REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 35 



lieved to be over 30,000 years old ; an exhibit showing the manufac- 

 ture of double-tipped matches ; and another pointing out the ravages 

 of the white pine blister rust and methods for its control. 



The collections in the division of medicine were enlarged by a 

 large collection of Italian hospital supplies of the type used in the 

 World War and carried as field equipment by the Italian troops ; 

 specimens showing the use of chaulmoogra oil derivatives in the 

 treatment of leprosy in the leper settlement of Molokai, Hawaii; 

 several ancient surgical instruments and medical manuscripts; and 

 a portrait in oil of Dr. Crawford W. Long. 



Mineral and Mechanical Technology. — The divisions of mineral 

 and mechanical technology had the experience of adding more objects 

 to their collections within the year than in any single year since 

 their inception and almost wholly as a result of their own efforts. 

 Practically every section within the divisions shared in this incre- 

 ment, but chiefly the sections devoted to mechanical communication, 

 general mechanical engineering, coal-products industries, land trans- 

 portation, and aerial transportation. The objects acquired for the 

 section of communication will now make it possible to visualize the 

 developments of methods of communication from those of smoke and 

 fire to those of wireless telegraphy, with all of the essential inter- 

 mediate steps. To the mechanical engineering collection there was 

 added a series of models made in the divisions' workshops illustrating 

 mechanical principles and the fundamental elements and devices 

 used in machines. The subject is by no means covered by this 

 series, which represents simply the beginning of a new activity 

 possessing valuable educational possibilities. To the coal products 

 industries section there was added a model illustrating the manu- 

 facture of coal gas and carburetted water gas. With this addition 

 the divisions have covered fairly completely the fuel situation both 

 in the home and in industry. In other sections of the divisions the 

 additions to the collections tend toward a rounding out of individual 

 subjects. Thus there were added several models of aircraft; a loco- 

 motive model; a boat model, and an automobile. The electrical 

 engineering collections were enhanced by a working model of the 

 Ford automobile ignition system which admirably illustrates the 

 principle of induction as applied to electric current generation, a 

 principle which Joseph Henry independently observed and an- 

 nounced about the same time as the accredited discoverer, Faraday. 



The divisions' cooperative educational work, particularly that with 

 the State of Pennsylvania, became more firmly established through 

 the preparation by Mr. S. S. Wyer, associate in mineral technology, 

 of the book " The Smithsonian Institution's Study of Natural Re- 

 sources Applied to Pennsylvania's Resources." Copies of the book 

 were distributed free to school teachers throughout Pennsylvania 



