SECTION OF TRANSPORTATION AND ENGINEERING. 131 



The collection showing the development of the typewriting machine 

 has received several valuable additions, among them the typewriter in- 

 vented by John Pratt in 1S<!4, which was obtained through his kindly 

 assistance. 



Messrs. Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict have added a Danish writing- 

 ball and other old forms of typewriters to their collection, among them 

 a model of the Sholes & Glidden typewriter invented in 1807, together 

 with the original of one of the first machines made from this model. 



The curator has received Communications from the Caligraph Com- 

 pany and Mr. W. H. Travis, of Philadelphia, both of whom promise 

 valuable additions to this collection. 



The Singer Manufacturing Company has increased the collection of 

 sewing machines referred to in the last report. 



The application of Jesse Ramsden for a patent for an equatorial 

 instrument, written and signed by himself, has been presented to the 

 Museum by Mr. Park Benjamin and placed in the case with the origi- 

 nal dividing engine, deposited a few years since by Dr. Morton, presi- 

 dent of Stevens Institute. 



Among the relics, attention may be called to the plaster model from 

 which the bronze tablet for the monument erected at Bordentown by 

 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was cast. This model was re- 

 ceived through Mr. J. T. Richards. 



A sedan chair, decorated with gold and handsomely upholstered, 

 which was owned and used by the royal family of France during the 

 reign of Louis XIV, has been deposited in the collection by Miss Kathe- 

 rine Parsons, of Washington. 



The recent increase of popular interest in matters relating to the his- 

 tory of transportation is most remarkable, while the recognition of the 

 importance of illustrating this phase of human effort by the managers 

 of American expositions is none the less gratifying. 



At the Centennial Exposition of 187(5 a single old steam locomotive 

 and car were exhibited, together with a few implements of transporta- 

 tion, shown in the ethnological collection. At New Orleans, ten years 

 later, a single railway exhibited a series of models of ancient locomo- 

 tives and cars. At Cincinnati, in 1888, the first synoptical exhibit 

 showing the development of the art of transportation was made by the 

 U. S. National Museum in the Government building, where a very lim- 

 ited space could be devoted to the subject. 



At the World's Columbian Exposition, four years later, a handsome 

 exhibition building containing 250,000 square feet of floor space has 

 been erected, which, together with the annex, occupies an area of over 

 17 acres. 



It is indeed a matter of the greatest satisfaction to know that the 

 importance of that place in history which is occupied by the record of 

 the development of the methods of intercommunication through which 



