REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 25 



Geological Survey was the extensive Paleozoic collection made in the 

 southern Appalachians by the geologist Dr. Charles Butts. This 

 collection, numbering more than 10,000 specimens and representing 

 the accumulation of many years of field work, is highly important 

 for the information it contains bearing on the stratigraphy of the 

 Appalachians. Another worthy transfer consisted of 3,500 Silurian, 

 Devonian, and Cretaceous fossils from the Canol Project, Canada, 

 which came from the Chief of Engineers, United States Army. The 

 Zimm collection of about 3,000 Devonian (Oriskany) fossils from 

 Glenerie, N. Y., came to the Museum as a purchase through the Walcott 

 fund. The collecting work of the curator, Dr. G. Arthur Cooper, 

 brought in much important invertebrate material from the Ap- 

 palachians and Mexico and will add a fair number of types to the 

 collection. In addition, many gifts and exchanges of invertebrate 

 fossils were received — too numerous to list here but representing many 

 type specimens or examples otherwise of interest and value. 



The outstanding exhibition specimen received in the field of verte- 

 brate paleontology was a composite skeleton of the large flightless 

 pigeon Dodo ineptus from Mauritius, transferred from the division of 

 birds. Skeletal remains of this extinct creature are exceedingly rare. 

 A collection of 350 fossil sharks' teeth and a nearly complete dental 

 plate of the extinct ray Myliobatis (Miocene of the Chesapeake Bay 

 region) ; a molar tooth of the northern elephant, Mammonteus 

 primigenius; and an avian egg found 7y 2 feet below the surface of 

 Tinian Island, Marianas, are accessions to the study series deserving 

 special mention. 



Engineering and industries. — The year's outstanding accession in 

 this department was the first experimental jet-propelled pursuit air- 

 plane built and successfully flown in the United States. Designed 

 and constructed by the Bell Aircraft Corp., it holds the unique position 

 of being the first propellerless airplane in the Museum's collection, as 

 well as representing perhaps the greatest development in aeronautical 

 engineering in the past decade. 



To the automotive collections came two unique gifts — a radial 9- 

 cylinder Diesel engine, of the type designed for and used in the 

 United States Army M3 light tank, and an original, beautifully pre- 

 served 1902 Oldsmobile. Two accessions of note to the department's 

 radio communications collections were a Marconi coherer, a device 

 which formed the "heart" of wireless telegraphy before the invention 

 of the electron tube, and an early (1911) spark transmitter, designed 

 for wireless communication between an airplane and the ground. 

 Another interesting communications object added was an original 

 electric telegraph fire-alarm and street box, such as was installed on 

 the streets of Boston in 1851. 



