THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 577 



gomery C. Meigs, President Noah Porter, Gen. William Teciimseh 

 Sherman, Alexander Graham Bell, the eminent Chief Justices of 

 the United States, and Presidents Fillmore, Johnson, Arthur, 

 Roosevelt, and Coolidge, as well as the President of the Confederacy, 

 Jefferson Davis. 



SECRETARY JOSEPH HENRY, 1846-1878 



The first meeting of the Regents occurred on September 7, 1846, 

 and in the autumn of the same year they elected as secretary Joseph 

 Henry, then a professor at Princeton, known for his extraordinary 

 experiments on the electromagnet and other subjects relating to 

 electricity. His name is perpetuated in the term " henry," the unit 

 of electrical self-inductance. Under his guidance the Institution 

 took shape. Of another great man of science, the biographer would 

 enumerate his classical publications and epoch-making experiments. 

 Of Henry's life and work from 1846 till his death in 1878, the great 

 experiment was the Smithsonian Institution, and his memoirs its 

 publications. Yet he was also in the forefront of science in 

 America, and an honored president of the National Academy of 

 Sciences. 



The work of the Smithsonian at first consisted, in the main, of 

 the publication of original memoirs, containing actual contributions 

 to knowledge, and their free distribution to important libraries 

 throughout the world; of giving popular lectures in Washington, 

 publishing them, and distributing them to libraries and individuals; 

 stimulating scientific work by providing apparatus and by making 

 grants of money to worthy investigators; and cooperating with 

 Government departments in the advancement of work useful to the 

 General Government. These were the principal methods employed 

 by Henry to carry out the purposes of Smithson, for the increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge. At the Smithsonian, too, were initiated 

 certain studies which afterwards became most fruitful and have re- 

 sulted in important Government work, most of the present scientific 

 activities of the Government having grown out of these investiga- 

 tions or been stimulated by them, such as, for instance, the present 

 Weathei- Bureau. Tlie beginning of cooperation in library work was 

 at the Institution. Experiments in fog signaling, in the acoustics 

 and ventilation of public buildings, and in numerous other subjects 

 were inaugurated. In fact, in these earlier days, with one or two 

 exceptions, the Smithsonian was the sole representative of active 

 scientific work directly or indirectly connected with the United 

 States Government. Its influence upon the character of private 

 scientific work, too, was very great, since half a century or more ago 

 the avenues for publishing were few, and the funds for the purpose 

 slender. 



