The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-04-09
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Glass was made in Egypt 5000 B. c.,
but the earliest date of transparent
glass is said to have been 719 B. c.
There are only two manufactures
of tape measures in the United States
the principal one at Brooklyn and the
other at Cleveland, Ohio.
The art of making matches has
been so perfected that 10000, 900 of the
tiny sticks can be cut into shape, all
ready for dipping, by one machine in
single day.
-Celluloid in solution is now being
extensively used as a lacquer for all
kinds of fine metal work and as wood
varnish, with results that are said to be
superior to the old methods.
Bricks boiled in coal-tar are rem
made bricks, if boiled for long period
say twenty-four rhours-become water
proof Bricks thus treated are well
adapted for sewers, cess-pools and the
foundations of buildings.
Alcohol gets its name from the
Arabic alcohol, the powder of antimony,
with which the people in Asia stained
their eyelids. This powder is very fine
and pure, and the name was in time
given in Europe to alcohol, because it is
pure extract; but the Arabs never
used the word III that way. In other
words, that Specification of it was un-
known in Arabia.
One of the recent improvements in
Photographic telescopes is an object
glass, one of whose lenses is so formed
that when one side of it is turned out
ward the visual rays are brought to a.
proper focus and you have telescope
for seeing with; and when the other
side of the lens is turned outward the
actinic rays are brought to focus and
the telescope is in proper shape for
taking photographs.
I'm photographing projectiles in mo-
ton no results of any Importance are
obtained till the velocity of the shot ex-
ceeds that of sound But at higher
| speeds a wave of compression is found
preceding the bullet in its fight. The
shape of this wave is a hyperboloid of
revolution, with the apex some distance
in front of the shot. Behind the pro-
iectile there is conical wave formed,
/ Z
the velocity.
"A novel engineering work has just
been completed at the Duddon estuary,
on the English coast. valuable her
matte mine extended out under the sea,
and in order to work it barrier two
thirds of mile long and fifty feet high
for about half the length has been con-
structed. The sea is thus shut out from
| about twenty-six acres, on which, it is
estimated, the mining of iron ore may
be continued for twenty-five years, with
a force ofsabout 1900 men.
in strong liquids, such as sewage,
which is rich in food for most micro-or-
ganisms, we find no nitrifcatioA taking
place, but, on the contrary, an abund-
ance of ammonia. In such a liquid, how
ever, the nitrifying organisms bide Their
time, waiting until their less diserimf
mating brethren have consumed all the
available store of nourishment and are
perishing from want; then they step in
make themselves masters of the situa
ton and convert the ammonia into nj
trio acid.
1t is known that pelagic animals
e., those living on the high seas-by day
descend below the surface, rising a.
night Groom and Loob think that this
daily migration of these animals is due
to heliotropism. In the daytime this i:
negative, the strong light driving then
from the surface; while at night it exer
cises a positive action, causing them tt
seek the surface waters. Their observa
tions show that light and not heat, il
the exciting cause. Moreover Driescl
finds that heliotropism influences th'
growth of the hydroid sertulariella.
While preparing sheep brains TO
the use of the physiology class at Cor
nell University Professor Wilder fount
one in which the collosum, the grea
band of nerve-fibers connecting the TIVE
cerebral hemispheres, was wholly alb
sent. Among the thousands of human
brains examined, there have been re
corded only fifteen such cases, mostl,
from persons of feeble intellect. From
the lower animals the only previou
cases also occurred in the anatomica
laboratory of this university, viz, tw
! kittens and eat, the latter describe
and figured by Professor Wilder in 1885