122 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



visory committee to the laboratory. All of the gentlemen selected 

 have expressed their interest and willingness to serve, but in view 

 of the decision referred to were able to do nothing except in a most 

 informal manner. The secretary expressed the opinion that a com- 

 mittee of the Eegents should be appointed to take up matters in this 

 connection.^ 



Dr. Bell said that he was much gratified at the secretary's state- 

 ments in regard to the successful flights of the Langley aeroplane. 

 He was familiar with its history and had been present at the flights 

 of the models, and now that the large machine, with the addition of 

 floats weighing upward of 400 pounds, had actually flown, he felt 

 that the Institution, and the board also, should be congratulated at 

 the verification of Langley's work. He thought that the Langley 

 type of machine w^as a correct one, and he hoped that this would 

 be further proved by the additional flights contemplated. He 

 thought that the important work of the laboratory should be facili- 

 tated in every way, and he hoped that the committee recommended by 

 the secretary would be appointed. 



Dr. Bell then submitted the following resolution, which was 

 adopted : 



Resolved, That a committee be appointed by tlie chancellor, to consist of four 

 members of the board and the secretary, to consider questions relative to the 

 Langley Aerodynamical Laboratory. 



The chancellor appointed the follow^ing as the committee: Dr. 

 Bell, Senator Stone, Representative Eoberts, Mr. Henderson, and 

 the secretary. 



RESEARCH CORPORATION. 



It will be recalled that when Dr. F. G. Cottrell presented his pre- 

 cipitation patents to the Smithsonian Institution, the Board of Ee- 

 gents decided that it was not practicable for the institution to under- 

 take the commercial development of the patents, but there was no 

 objection to the secretary becoming a member of a distinct organiza- 

 tion that would undertake their development. 



This independent organization was formed under the laws of the 

 State of New York as the Eesearch Corporation, as reported to the 

 Board of Eegents at the meetings in 1912 and 1913. The secretary 

 became one of the directors of the corporation and a member of the 

 executive committee. The board includes a number of prominent 

 men of wide business experience, such as James J. Storrow, of Lee, 

 Higginson & Co., bankers, Boston; Charles A. Stone, of Stone & 

 Webster, Boston; Arthur D. Little, of the Little Chemical Co., 

 Boston; T. Coleman Du Pont, of Wilmington, Del. ; Elon H. Hooker, 



1 By act of Congress approved Mar. 3, 1915, the President was authorized to appoint an 

 advisory committee for aeronautics. 



