TWENTY-FIFTH CONGRESS, 1837-39. 183 



her internal improvements, we find much to occupy the 

 attention of scientific inquirers; and, as the revenues of the 

 nation are more or less directly benefitted by those improve- 

 ments, it is perhaps but reasonable that the science to 

 design and the skill to execute those works should be sup- 

 plied by means, of a national institution. To a limited 

 extent, our practice has sanctioned this course. Surveyors 

 and engineers in the service of the Government have, in a 

 few cases, been placed at the disposal of the State authori- 

 ties. For reasons sufficiently obvious, however, no perma- 

 nent reliance can be placed on such a diversion of military 

 officers from the peculiar duties for which the Government 

 has caused them to be educated. 



Incidental to the subject of internal commerce is that of 

 locomotion, whether on land or on water, embracing every 

 inquiry relative to steam navigation, the causes of explo- 

 sions, and the methods proposed for insuring safety. 



Another incident to this division of the subject is the 

 introduction into our mining and metallurgic processes of 

 those improvements which may free our country from a 

 dependence on foreign skill, foreign shipping, foreign insu- 

 rance, commission, and brokerage, for every yard of rail- 

 road iron which is laid throughout the length and breadth 

 of the land. Over our very richest beds of iron ore, and 

 coal, and limestone, are laid bars of foreign iron, extending 

 far away and crossing each other in various directions, 

 while through their gratings the country looks out at an 

 importunate creditor beyond the Atlantic. No small por- 

 tion of the hundred millions which have been borrowed 

 from Europe for the purposes of internal improvment, has 

 been applied to the procuring of this article; an article 

 which it requires no very daring spirit of prophecy to assure 

 us will one day be exported in immense quantities from the 

 United States. 



6. In reference to the subject of architecture and public 

 buildings, the acquisition of information by experiment 

 would often prove a most economical investment of a mod- 

 erate portion of the means devoted to such constructions. 

 Besides all the intercresting inquiries relating to the form, 

 strength, and durability of materials, the permanency of 

 foundations, and the adhesion of mortars and cements, we 

 have various questions concerning the influence of temper- 

 ature in the expansion of building materials, and of the 

 proper forces to be opposed to such expansions, as well as 

 to other disturbing causes, which might endanger the sta- 

 bility of large structures. A competent knowledge of 



