The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-08-16
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


nax," and is highly esteemed in Paris.
1t has modified odor of carrots, and
is chiefly made from that vegetable.
What may be of great value in
ship-building and matchmaking is the
discovery that steel, mixed with twen-
ty-four per cent. of manganese becomes
non-magnetic.
The fabric known as Chinese grass
cloth is made from the fiber of nettles.
The cloth is peculiarly glossy and
transparent, and as betting for ma
chinery has double the strength OF
leather.
Electric rifles are the latest. In
stead of the ordinary percussion firing
device, a dry chloride of silver battery
and primary coil will, SO it was lately
fire the rifle $4,000 times without re-
charging.
Experiments are being made On
Prussian railroads with axle-boxes fit
ted with bearings of vegetable parch-
ment in place of brass. The claim is
made that these compressed paper
bearings make tough material that is
superior to metal.
According to the Electrical ReUiec,
medicine may be introduced into the
human system by electricity. The
electrodes of battery are saturated
with the medicine and applied locally
to the skin. Experiments show that
there is an actual absorption of the
medicine into the system.
The "opsiometer' is new instru-
ment for testing the eyesight. 1t con-
sists of mahogany case with two
front eyeholes, behind which different
lenses are fitted, and the person whose
sight is to be tested looks through the
holes and and lenses at printed matter
behind.
/ Russian observations have shown
/ that teeth decay in a quite regular
order, the lower third molar being the
first attacked, then the upper, then the
| lower fourth molar. and so on, the
lower, incisors and canine teeth being
the last affected. Upper teeth, as a
rule, are more durable than lower,
right than left, those of dark persons
than those of blondes, those of short
persons than those of the tall.
Investigations made by Sohneke
have led to the conclusion that the elec-
tricity which is discharged during a
thunder storm is produced by the fric'
ton of water and ice-that is, the ice
is electrified by friction with water
just before a thunder storm, water
clouds (cumulD and ice clouds (cirri
cirrosratD appear simultaneously II
the sky, and the friction of these parti
cles of ice and water is, according to
this theory, a sufficient cause OF the
electricity which is generated.
Artificial sponge-rearing is being
practiced in Styria. From report tt
the Austrian Board of Trade it appears
that the "sponge-farmer,h by taking
small pieces of living sponge ant
"plantingn them in favorable spots
has obtained large specimens in the
, course of three years. 1t is stated tina
| 1000 sponges cost no more for cultiva
) ton and interest on capital than 22
, francs forty-five dollars,) and tn
/ Austro-Hungarian Government ha
: authorized the protection of this ney
: industry on the coast of Dalmatia.
t It has been estimated that the wall
of building in which fifty thousan
' bricks are used require nearly tiv
Q thousand gallons of water in the cor
struction; this being stored in the pore
3 and spaces of the bricks and morta
I until dispelled in the form of vapor.
? can not be too we'll known that unit
0 this large quantity of water is SO dis
r PEELED, the house is not habitable
t The town of Basle, in Switzerland, ha
recently adopted a wise regulatio
y which forbids the occupation OF newly
y built houses until four months afte
sir completion.
Dr.