16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1962 



years ago, was built in Padua between 1348 and 1364. It is the earliest 

 mechanical clock of which details survive but is in no way a primitive 

 clock. The calendar and astronomical dials surpass by a wide margin 

 any other Icnown pre-Eenaissance mechanism. An astronomical clock 

 with torsion pendulum by the American inventor Aaron D. Crane was 

 added to the timekeeping collection. This was the basis of the 400-day 

 or anniversary clocks of modern times. An experimental model of the 

 cesium beam atomic clock, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology in 1956 by Dr. J. R. Zacharias, was also received. 



A simple condensing mill steam engine built in 1819 by Thomas Hol- 

 loway, of Philadelphia, was added to the collection of hea\^ machin- 

 ery. This severely simple machine, the earliest stationary steam 

 engine in the collection, contrasts markedly with the refinement of the 

 Mathias Baldwin engine built in the same city only 10 years later. 

 A model of one of the AUis-Chalmers-Westinghouse engine generators 

 of the type built in 1904 to power New York's first subway was also 

 added to this collection. One of the most important acquisitions of the 

 section of tools was a multiple-spindle drill used from 1905 for the pro- 

 duction of cash-register frames, donated by the manufacturer, the 

 National Automatic Tool Co. Another important accession com- 

 prised a collection of tools, instruments, and documents representing 

 the pioneering experiments in the 1920's of Prof. Orlan W. Boston, of 

 the University of Michigan, in the investigation of metal-cutting 

 processes. 



Through the courtesy of the University of California, the division 

 of transportation received seven important builder's half models of 

 West coast steamers and sailing vessels built by the Dickie Yard in 

 San Francisco. Outstanding models received were those of the Mis- 

 sissippi River stern- wheel steamer Greenhrier^ the Chesapeake bay 

 steamers Pocojnohe and President 'War-field^ a Letter-of-Marque 

 schooner of 1815, the ferryboat Jersey^ South Sea Island trader Tahiti^ 

 Alaskan trader Ounalaska^ a Florida shrimp trawler, and a North 

 Carolina Sounds schooner. The two last named were received, 

 respectively, from the Diesel Engine Sales Co. and from W. C. 

 Matthews. The section of land transportation passed a landmark with 

 acquisition of a full-sized example of a modern steam locomotive. No. 

 1401 of the Southern Railway System, which was generously donated 

 by that company. Two important carriages were also added to the 

 collection, a landau of 1879, from Chauncey D. Stillman, and a buck- 

 board of 1890, from Edwin H. Arnold. 



The division of electricity received from the University of Michigan 

 11 examples of H. N. Williams' work with the magnetron, a high- 

 frequency oscillator, dating from the 1930's. Obtained from the 

 Radio Corp. of America is a group of cathode-ray tubes used in the 



