The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-01-15
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

~OA-iNS- SHiND ItN6OO n
1t is said there are only two red slate
quarries in the United Statss-one in
Vermont and the other N Virginia.
1t is fact established upon the au-
thority of travellers in different parts OF
the world that stammering is almost
unknown among savage tribes.
"A great many of the oranges on the
west coast of Florida have been sold for
81 per box on the trees. This is a bet
ter price than in any previous year.
There is a famine in the rubber
market this season, owing to the failure
of the South American crop. The newly
explored Congo country is future
source of supply, at present not easily
accessible.
The total exports of iron and steel
from Great Britain to all countries in
the first eight months of the present
year amounted to ERGO, 253 gross tons,
as compared with 9, T26, ,933 tons in the
first eight months of 1889.
Water has been found in the Desert
of Sahara in such vast quantities Ly
means of artesian wells that French en-
extend their railroad 10 distance of a
weeks journey from Algeria right
through the desert.
The fruit packers of California will
suffer this year because of their contracts
to deliver dried and canned fruits for
about one-half the ruling rates. One
large package firm will lose about $780,
600 on prunes alone, while several
smaller ones will probably go under.
Modern Light and Heatestimatest the
capital invested in electric lighting
plants in the United States has reached
the enormous aggregate of Sis, 758, 500,
and there are at the present time in use
1,59O,6 667 incandescent lights, 127. AL arc
lights, and 1879 stations.
More than sixty companies for the
manufacture of cotton goods have been
organized in the South during the past
eight months. But most of toe mills
thus far started have been for the pro-
duction of the coarser fabrics. The finer
grades will doubtless be made with in
creasing skill on the part of operatives
and the introduction of tho requisite
machinery.
The average level of the solid earth
has been calculated by DR.. John Murray
to be /, 400 fathoms below sea level; bat
more recent explorations show greater
ocean depths, according to DR.. H. R.
Mill, and mean sphere level at depth
of !, ZOO fathoms. That is, all the land
above the level of /, roo 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
According to a London paper, 'a
! discovery of considerable interest for
archaologists was made at Con1ans dur
ing the cutting of railway from Argen-
tuell to Nantes. One hundred and eighty
five plaster tombs of the Merovingian
epoch were found. The skeletons in
them are described as being in a state
| of perfect preservation. One of the
tombs contained two skeletons, one
placed on the top of the other An
official commission of the Department
of the Seine ct Disc has gone to Con-
fans to visit the cemetery and to insure
osities it contains"
The intensity of the light under th }
water diminisbes with great rapidity.
At about ninety feet one sees very much
less, and when the sun approaches the
horizon, and the rays get much more
oblique, it seems as though night had
come, Horizontally, at 100 feet dopth,
rock can not be made out at greater
distance than twenty-five feet Gen.
orally speaking, at a greater depth than
/ thirty feet one can notdistinguish things
under the conditions that ordinarily OBJ
tain. This will account for the inability
to see their way on the part ofthose who
attempt to navigate submarine boats
As soon as an object is seen it is so close
that there is not time to steer clear of it.