REPORT ON THE SECTION OF TRANSPORTATION AND ENGINEERING 

 IN THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



By J. P^LFKKTH Watkins, Curator. 



During the last fiscal year the collections in the section of trans- 

 portation and engineering have been materially strengthened. This 

 is especially so in the branch of mechanical engineering, where it is 

 hoped eventually to secure a series of objects to illustrate the birth 

 and development of the mechanic arts, with special reference to the 

 evolution of the epoch-making inventions. 



The United States Patent Office, where thousands of models, draw- 

 ings, and descriptions of machines are preserved, is the great reposi- 

 tory from which the history of the development of inventive thought 

 may be studied, but the student of the history of invention interested 

 in ascertaining the influence that inventive action has had upon the 

 occupations, habits, and customs of the human race is desirous to 

 examine also the products resulting from this inventive development, 

 especially those that have been put in practical service for the benefit 

 of mankind. To this end many of the objects exhibited at the decen- 

 nial celebration of the establishment of the electric-lighting industry, 

 held in Providence, E. I., in February, 1891, have found a permanent 

 idace in the collection, together with other specimens from the Loan 

 Collection temporarily installed in the Museum lecture hall during the 

 Patent Centennial Celebration held at Washington in April last. 



The objects relating to the infancy of electric lighting in America 

 are of the greatest interest, and a comparison of the crude sewing ma- 

 chines, typewriters, and other devices recently collected, with the mod- 

 ern achievements of the mechanic's handiwork, is also most striking. 

 Since these relics of invention have proven of great interest to the pub- 

 lic, the cooperation of all persons interested is solicited in the extension 

 of the section in this direction. 



The work of labeling and cataloguing specimens in the exhibition se- 

 ries was completed during the year. 



The electrical collection, of which the Museum formerly possessed only 

 a valuable nucleus, was enriched by the addition of the original electro- 

 magnetic engine designed by Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in 1831, deposited by his daughter. This little 



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