58 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 
The plans for the development of the division aim, therefore, 
toward an embodiment devoted to the interests of the public at large 
as opposed to the abstractly scientific or highly technical, and with its 
energies directed to the extension of cultural learning together with 
information concerning significant current utilitarian facts. In the 
attainment of these results it is proposed, to the extent that space is 
available, to prepare a model reproduction of each important type of 
mineral industry operating in the field, tracing conditions and pro- 
cesses from natural occurrence to finished products; around that 
model reproduction as a central theme to assemble in each instance 
such a systematic exhibit as will best serve to emphasize important 
features in both manufacturing processes and industrial capabilities; 
and finally, as each respective series is completed, to make it the basis 
of an educational bulletin for popular distribution. Development 
along such lines will attractethe interest and attention essential to the 
success of the educational effort; will appeal in affording a direct, 
comprehensive summary of interesting and significant facts in logical 
sequence; and its possibilities will be country wide instead of limited 
to Museum visitors. 
For the reasons set forth, the research phase of activity has been 
entirely subordinated to the interests of popular education, and, ac- 
cordingly, no effort has so far been made to develop a distinct study 
series. It should be recalled, however, that a very large and excep- 
tionally fine collection of the minerals and ores of the country, divided 
into exhibition and study series, is in the possession of the department 
of geology, in the new building. For the division of mineral tech- 
nology nothing is being accepted at present unless eligible for incor- 
poration in an industrial exhibition representative of conditions and 
operations in one or another field of mineral resources, the general 
character of which at least has previously been determined for each 
subject. 
As a preliminary to the development of the division it was neces- 
sary to determine upon a suitable apportionment of the available 
space among the mineral products to be represented, and this again 
required the planning in at least a tentative way of the size and char- 
acter of the exhibits relating to each subject. With this broad outline 
established, it was possible to take up the details and to enter into 
consideration with the producers and manufacturers as to the means 
for securing such models and other materials as were needed. All of 
this work has been entered into most heartily, but it is of such a 
painstaking character that, except for the few models obtained at the 
St. Louis Exposition, there would have been scarcely anything for 
public display by the close of the year. Through the cordial coopera- 
tion given the Museum, however, many exhibits were placed in course 
of preparation, and though some of these will require a considerable 
