POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



285 



five acres, and are roundish pits and trenches. 

 " The story of the working of the quarry and 

 the management and the manipulation of the 

 stone is to be read with almost as much ease 

 as if the work had closed but yesterday. 

 The fragments and masses of fresh chert 

 were selected and removed from the pits, 

 and the work of reduction and manufacture 

 began. Shops were established on the mar- 

 gins of the pits, on the dump heaps, and at 

 convenient points in the vicinity. . . . The 

 shops are very numerous over the level space 

 included between the three main groups of 

 quarries, but, as a rule, they are not found 

 more than one hundred or one hundred and 

 fifty feet from the pits. Small trimming shops 

 are found, however, much farther away, 

 scattered through the forest and along the 

 water courses." The circular clusters of 

 white chert refuse are clearly denned on the 

 dark ground, and especially so after forest 

 fires have destroyed the growth of weeds and 

 small underbrush. In the center is a shal- 

 low depression, which was the fireplace of 

 the lodge. Around this the workmen sat, 

 and here are the fragments and flakes, the 

 rejects and hammer stones left by them, cov- 

 ering about the space inclosed by the lodge, 

 and hardly disturbed since the site was de- 

 serted. Where the work has gone on for a 

 long time, near the quarry margins the accu- 

 mulations of refuse are so great that sepa- 

 rate shops are obliterated, a number coales- 

 cing in the general mass, which in some 

 cases reaches many feet in depth. One can 

 sit on these accumulations and, without 

 changing position, select bushels of the abor- 

 tive implements and partially worked pieces 

 broken under the hammer. Little or no 

 specialization of form was attempted on the 

 quarry sites ; but blanks were chiefly made 

 to be subsequently elaborated. It is evident 

 that all the work was professional. 



The Eight-hour System in Practice. A 



most successful result of the operation of the 

 eight-hour system is recorded in the works 

 of Brunner, Mond & Co., English manufac- 

 turers. It has been in force there for five 

 years, and the result has not been an in- 

 crease in the cost of production. At first 

 the wage cost per ton went up, but it then 

 dropped, and is now as low as it was in 1889, 

 the last year of the twelve-hour day. The 



managers are satisfied that the result is not 

 owing wholly to improvements in machinery 

 or methods of manufacture, but largely to 

 the change in the length of the working day. 

 They affirm that though the men work fewer 

 hours, the efficiency of their work is not 

 diminished, and their opinion is borne out by 

 the fact of such improvements as greater 

 regularity in attendance, increased applica- 

 tion, and better health among the employed. 

 The men used often to be irregular and 

 drunken; now they come to their shifts 

 regularly and sober. They are no longer 

 found asleep at their posts. " The improve- 

 ment in the men's looks," Mr. Brunner says, 

 " and especially in their gait when leaving 

 the works at the end of the shift, is very 

 marked." 



Astronomical Work of Harvard Observa- 

 tory. The forty-ninth annual report of the 

 Director of the Astronomical Observatory of 

 Harvard College is for the eleven months end- 

 ing September 30, 1894. The most important 

 events of the year were the practical trial of 

 the Bruce telescope and the successful opera- 

 tion for several months of the Boyden Mete- 

 orological station on the summit of the Misti 

 (Peru), at a height of 19,200 feet. Some 

 criticisms that have been made of the photo- 

 metric work of the observatory are answered, 

 so far as they are of a scientific character. 

 Sixteen hundred and fifty-seven photographs 

 were taken with the eight-inch Draper tele- 

 scope, and seventeen hundred and eight in 

 Peru with the eight-inch Bache telescope. 

 Seven variable stars were shown to have 

 the hydrogen lines bright in their photo- 

 graphic spectra. Eleven new variables were 

 discovered from the presence of bright 

 hydrogen lines in their spectra, besides three 

 whose variability was discovered from 

 changes in their photographic images. Five 

 gaseous nebulas were discovered from their 

 spectra. Several photographs were obtained 

 of the new star in the constellation Norma, 

 the spectrum of which, as in the case of the 

 new star in Auriga, has become that of a 

 gaseous nebula. This object is gradually be- 

 coming fainter. Nine hundred and twelve 

 photographs were taken with the eleven- 

 inch Draper telescope. An investigation has 

 been in progress for the detection of stars 

 having large parallaxes or proper motions. 



