140 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1920. 



Card catalogue. — To make a complete and up-to-date card system 

 of the collections constituted the second line of activity and it is 

 gratifying to report that the index was practically completed by the 

 close of the year. The system includes : An accession file, one card for 

 each accession arranged alphabetically according to the source of 

 the objects: a subject file made up of cards of individual specimens 

 arranged according to catalogue numbers and under the subject to 

 which the specimen relates, (this file contains a card for each and 

 every object in the care of the division) : a storage file made by with- 

 drawing those cards from the subject file relating to specimens which 

 are stored and replacing them with cards upon which reference is 

 made to the storage file. In this way, the cards in the subject file 

 relate entirely to specimens which are on exhibition. 



At the present time it may be said that the collections are in very 

 good condition and are about in shape for the part they will play 

 in the future development of the division. 



Development. — The division of mechanical technology is made up 

 of the earlier organized sections of naval architecture, transporta- 

 tion, electricity and. if so it may be called, mechanical invention. 

 Each of these sections was developed almost independently of the 

 other and when brought together as one division, subsequently, the 

 whole was found to lack and still does lack that inter-relationship 

 of exhibits which is so essential in popular educational work, The 

 reason lies in the fact that the common source (mechanical power) 

 from which each of these branches of mechanical arts has sprung is 

 not in evidence, and the plans for the future development of the 

 division include the construction of comprehensive exhibits upon the 

 subject of mechanical power. Again, to visualize the extent to 

 which mechanical power is utilized and its bearing upon the things 

 of everyday experience, both models of machines and full-size ma- 

 chines have been used. But, to be at all inclusive, exhibition space 

 comparable to that now devoted to the whole department of arts and 

 industries would be required, — nor are models of full-size, complete 

 machines of much educational value because of their complicated 

 nature. In view of these facts, therefore, a second field of endeavor 

 will be to develop a series of working models of fundamental mechan- 

 ical movements and motions, indicating by label the machines in 

 which one or another of these motions is of importance. Progress 

 in these two directions will naturally develop gaps between the 

 present exhibits and those in course of construction so that a third 

 line of activity will be to connect the old with the new. Still another 

 line of work to be undertaken, in fact, already started, is the con- 

 struction of a series of accurate scale models illustrating the develop- 

 ment of the flying machine. While the experimentors in aircraft 



