514 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



Then, looking at the interests of the Patent Office, I come 

 to this conclusion, that if it was proper and right that the 

 Smithsonian Institution should take charge of these things 

 and relieve the Patent Office, they should certainly do it. 

 If any one will go to the Patent Office, and observe the man- 

 mer in which models are kept, he will be .satisfied that the 

 exhibition room of that office ought to be clear, and the 

 models to be exhibited there. At present the exhibition 

 room of the Patent Office is occupied by this cabinet of 

 curiosities. Models are crowded into places never in- 

 tended for them, and look more like a series of brush 

 heaps than anything else. A person can scarcely get 

 one that is not broken ; one can be scarcely got out of the 

 cases where they are deposited. This is an improper mode 

 of keeping the models of the inventors of the country. 

 Something should be done to remedy this evil. I think 

 the patent fund should be appropriated to the use of the 

 Patent Office, and not to the relief of the other depart- 

 ments of the Government, I hope that the enlargement 

 of the Patent Office building, which has IK-OH paid for 

 by the patent fund, will not be used for the convenience and 

 accommodation of other .Departments. What says the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior? In his last annual report, after 

 enumerating various bureaus of his Department which need 

 additional accommodations, he says : 



" I therefore recommend that the two wings of the Patent Office be fin- 

 ished, and that they be appropriated to the accommodation of the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior, and the different offices thereto attached. They will 

 thus be brought under one roof, the communication between the head of 

 the department and the different bureaus will be greatly facilitated, and 

 the records of the government 'safely lodged in a fire-proof building. 



I had hoped when I saw $216,468 taken from the patent 

 fund for a beautiful palace, that the models of the inventions 

 and the inventors and mechanics of the country would re- 

 ceive some benefit from it ; but I see it is utterly hopeless, 

 seeing this recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, 

 arid the wreck that is taking place in the Patent Office of 

 the models and inventions of the country. 



The Senator from Mississippi and the Senator from Mary- 

 land have given me some information on the subject of the 

 resolution. Arid now I would say to those gentlemen, both 

 as Senators and Regents of the Institution, that I entertain 

 not the least unkind feelings toward the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. On the contrary, I would be willing to do anything 

 reasonable that is within my power to facilitate its great ob- 

 ject, and the benefits which the country expects to derive 



