The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-01-29
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


The hop crop of Oregon for 1890 Is
estimated at Is, 600 bales.
What is called anthracite coal in
paying quantities has been discovered
in Mexico.
Viewed under powerful micro
scope the human skin is as full of holes
as piece of laca
There is likely to be a serious fall
ing off in the supply of gu ia percha on
he Malayan Peninsula owing to the
reckless destruction of the trees by tho
natives
1t has been calculated that it would
be possible to take from a section Of the
River Negro ,akes, occupying about
nine square leagues, upward of two mil
lions of tons of salt.
The. chestnut crop in Virginia is un-
usually large this season. In Patrick
County it is immense, and every train
from Stuart for the last thirty days has
had from one to three carloads of chest
nuts
An English company with large
capital has bought the petroleum fields
near Payta, in Peru, and expects to fur
nish oil enough for the whole Of South
America, Australia. China and Japan.
Immense tank ships are being built for
the business.
In Germany water pipes are being
made of glass with asphalt covering to
prevent fracture. 1t is claimed that
they give thorough protection against
moisture in the ground against the
action of acids and alkalies, and that
they can not be penetrated by gases. 1t
is also lelieved that they will not be-
come encrusted.
Stats tics collected by the Electrical
World show that when street railroad
companies have substituted electricity
for horses, their gross receipts have in
creased from 10 to 500 per cent. The
average cost of running an electric car
is reported to be about S2.13 day, or
2.O4 cents mile, which is an increase OF
about 10 per cent. over the cost of run
ming horse roads.
"A reprint of an address before the
Franklin Institute, Iy Thos Pray, Jr.,
shows an astonishing difference in the
cost of steam-power in different estab-
lishments, the range being from 81. 9S to
$564. SO per horse power for year of
$3.50 working hours. A great waste of
power from various causes is believed to
be very common in locomotives, steam
ships, electric genera tors, etc.
1t is a curious fact that the Austria
lian lady bug, which was brought to
California TO make war upon the cotton
L. A,e -. e.
native land, and that Australia is to be
supplied with new stock of the useful
parasite by our State Board of Horticul-
ture. The lady bug, known as the
Vedalia, has been worth millions of
dollars TO California in preserving the
orchards from threatened destruction.
-Gunpowder was invented so long
ago that its origin is lost in obscurity.
1t is, however, supposed to have origi-
mated in China some centuries before
the Christian era. The making of tin
plate vessels, and their use as receptacles
for gunpowder, has been going on for q
long time. And yet we have powder
works blown up and death and devasta.
tion scattered broadcast, because a sol
dering iron is used to seal cans of gun
powder. 1t does seem that science and
invention ought long since to have OBJ
waited all danger of such explosions
! from such cause.-Inventive Age.
Many different vegetable substances
used as stimulating beverages in widely
distant parts of the world have been
shown to contain caffeine as their active
/ principle. Only one substitute for to-
baeco has, however, as yet been discov-
cred. This is the leaves of the Duboisia
Hopwoodii, a shrub growing in Austria
liza, the leaves of which are chewed by
the blacks in the same way and for the
same purpose as tobacco is chewed.
The leaves contain an alkaloid piturine,
which is said by certain chemists to be
identical with nicotine, but more prob-
ably is only closely allied to it. Messrs.
Langley and Dickinson have recently
shown that the actions of nicotine and
| piturine are in every respect identical.