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order with the bureaus for men over fifty. The employment offered brings a comparatively small wage and requires all night work, which taxes the strength more by its long unseasonable hours rather than because of its exacting char-. acter. Because the work, while it offers a comfortable living could not possibly hold out any hope of advancement, the company wisely sees that the steadiest employe will be the man who has lived long enough to "appreciate a job."

Another natural assumption might be that the free employment agencies would attract only the common laborer and that

twenty-two men with professional quali- · fications applied for positions and half were placed. This proportion, however, does not indicate accurately the chances which a man with professional training has of securing employment by state aid. Ten of the eleven successes were to the credit of nurses, of whom fifteen applied. At nearly all times the demand for trained nurses runs even with, if it does not exceed, the supply.

The one other professional was an artist, one of four who came to the state employment bureau trying to find work. A business firm had been trying to find

an illustrator for advertising purposes and had asked the state bureau if one could be had from its list of applicants.

During the same period 254 women with professional training asked for employment, 251 being nurses. Of these 180 were placed.

For women the agencies do their largest work in domestic service, as might be supposed. For men the bulk of the state employment business is done with laborers. In one year 12,000 women applied for positions in households, and, to illustrate the constant unsatisfied demand for domestic servants, 13,000 households applied for help. Nearly 3,000 calls were for women and girls to do general house work and over 1,200 were for cooks.

Over 10,000 men applied for manual work, all but 500 qualifying merely as laborers. The demand for such labor exceeded the supply in exactly the same proportion as the demand for household servants exceeded the supply.

Thirteen women in one year, wanted to secure positions as "companions," and six were successful in getting what they wanted. Eleven men were qualified as butlers and seven were put in employment. Two men were competent interpreters and both were placed readily. One man came to one of the agencies to enroll himself as a sailor in need of a job but the lake captains seem to be the most conservative of the employing classes. It was due either to this fact or to the fact that sailors may be had by whistling along the river front, but for some cause or other the lone sailor who made application went without securing the employment he sought.

It may be seen readily that the little groups of men who wait for the three Chicago offices to open at nine o'clock are far from being in a desperate condition. The majority of them are certain to obtain positions. But by a lamentable contrariness in human affairs that season of the year which brings the most suffering to the unemployed and destitute, brings also the least demand for workmen from the employers. From March until September a man of any skill, or with physical strength to stand manual labor, has only to ask for work to secure it in the great majority of cases. From Septem

ber to March the demand falls off. In the summer it exceeds the supply. In the winter the supply runs a little ahead of the demand.

The law creating the bureaus went into effect July 1, 1899, but as the act was drafted and passed by the legislature it contained one inherent defect which was the cause of its undoing. It provided that the state should not attempt to furnish men to employers engaged in labor disputes. It further provided that private employment agencies should pay a fee of $200 to the state which should be used to maintain the free bureaus.

The latter provision aroused the natural ire of the private employment agency managers and the former gave them their. weapon. They attacked the law, calling attention to the fact that it made a discrimination which denied to certain people the benefit of the act.

The supreme court upheld the contention, declaring the act null and void. This was in 1903 when the Illinois legislature was in session and the assembly proceeded immediately to enact a revised law which would be free from this defect. At the same time the fee proposed for private agencies was reduced to $50 a year and the ground of attack was removed and the desire to attack somewhat minimized. The four Illinois bureaus now are operating under the revised law and as has been shown are increasing their field of usefulness year by year.

Although the officials cannot refuse to send applicants for employment to employers who apply for help in case of strike or other labor troubles, the state makes it a point to inquire if such trouble exists. The applicant for work is informed of the facts and it is left to his judgment to act.

Each applicant for work declares his "history" briefly, the questions which he answers on a printed blank being designed to give as comprehensive a statement of his qualifications as is consistent with the necessary brevity. The employer asking for help describes the character of man he wants. It is left to the superintendent of the bureau to select from his applications for employment one which, on paper at least, seems most nearly to fill the bill.

