The Bossier banner., 1892-03-24
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

"A snail has thirty thousand teeth. |
They are too small to be dangerous or |
dinarily, but when they are magnihed |
by microscope scientists have to be |
very careful to avoid being torn to
pieces.
--Carborundrum is term which has
been applied to a manufactured SUBJ
stance intended to take the place of
diamond dust and bort in the abrasion of
hard substances. 1t is composed almost
entirely of pure carbon, and its hard
ness is ten on Mohr's scale.
To harden tools for engraving, they
are heated to whiteness and plunged
into sealing wax, withdrawn after an
instant and plunged in again, repeating
the process until the steel becomes
cold. The tool will become almost as
hard as a diamond
The approximate value of the wine
crop of France in 1890 was $3.50, 764, 900,
an increase of $4,000, 600 over 1889;
while the land covered by vineyards in
1890 was estimated at 4,54l, $50 acres,
and 4.54G, 467 acres in 1889, being de-
crease in 1890 of 1.107 acres.
Turkey and Persia are now playing
an important part in supplying grain to
the London, England, markets; on this
account some authorities expect to see
great revival in the grain production
in the old countries between the Levan-
tine and Arabian seas
Liverpool, England, takes more
American cotton than all other ports
in the world put together, and Man
fol
of all the cotton shipped to Liverpool
1t manufactures about 5000, 600 bales
of cotton annually, being, in fact, the
greatest cotton manufacturing center
| in the world.
The municipal commissioner CT
| Baroda has published a pamphlet in
| which he advocates the incubation OF
| the blood serum of the common weasel
| as a cure of snake bite. This animal is,
he contends, proof against the poison
of snake bites, from which it never suf-
fers in the slightest degree. and attacks
and kills any snakes it comes across.
The latest and rarest arrival at the
geological gardens in Regents park,
London, is what is considered the only
living specimen of the hairy-eared
rhinoceros There are six species
of this animal now extant, and Mr.
Bartlett, the son of the well-known
superintendent of the gardens, believes
that he has discovered a seventh in the
island of Borneo, in a region compare
lively unknown to biologists.
ALL birds seem to have an instinc-
tive knowledge that if they once sur
render to the force of the wind and al
low themselves to drift like leaves,
there are unknown dangers in store for
them. They will hardly ever do so ex'
cept to escape pursuit, and then only for
a few minutes, when their pace is sc
marvelously rapid that. in the case OF
the land birds, few minutes is suffici-
ent to carry them out of the district
they know into others from which they
will perhaps never be able to find theil
way back to the fields which are their
native home. e.--Science.
The old time ship builders are
indulging in the hope of reviva.
of their industry within the neXt
few years. The shipLuilders of New
Bedford are rejoicing over the order:
for vessels to engage in the trade be
tween our ports on the Atlantic and OF
the Pacific. The shipbuilders of Duluth
are pleased with the prospects of activi
ty in the construction of big fleet o
whalebacks for service on our western
lakes and on the Atlantic. The out
look for American shipbuilding is NOR
encouraging than it was few year
ago.
; 1t is said that new sea is to appea
, on the maps henceforth, or rather
: new name for part of the old sea. TIL
: Australian Association for the advance
l ment of science while considering tn
1 geographical formation of that portio
r of the ocean lying west of Australia an
t Tasmania. and bounded on the othe
s sides by New Zealand and the wester
n islands o: the Polynesian groups pre-
S posed to name it the Tasman sea, an
4 the English admiralty has accepted tn
d suggestion and ordered that the nam
2 appear on the admiralty charts.