The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-05-07
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


coal in 1889 was 40,665, ,152 tons Of 2,240
pounds, valued at s65,71s, 165.
The State of Washington, it is
claimed, has more coal than Pennsyl-
vania, more pine than Maine, and more
fish than Massachusetts,.
According to the assertion of the
eminent Psychologist, Sappy, the stom-
ach contains 5000, 600 glands by which
gastric juice is secreted.
-Atea-planter of Darieeling says that
fully one hundred million pounds Of
tea are now yearly exported from India,
against thirty-three million pounds five
years ago.
Cotton spinning in Japan is very
depressed at the present time, and the
spinning companies are curtailing pro-
duction. Many machines which had
been ordered from foreign firms in
Yokohama are still awaiting delivery,
the Japanese refusing to take them.
Beneath the finger nails is a handy
place where a great variety of micro
scopic forms of life are won't to gather.
Microscopists have found in the CLEAN
ings from finger nails, thirty-six kinds
of micrococci, eighteen bacilli, three
sarcinee and the spores of common
mould No wonder the scratch of q
nail is often poisonous. The fault is not
| in the nail scratch but in the seeds that
| it implants in the plowed skin.
"A French chemist, NJ. Anne Girard,
has shown that the potato called ''Rich-
ter Imperatorn is well fitted for the pro-
duction of alcohol by distination on a
commercial scale, At one operation
! $4,000 kilogrammes of potatoes were
treated, and ten hters of alcohol, abso-
lutely pure, were obtained from every
one hundred dlogrammes of the tuber.
Another distillation gave fourteen liters
for the same quantity of roots. The
''draff" which resulted was readily
eaten by cattle.
In the building trades the six cities
in which the highest wages are paid are
New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, st. Louis.
Galveston and San Francisco. st. Louis
pays the highest wages for masonry,
New York for carpentry, San Francisco
for painting, Chicago for plumbing
Santa Fe for roofing and Galveston for
common labor. The lowest wages are
paid in the Southern cities. Two adjoin-
ing cities seldom pay exactly the same
wages. Philadelphia and Boston rank
below the five leading cities, and many
smaller Western cities pay higher wages.
The products of the mines of the
world were, in 1888, in tons: Iron, 2S,-
B12, 1000: copper, S41,0OO lead, 517,-
600; zinc, $4,000 tin, $4,000. The
production of gold was 166,225 xiii
egrammes; of silver, 3,72O,351. There
were, moreover, 468, 4O6, 900 tons Of coal
brought to light, 5,T12, 600 tons of petro-
leum, 7,347, 900 of salt and about S,7O0,-
900 of other similar products. The grand
total in tons was sos, $50, 600, with a
value of 81, ne, ,O03, 900. To this vast sum
Goals alone contribute almost 500, ,000,-
! 600, or about 40 per cent. while the
precious metals, gold and silver, con-
! tribute but $3.50, ,OOO, 900.
I Bradford McGregor, the mechanical
expert of Cincinnati has succeeded after
numerous experiments in uniting alumni
mum with glass, and he claims to be the
I first who has done so. A large piece Of
aluminium, with glass tube in the CEN
4 ter, was turned in his lathe, and it was
r impossible to detect the slight flaw or
. Joint where they came together. In
4 fact, it appears as one solid mass. Here
o tofore no metal could be made to unite
with glass in which the contraction and
expansion were the same; and it is
y claimed that this discovery viii create
revolution in the way of reducing the
I" cost of fincandescentli lights, as it win take
the place of platinum. which costs $500
7 a pound, while the new compound will
~ not cost ten dollars.
Il Add carbon to pure iron and 1t be-
y comes steel. Add hydro-carbon to
y iron, and steel itself becomes so ex-
a tensively modified that its properties
are not recognizable. Thus steel may
be as soft as pure iron. Add hydogen,
in varying quantity, and it has the
- quality of residence, as in the watch
spring, or the quality of tenacity as in
4 the knife or razor, or may be given
of nearly the hardness of diamond, as II
to a file. With steel at low temperature
Of from 400 degrees to $50 degrees Fahren
ne heit, edge-tools are produced, the colo
e- In the yellow shades; from 500 degree
he to 525 degrees various sorts Of spring
,is are produced, color blue; while by heat
It's ing iron to whiteness and plunging
he into water, which is mainly compose
le- of hydrogen, files are produced, Q
forms even harder.-Indianapolis News
ny Returning the Favor.