184 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



these various subjects would enable our architects to insure 

 the permanency of their works, without involving the 

 expenditure of enormous sums, either to replace ill con- 

 structed tottering edifices, or to surmount imaginary impossi- 

 bilities. 



Other subjects of inquiry, incidental to the department 

 of art now i-eferred to, would also merit attention. An 

 understanding of the laws which regulate the motions and 

 reverberations of sound would not be found unprofitable to ■ 

 those who construct halls for the sessions of legislative and 

 judicial bodies. Exemplifications of this statement are but 

 too well known at the seat of Government. 



Many of the truths which experimental research might 

 develop would be equally applicable to every species of 

 architecture, whether civil, military, or naval. Many would 

 have reference chiefly to buildings on land, while others 

 would pertain exclusively to submarine constructions, such 

 as the foundations of piers and docks, sea-walls and break- 

 waters. 



7. That the country has such an interest in the inventive 

 genius of its citizens as would authorize the establishment 

 of an institution capable of testing the value, as well as of 

 proving the novelty, of any invention, seems to have been 

 fully admitted by the constitution and laws of the United 

 States. 



Several appropriations have, indeed, already been made 

 for special purposes of this nature, and others have been 

 recently asked, for objects highly deserving of considera- 

 tion, as connected with the weltare and safety of the public. 

 The advantages to be expected from this particular applica- 

 tion of scientific labor are not limited to any one great 

 interest. In every branch of the public service, inventions 

 and improvements may be found beneficial, and in all of 

 them may investigations be deemed necessary, before an 

 impartial decision' can be anticipated. 



8. The bearing of numerous investigations on the vast 

 and complicated interests of commerce, is, perhaps, toa 

 obvious to require even the slightest elucidation. What- 

 ever facilitates navigation, such as improvements in steam- 

 boats or other vessels ; whatever diminishes the risks 

 attendant on its prosecution, as improvements in cliarts, 

 beacons, light-houses, telegraphs, and life-boats, and what- 

 ever transmits rapidly information, or funds, or persons, or 

 merchandise, is essentially interwoven with the prosperity 

 of commerce. 



9. And since all the facilities and improvements in com- 



I 



