262 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
“22. State if any commission, and composed of what persons, by name, has 
examined the value of the water-proofing process, as recommended in the report 
of the Committee on Banking and Currency, made February 16, 1875; and, if so, 
please annex a copy of their report, if any has been made. If no report has been 
made to you in writing, has any and what oral report been made to you? And 
have you urged the parties having the matter in charge to make report to you.” *® 
These detailed inquiries were directed primarily at a com- 
mittee of the Academy. In replying to them, on March 31, 1876, 
the Secretary of the Treasury, B. H. Bristow, remarked that 
no royalty was paid on the water-proofing material, which was 
purchased by the gallon, and that on July 30, 1875, he had 
requested the President of the Academy, Professor Henry, 
to appoint a committee to examine into the merits of the water- 
proofing process. He remarked that Professors J. E. Hilgard, 
C. F. Chandler, Henry Morton and William Sellers had been 
appointed, and continued as follows: 
On the 30th of August last [1875] I requested those gentlemen to com- 
mence their investigations, and at the same time I instructed the Chief of the 
Bureau of Engraving and Printing to afford them every facility therefor in his 
power. 
“T am advised that they called and examined the machinery for applying the 
“water-proofing’ to the paper, and the manner in which it was done, and that 
they were furnished with a sample of the material and with specimens of blank 
and printed paper, water-proofed and not water-proofed. Every facility to con- 
duct their investigation was afforded them, and they were furnished with all 
the information possible upon the subject. 
“ During the autumn Professor Hilgard, chairman of the commission, called on 
me and submitted for my inspection a memorandum in writing of the principal 
points of his proposed report, which were deduced from his examination. He 
stated, as the result of his examination and tests, that he was convinced that the 
process in question was of great advantage and of great utility both as to dura- 
bility and security, and that he would recommend that the Government should 
purchase the invention from the proprietor, with a view to a more economical 
application of the process. 
“The general tenor of the report having been thus foreshadowed by the 
chairman of the commission, I saw no reason, at that time, and have had no cause 
* House Misc. Doc. no. 163, 44th Congress, rst Session, pp. 2, 3; ordered printed, April 3, 
1876. 
