COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 261 
“The number of parties organized is the same as at the last Transit, namely, 
eight, of which four will remain in the United States, and the other four have 
already departed for the southern hemisphere.” °* 
The following additional information also appears in the same 
report: 
“TRANSIT OF VENUS 
“The preparations for observing the coming transit of Venus have occupied 
the attention of the Transit of Venus Commission, of which the Superintendent 
of the Naval Observatory is the chairman. 
“The method selected for the observation will be similar to that used in 1874, 
viz., by photography. A party will occupy each of the following stations: Cape 
of Good Hope; Santa Cruz, Patagonia; Santiago de Chile; New Zealand; San 
Antonio, Tex.; Cedar Keys, Fla.; Fort Selden, N. Mex.; and Washington, 
JOR (ESE 
The results of the observations of 1882 have not been published 
in detail, and perhaps will not be, but a report from each station 
is included in Newcomb’s “ Astronomical Constants” in the 
supplement to the American Ephemeris of 1887, pages 71 to 77. 
COMMITTEE ON WATER-PROOFING THE FRACTIONAL 
CURRENCY. 1875 
In 1875 the Government was making use of a secret, 
patented process for water-proofing the paper on which the 
fractional currency and funded-loan bonds were printed. ‘The 
principal feature of the process was that the paper was sized 
after having been printed upon. During the first session of 
the 44th Congress, the committee of the House of Representa- 
tives on Expenditures in the Treasury Department requested the 
Secretary of the Treasury to submit answers to a series of ques- 
tions relating to the printing of the securities of the United 
States. The last two questions in the series, which numbered 
twenty-two in all, were as follows: 
“21. Does the amount given in answer to the fifteenth question, include the 
expense of labor in the use of the water-proofing process, and also the amount of 
royalty paid for its use? 
© Rep. Secr. Navy for 1882, vol. 1, p. 117. 
™ Loc. cit., p. 110. 
