The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-14
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The number or murders per mil
lion inhabitants is in England J.13;
in Germany, 5.45; in France, 1155; in
Austria, 1912; in Italy, 1911, and in
Spain. 44.7O.
"A fine Filipino picture will be an at
traction in the Philippine exhibit at the
Worlds Fair. F. r. Hidalgo, the not
ed Filipino painter, will do the work.
It will be symbolic of the benevolence
of the United States and the gratitude
of the FilipinO.
, The grape cure of Wiesbaden has
for long time been an important fea-
ture of the autumn. season at that IA
nous health resort. The worth of the
cure lies in the high per cent. of sugar
in the fruit, grapes being from "a to
so per cent. sugar. with important ele-
ments of acid and water.
The Committee on Trade and Com
merce of the German Bundesrath has
for some time been at work framing a
bill to make laws which will further
tend to prevent unfair competition. The
material and data which it has in hand
were furnished by tradesmen and mer-
chants from all parts of the empire.
Virginia will make an extensive eX-
hibit of tobacco at the Worlds Fair.
The display will comprise Virginia to-
bacco in every form, from the seed to
the finished product, arranged in the
most artistic manner possible and sur
rounded by all kinds of machinery and
tools used in handling and working the
weed.
Emigration from the Turkish en-
pire is forbidden. No. man or woman
is permitted to leave a Turkish port
without a tschera, or permit, which
must be obtained from the police au-
thorities, and under the general in
structions and policy of the Turkish
government tscheras can not be is
sued to subjects of the Sultan.
The loading of a thirty-five ton
railroad car with iron ore by steam
shovel in the mine in three minutes
comes pretty near eliminating the eie-
ments of time and manual labor in
mining. Dumping ore into vessel S
hold at the rate of sixty tons IA min
ute likewise seems to be about as close
as it is possible to get to eliminating
waste time. Both these records have
| been made recently.
Prof Slaby has demonstrated, aft
err exhaustive experiments, that the
surface of the earth plays an impor-
tant part as a conductor of the Hert-
zian waves, for which many have here
tofore regarded the air as the only
conductor. He constructed an artiti-
cial earth, which was rendered i'm
mune from external influence by COW
ering the floor of his laboratory with
zinc. He then experimental with the
waves on the floor until his theory
was proved.
Recent experiments with the Mois-
san process for the artificial produc-
ton of diamonds has shown that crys-
tails of perfect octahedral form and
transparency may be obtained by the
fusion of a rock similar to the matrlx
of the South African diamonds. The
crystals. however. are of miscroscopio
size, and no way has yet been discov-
cred to make the diamonds of suIti-
cient size to be sold individually at a
profit If it should be possible to pro-
duce these crystals in large quantities,
there might be field for them as an
abrading and polishing agent along
with emery and corundum.
Some interesting experiments have
been carried out with a new monorail
system, devised by French engineer,
NJ. Devic. The inventor has built a
modef upon the scale of one-tenth of
what the actual train is to be, and with
this train he has attained a speed of
thirteen miles an hour. The train is
to be propelled by electric power. and
in order that high speed may be at
tanned the inventor relies upon two fac
tors-diminution of weight and a more
effective gripping of the drive wheels
upon the single track of the railroad.
He claims to have designed a rail which
will afford the wheels sufficient grip
irrespective of the weight which they
are carrying Further experiments are
to be carried out with a much larger
model at NemourS to prove the utility
and advantage of the system. NJ. De-
vic is sangulne of attaining a speed of
200 miles an hour.
Some tests made in an orchard in
Eastern New York during the past
summer. and reported recently in the
Scientific American, seem to show that
the trap lantern, which was supposed
to catch and destroy insect pests at
night by the dazzling effects of it's
light rays, has at least partially failed
in its purpose. Plum curculio over
ran the orchard, yet during five months
only three specimens were captured A
GREATER wariness was displayed by the
common squash bug. On the other
hand, one of the experiment stations
shows that to a large extent it was
the beneficial insects which were
ca""ht during its five months of test
We & In cotton field in Texas three
trap lanterns in a single night destroy
ed "a, 400 insects, representing nearly
400 species. In this big capture the, in
furious kind slightly outnumbered the
beneficial. The wide variety of results
so liar as numbers are concerned. will
be readily seen when it is stated that
in trap lantern run steadily for every
night for nearly half a year in New
York state only one and a half times
as many insects were captured las were
taken in single lantern operated for
one night only in Texas. The student
of entomology who wishes to secure
without delay a large collection of in
sects has but to faslen an ordinary
lantern to a brick and place the brick
in milk pan on top of a post about
four feet high. If the pan be filled
nearly full of water with a thin coat
ing of kerosene. the insects attracted
by the rays of light will meet their
death in the liquid.
Before the scientist made his APP
pearance, with his all seeing miscro-
scope, and frightened us with the ter
rible little germs of all diseases, the
housewife was content to sweep the
carpet with an ordinary broom, and to
| take up the dust in a dustpan, with
| out any miCrObe killers attached to