18 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1923. 



District Commissioners called the attention of the Institution to the 

 necessity of installing new hydrants and of adding to their number. 

 An estimate to cover the installation of four new fire plugs in the 

 Smithsonian Park was included in the estimates submitted by the 

 Institution to the Bureau of the Budget in September, 1922. The 

 estimate failed to receive favorable action, but will be again sub- 

 mitted for consideration. The fire plugs inside the buildings and 

 the fire hose are tested regularly. During the latter part of the 

 spring the valves of the fire plugs in the Natural History Building 

 were overhauled and leather disks were substituted for the rubber 

 washers to obviate annoying small leaks. Pieces of hose found de- 

 fective near the connection to the valve were put in good condition 

 by cutting away the rotted part and reexpanding to the coupling. 

 This has recently been the practice at the Museum as the hose at this 

 point seems to deteriorate much more rapidly than elsewhere. The 

 expanding outfit procured several years ago has proved a profitable 

 investment as otherwise new hose, costing several hundreds of dol- 

 lars, would have to have been purchased. 



All of the fire extinguishers in the several buildings, including the 

 Freer Building, were discharged and recharged in the usual manner 

 during the month of May. The electric fire alarm system was tested 

 every three months. It is not entirely reliable in the older buildings 

 and can be made so only by changing at considerable cost to a closed 

 circuit such as is installed in the Freer Building. When these 

 buildings were provided with fire alarms the open circuit was the 

 most reliable then known. 



During the year 11 exhibition cases and 185 pieces of storage, lab- 

 oratory and office furniture were acquired. Ten of the exhibition 

 cases were made in the Museum carpenter shop and one was pur- 

 chased by contract. At the close of the year there were on hand 

 3,G89 exhibition cases, and 11,744 pieces of storage, laboratory, and 

 office furniture; also 48,891 standard wooden unit drawers, 4,712 

 metal unit drawers, 1,047 wooden unit boxes, 224 wooden double unit 

 boxes, 12,104 standard insect drawers, 752 wing frames, 5,885 special 

 drawers with paper bottoms and 11,876 special drawers with compo 

 bottoms for mammals and birds. 



In response to requests from correspondents, blue prints of exhibi- 

 tion and storage cases were furnished the following establishments : 

 California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, Calif. ; the South- 

 west Museum, Los Angeles, Calif. ; Missouri Resources Museum, Jef- 

 ferson City, Mo. ; Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. ; University 

 of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. ; State Museum, Raleigh, N. C ; 

 Yale University, New Haven, Conn. ; National Society of the Daugh- 

 ters of American Revolution, Continental Hall, Washington, D. C. ; 

 and the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



