90 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



structed for slipping over the eye-piece, so as to preserve the proper 

 distance between the eye and the eye-lens when making observations ; 

 and a second similar cap should be made, and furnished with a disk 

 of black or red glass, for protecting the eye when viewing the sun. 

 For myself, I use a disk of thin microscopic glass, smoked and fast- 

 ened in a cap which slips over the eye-piece. 



But a telescope, even such as I have described, and which has a 

 power of only twenty-five or twenty-six diameters, needs a stand, and 

 this can be constructed easily and cheaply of one-inch pine and a few 

 nails and screws, something after the pattern shown in Fig. 4. By 

 laying the telescope on the two end -supports, Y Y', greater steadiness 

 is secured than by using a single support in the center ; and the rods 

 y y' are easily raised or lowered, and may be fixed in their positions 

 by the little wedges w w'. The stand is thirty inches high, sixteen 

 inches broad, and twenty-five inches long. The rods y y' are forty 

 inches and sixty inches long respectively. The blocks B B' are built 

 up of pieces of one-inch board, nailed together ; then an auger-hole 

 is bored through the whole, so as to form a sheath or tube in which 

 the rods may slide easily, but without so much lateral motion, or 

 " wiggle," as they would have if they only passed through one thick- 

 ness of board. 



By following these directions you will have a really useful achro- 

 matic telescope ; small, indeed, and insignificant when compared with 

 the six-foot reflector of Lord Rosse, or with one of Clark's twenty-six- 

 inch refractors ; but, nevertheless, a veritable Jacob's ladder, by which 

 you can ascend — if not into — at least twenty-five twenty-sixths of the 

 way toicarcl heaven ; a perpetual source of pleasure, to a family of in- 

 telligent children, on moonlight nights and on occasions of eclipses ; 

 worth a whole year's " schooling " as an incentive and help to the study 

 of the universe, and a practical realization of an answer to the oft- 

 mouthed prayer — 



" Nearer, my God, to thee ! " 



THE UTILITY OF SCHOOL-RECESSES. 



By JOSEPH CAETEE. 



THERE is a growing tendency to abandon the school-recess. The 

 editor of the Boston "Journal of Education" says of the no- 

 recess experiment, adopted in Rochester, New York, that it has given 

 " perfect satisfaction." Among the advantages gained, he mentions, 

 " a continuous school-session without interruptions in school-work " ; 

 " better health of pupils, on account of freedom from exposure to cold 

 and wet weather in the midst of each session " ; " discipline easier, on 



