The Bossier banner., 1890-08-21
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

The unusually large number of 112
species of migratory birds have been
seen in the vicinity of Philadelphia this
season, according to the Delaware Orni-
biological Club.
"A new red glass has been recently
produced in Germany. Besides its use
for the manufacture Of bottles, goblets
and vases of various kinds, it is applica-
BILE in photography and in chemists and
opticians laboratories.
Northern manufacturers are inter
ested in the statement that the finest
brick made in the South are from the
refuse of slate quarries. They have
double resisting power and absorb only
one-third as much water as ordinary
brick.
"A new German water-pipe is made
of glass covered with coating of as
phalt and fine gravel. The advantages
claimed are resistance to ground moist
ure and to acids and alkalies, and inn
permeability to gases.
Professor Thompson, who was a
teacher in Philadelphia, when he made
the discoveries which have made him
millionaire, predicts that sooner or later
the problem will be solved of getting
electrical power from fuel direct, with
out the aid of steam.
"A new disinfectant has made its ap-
pearance under the name of Thiocamph.
1t is a combination of camphor with
sulphurous acid, containing over sixty
times it's volume of sulphurous acid gas,
| which, upon its exposure in a warm
room, is gradually evolved.
| M. Jablockoff, of electric candle
fame, makes strong argument in favor
of going back to chemical reactions for
the production of electricity as motive
power. The dynamo machine does not
utilize more than ten per cent. of the
fuel. while more than ninety per cent.
can be obtained under favorable circum-
! stances in eIectro-chemical combina-
tions.
An employe in the Office of the arch
itect of the Capitol, Washington, has in
vented an electric musical machine.
The keyboard is similar to that of an
ordinary typewriter, and its keys are
connected electrically with number of
electric bells arranged beneath the
table. Pressure on each key closes the
circuit of an electric bell, and when the
keys are operated by an expert any tune
may be played on the machine.
There are at present 1, 800 beet-sugar
factories in Europe, and they consume
$4,000, 900 tons of beets every year.
Their annual output of sugar amounts
to 1000, 600 TONS It is said that over
$50, 900, 600 are expended for labor and
fuel, and that 500, 900, 900 are paid tC
farmers for beets. These figures arc
probably too high, but they serve tC
throw light upon the magnitude and inn
portance of the industry.
The use of electricity as motive
power for street cars will be an i'm
portant section of the census investiga
ton of the electrical industry. None o.
the many forms of the application o.
electricity has been developed more
rapidly or been accompanied by more
satisfactory results than that of th'
transmission of power for street car pur
poses. The plan of investigation tina
mas DeeH duOp1Su lS uoS4g Aou W uldAo
comparison between the different motive
powers employed-animal, steam dun
my, cables, and electricity-to show tb'
relative economic value of each.
Professor e. L. Nichols foreshadoW1
very agreeable picture. He says tina
in all probability the day is not far dis
tant when brine, cooled below the freez
ing point of water, will be carried unde
the streets in pipes, as steam is now
supplying from central stations yer,
convenient substitute for ice in tn
domestic household. By freezing in ou
own houses water which has been previ
ously boiled it will then be possible 70
us to avoid contagion from disease germ
contained in ice gathered from impur
sources,