
into kindling wood. Then 16 by 6-inch
steel girders were tried; they were bent
| like wire by the enormous pressure.
The action was so sudden that the men
had often to run for their lives, the eff
| feet being almost like an explosion the
| ground swelling up and entirely clos
ing the tunnel. Considerable trouble
was also caused by the occurrence of
oil and water in the shaft. An explo-
sion of the former caused the death of
three men in 1899. The greatest depth
of the tunnel below the surface is 45G
feet and its highest point is 1895 feet
above sea level.
Some of the largest fortunes appear
to have been derived from the inven-
ton of trivialities and novelties, such
as the once popular toy known as
Dancing Jimcrow," which for sew
eral years is said to have yielded its
patentee an annual income of upward
of $4,000, says the New York Com
mercial. The sale of another toy
John Gilpin-enriched 10 lucky inven-
tor to the extent of 5000 900 a year
as long as it continued to enjoy the
unexpected popularity that greeted it
when first placed on the market Dr.
Plimpton, the inventor of the roller
skate, made $1,000,000 out of his idea,
and the man who first thought of
placing a rubber tip at the end of
lead pencils made quite 500, 900 a year
by means of his simple Improvement
When Harvey Kennedy introduced the
shoe lace he made 81, 100000 and the or
binary umbrella benefited six people
by as much as $10,000,000 The How
ard patent for boiling sugar in vacuo
proved a lucrative investment for the
capitalists, who were able to remuner-
ate the inventor on a colossal scale.
1t is estimated that his income aver
aged between 200 an $3.50, 900 per
annum. Sir Josiah Mason, the inven-
tor of the improved steel pen, made an
enormous fortune, and on his death
English charities benefited by many
| millions of dollars. The patentee
| of the pen for shading in diff
| ferent colors derived a yearly income