24 EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1912. 



from the mounds of Arkansas, collected by Mr. Clarence B. Moore, 

 and from the vicinity of Richmond, Va. Two important investiga- 

 tions were cgmmenced, one comprehending a series of measurements 

 and observations on w^hite people of the third and later generations 

 in America; the other, to be carried on in conjunction with the au- 

 thorities of the Panama-California Exposition at San Diego, being a 

 comparative study of the development of the child in different 

 races. Prof. J. S. Foote, of Omaha, Nebr., continued his microscopi- 

 cal studies on the human femur, the object of which is to determine 

 racial, age, and sex differences as displayed in the minute structure 

 of the bone. Dr. George F. Eaton and Dr. George G. MacCurdy, 

 of Yale University, examined the human bones from Peru in the 

 collection of the Museum for the purpose of instituting comparisons 

 with skeletal remains from other Peruvian sources. 



Mechamcal technology. — The additions to this division included 

 many objects of value. Of great historical interest is the Wright 

 biplane acquired by the United States Government in 1909, being the 

 first aeroplane to be purchased and operated by any Government. It 

 was deposited by the Department of War. Substantially like the 

 machine built by the Wright brothers and successfully tested at 

 Kitty Plawk, N. C, in 1903, it embodies some improvements. The 

 two main planes measure 37 feet long by 6 feet wide, and the ele- 

 vating planes 15 feet long by 2 feet wide in the middle, while the 

 motive power is supplied by a 4-cylinder, 30-horsepower gasoline en- 

 gine. The official trials were made by Mr. Orville Wright at Fort 

 Myer, Va., in the summer of 1909, the duration test, with Lieut. 

 Frank P. Lahm, United States Army, as a passenger, occurring on 

 July 27, and the speed test, with Lieut. Benjamin D. Foulois, United 

 States Army, as a passenger, on July 30. Subsequently officers of 

 the Signal Corps of the Army were instructed in its management at 

 College Park, Md., and the following winter it was taken to San 

 Antonio, Tex., wdiere it remained in almost constant use for about 

 12 months. It received some repairs at the factory of the Wright 

 brothers before its transfer to the Museum. 



Another noteworthy historical contribution consisted of a zenith 

 telescope deposited by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, by which it 

 was purchased of Troughton & Simms in London in 1847, though 

 embodying certain modifications made in 18G7. This portable in- 

 strument for determining latitudes superseded the zenith sector, in- 

 troduced in England in 1735 and used up to about 1845, when the 

 zenith telescope was devised and put into practical operation by Capt. 

 Andrew Talcott, of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army. It 

 has been universally employed since that time. From Mr. Claude L. 

 Woolley, of Baltunore, Md., to whose generosity the Museum was 



