38 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



Of all the factors involved, the one of speed appealed most 

 strongly to the individuals making the run, and from the first 

 there was evidence of a tendency to reduce the whole test to 

 one of speed. 



With this in view, some wonderful systems of operation 

 were devised, with shortcuts that were more or less fallible 

 and often with difficulties quite unsuspected by the authors of 

 the systems. 



The failure of these systems brought out many individual 

 peculiarities and revealed some temporary lapses in temper 

 and nerve control. In some cases a slight accident to the assay 

 would serve to upset a man's whole plan and leave him floun- 

 dering and apt to do many foolish things. 



A fine opportunity was afforded to study the ability of 

 the contestants to work under fire and to detect their strong as 

 well as their weak points. 



In spite of frequent admonitions to the effect that "not to 

 the swift is the race," the sporting instinct urged a speeding 

 up, and the time records were rapidly broken again and again 

 by successive squads and in succeeding years. An amount 

 of work which required twelve or fifteen hours at least in their 

 earlier career was turned out in a little over two hours by the 

 speediest men. 



The results were not so satisfactory, however, when judgea 

 from the most important angle of accuracy. Even when 

 judged by the average of the current class, they were far from 

 accurate as a rule. Moreover, penalties for gross errors of 

 judgment, carelessness and noncontrol of temperatures, were 

 more frequent than was desirable. 



It was evident that the element of accuracy was rated too 

 low, and a new scale of grading was used in this year's run, 

 as follows : 



Accuracy, 60 per cent; neatness, 15 per cent; speed, 15 per 

 cent; judgment of ores and charges, 5 per cent; judgment of 

 temoeratures. etc.. 5 ner cent. 



temperatures, etc., 5 per cent 



This has resulted in a very great improvement and has given 

 some records that are highly satisfactory in accuracy as well as 



