The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-17
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

deed, it seems as if the more grotes-
que, and preposterous an idea the
more likely it is to receive atten-
ton. And this credulity is not con-
norant of science. A man may be q
narrow expert in one branch of science
and be wholly ignorant of the rules of
the game in reference to another
science.
Whistler once came very near to
painting portrait of Disraeli. He had
the commission he even went down to
the country where Disraeii was; but
the great man did not manage to get
into the>~1nood. Whistler went away
disappointed, and shortly afterward
took place a meeting in Whitehall
which was the occasion of q we'll
known story. Disraei put his arm in
Whistler's for a little way on the
street, bringing from the artist the
exclamation: If only my creditors
could see!"
Numerous experiments show that
In order to convert charcoal to diamond
without the presence of iron it is neces-
sary to melt the carbon under very
high pressure. In fact, 1t has been sue
cessfully proved that molten carbon
is on-conducting and therefore is
diamond. At the gaseous pressures
used in this case the carbon melts
very easily by the help of g. metallic
arc lamp, and is obtained in small
spheres, about the size of pea, of
great hardness, and having the crystal
line structure of natural carbonado.
AT the power station of Vouvry,
Switzerland, 2,500-horsepower turbines
are to be supplied with water at the ex-
traordinary head" of 3,117 feet. The
water is conducted from Lake Tanay,
a pond of Ill acres draining less than
three square miles at a height OF 4,644
feet above sea level, and the lower
part of the conduits consists of two
steel pipes about thirteen inches in
diameter. The pressure on these pipes
is estimated to reach 1857 pounds to
the square fnch-scarcely less than that
OF a powder explosion in a cannon.
"A horse belonging to Missouri man
got lump ON it's jaw three years ago.
Its owner had a veterinary surgeon
operate on the animal the oSAer day,
ana he took out a hard. smooth sub
stance about four inches long and an
inch wide, resembling a white stone.
Those who have examined il say Il is
a petrifed corncorb. The commonly
accepted theory is that the horse. while
eating, got cob caught in its mouth,
which slowly worked its way into his
Jaw until it lodged just beneath the
SKIN. The animal never seemed to suf-
fer from its presence.
Among the interesting developments
of modern improved processes may be
noted the greatly Increased use of
heavy wire of drawn rods. Rapid
growth "a do
in the past ten years, but it has been
particularly rapid in the last two or
three years. Heavy wire is now used
almost exclusively in the production of
carriage, stove and tire hollis, rivets,
machine screws, etc, up to half an
inch in diameter, while Roadway is
being made toward taking in even larg-
er sizes. Small rivets and bolts have,
of course, been made from drawn stock
for many years.-The Iron Age.
The London-Brussels telephone ca
BILE was opened to use June 8. The
Dover-Calais cable measures % nauti-
cal miles, while the Anglo-Belgium
cable, beginning at st. Margaret's Bay.
England, and terminating at La Panne,
Belgium, has length of 4T.S nautical
miles. The overall diameter of the
cable is 81 inches and contains four
Telephone Works Company, London. 1t
weighs 10 pounds per yard, and costs
about $4,000 a mile. The insulation of
the wires consists of three layers of
sutta-percha, with three layers Of Chat
terton compound. The total length of
the London Brussels telephone circuit
is about 394.S Kilometres 80 being over
head lines in Belgium, SO overhead
lines in England. The charge for three
minutes is S193.
Sir William Willcocks. the we'll
known British expert on irrigation and
late director general of the irrigation
works in Egypt, now proposes TO re-
store Chaldea to it's ancient produc-
tiveness and glory by means of irri-
cation. The Tigris river bears much
the same relation to Chaldea than the
Nile does to Egypt, and might be made
now, as it undoubtedly was in ancient
times, the great resource of the coun-
try. Bagdad lies about 500 miles up
the Tigris, and from it to the Persian
Gulf spreads a desolate barren coun-
try. Which was one of the most fertile
districts In the East. At Ops, on the
banks of the Tigris once the wealthiest
mart of the East. are the ruins of the
mouth of the great Nahrwan canal.
which fortified an area of 4. 600 square
miles. The Tigris was gradually d.
verified from its old bed, the mouth of
the canal silted UP and the country be-
came desert. 1t would require an
outlay of $4,000, 900 to reclaim about
1,250,000 acres of the best of this land,
which would, according to Sir William
Willcocks, produce a rental of $19,-
100000.
The annual cost Of the British army
and navy is no small matter, as was
shown in the House of Commons the
other day. The actual annual cost for
every family in the United Kingdom
is SAL. The estimates set down the
expenditure at $4,000, 0oO but it is the
practice to raise money for work by
means of loan bills, and $27, 800 900 have
been spent in that way since 1893.
Now $5,000000 have been secured TO
build more barracks, although sl7.-
100000 have been spent in providing
accommodations for $1,000 men and re-
constructions for another 10000 In
the House Of Commons Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach denounced the loan sys-
tenn, condemned military extravagance.
and urged that the South African COL
onies should pay the cost of the troops
Kept there as a garrison. This CUES
ton was, however in no way brought
to a settlement, but there is every in
dlcation that the English people are
slowly waking up to the fact that a
standing army is an expensive luxury.
even in time of peace. In time of war
the outlay is so great that the common