The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-11-27
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Danish chemists claim that the
favor of butter is produced by bacteria.
-Vulapuk, the ''world language" is
only eleven years old, and already s.
000,0 900 persons are able to use it with
greater or less facility.
The oldest observatory in the world
is that at Pekin, China, which was
founded in 1879. Three of the original
instruments are still in use.
1t is estimated that 81, 1872, 900 is in
vested in the Delaware river sturgeon
fishery industry The catch this year
is valued at S4OO, 900, and 2,O72 men are
employed.
Tin is one of the most ancient of
metals. AS has been recently estab-
lished by cuneiform manuscript, it was
in use five thousand years ago. One of
the oldest and richest of tin-mining
districts is in the Malay Peninsula.
The worlds present annual production
of this metal is estimated at As, 900 tons.
-Signor Gaspard Sacco, an inspector
of telegraph in Italy, has discovered
method by which he can transmit
piece Of music by conventional signs
from one end of the line to the other,
where it is received on an ingenious
mechanism, which reproduces it on a
piano or organ.
The experiment of the great COM
monwealth of Ohio in establishing and
maintaining free bureau of employ
ment will be watched with much inter-
est by sociologists and political econ
omists. If State is successful in main
tanning an employment agency through
which employers and unemployed are
brought together, it will be the opening
of an entirely new era in the labor
world.
The adoption of steel ties in place
of wooden ones seems to be one of the
coming reforms in railroad building in
the country. The Delaware & Hudson
Company has decided to lay sections OF
this description, and it is expected that
other roads will follow suit. 1t is said
to be more economical and permanent
and prevents the spreading of the rails,
which is now one of the leading causes
of railroad accidents.
According to English statistics there
were in 1888, in the world, S1,S40, 600
cotton spindles- Of this number En-
gland has AZ, 740, 900; the rest of Europe
SO, 1SO, 900; America IS, 500, 900, and India
2, 430. 900. Since the time when these
figures were taken the number of spin
dies has increased very greatly. Cotton
is becoming more and more in demand
among the nations, and the fields of the
South must continue to be the main
source of its production.-M Tele-
graph.
The average level of the solid earth
has been calculated by DR.. John Murray
to be 14O0 fathoms below mean sea-level;
but more recent explorations show
greater ocean depths, according to DR..
II. r. Mill, and mean sphere-level at
a depth of 1,7O0 fathoms. That is,
all tAe land above the level Of
1,7OO fathoms beneath the sea
would have to be filed into the greater
depths in order to give equal height to
all parts of the solid earth.
"A correspondent of the American
Machinist sent to the Office of that pub
lication pair of spectacles worn by an
operative in factory, whose task was
grinding on an emery wheel. These
glasses show the force which particles of
emery are apt to strike the eye, and ex-
plain clearly why it is so difficult for the
same to be removed when once imbedded
in the eye. A trife spent for such glasses
would prevent an immense amount of
trouble and pain, besides saving the eyes
of the workmen. The pair here referred
to were not only cut and ground as if
subjected to sand blast, but particles of
emery seemed to have imbedded them.
selves immovably in the glass.