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For Great Weights IN the accompanying illustration is shown the largest single weigh-bridge that has ever been designed in England. This machine was officially tested at the Albion Foundry, Kidsgrove, recently. The weigh-bridge is on the Pooley selfcontaining system, and although the machine weighs 160 tons, it is of very ordinary size, measuring only fourteen feet by seven feet. It is equipped with steel rails for the purpose of weighing railroad cars, etc. The machine is constructed to take the full load of 160 tons on a wheel base of five feet six inches at any part of the weighing rails. At the trial, weights to the amount of 160 tons were placed on the platform; the machine stood the tests admirably, and was so well adjusted that the slightest weight altered the balance. This weigh-bridge

will be used for general traffic, and for weighing large ingots for gun manufacture, and for the guns themselves also.

A New Natural Force? HERR C. GRUHN, the eminent Ger

man scientist, whose apparatus for reproducing in facsimile hand-writing by means of telegraphic transmission attracted considerable attention a few years ago, believes that he has discovered a natural force which has not hitherto been observed. The apparatus through which this new force is manifested, consists of a closed glass vessel, a silk thread, a wooden rod, and a rod of metal or stone.

It was found in the course of a series of experiments that if the wooden rod is suspended by the silk thread from the

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top of the closed glass vessel, it will, under certain conditions, be influenced from the outside by the rod of metal or stone, some unknown magnetic quality being indicated. If the rod of metal or stone is brought near to the vessel the suspended wooden rod is sometimes drawn toward it, and at other times, under apparently identical conditions, repelled.

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Further experiments showed that the movements of the wooden rod depended largely upon the condition of the atmosphere, and Herr Gruhn asserts his belief that the apparatus might be used to prognosticate the weather. Each kind of weather has been found to correspond with a particular behavior of the suspended rod, and the changes for the next twelve to thirty-six hours can be predicted with considerable accuracy. A long series of observations would, of course, be necessary before the apparatus could be used practically for this purpose, however.

STEAM SHOVEL AT WORK IN EXCAVATING FOR RAILWAY TRACK.

The force which influences the suspended rod passes through many substances which effectively insulate electricity, so that the phenomena cannot be explained by any electrical theory. Herr Gruhn and other scientists are continuing investigations.

Does Work of Scores ΤΗ

HIS picture gives an excellent idea of how roadbeds for modern railroads are made at the present time, without the employment of any manual labor except

the men necessary to run the machinery. The view shows a shovel which is making a cut in the earth over thirty feet in depth without the aid of a single man to wield a hand shovel or pick. So completely does the great machine do this work that it practically renders the road bed ready for the track layers. As fast as the earth and rock are scooped out of the formation, the material is dumped into one of the train of dirt cars shown at the side of the excavation. As fast as a train is loaded with the debris, it is hauled away and another train of empty cars takes its place. The steam excavator which is doing this work will perform

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satisfaction. The advantages of the inclined plane are that heights may be overcome that would be impracticable with single locks, so that the whole drop may be constructed at a single point. A fine example of this has recently been installed at Foxton on the Grand Junction Canal in Leicestershire, England, where a single incline is made to take the place of twelve locks. Other advantages are that boats may be raised

and lowered by an expenditure of only about ten per cent of the water required for locks, and that there is a great saving in time of operation. In this instance a boat may be put from one level to the next in fifteen minutes, while one and a quarter hours would be required with locks, and three men are able to do all the work.

There are two basins at the incline; one at the top and the other at the bottom, where every facility is provided for passing the boats from one level to the other, and these basins are seventy-five feet apart.

Two cars or cradles are run upon the rails, one of which is going up while the other is going down, the connection between them being made with wire cables. The machinery driving the cables and the drums over which they pass are set upon solid masonry at the head of the incline. The cradles are really large tanks into which the boats are floated and as both are filled the weight of one balances that of the other with the result that a minimum amount of power is required to effect the movement. Boats of fifty-three tons can be accommodated and these can be handled at the rate of from fourteen to sixteen an hour.

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Magnet Lifts Six Tons ELECTRO-magnets are much used in

connection with cranes and other conveyors for lifting heavy pieces of iron and steel. The Illinois Steel Company

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