The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


interest, which may in time develop
also into a valuable industry-the first
| of its kind in Europe, says the London
| Globe. About eighteen months ago an
attempt was determined upon TO ac-
climatize, near Nice, an ostrich farm.
and as this is the first time such an
! idea has been realized outside the trop-
les, the experiment has been watched
with great interest. The other day the
first harvest was gathered in by a
| general plucking of the birds tails.
| The Nicois says 1t attracted a large
crowd, and that so far ostrich farming
in France is a success.
What becomes of the wine left in
| glasses and bottles at such a function
as the banquet of the Chamber of
Commerce, or other great feasts?
Many persons are under the impress
| sion that the walters get it, says the
| New York Times. They do nothing of
the kind, because they do not get the
chance. Before the last guest had left
the Waldorf-Astoria, Tuesday, Oscar,
| chef and incidentally superintendent of
| the wine cellars. caused the unused
| wines to be gathered and assorted:
"Wasted?" said Oscar, mot drop of
it will be lost. Most of it will be used
to flavor soups, gravies, and sauces"
"A weird story, and one that is like
ly to constitute the grimmest souvenir
| de Donizetti." ever recorded of that
composer has just been told by the zu-1
| richer Zeitung, says the London Globe.
The master died at Bergamo in 1S4S,
while Northern Italy surged with the
| anti-Austrian upheaval under Charles
| Albert, and during an autopsy of the
| body a shell fell in the room, scat
| tnrine no hn Iaf hn
behind them, and it was afterward hur-
| riedly wrapped up and buried by
| domestic. In 1850. when the remains
were exhumed. the head was found to
| be missing, and an appeal was made
| by advertisement for its restoration. A
| well-to-do resident, who had for two
years been using a skull as blotting-
sand holder, thought it answered the
| description, and being found to exactly
| fit the neck. it was buried with the
body.
| "A stormy surface of the sea can be
| stilled by spreading a net over it, says
an exchange. Fishing stations are es-
pecialiy interested in Baron 6Alle-
| sandro's net. This floating net is
woven of very light cords, possessing,
! however, strong power of resistance
Its mesh is four inches square. A spe-
cial preparation of the inventor rem
| ders it, besides being very strong, buoy
| ant in the extreme. It's size is in
| considerable and it weighs but 120
| grams to the square yard. Its cost is
only three francs the square yard and
it is manufactured by the Societe In
dustrielle des Telephones, in Paris. For
| a hsh1ng station consisting only of a
| boat of the ordinary fishing craft size
5000 square meters of floating net
| would be quite sufficient to guarantee
| the stability of the station, giving it
! a calm sea surface for $500 meters.
| experiments recently conducted have
| given proof that the most violent storm
in no way affects the net, which in the
| foulest weather will be found to re-
main unchanged.
In the Botanic Gardens there is a
curiosity which Superintendent Smith
has aptly named zone of natures
Jokes" says the Washington Post. The
| joke" is in reality a species of fern
which grows in the shape of the horn
| and antlers of deer and stag. The
plants were brought here from Aus
| tral1a, that country of peculiar and
treaklsh animal and vegetable pro-
| ducts, where they were found growing
| on the limbs of decaped trees. The
cause of this extraordinary reproduc-
| ton of a feature of animal life has rot
| been accounted for. 1t is, in fact,
| altogether battling to behold the thin
green horns curving out of the tree
trunk as realistically as if they were
growing from the head of a stag, CIR
to see the branching and magnificent
antlers of a moose initiated even to the
| finest detail However, this striking
| eccentrlcity is not by any means the
only remarkable feature of fern
growth. The wonderful manner in
which these plants are propagated has
challenged the admiration and awe of
students. Under a magnifying glass
hundreds of the minute spores which
perform the function of seeds look like
only the smallest atom, and so imoer-
ceptibly are they scattered from fern
to fern that Shakespeare could think
of no better synonym for love than
the secret of the fern seed" which
walks invisible"
"A pair of gears about an inch in
diameter, at 10000 to $4,000 revolutions
per minute, will, says a contributor to
| Casters Magazine, sometimes set up
distressing noise, approaching the
shrek of a small steam whistle, which
may come from motion of the air and
not from faults of construction. And
so constructor of gears has peculiar
anxiety-he is not at all concerned as
to the geometrical movements of his
gearing so long as it will keep quiet.
He has various devices, other than the
correct shaping of the teeth, with
which he hopes to avoid disagreeable
sounds; If he has light power to trans
NIT, he may chose a fine pitch for the
teeth; he may make his gears of brass,
soemtimes of rawhide, and again of
compressed paper. One of the details
| of construction that may cause noise is
that the depth of the tooth spaces is
not right. In this respect gears are
| oftener cut too deep than not deep
| enough, and it is worse to have the
driver too deep than the driven gear
| Another cause of noise may be that the
| cutting is not central. This may be
shown by gears being noisy in one di-
| rection and quiet when running in the
other direction. Again, the center dis
lance may not be right; if meshing too
deep, the outer corners of the teeth of
| one gear may strike hard against the
| roots of the teeth of the other gear
Still another reason for noise may be
found in the fact that the frame car
rying the gear-shafts may be of such
form and size as to give off sound vi
| brations.
in the Evening Post, dated Dec.
20-22, 1909, says the London Daily
News, is an interesting description of
a flying ship then lately invented by