FORTY-STXTH CONGRESS, 1879-lSSl, 839 



January 18, 1881. — House. 



Deficiency estimates for 1881, etc., from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury. 



National Museum relieving sewer: Additional amount required for 

 running the relieving sewer of the National Museum building into the 

 North B street sewer instead of into the Seventh street sewer, $900. 



Note. — The South B street sewer 1)eing entirely insufficient for the drainage of 

 the new National Museum building and involving seri(5us injury to the foundations 

 and to the floors, an appropriation of $1,000 was made at the last session of Congress 

 for making a connection with the sewer of Seventh street. A careful investigation, 

 during last summer's rains, showed this equally inadequate to the test, and the 

 appropriation was not expended. The alternative is to make a sewer connection 

 direct to North B street, and as the distance to be traversed is nearly twice as great 

 as that originally estimated for, the additional amount of $900 is required. 



Preservation of collections, Smithsonian Institution: For expense of 

 transfer to and arrangement in the new National Museum building of 

 the collections of the United States surveying and exploring expedi- 

 tions and of the specimens presented to the United States at the Inter- 

 national Exhibition of 1876, $10,000, being for the service of the 

 current fiscal year. 



To enable the Secretary of the Treasury to pay the commission not 

 to exceed three-eighths of 1 per cent for disbursing the appropriations 

 made for the construction of a fireproof building for the National 

 Museum, $1,081.87. 



Note. — The disbursements referred to were made under an appointment from the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, but a doubt having arisen as to whether a commission 

 can be allowed on payments made for this class of public buildings, the question is 

 submitted for the determination of Congress. 



(Reference to act, March 3, 1875; Stat. XVIII, p. 415, sec. 4, and Revised Statutes, 

 p. 42, sec. 255, and p. 719, sees. 3657-3658; Ex. Doc. 44.) 



February 23, 1881. 



Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington, D. C, February ^S, 1881. 



Sir: One of the most important of the proposed exhibits in the new National 

 Museum building will be a series illustrating the economical geology of North 

 America, to include all the varieties of ores, of metals — from every noted mine in 

 the United States; building stones; combustibles — as coal, petroleum, etc.; and pot- 

 tery earth, clays, etc. These will be supplemented by the very extensive collec- 

 tions of foreign minerals presented to the United States at the Philadelphia Exhibi- 

 tion of 1876. One-fourth, or more, of the entire building, including a space of more 

 than 25,000 square feet of floor, will be devoted to these series. 



Mr. George W. Hawes, the officer in charge of the department of mineralogy of 

 the Institution, has been charged with the preparation of a report upon the build- 

 ing materials of the United States. For this purpose samples of building material 

 from all parts of the country have been asked for and are being gathered, in addi- 

 tion to a very extensive collection already in the Museum. 



The great question in connection with this subject is the resistance of the building 

 material to atmospheric influences and to superincumbent pressure. The former 

 qualities can be determined in the laboratory of the National Museum by the exist- 

 ing facilities, but the latter quality requires a machine specially constructed for the 

 purpose. 



