48 



REPORT ON EXCHANGES. 



The Record Dividon. — The duties of tbis office Lave become so numer- 

 ous, that an ddditional assistant was tbis year allowed. The work of 

 tbis division now embraces all tbe records and card catalogues under 

 tbe system adopted on tbe 1st of January, 1885. Under tbis system 

 all exchanges, whether incoming or outgoing, foreign or domestic, after 

 verifying tbe correctness of the sending, are entered on a blotter — this 

 work being done by the assistants in tbe foreign and domestic exchange 

 division, respectively ; these blotters are then transcribed by the clerks 

 of the record division in the day-book, from which the ledger, repre- 

 sented by a card catalogue, is posted. In addition to these duties, it 

 devolves on the clerks of this division to prepare the invoices for the 

 outgoing exchanges, and to credit on the ledger tbe acknowledgments 

 sent by recipients of exchanges, and to record and file letters, bills of 

 lading, &c. 



The following statement exhibits the work done in this division dur- 

 ing the first six months: 



Description. 



Foreign cards in use 



Domestic cards in use 



Domestic entries made 



Foreign entries made 



Invoices written 



Government packages received . 

 Miscellaneous packages received 

 Letters entered 



Number. 



3, 375 

 806 

 11,217 

 33, 651 

 13, 576 

 51,600 

 14, 042 

 433 



The Foreign Exchange Division. — Since January 1, 1885,3l),921 packages 

 have been received in this division and 383 boxes sent, including the 

 Government exchanges. A comparative statement of boxes sent dur- 

 ing corresponding periods of former years present the following results : 



The year 1884 exhibited an extraordinary increase in tbe transmis- 

 sions, which was largely due to an arrangement for exchanges on the 

 part of the United States Patent Office with foreign Governments by 

 which G2 large cases were sent abroad through the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution in June of tliat year. But notwithstanding this unusual send- 

 ing, the last six months show an incn ase of 33 boxes over the simil.r 

 jieriod of 1881. A detailed list will be presented in tbe statistics of 

 exchanges. 



Owing to the large addition in the work required under the present 

 system of preparing blotters, &c., and in consideration of the regular 

 increase both in incoming and outgoing exchanges, -two (temporary) 

 assistants have been employed. 



