The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-07-10
ITEMS of INTEREST.

air, Mnen converted INTO pOWeTs 70
run a one-horse power engine one min
ute.
A Hill tribe of Africans noted that
when they went down to the plains
they were bitten by mosquitoes which
they called Mbu, and with the bites
came the sickness which they also call
ed Mbu, the sickness being no other
than malaria.
Until enlarged recently the little
church in the village of st. Lawrence.
on the Isle of Wight, was the small
est church in existence. It was built
nearly 900 years ago. It was % feet
long, Z feet high and II feet broad. 1t
held only twelve people.
In Turkey, a Moslem grave. when
once it has been filled in, is never re-
opened on any account. With view
to remove the faintest chance of a
grave being thus defiled, the Moslems
plant a cypress tree on every grave
Immediately after the burial-thus
making their cemeteries resemble for
ests.
During the recent thunder shower
which visited Rutland, VT, a bolt of
lightning entered the barn belonging
to E. NJ. Pennock, where three horses
were standing in a row. 1t killed two
of them, then left the building and
jumped fifty feet to the COW barn,
where it killed one COW, leaving the
other eight standing beside her I'M
harmed.
That ants perceive and avoid rays
Of ultraviolet light much higher in
the scale Of vision than the human eye
is able to detect has been shown by
Sir John Lubbock. Now a writer in
Electrical World suggests that those
who are trying to determine the wave
length of the x-rays experiment with
ants. The x-rays are invisible to
man, but it has not been determined
whether it is because they are too long
or too short for his eye to see. The
ultra violet waves are too short.
Suppose that our eyes were at
tuned to the vibrations revealed to
us by the bolometer. Instead of see
ing the stars that we now see we
should perceive those whose light has
long been extinguished, whose ex-
istence the methods of modern physics
have enabled us to prove. The sun
would appear surrounded by it's coro-
ma, changing in form and position
every instant, and we should no long
er be obliged to wait for total eclipses
to study this phenomenon. Currents
of hot air would become visible like
snow squalls. and the science of heat
would have no more secrets.
The oldest specimens of glass, says
an authority on curious information,
are traced back from 1880 to $500 years
before Christ. These are of Egyptian
origin. Transparent glass is believed
to have been first used about $50 years
before the Christian era. says Harper's
Weekly. The Phoenicians were sup
posed by the aneients to have been re-
sponsible for the invention, and the
story will be recalled of the Phoenician
merchants who, resting their cooking
pots on blocks of natron, or subcar-
Donate of soda, found that the union
under heat of the alkal and the sand
on the shore produced glass. There is
little doubt, however. that the art of
glass making originated with the
Egyptians. 1t was introduced into
Rome in the time of Cicero and
reached a remarkable degree of perfec-
ton among the Romans, who produced
some of the most admirable specimens
of glass ever manufactured; an in
stance is the famous Portland vase in
the British Museum. Glass was not
used for windows until about A. D.
300.
"A large box was recently found at
the Louvre Palace bearing in big black
letters the following inscription: ITO
the head of the Imperial Museums in
Paris. The Emperor Napoleon the
First's horse. From the Natural His
tory Society, Manchester" On open
ing the box, says an exchange, 1t was
found to contain a white stuffed horse
with small brown spots. On the left
thigh was branded the letter m
with the Imperial Crown. number
of old Manchester citizens remember
the taxidermised animal quite WELL
when it was in possession Of the
Manchester Natural History Society.
One who saw it when he was a boy,
nearly seventy years ago, describes it
as a shabby old beast" R. D. Derby
shire, who was honorary curator when
the society was dissolved in 1865 and
it's 100000 worth of exhibits handed
over to Owens College Museum, states
that he had a vague recollection of the
society's decision to send it to the
Louvre Museum, because the opinion
was that it would arouse more interest
there than in Manchester.
Consul Muench. at Plauen, Ger
many, reports that a general move
ment for the suppression of over-indul-
gence in alcoholic drinks in Germany,
as well as in adjoining Austria and
Switzerland, has been among the recog-
nized symptoms of social reform in
these countries during the last several
years. Recently a practical direction
has been given to theorizing by earnest
efforts toward the production of pal
atable non-alcoholic drinks for the
masses. The first step in that direction
consisted in practically initiating the
American carbonated, or aerated, wa
ters, seasoned with fruit extracts,
which have become measurably popu-
lar, especially during the brief summer
months. The conceded decrease of beer
consumption in Germany within the
last several years is justly attributed
| to these endeavors quite as much as to
the prevailing depression in industries.
| Especially has such diminution been
| noticed in the larger cities of middle
and northern Germany. Though beer
is admittedly the popular beverage,
containing the smallest percentage of
alcohol among prevalent alcoholic
| drinks, yet efforts have been made to
produce this, or an imitation thereof,
| without the infusion or development of
| any alcohol whatever So far these ex-
periments have failed. y
Prisons in Japan resemble large
country houses with many outbuild-
| ings, and do not, either in the solidity
| or details of their construction. wear