The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-05-02
NUMBER 8.
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Ore stamping by electricity is con-
sidered the only sufficient economical
system to permit of low-class ores be-
ing treated at profit.
i'm Greece, an industrial school for
girls has been opened at Athens. Four
hundred girls are employed there, with
the happiest results.
Since the telephone was established
in Switzerland, in 1860, sixty-one towns
have been provided with ii, and there
are now 6,944 telephone stations, 1,500
of which are in Geneva.
I'm the new process OF metal-plating
the inventor does away with batteries
and dynamos and depends upon a
double electrical composition. In cop
per-plating cast-iron an alkaline bath
is used in place of an acidulated one.
Experiments in raising frogs arti-
fcially for market have not proved
successful. There is considerable de-
mand for frogs legs in our large
markets, which is supplied from thinly
settled districts; they have become
scarce in regions near our markets.
The uses of the cotton plant are
developing rapidly. Formerly the fiber
of the blossom was only part utilized.
Then the seed began to supply large
proportion of the ''olive oil" and
'1ard" in the country, and now the
hulls are found to be cheaper and bet
ter than the wood for paper pulp.
-Sunfower seed is coming to the
front as an article of commercial value.
AS an admixture to chicken food rs
merits are indisputable. Veterinarians
use it in medicinal way in the treat
ment of horses. Its growth is con-
sidered of use in the prevention of ma
laria, and the extraction of valuable
oil from it is q looked-fo result.
Many entomologIsts are of the
opinion that the antennse of insects are
organs of hearing, though it is proba-
BILE that the auditory apparatus in
many insects is not confined to the an-
tenne. Thus grasshoppers aud crick-
cts appear to have ears in their legs,
and the crustacean genus Mysis is pro-
vided with auditory organs in its tail.
Equally curious arrangements have
been observed In other insects.
If anything is needed to convince
men that gas is the fuel of the future it
is found in the recent scientific expert
ments which show that by the very
best method known Of burning coal not
more than 5 to 10 per cent. OF the heat
is used, the remainder being wasted
by imperfect combustion, or carried
off through the chimney. When the
coal is turned into gas and the gas
burned, nearly so per cent. of the heal
can be utilized.
The fact that the elementary sub
stances now number, according to
chemists, full seventy, shows an in.
crease. with the last fifty years, oi
nearly one-fourth in the number known.
The size of an atom of oxygen or nitro
gen is said to have diameter OF one
ten-millionth part of a centimeteri they
are supposed to be in state of con.
slant motion, at the rate OF seventy
miles per minute, and, to make them
visible, the present highest known
magnifying power Of the microscope
would have to be increased nearly I
/, thousand fold.
1T is only about once in ffteeI
, years that Mars comes as near as So.
! OO0, 900 miles. Its orbit is so eccentrii
. that the interval between it and th'
orbit of the earth varies all the wa,
from $4,000, 900 miles to $1,000, 600
and it is only now and then that, o
: the two planets circle round in their re
spective tracks, the passing point /
where the tracks come nearest. Tn
: last instance of very close approach
was in 1877; the next will be in 1897
Mars is much smaller than the earth
its diameter being only about 40
miles. It's bulk, therefore, is onl
: about one-seventh, and its surfac
about three-tenths of the earth's.