EIDER DUCK 



1973 



EIGHT-HOUR DAY 



UNCLASSIFIED 



Architecture 



Astrology 



Cape-to-Cairo Railway 



Hieroglyphics 



Mummy 



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Nomad Life 



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Philae 



Rosetta Stone 



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Suez Canal 



k , 

 THE EIDER DUCK 



EIDER, i'der, DUCK, a duck of the sea 

 from whose breast is obtained the soft, warm 

 down used in coverlets and pillows, especially 

 in European countries. It is larger than a com- 

 mon duck, but not as large as a goose. Two 

 species are known 

 to sportsmen in 

 America, from 

 the coasts of 

 Newfound- 

 land and Labra- 

 dor southward to 

 New England and 

 west to the Great 

 Lakes. 



The best known 

 and most im- 

 portant eider, 

 however, is the European species. The male 

 is mostly black, with back and head creamy- 

 white. The female is reddish-drab, streaked 

 with brown and black. Differing from the 

 American species, the male has a green instead 

 of black patch on the crown. Eiders frequent 

 solitary rocky shores and islands and feed on 

 fish, for which they dive. 



Eider-down. The soft, mouse-gray down of 

 commerce is obtained chiefly from Iceland, 

 although Norway and Greenland have valuable 

 eider-folds. Down found in the grass and sea- 

 weed nests of eider ducks is the most valuable, 

 and is called live down, for it has been plucked 

 chiefly by the female from her own breast to 

 soften her nest and protect her eggs and young. 

 Down taken from dead birds is called dead 

 down. About one-half pound of eider-down 

 is taken from one nest each year. Five pounds 

 of the best quality are enough for a bed. Two 

 or three pounds of down, however, can be put 

 under pressure and reduced to a ball the size 

 of a man's fist. 



EIFFEL, ej el' , TOWER, a colossal steel 

 skeleton structure on the Champs de Mars, 

 Paris, erected for the exposition of 1889, and 

 named after its projector, Gustave Eiffel. A 

 marvel of engineering design and execution, it 

 still stands as one of the interesting and orna- 

 mental features of Paris. It is 984 feet high 

 and 330 feet square at the base, and is con- 



structed of iron lattice-work, elevators and 

 stairways giving access to its platforms or gal- 

 leries. The latter are occupied by restaurants, 

 physical and biological laboratories, and by the 

 experimental sta- 

 tion of the French 

 Weather Bureau. 

 The tower con- 

 tains 7.300 tons 

 of iron and steel, 

 and cost over 

 $1,000,000, about 

 thirty per cent of 

 which was voted 

 by the govern- 

 ment and the re- 

 mainder supplied 

 by M. Eiffel, who 

 was to be reim- 

 bursed for his ad- EIFFEL, TOWER 

 vance from the profits derived from admis- 

 sion fees to the tower for a period of twenty 

 years. The receipts for the year 1889 alone 

 practically covered the cost of construction. 

 The great height of the structure, exceed- 

 ing that of any other in the world, made it an 

 important military observation station during 

 the War of the Nations, which began in 1914. 

 Repeatedly the Germans attempted its destruc- 

 tion by hurling bombs from airships. 



Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1832- ), famous 

 as the designer of the Eiffel tower, first achir\ . <1 

 prominence by his employment for the first 

 time of the compressed air method of sinking 

 foundation cylinders in bridge construction. 

 He engaged in many other important engineer- 

 ing activities, among them being the construc- 

 tion of great bridges, the building of the iroo 

 frame work of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty in 

 New York harbor, and the designing of the 

 gigantic locks of the Panama Canal, when it 

 was under French control. In 1893 he became 

 involved in the Panama Canal scandal, and 

 was convicted of misappropriating the funds 

 of the Canal Company; for this he was sen- 

 tenced to be fined and imprisoned, but tho 

 sentence was annulled. He thereafter devoted 

 his time to the study of air resistance, and 

 in 1913 published a book that was of great 

 value to aeronautical engineers. 



EIGHT-HOUR DAY, a term which relates to 

 eight hours of work a day. The effort to limit 

 the working day to eight hours is rhirfly the 

 outgrowth of two causes, the development of 

 the factory system of industry and the rise of 

 labor organizations. The arguments in favor 



