REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



The power plant Avas closed for two months and eight days, during 

 which time electric current for light and power was purchased from 

 the Potomac Electric Power Co. under special contract made by the 

 Treasury Department. 



The changes and repairs to the plant consisted of the installation 

 of the forced oil-feed system for the engines purchased the previous 

 year; the purchase and installation of asbestos covers for the four 

 boiler drums, together with the repairing of the covering on the pipes 

 and smoke breeching in the engine room, and the purchase and in- 

 stallation of a new pump for removing water of condensation from 

 the main exhaust pipe. For the first time since the installation of the 

 plant, in 1909, it became necessary to replace the tubes in two of the 

 boilers and also to have the main bearings of two engines rebabbitted. 

 Though the entire plant has been operated under pressure the de- 

 terioration is, in the opinion of the engineer, largely due to the in- 

 ability of the Museum to secure competent and reliable men as stokers, 

 firemen, and assistant engineers at the very small salaries paid. 



'MEETINGS AND CONGRESSES. 



The annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences was 

 held again this year in the Museum, on April 26, 27, and 28, the 

 auditorium and committee rooms being used, respectively, for the 

 presentation of the scientific papers and the business sessions. On 

 the first evening the William Ellery Hale lecture in the form of a 

 discussion by Dr. Harlow Shapley, of Mount Wilson Solar Observa- 

 tory, and Dr. Heber D. Curtis, of Lick Observatory, on the scale of 

 the universe, was followed by a conversazione in the National Gallery 

 of Art and the adjoining halls of the Museum. 



Governmental, scientific, and educational organizations making 

 use of the auditorium and the committee rooms included: The Na- 

 tional Women's Trade Union League of America, for the First 

 International Congress of Working Women; the Delaware River 

 Shipbuilders' Council, for a conference of workers in various navy 

 yards and shipyards of the United States in reference to the Gov- 

 ernment's shipbuilding and shipping program; the American Asso- 

 ciation of Anatomists, for its annual meeting; the American Asso- 

 ciation of Ichthyologists, for its annual meeting; Southern Socio- 

 logical Congress; the American Association of Museums, for its 

 fifteenth annual meeting; the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, for a meeting of fertilizer manufacturers in connection with 

 an investigation of fertilizer prices; the States Relations Service of 

 that department, for various gatherings of its employees, including a 

 seven-day conference of its farm-management demonstrators from 

 all partAS of the country and the annual meeting of the Potomac 



