The Bossier banner., 1891-11-05
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


DIR. j. Brendon Curgenven has sue
cessfully cured scarlet fever by inunc-
ton of eucalyptus oil, in combination
with other essential oils and camphors.
He finds that this treatment shortens
the duration of the fever and rapidly
destroys the contagious character of the
disease.
"A recent consensus taken of the
opinions of superintendents of several
large shops is to the effect that there is
no end to the want of first-class me-
chanics who can understand and work
from simple mechanical drawings. The
compound school and shop-bre;1 me-
chanic is rapidly leading the felS
The railroads in Australia IRE all
built by the government Their cost at
frst-about thirty years ago-was $780,
900 per mile for a double line, exclusive
of rolling stock. At later period single
line roads were built for $50, 900, and
still later, down to the present time,
for $50, 900 mile. The standard gauge
is 5 feet, inches.
A prominent lumbe-man of Seattle
says that timber in the northwest is
hardly considered merchantable if it
goes under %, 900 feet to the acre, while
| it is very common occurrence to find
| timber that will go 1000 feet to the
acre. He recounts a sale of a forty
acre tract of timber that went 800, 900
| feet to the acre.-Cincinnati CONNER
clal Gazette.
The addition of aluminium to molt-
en- steel before pouring an ingot has
been found to render the metal per
| fectly sound when cast. The action
seems to be entirely chemical, and is
about twenty times more powerful
| than that of silicon. The amount used
is from four to eight ounces ton, and
when used manganese can be dispensed
| with.
The amount of phosphorus consumed
per annum is about two thousand tons,
and is chiefly used in match making.
| Hitherto chemicals were used in its man
ufacture, but by recent improvement
| the raw material and coke are placed in
a specially-prepared furnace and elec.
trio heat is applied. The vapor arising
| is condensed, and marketable phos-
i pnOruS IS pTOuuceu. ..#5#ss# d.
| Hail storms do not occur in we'll
wooded districts, according to the OBJ,
servations of noted Swiss forester.
In evidence of this he points out that
district formerly exempt from such
storms has been visited by very fierce
ones since gaps were made in the for
ests, and that upon replanting the
| cleared ground with frs the storms
ceased entirely.
The water of Niagara furnishes
power at a cost of five dollars per horse
power per year for twenty -four hour
daily run. This is through turbines
under sixty-foot head The new plan
of utilization will give head of one
hundred and twenty feet and produce
total power of 0,000 horse, equal to
the aggregate of the fourteen most prom
inent water-power centers in the coun-
try.
Waste sawdust and shavings are
being utilized by Mons. Claimant, of
Paris, France, for the production of fine
vegetable charcoal, which is intended
to be used for the removal OF the un-
pleasant flavor in the common French
wines and as fltering medium in dis
tilleries, where it is said to he capable
of filtering forty times its volume of
alcohol, whereas the ordinary vegetable
charcoal of commerce filters less and
costs very much more.
"A commercial company has for
some time been working quarries in
the neighborhood OF the well known
glacial grooves at Kelley Island,
Ohio, and it was feared that these
remarkable relics of the glacial epoch
might be wholly destroyed. For
tunately the president of the company
understands the interest of the phe.
nomena, and has taken care to prevent
the most striking of them from being
injured. Some of the grooves have
now been rendered safe, the company,
at its recent annual meeting, having de
cided that the rocks on which they are
furrowed should be made over to the
president, by whom they will be trans
ferred to a scientific or historical so
ciety, "to be preserved in perpetuity fol
the benefit of science"