The Bossier banner., 1890-01-30
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

The FIRST notice of coal was in B. O.
S71. 1t was first used in London in
1910. Coal gas was first made use Of
practically in 1913.
Mushrooms are familiar article of
food, but they are only one of the many
edible fungi in this country. The fa-
miliar giant white puff-ball, lycoperdon
giganteum, is, for instance, as good eat
ing as any.
The result of the recent expert
ments in the Mediterranean showing
how far daylight penetrates the waters
were obtained by the use of gelatino-
bromide plates. The greatest depth at
which daylight could be found-1, ,51s
feet-is 327 feet short of the limit as
signed some years ago.
Prof Elihu Thompson has perfected
an invention by which the rails of street
or steam railways may be welded to-
gether by electricity after being placed
in position. A dynamo propels over the
track an electric welding machine,
which YIELDS the rails into one continu-
Gus line after it passes over them.
Prof. Lintner estimates thatif all the
species of insects inhabiting the world
were known their number would reach
1,000,0 900. He states that he has himself
seen at one glance, within small ex-
tent of roadway, more snow-feas Of a
single species than there are human
beings on the entire surface of the globe.
The grading of fresh fruit before it
is packed or sent to the cannery from
orchards and vineyards in the far West
is done cheaply and successfully by
several rival machines. Raisins are
stemmed and graded by machinery. Al
monds are hulled by a very useful and
cheap contrivance in use in most of the
orchards. The parers, corers and vari-
GUS kinds of knives used are nearly all
of the Pacific coast styles.
Prof. Scribner, of the Tennessee
Agricultural Experiment Station, has
discovered a new disorder of the potato
tuber, which promises to prove serious.
The tubers are marked with many small
pimples, and they finally wither and be-
come worthless. The disease is caused
by a nematode, or true worm, allied to
the pork trichina and vinegar ell
"A French paper gives a descri ptioD
of pen made of glass, which, it says,
steel pen makers will not look upon with
a favorable eye, as its merits are such
as to insure its adoption in lieu OF tho
steel pens which have so long held the
field. With the new pen, says the
writer, one can write as freely as with
pencil, and on the smoothest paper,
while its durability is so great that,
unless the pen itself is broken, it is in
destructible.
The African elephant, according to
Herr ]. Mengis, is quite as docile as the
Indian elephant, and much stronger.
No modern attempt to tame the animal
has been made, though it seems to have
been put to work in ancient times, and
would, if properly trained, be of i'm
mense service in the opening up OF
Africa. 1t must be protected, however,
or it will soon be quite extinct.
-Bosworth-Smith, in a report on the
Kolar gold field, in Southern India, is
sued by the Madras government, records
some finds of mining implements,
fragments of bones, an oil lamp, and
broken pieces Of earthenware, including
a crucible, the remains of ancient min
ing operations. He expresses astonish-
ment at the fact that the old miners
were able to reach depths of two hun
dred or three hundred feet through hard
rock with the simple appliances at their
command.