16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



I hope in the uear future to get an opportunity to extend tliese important 

 observations on the connection existing between radiation and tlie cooling of 

 various materials existing on tlie earth's surface. Tlie question is one of 

 scientific as well as of practical agricultural interest. 



HARRIMAN TRUST FUND. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam, research associate of the Institution, aided 

 by the income of a trust fund established for the purpose by Mrs. 

 E. H. Harriman, has continued his zoological investigations, par- 

 ticularly the study of the big bears of North America. 



RESEARCH CORPORATION. 



The Research Corporation was established in 1912 under the New 

 York State laws with the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 

 as one of the directors and a member of the executive committee. 

 The primary object of the organization was to develop certain pat- 

 ents described in previous reports which had been offered to the 

 Institution by Dr. F. G. Cottrell but which could not be administered 

 directly by the Institution. Other inventions and patents have since 

 been acquired by the corporation, and through royalties from the 

 installation and utilization of these patents a considerable fund has 

 been created and the income therefrom >vill be devoted to the ad- 

 vancement of technical and scientific investigation and experimenta- 

 tion through the agency of the Smithsonian Institution and such 

 other scientific and educational institutions and societies as may be 

 selected by the directors. 



The Cottrell patents relate to the precipitation of dust, smoke, 

 and chemical fumes by the use of electrical currents. Successful 

 commercial installations have already been made on the following 

 fumes : 



{a) Silver fumes from electrolytic slimes of copper refinery; {h) 

 tin fumes from detinning process residues; (c) hydrochloric acid 

 fumes from cleaning vats in electrogalvanizing plant; (d) tin and 

 zinc fumes from waste metal recovery plant; (e) "low bleach" from 

 electrolytic plant; (/) sulphuric acid mist from contact acid plant; 

 (g) lead fumes from copper converters; (h) fumes from roasting of 

 zinc ores; and (/) dust from buffing wheels and from machines for 

 powdering slate. 



NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. 



At its annual meeting in Washington in April, 1916, the National 

 Academy of Sciences voted unanimously to offer its services to the 

 President of the United States in the interest of national prepared- 

 ness, and it was suggested that the academy " might advantageously 



