FRESH-WATER MUSSELS AND MUSSEL INDUSTRIES. 83 



the exercise of care and good judgment on the part of the laborer or for intelligent and 

 sympathetic cooperation between management and labor. 



The problem of the cutting room is, indeed, a complex one owing to the difficulty 

 of maintaining an exactly definable standard or of arriving at a system of count and pay- 

 ment that is at the same time neither open to criticism in some features nor conducive 

 to waste. The desideratum of course, is a working plan, that neither denies to the 

 cutter any portion of his reward, nor, on the other hand, relieves him of due responsi- 

 bility for the cutting of shells in the best interest of manufacture and in accordance with 

 proper usage of material. 



A great variety of shells are used, differing in size, weight, shape, and quality. No 

 single shell is of uniform thickness throu'ghout, but all taper, more or less, from thicker 

 forward and center portions to thinner rim and tip ; each shell, may, therefore, produce 

 good, inferior, or worthless blank. By poor spacing an unnecessary portion of the shell 

 may be wasted, or, from careless manipulation, an undue proportion of the blanks may 

 be inferior or worthless. It is quite possible, too, to waste more time in the careful cut- 

 ting of material than is warranted by the saving of material. Consequently it is essen- 

 tial to impose checks in relation to the quantity and the quality of the output and to the 

 proportion of product to materials consumed. 



DEFECTIVE BLANKS. 



Since no shell is of uniform thickness in all parts, the blanks from any given shell 

 may vary from very thick to very thin. (See PI. XXXVII, fig. 2.) All blanks wholly 

 or in part thinner than two lines (one-twentieth of an inch) are called tips and can only 

 be used for very inferior buttons." A blank is never too thick to be acceptable, since 

 it can be ground down to the desired thickness; unfortunately splitting is not yet practica- 

 ble with fresh-water shells. A cutter, however, may cause a rim blank to split by twist- 

 ing the shell when half sawed through, thus increasing the count though the resulting 

 blanks are undesirable. Such an unfair practice is detected when blanks are found with- 

 out a back, or covering, of homy epidermis. From too much haste or too little care, the 

 blanks, instead of being sawed clean through, may be pushed out, leaving flanges of shell 

 and homy matter on the outside which cause much trouble in the succeeding processes. 

 In very thick shells it is often undesirable to cut the rim, on account of the blanks having 

 such a pronounced bevel as to work poorly or to fly out of the chucks in the process of 

 facing and drilling and perhaps injuring the chucks or drills. It is usually better, there- 

 fore, to let this portion of the shell be wasted. Blanks cut through the eyespots (muscle 

 scars) or through certain shell defects are sometimes undesirable. The cutter may 

 space the blanks too closely, overlapping them, and thus producing buttons that are not 

 round. In such a case, too, there is a danger of the saw being destroyed by the unrolling 

 of the cylinder. (See PI. XLV, lower left-hand comer.) 



This brief account of the more conspicuous possible defects in cutting will account 

 for the practice of counting out certain blanks; that is, of requiring that a blank, to 

 coimt for payment, must be two lines or moie in thickness, must have the back on, 

 be round, clean-cut, or without ragged edges, and be not cut through such spots or por- 

 tions of the shells as may be prescribed. These specifications are simple and can be 

 complied with by any conscientious cutter. The more difficult problem is that of getting 

 the greatest number of blanks from the shells consumed. 



a See footnote, p. 17. 



