The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1892-06-30
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

-1nere arc over 4UU 1ertlllZer 1aC-
tories in the United States which pro-
duce more than $40, 900 worth of
fertilizers annually. Less than half
century ago fertilizer factory had not
been heard of.
The manufacture of rubber bands
has attained considerable proportions
in this country. One indication of the
growth of the industry is that they are
now being sold by the pound, where, thir-
ty years ago, they were priced by the
gross. The price has gradually fallen
from about 81 to s1.25 per pound.
Recent experiments on the action of
metals on India rubber show that cop
per is the most deleterious. Platinum,
palladium aluminium and lead act only
slightly, while magnesium, zinc, cad
MUM, cobalt, nickel, iron,~ chromium,
tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth,s silver
and gold have no action whatever on
this material.
DIR. Krug, a German scientist, has
discovered way of making what he
claims to be eatable and nutritious
cakes out of wood by transforming the
cellulose into grape sugar and adding
to it about 40 per cent of meal of wheat,
oats or rye. They will be getting pic
mic lunches out of the trees next if it is
in the wood.
There were on British pastures last
year nearly $4,000, 900 sheep and lambs,
showing an advance of nearly million
and half over the number in 1890.
toto cL
over, exceeded by 100000 head the
flocks of two years ago, and by more
than 100000 the flocks of 1SS1--Pitts-
burgh Dispatch.
1t is stated that there are in France
45,000,000 hens, which, at an average
price of francs so centimes per head,
represent value of liz, ,050,O0O francs.
One-fifth of the stock is annually con-
sumed as food, and is sold for about o.
100000 francs. Two million cocks,
worth 100000 francs, are also sold as
food. The number of laying hens is
put down at 35, 100000, and the annual
value of their eggs is 1sS, 100000 francs
Twenty years ago New England
factories produced so per cent. of the
The New England product has largely
increased, yet it is now but 55 per cent
of the total value, the industry having
been established in other parts of the
country. Since 1880 importations of
hides and skins have increased about As
per cent. D'ring the same period ex-
ports of manufactures of leather have
increased more than 125 per cent.
Curious evidence shows that cubic
inch of air at sea level con tains about
$50, ,000, 900 molecules. If the law of
regular diminishing density holds good,
a cubic inch of air at the height of 100
miles will contain about 350,000 mole
cules, and at less than 222 miles only
one molecule. Opinions differ, however,
as to the actual height of the atmo-
spheres upper surface. Prof. Young de-
clares that no definite upper limit can
be stated, while Prof. Forster, of Ber-
lin, contends that thin air, connected
with that of the earth, pervades the
whole solar system.
To obtain printing rollers without
a seam, the engraved or relieve plates
produced in the ordinary way are bent
together so as to form a cylinder with
the design upon it's outer surface, which
serves to produce In the galyanic way
an outer cylindrical mold with the de-
sign on its inner side. This mold, sep
ated from the cylinder and strengthened
by wrapping heated sheet of grtta
percha around it, is then used to pro-
duce in the galvapic way another hol-
low cylinder, which carries the design
upon its outer surface, and is then
mounted upon a solid metal core.
DIR. Freudenreich has found by ex-
perlments that the cholera bacillus, If
put into milk drawn fresh from the
cow, dies in an hour, and in five hours
if put into fresh goats milk. The bacilx
lus of typhoid fever takes twenty-four'
hours to die in cows milk and five hours
in goats milk. Other microbes suffer a
like fate in varying periods. But he
has also found that milk maintained for
an hour at temperature of 131 degrees
F., loses its power to kill microbes-a
statement which is of interest in face of
the common teaching which makes the
publication of milk depend upon it's
| being gboiled.-Annales de Micrographie.
The total number of men and wo-
men employed in the government de-
partments in Washington is 1882, dis
tributed as follows: Superintendents
charged to the district ct-congressional
| library and executive mansion, s; state
| department and diplomatic service, AZ;
treasury department, 1, 152; war depart.
ment, 3SS; commissioner of public build
ings, 1S9; navy department, los; navy
yard, 653; post Office department and To-
cal post Office, 414; interior department,
s15; department of agriculture, 1913; de-
partment of justice and labor and mis-
cellaneous offices, 1913, and government
| printing Office, 750. OF this number !, SCI
| are women.
| Water in the Desert.
In that enormous waste known as the
Cobb Desert, north of China, showers
sometimes fall during the summer, and
| the torrents of a dav fill the ,iriad-,r