REPORT ON THE DIVISION OF MINERAL TECHNOLOGY, 

 By Chkstek G. Gilbert, Curator. 



Following the declaration of war the customary work of the Divi- 

 sion of Mineral Technology was laid aside, as stated in the last re- 

 port, in favor of special activities having a more direct bearing on 

 the national emergency. As the war progressed the call for speciali- 

 zation on the part of the technical staff of the division increased, till 

 little or no opportunity was left for developing Museum exhibits. 

 By way of exception to this rule, however, participation in the con- 

 servation work of the Fuel Administration resulted in developing 

 plans for an exhibit covering the natural-gas industry. The plans 

 took shape in a remarkably fine model which brings out to advantage 

 the tragic story of how the country's tremendous resources of natural 

 gas have been all but squandered. Another model, the gift of the 

 Midwest Refining Co., which aids in the telling of an altogether 

 similar story for the still greater and more important petroleum re- 

 sources of the country, was also completed and placed on exhibition. 

 Three other accessions of incidental importance, making but 5 in all 

 with a total of 62 catalogue entries, complete the record of addi- 

 tions for the year. Taken in comparison with the 33 accessions and 287 

 catalogue entries of the preceding year, the showing is indeed meager, 

 but in demonstrating a change of focus to the critical issues of the 

 day this very meagerness is a source of satisfaction rather than regret. 



For the first six months of the year, while the country was still 

 actively involved on a basis of war, scarcely a day passed without 

 bringing calls from some governmental agency for assistance with 

 reference to one or another industrial issue up for consideration on 

 an emergency rating. The questions ranged from determining a fair 

 price for mica to determining the likelihood of a paralyzing petro- 

 leum shortage, and the work of prejDaring their answers ranged 

 as variously from minutes to months. As the year advanced, how- 

 ever, two absorbing lines of special investigation developed to such a 

 degree that during the latter half of the year they have largely en- 

 grossed the attention of the staff of the division. Their general 

 nature may be gathered from the titles under which the results were 

 issued. One, A Report on the Political and Commercial Control of 

 the Nitrogen Resources of the World,^ represents an effort to un- 

 ravel the complexities of the nitrogen situation left behind in the 

 passing of the war. The other. The Energy Resources, a Field for Re- 

 construction, coordinates and summarizes the, work of several years. 



1 This paper, prepared primarily for the information of officials of the Government, 

 •was issued to such onlj^ in a limited mimeograph edition, but it will later appear in print. 



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