2 4 INTRODUCTION. 



be at least possible and as true to the facts as my own memory 

 and the concurrent testimony at my command would permit. 



The use of cards in workshops as well as in libraries, is no new 

 thing ; others besides the men with whom I have worked have 

 been driven to appreciate their advantages and have turned them 

 to more or less account. But the administration of private work- 

 shops is in general limited by responsibilities so immediate and 

 self-contained, that I doubt whether there are any where as strict 

 an accounting has been made as is required by our trusteeship 

 of public property. Indeed, had it not been for the rigorous 

 exactions of the Ordnance Regulations, I doubt whether I would 

 have been led to formulate a scheme as comprehensive as I hope 

 that this will be found. It is their spirit which has led me through 

 this self-imposed task, and it is in extending its influence that I 

 find my reward. 



I have to thank William Sellers & Co. of Philadelphia for 

 suggesting the manner of distributing miscellaneous expenses, 

 and the use of the ticket punch for signatures ; also for much 

 information and encouragement, the details of which have escaped 

 me. Besides those whose names appear in the body of the report 

 I wish particularly to thank Lieut. A. H. Russell, of the Ordnance 

 Department, for his assistance, and Mr. H. T. Fries, Stock Clerk 

 at Frankford Arsenal, to whose familiarity with existing require- 

 ments and to whose zeal in meeting them I am under obliga- 

 tions which it is difficult to express and impossible to repay. 



HENRY METCALFE. 

 BENICIA ARSENAL, CALIFORNIA, May, 1884. 



POSTSCRIPT. A change of station to Watervliet Arsenal has 

 enabled me to revise the MS. prepared in California by the light 

 of a wider experience. 



