REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 125 



cause of great regret that it should be necessary to expend so much of 

 the appropriation in this manner; but experiments, made with a view- 

 to reducing the number of this body, have forced me to the conclusion 

 that it should be increased rather than decreased. 



Electric Service. — The electrical service is being slowly perfected, under 

 the supervision of Mr. W. J. Green, electrician. Extensive systems of 

 telephones in the several buildings, as well as at the residences of three 

 or four of the chief executive officers, have aided in facilitating business, 

 and have enabled us to dispense almost entirely with messenger boys. 



I here present a description of the electrical service as at present 

 arranged. In the electrical room of the National Museum are the fol- 

 lowing articles of apparatus : 



One 50-drop telephone switch-board, with 34 connections, 14 of which 

 are in the National Museum, 9 in the Smithsonian building, and 11 out- 

 side. There are 5 ordinary electric lamps, and 2 electric lamps for pho- 

 tographic purposes, with dynamo-electric machine and resistance-box. 

 There is also a 100-drop annunciator, to which are connected 300 win- 

 dows and 85 doors throughout the Museum building; 1 large watch-clock 

 for recording on paper dials the time signals which the watchman turns 

 in from the 12 clock stations throughout the building as he makes his 

 patrol; and one alarm box of the district Telegraph Comijany. In the 

 Smithsonian building there are 9 clock stations, controlled in the same 

 manner as those in the Museum building, and also a special telephone 

 connection with the city. 



Preparation of Specimens. — The work of the preparators has been ex- 

 tensive and important. Mr. Joseph Palmer, chief modeller, has been 

 engaged during a large part of the year in mounting the skeleton and 

 cast of a humpback whale, 32 feet in length, which now stands in the 

 south main hall. This is the largest cast of an animal that has yet been 

 made, and is unique in conception. Viewed from the left side, the visitor 

 sees the cast of a whale in the attitude of swimming through the water. 

 Standing on the right he sees the concavity and inner outline of the 

 half cast, in which against a suitable background is mounted the articu- 

 lated skeleton of the animal. Mr. Palmer has also made during the 

 year a number of casts of smaller whales and of fishes, and his assistant, 

 William Palmer, has devoted several months to making a papier-mach6 

 cast of the model of the town of ZuOi, which was preijared by Mr. Min- 

 deleff under the direction of the Bureau of Ethnology. Mr. Wm. T. 

 Hornaday was appointed chief taxidermist on March 16, 1882. Among 

 the important objects mounted by him during the year are a young 

 African elephant, a polar bear, and a cinnamon bear. Mr. Henry Mar- 

 shall, taxidermist in the department of birds, has mounted about 450 

 specimens in a very satisfactory manner. Mr. A. Zeno Shindler, artist, 

 has been employed almost entirely in repainting the collection of fish 

 casts. 



Mr. J. Hendley has devoted much time to repairing broken speci- 



