The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


is we'll known to be attended by great
difficulties. There is obtained for in
stance, by gold plating with certain
baths, very fine coatings which, how
ever, mostly come off quite easily
Cowper Coles, in fact, used that phe-
nomenon for the production of sheet
gold. According to Mics the plating
succeeds in ordinary baths after hrst
dipping in a solution of sodium phos-
phate and magnesium sulphate acldu-
ulated with sulphuric acid ana also
containing free phosphorf acid.
The statistics disclose the very
gratifying fact that in ten years the
general death rate has decreased from
1876 per thousand to 17.S, says the
Baltimore Sun. This remarkable de-
crease is in the cities. where the rate
has fallen from q in 1890 to 1876 last
year. The rate in the country has
been about stationary having been
1873 in 1880 and 1874 in 1900. This ex-
traordinary decrease in the death rate
of cities has been due chiefly to inn
proved hygienic conditions. In the
country a corresponding gain has not
occurred The figures show that con-
sumption is no longer the most fatal
of diseases, pneumonia having taken
its place Deaths from consumption
have decreased over 20 per cent. while
a greater relative decrease is recorded
in the case of diphtheria and other
diseases. The diseases that show an
increase are chiefly those incident to
advanced age, death from old age itself
showing an increase of 20 per cent.
Mayor De Witt has originated a
novel vocation for two attaches of his
office-Joseph Mangan and Miss Anne
liza Pugh, says a Binghamton On. "
dispatch. This young couple are to act
as professional groomsman and brides
maid for those clipping couples who
cross the line from Pennsylvania that
their fortunes may be united in New
York state. For some time the elope-
ments and marriages here of those who
wish to avoid the trouble of procuring
a license or the consent of parents have
gradually increased until it has caused
much concern to the Pennsylvania
ministers residing near the border, and
who find in wedding fees a large
source of income. The couples who
come to this city invariably hunt up
the Mayor to perform the wedding
ceremony. Heretofore it has been nee
essary for them to make a troublesome
quest to find some one to act as
groomsman or bridesmaid and sign the
certificate, but this has been obviated
by the engagement of Miss Pugh and
Mr. Mangan. They are adopts at the
ceremony, and successfully coach the
grooms and brides to be in the parts
they are to perform and the questions
they are to answer. This plan has been
found to work smoothly and facilitate
matters for the Mayor as we'll as for
wedding parties.
Whatever it's merits may he in
some directions, there can be little
doubt that the national currency is,
from an artistic point of view the most
revolving ugly paper money ever pro-
! duced, says the New York Tribune Is
it necessary, one is tempted to ask, in
| contemplating the $40 bill just issued,
to make before the civilized world so
! conspicuous, not ITO say offensive, an
admission of our indifference to the
application Of artistic taste in things
governmental? Surely we have out
grown that condition of things which
at one time permitted a Mullet to strew
the country with architectural mon
strozities from one end to the other,
and it might not unreasonably be sup
posed, Therefore, that the Treasury De-
| partment would have found time be-
fore this to reorganize the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing on lines a lit
tie more artistic than those on which
! 1t is now suffered to proceed. Some
years ago, we believe, the government
did invite artists to submit designs
for new currency issue, following in
this regard the example set by France.
Italy, Germany and other countries,
where the first artists are not averse
to seeing the paper money of their
country made in some measure to re-
fleet the national tastes. 1t is true
that the competition invited at that
| time had the usual result. to-wit the
rejection by the government critics of
nearly all designs that had the great
est artistic merit and the adoption of
| those which had Che least. But even
| these latter were better than what
the Treasury Department inflicts upon
! us now.
The discovery of cement is credited
| to two Englishmen. Parker and Wyatt.
who obtained this product for the first
| time by the calcina ton of argillaCeous
nodules Q795), and since that date it
has found innumerable applications in
every department in civil engineering,
says the Engineering Magazine. Among
| these applications of later date came
the invention, by Leon Coignet of betGn
or concrete, of which he made artificial
blocks as hard as natural stone. It
| has been impossible to discover to
whom the engineering profession is in
debted for the idea of imbedding a me-
talliC skeleton structure within a mass
of hydraulic mortar or concrete, but a
boat constructed in this manner was
shown at the Paris Exposition of 1855:
about the same time Coignet built some
dams of iron and concrete, and five
years later he applied the method to
the construction of floors. These early
combina tions, however, did not show
satisfactory resistance to tension, and
the system was considered too danger
GUS for use in building construction.
1t has been only within the past ten
years that practical engineers have un-
dertaken to reinforce the portions of
a structure under tension by members
of iron imbedded in concrete, deducing
the rational methods of construc ton
now known and included in the general
term of reinforced concrete. Very re-
Gently, in consequence of The success
full experience of MN. Cottancin, Hen
neblque and Monier, in France; of Me-
Ian, in Austria and Germany; and Of
Hyatt, jackson and Ransom. in Eng
land and America. this method of con-
structlon has been welcoTped and ac-
cepted Nery generally.
in 1860 Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont,
wife of the famous Pathfinder, pur-
n.