524 SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY. 



SO it fell to him, the astronomer, to move suecessfnlly in the establish- 

 ing of the park, which, besides having high scientific possibilities for 

 usefulness and instruction, is one of the great pleasure grounds of the 

 people who live in this capital and to those hundreds of thousands 

 of American citizens who annually make a pilgrimage to it. 



Shortly after Mr. Langley's accession to the secretaryship, and 

 aside from his work in the establishment of the observatory, he 

 strongly desired to create a new activity for the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, and his first choice would have been that of extending its scope 

 in the direction of the fine arts. But the time was not then ripe. He 

 met opposition and foresaw insujjerable difficulties, and so he reluc- 

 tantly abandoned this field and put his persevering energy into the 

 other just mentioned, the establishment of the park. But he always 

 had the feeling that the Smithsonian Institution should act for the 

 nation in the matter of art. He caused to be collected such art 

 objects as belonged to it and were deposited elsewhere, and reim- 

 planted, as it were, the idea of the fine arts in the Institution by 

 setting aside a room in the Smithsonian building which should be 

 devoted to these collections. His death came at a time when the 

 realization of this idea of his was about to have fruition. 



He liad for many years been in the habit of going annually to 

 Europe, and this personal contact with the scientific men of England 

 and of the Continent and the reputation that his researches had 

 brought to him and to the Institution, and his increased zeal in 

 pushing forAvard the exchange service, led to a great enhancement 

 of the international reputation of the Institution. 



It was my rare good fortune to accompany Mr. Langley upon two 

 of his European trips — first in 1894 and again in 1898. Upon the 

 first occasion I heard him read before the physical and astronomical 

 sections of the. British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 a paper describing his work on the infra-red spectrum. The meeting 

 was held at Oxford, and the hall, holding some 250 j^ersons, w^as 

 crowded. He spoke very simply and without notes, describing the 

 apparatus that he had devised and brought together and the results 

 that had been attained ; and so vivid was his statement and so 

 forceful that at the conclusion of his remarks the supposedly stolid 

 Englishmen who composed the audience arose almost in a body 

 and cheered. At a meeting of the physical section on the same occa- 

 sion he discussed the future of aerial navigation. The session was 

 held under the chairmanship of the late I^ord Salisbury, premier of 

 Great Britain, and that j^ear president of the association, and the 

 discussion that followed was participated in by Lord Kelvin, Lord 

 Rayleigh, and Sir Hiram Maxim, none of whom dissented from the 

 view^s which Mr. Langley expressed. 



