Scientific American, Volume 40, No. 13, March 29, 1879

Banana Flour

The banana has recently found a new use in Venezuela. It has the property of keeping the soil moist round it, in a country where sometimes no rain falls for months; so it has been employed to give freshness, as well as shade, to the coffee plant, whose cultivation has been greatly extended (Venezuela produced 38,000,000 kilogrammes of coffee in 1876). The Venezuelans can consume but little of the banana fruit thus furnished, so that attention is being given to increasing its value as an export. At the Paris Exhibition were samples of banana flour (got by drying and pulverizing the fruit before maturity) and brandy (from the ripe fruit) The flour has been analyzed by MM. Marcano and Muntz. It contains 66.1 per cent of starch, and only 2.9 of azotized matter.

NEW STENCIL PEN

The accompanying engraving shows new form of stencil pen invented by Mr. J. W. Brickenridge, of La Fayette, Ind. In Fig. 1 the entire apparatus is shown in perspective; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the pen; and Fig. 3 is a vertical section of a portion of the driving apparatus. In this instrument compressed air is used as a motive force for driving the perforating needle. The inverted cup, shown in detail in Fig. 3, has its mouth closed with a flexible diaphragm, which is vibrated rapidly by a pitman having a convex end attached by its center to the middle of the diaphragm. The pitman is reciprocated by a simple treadle motion, which will be readily understood by reference to Fig. 1.

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