22 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



H. E. Beuguiat. A valuable collection of Japanese porcelains, loaned 

 by Miss E. R. Scidmore, is now installed in the Gallery of Ceramics. 



The Section of Electricity, Division of Mechanical Technology, has 

 been especially fortunate in acquiring material, and the following state- 

 ment of Mr. G. C. Maynard, custodian of the Section of Electricity, is 

 quoted from the report of Mr. J, E. Watkius, curator. 



One of the most importaut accessions received during the year is an extensive 

 collection of apparatus deposited by Prof. Alexander Graham Bell. This deposit 

 embraces a large number of pieces of apparatus made and used by Professor Bell in 

 his experiments and researches in various branches of electrical science. The inven- 

 tion and development of the speaking telephone, from the first crudi experimental 

 device to the most perfect instrument now in use, is clearly illustrated by a series of 

 objects showing the various advancing steps by which the new art of telephony was 

 created. 



Another interesting portion of the collection is the apparatus devised and used by 

 Mr. Bell in his photophonic experiments, including the original instrument with 

 which, on the 2d of June, 1880, he successfully transmitted articulate s^jeech by 

 means of a beam of light from the roof of the Franklin School building, in Washing- 

 ton, to his laboratory on L street, a distance of 213 meters. Mr. Bell contributed his 

 original induction balance apparatus, including that devised by him for the purpose 

 of locating the bullet in the body of the late President Garfield, and similar appara- 

 tus of later "dates. In addition to the above the accession includes Bell's multiplex 

 telegraph instruments, his induction balance audiometer, for testing hearing, and 

 an Edison phonograph of the earliest pattern, in which the sound waves are recorded 

 on a sheet of tin foil. 



The deposits made by the General Electric Company are of much interest and value. 

 Among the historical objects are the first Thomson-Houston three-coil, arc-light 

 dynamo, mad(; in 1879, which formed the basis of the Thomson-Houston electric 

 lighting system, the first automatic regulator used Avith this machine, a dynamo and 

 electric motor used in the Thomson-Houston factory at New Britain in 1880-1881, the 

 first electric welding machine made by Thomson, and many other pieces of original 

 apparatus connected with the early use of electricity for lighting, the transmission 

 of power, and other purposes. Another contribution from the same company is one 

 of the first incandescent electric-lighting dynamos, made and put in operation by 

 Edison in 1879, on board the steamship Columbia, of the Oregon Steamship Navigation 

 Company, which was the first steamboat equipped with incandescent electric lights. 

 This dynamo was continued in active use for a period of nearly twenty years, and 

 is still serviceable. Especial interest attaches to this machine for the reason that it 

 is one of the first lot of four dynamos made in this country for commercial incandes- 

 cent electric lighting. One of the others formed part of the equipment of the polar 

 exploring vessel Jeannette, commanded by Captain De Long, on its cruise into the 

 Arctic Sea, where it was lost in 1882. Contributions of a series of historical incan- 

 descent lamps and specimens of insulated conductors have also been received from 

 the General Electric Company. 



The Coe Brass Manufacturing Company-, of Ansonia, Connecticut, through its 

 president, Mr. George F. Brooker, presented to the Museum ten dynamos made 

 between the years 1873 and 1879, by William Wallace, for the generation of elec- 

 tricity for electric lighting, electroplating, and other purposes. Some of these 

 machines were in practical operation during the Centennial Exposition at Philadel- 

 phia, and are said to be the first arc-light dynamos used for jiublic lighting in this 

 country. 



An electric generator of still earlier date than any of those referred to was made 

 by Charles A. Seeley in 1867. In regard to this machine it is said that early in the 

 year 1867, when the principle of self-excitation in dynamos was new, and in fact 



