At night it was always quiet, except
on that one brief occasion. Sometimes it began early in the morning
and stopped about noon. At other times the work was done entirely in
the afternoon, beginning sometimes as late as three or four o'clock,
and ceasing invariably at sundown. Then again it would start at
sunrise and continue the whole day through.
"For a long time I was unable to account for these eccentricities, and
the problem was not rendered much clearer, although a startling
suggestiveness was added to it, when, at length, I noticed that the
periods of activity of the engine had a definite relation to the age
of the moon. Then I discovered, with the aid of an almanac, that I
could predict the hours when the engine would be busy. At the time of
new moon it worked all day; at full moon, it was idle; between full
moon and last quarter, it labored in the forenoon, the length of its
working hours increasing as the quarter was approached; between last
quarter and new moon, the hours of work lengthened, until, as I have
said, at new moon they lasted all day; between new moon and first
quarter, work began later and later in the forenoon as the quarter was
approached, and between first quarter and full moon the laboring hours
rapidly shortened, being confined to the latter part of the afternoon,
until at full moon complete silence reigned in the mill.
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