The Bossier banner., 1893-12-14
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Wnere lneUectual. IL mas Deen ulS- |
carded for twenty-seven years The |
substitute for it is proper system of
medical inspection Cholera should
be dealt with by sanitation, disinfec-
tion and isolation of cholera patients.
The last annual report of the COM
missioner of the general land Office
shows that during the year the aggre-
gate of public lands disposed of was
1881, 143 acres, oi which l, ,404 95S acres
were sold for cash, 10, 1896, 727 acres was
miscellaneous entries and 80, 457 acres
Indian lands. The cash receipts of the
Office during the year aggregated ST.
479, 734.
The Philadelphia County Medical
society has appealed to the city's board
of health to place tuberculosis, or con-
sumption, upon the list of diseases to
be treated as contagious. They assert
that it has been proved by long and
careful investigation that the disease
is infections in its character, though 1T
takes a longer time to develop than
smallpox and typhoid fever.
President II. S. Haines, of the
American Railway association, says
that gradually the rate of wages of
railway employees has been raised until
now the percentage of payrolls to total
operating expenses is higher than ever
before. Sixty per cent. of the rail
roads pay no dividends, and there is no
hope of change for the better until
the rate per ton-mile increases, or the
cost per ton-mile decreases"
An interesting statement with re-
gard to railroad construction this year
is made by the Railway Age, of Chi
cago The total new mileage laid dur
ing the first nine months of the year,
as obtained from official sources, was
2,O4O So miles. Ordinarily, at least fifty
per cent. more track would be laid dur
ing the remaining three months, but
from the present outlook it is regarded
as doubtful if the total for the year ex-
ceeds 800 miles.
When a glass stopper sticks in the
bottle, pass a strip of woolen cloth
round the neck of the vessel and seesaw
| it backward and forward. This fric-
ton heats and causes the neck to eX-
| pand, so that the stopper becomes
loose. On this principle of expansion
by heat tight screw may be with
| drawn from a metal socket by sur
rounding the socket with a cloth
dipped in boiling water.
| American.
The observatory method of deter
mining time is very simple in princi-
| pie. The observer turns to his cata-
logue of stars, and chooses one for his
observation, the catalogue giving him
the time Ito the hundredth of sec
ond) at which that star will be on his
meridian; he then turns to the tele-
scope, and at the instant the star
crosses the meridian records the time
indicated by his clock. The catalogue
gives the true time of passage, and un-
less the clock gives the same it is in
error.-Popular Astronomy.
The fastest mechanism, artificial
or natural, made to penetrate water
for any considerable distance is, ac-
cording to Mr.. jeremiah Head, Thorny-
croft's torpedo boat, Ariete, which on
trial made So 16 miles per hour. Aerial
mechanisms are capable of very much
greater speed. Canon Tristram told
the biological section of the British as
sociation in his address that Herr
Gatke holds that goowits and plovers
can do their 24O miles an hour, and the
spine-tailed swift, according to DR..
Jerdon, can breakfast in Ceylon and
sup in the Himalayas on the same day.
knowledge for October
-Laverand, in writing of disinfec.
ton in the Journal des Science Medi
cal, states that theoretically, we are
now thoroughly equipped for a vic
torious struggle against all forms OF
infectious and epidemic disease, bu
that as a matter of fact, there is NJ
antiseptic, which, in it's practical ap
p1ication to daily life, will give tn,
same results which the experiments
obtains in the laboratory. He men
tions as the most reliable chemica
agents, per cent. solution of car
bolic acid bicbloride of mercury (cor
rosive sublimate) In Oh per cent solu
ton and fire sh chloride of lime.
"A remarkable geological substauc
: found in Finland is stone which fore
+ tells, by change of color, the proba
BILE character of the weather in tn
q near future-a natural barometer
' known by the name of semakuir, an
] which is said to turn black shortly bC
fore an approaching rain, while in fin
> weather it is notified with spots {
! white. For loug time, it appear
this interesting phenomenon was inc:
plicable, but on an analysis of I'll
stone it was shown to be fossil mike
= with clay and containing portion
. rock salt and inter. This fact beiT
's known, the explanation of the chang
le became easy; the salt, absorbing Il
{ moisture, turns black when the conc
" tions are favorable for rain, while Il
T dryness of the atmosphere must as na
Sc urally bring out the salt from the
as terror of the stone in white spots
- - the surface.
His Inheritance.
,r Cholly-This is my grandmother
l., portrait, and | am thought to ha
some of her features.