ARTS AND INDUSTRIES. 



REPORT ON THE DIVISIONS OF MINERAL AND MECHANICAL 



TECHNOLOGY. 



By Cabl W. Mitman, Curator. 



COMPARISON OF INCREMENT OF SPECIMENS OF 1922-23 WITH THAT OF 1921-22. 



A total of 32 accessions was recorded during the year which is 

 six less than that of the preceding year. Over against this slight 

 decrease in the number of accessions there stands a total of 1,357 

 specimens received, as compared with 386 last year. Of the 32 ac- 

 cessions, 31 were assigned to the division of mechanical technology 

 and one to the! division of mineral technology, the latter being a 

 model made in the division workshop. The sources of these acces- 

 sions were as follows: 10 gifts; 7 transfers; 4 loans; 3 exchanges; 1 

 purchase; and 7 made in the Museum. Of the 1,357 objects received, 

 comprising original material, models, photographs and documents, 

 1 was assigned to the coal industry section of the division of mineral 

 technology ; 969 to the section of mechanical communication ; 262 to 

 the section of land transportation; 82 to the aircraft section; 1 to 

 the watercraf t section ; 6 to the section of metrology ; and 36 to the 

 general section of mechanical engineering. 



In addition to the above 82 objects assigned to the section of 

 aircraft, 458 objects pertaining to aircraft were received as a transfer 

 from the division of history. These objects were recorded in 130 

 catalogue entries so that at this writing the divisions are responsible 

 for 458 more objects than listed in the preceding paragraph. These 

 objects, however, were not referred to as constituting an increment 

 to the collections inasmuch as they were originally recorded by the 

 division of history several years ago as part of the whole Museum's 

 collections. The reason for the above-mentiorfed transfer of objects 

 was to eliminate, as far as possible, duplication of work within the 

 several divisions of the Museum, In the furtherance of this policy 

 there was transferred to the division of history the whole collec- 

 tion of firearms, comprising 2,899 specimens. 



ACCESSIONS DESERVING SPECIAL NOTICE. 



Since the active organization of the division of mineral tech- 

 nology, one phase of its work has been connected with the energy 

 resources of the country, particularly the fuels. Mention was made 



97 



