September i, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



343 



for construction, installation and mainte- 

 nance of electrical equipment to safeguard 

 employees and the public are now under prep- 

 aration by the Bureau of Standards, Depart- 

 ment of Commerce. The rules for safety in 

 the operation and handling of electrical lines 

 and equipment, just published, proceed from 

 a painstaking study by the engineers of the 

 bureau of existing rules and practises. These 

 are found to vary widely and to offer a very 

 unsatisfactory basis for the formulation of 

 mandatory codes by any state commission, un- 

 less a very extended study is made and the 

 combined experience of many companies and 

 workmen utilized. Many existing sets of 

 rules have been developed from insufficient data 

 and experience, while the vast majority of 

 companies have no rules whatever in effect. 

 This lack of rules in force is partly due to 

 inaction on the part of state authorities and 

 partly to the difficulty and expense each com- 

 pany encounters in preparing its own rules in 

 any adequate form. The assistance of state 

 commissions, operating companies and elec- 

 trical workmen has been freely given to the 

 bureau in this work, and the rules in their 

 present form are offered to the public for 

 criticism, discussion, and, so far as may be 

 found desirable, for general adoption. The 

 scope of the safety rules includes all opera- 

 tion of and work on or about power and signal 

 lines, and the electrical equipment of central 

 stations, substations, mines and testing de- 

 partments. The rules are divided into three 

 parts. The first two parts consist of general 

 rules which apply to the employer and to the 

 employee, respectively, and the third part com- 

 prises, under separate headings, those special 

 rules which apply particularly to employees 

 engaged in special classes of electrical work. 



The TJ. S. National Museum announces that 

 it is exhibiting some designs in silk dress 

 goods which use the designs and symbols left 

 by the Aztecs and other early Indian peoples. 

 Much material for designs pertaining to this 

 early period of American history was avail- 

 able; buildings, temples, monuments, pottery, 

 basketry and blankets are covered with picture- 

 writings which form artistic designs. Not 



only the designs proper were adaptable but the 

 colors as well, a fact which has materially as- 

 sisted in the creation of these new American 

 fashion designs. The textile division of the 

 museum has installed a series of pure dye taff- 

 eta silks, contributed by the manufacturers, 

 which show the reproductions of these ancient 

 Mexican designs printed on soft clinging fab- 

 ric. The designs comprise the Aztec moon in 

 rainbow tones on blue and taupe; the Aztec 

 armadillo and arrow pattern in colors on pea- 

 cock-blue; Kortez — an Aztec hieroglyph — on 

 dark green and satin-striped white taffeta ; the 

 Aztec coat-of-arms on navy blue, and an all- 

 over design of Mexican feathers in shades of 

 blue, green and brown. Other designs are re- 

 minders of the Pueblo Indians, one consisting 

 of a rattlesnake symbol printed on Indian red, 

 while another resembles a Navajo rug in which 

 zig-zag stripes and a diamond arrangement of 

 figures appear. 



UNIVEBSITT AND EDVCATIONAL NEWS 

 It is announced that the British universi- 

 ties wUl open as usual in the autumn. The 

 Rhodes scholars from the United States and 

 from the British colonies are expected to be 

 in attendance at Oxford. 



The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association 

 is endeavoring to collect $12,000 to endow an 

 astronomical fellowship at Harvard College 

 Observatory. Upwards of a thousand dollars 

 have been given for this purpose, and in addi- 

 tion Dr. E. C. Pickering, the director of the 

 observatory, and Mr. Charles S. Hinchman, 

 of Philadelphia, have each subscribed $250 

 for the inauguration of the fellowship. 



Dr. D. a. Campbell, of Halifax, has prom- 

 ised $60,000 to endow a chair of anatomy at 

 Dalhousie University, Halifax, in memory of 

 his son, the late Dr. George Campbell. 



George Peabody College for Teachers has 

 now an endowment of $3,200,000 of which 

 $2,000,000 is to be used as a permanent endow- 

 ment. Part of the remaining $1,200,000 is be- 

 ing spent on new buildings. The Household 

 Arts building and the Industrial Arts build- 

 ing have already been completed and this year 



