CALCULATING-MACHINES. 441 



of our system of examination, and it affords me mueli pleasure to em- 

 phatically commend it in all its details ; and I feel that we have good 

 reason to be satisfied with this, the first successful attempt to bring 

 the entire body of men engaged in signaling upon a railway in our 

 country under control by the practical application of scientific facts. 

 Having eliminated these dangerous persons from our present force, we 

 propose to keep it free from them in the future by a steady application 

 of our present system. Yours truly, 



Charles E. Pugh, General Manager. 



To this great corporation, extending through six States, operating 

 five thousand miles of track, with nearly if not quite fifty thousand 

 employes, and responsible for the lives of millions of people each year, 

 must be accorded the honor of having been the first to obtain the 

 desired control of the visual defects of their men by a wise and in- 

 telligent application of scientific laws. Their example has been exten- 

 sively followed elsewhere, and their instrument has been obtained by 

 more than thirty other roads from the manufacturers. It has also been 

 ordered by " The Board of Trade of England," by many distinguished 

 medical men abroad, and has recently been, with the entire system, 

 adopted, and will no doubt be put into operation by a director of the 

 Southwestern Railway in England. There is no longer any reason 

 why losses of life and property should occur in railway service from 

 visual defects ; and an enlightened public opinion should now insist 

 upon the adoption of some similar plan upon the hundred thousand 

 other miles of railway now being operated in our country. 



Having been placed as the American representative on the Com- 

 mittee on Control of Vision at the International Medical Congress in 

 London three years ago, I have urged upon the Naval Committee of 

 our Congress the value of this large experiment, with a view to have 

 a law passed to form an International Commission to establish a uni- 

 form system of signals, examinations, etc., both on the land and on the 

 water. There is no doubt that accidents must occur on the sea ; and 

 the recent loss of the Tallapoosa has not only been ascribed to a 

 wrong interpretation of the colored signals, but the commission ap- 

 pointed to investigate the accident has been especially directed to 

 examine for color-blindness the lookouts on the two ships. 



■♦•» 



CALCULATING-MACHINES. 



Bt M. EDOUAED LUCAS. 



WHEN I was a little boy, I sometimes went for the bread to 

 a short distance from the house. The baker would take my 

 tally-stick, put it alongside of his, and cut a notch in both. Then I 

 would go away with my bread and the baker's account on the tally- 



