The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-12-20
SCIENCE AND NpusrRY.
Cabbage and saw-grass palmetto is
the material that a Florida gentleman


!. Cabbage and saw-grass palmetto is
the material that a Florida gentleman
is desirous of turning into fiber.
+ 1T is stated that two-thfrds Of the
woods used in paper-malring is waste.
though experiments indicate that this
can be pr0fitably converted into fer
tilizers.
--Cedarwood pulp is now made into
paper for underlaying carpets. wrap
ping up wool, ETC., and preservative
against moths. The wood used is the
heretofore wasted chips OF the pencil
manufactory
Among the products which science
has put to valuable services is the metz
tie, a weed which is now even being
cultivated in some parts of Europe, its
fiber proving useful for variety of
textile fabrics. In Dresden athread
Is produced from it so fine that a length
of sixty miles weighs only 2A pounds.
Sheep are now being successfully
sheared by machinery in Australia.
The wool mower can be run by either
steam or horse power. There is now
very little poetry left in farm opera
tions-if there ever was any poetry in
the hard work that prematurely wore
out the old-time husbandman.
Building blocks made Of corncobs
form the object OF new Italian pat
ent The cobs are pressed by machin-
cry into forms similar to bricks and
held together by wire They are
made water-tight by soaking with tar.
These molds are very hard and
strong. Their weight is less than ono-
third OF that of hollow brick, and
they can never get damp.
| Some physicians have warmly In
dorsed the suggestion that massage
as an employment is peculiarly suited
to the capabilities Of the blind, in whom
the tactile sense is so strongly de-
veloped. Indeed, in Japan massage
has, for long period of time, been
practiced by blind men. who go about
the streets with a iageolet, drawing
i attention to themselves and their occu-
| patton. It Is thought that superiH~
tendents of blind-asylums will find this
a possible avenue to employment for
their pupils.
1T has been estimated that an aver
age of five feet of water falls annually
over the whole earth. Supposing that
condensation takes place at an average
height Of 5000 feet, remarks General
Strackey, the force of evaporation to
supply such rainfall must equal tho
lifting of 322, 900, 900 pounds of water
/ 5000 feet in every minute, or about
300, 900. 900, 000-horse power constantly
exerted. OF this great energy a very
small part is transferred to the waters
that run back through rivers to the
sea, and still smaller fraction is util-
lied by man; the remainder ID disai-
pated in space. s8
Some curious maritime discoveries
show that the ocean teens with life 1T
depth of more than one thousand
fathoms. At north latitude fifty de-
grees thirty-two seconds, west longi-
tude twelve degrees two seconds, there
were brought from twelve hundred and
twenty fathoms a perfectly black fish,
with white eyes, specimens of that
strange genus of echinoderrns, call
yeria, and a few silieious sponges and
rare, beautiful cassideria, tyrhena, and
some large and exquisitely colored sea
anemones, and also a quantity of cars
maria and pteropoda, which we're cap
tured in surface nets.