DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR. 305 



the proper maintenance of such an establishment, he thought an 

 income as large as that of the Smithson fund, would not be too 

 much : and on two different occasions he endeavored to enlist the 

 interest of wealthy and public-spirited citizens in such an enterprise. 

 One of these was Mr. McCormick of Illinois ; and a letter on the 

 subject was afterward printed (without its address) in the Report for 

 1870.* The other was Mr. Lick of California: who after some 

 hesitation, decided in favor of an astronomical observatory. Another 

 allied object of great interest to Henry, and one requiring as large 

 an endowment, was a well-equipped chemical laboratory, in which 

 under judicious restrictions those really engaged in original 

 researches, should have liberal facilities of appliances and needed 

 materials, furnished them. He considered that an important part 

 of the work to be accomplished by a physical and chemical labora- 

 tory, would be the determination and tabulation of " The Constants 

 of Nature and Art " with a much wider range of subjects, and on a 

 scale of much greater completeness and accuracy, than had heretofore 

 been attempted: and thus might be realized the great work or works 

 of reference, suggested by Charles Babbage as a scientific desider- 

 atum, f Had the Smithsonian fund been twice as large as it is, 

 both these great enterprises for the increase of knowledge, would 

 undoubtedly have been successfully inaugurated by Henry. 



Loss by Fire. Early in the year 1865, (on the 24th day of Jan- 

 uary,) the central portion of the Smithsonian Building suffered 

 from a disastrous fire, the effects of which were aggravated by the 

 extreme severity of the winter cold, which greatly obstructed the 

 efficiency of the engines brought into action. J " The progress of 

 the fire was so rapid, that but few of the contents of the upper 

 rooms could be removed before the roof fell in. The conflagration 

 was only stayed by the incombustible materials of the main build- 

 ing :" the flooring of the upper story, forming an iron and brick 



* Smithsonian Report for 1870, pp. 141-144. 



fBrewster's Edinburgh Jour. Sci. April, 1832, vol. vi. pp. 334-340. /Smithsonian 

 Report for 1856, pp. 289-302. 



J The accident resulted from the carelessness of some workmen in the upper 

 picture gallery, who in temporarily setting up a stove, inserted the pipe through 

 a wall-lining into a furring space (supposing it a flue), but which conducted 

 directly under the rafters of the roof. 

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