COMMin'EES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 26 1 



" The number of parties organized is the same as at the last Transit, namely, 

 eight, of which four will remain in the United States, and the other four have 

 already departed for the southern hemisphere." '"' 



The following additional information also appears in the same 

 report: 



" Transit of Venus 



" The preparations for observing the coming transit of Venus have occupied 

 the attention of the Transit of Venus Commission, of which the Superintendent 

 of the Naval Observatory is the chairman. 



" The method selected for the observation will be similar to that used in 1874, 

 viz., by photography. A party will occupy each of the following stations: Cape 

 of Good Hope ; Santa Cruz, Patagonia ; Santiago de Chile ; New Zealand ; San 

 Antonio, Te.x. ; Cedar Keys, Fla. ; Fort Selden, N. Mex. ; and Washington, 

 D. C." «* 



The results of the observations of 1882 have not been published 

 in detail, and perhaps will not be, but a report from each station 

 is included in Newcomb's " Astronomical Constants " in the 

 supplement to the American Ephemeris of 1887, pages 71 to 77. 



COMMITTEE ON WATER-PROOFING THE FRACTIONAL 



CURRENCY. 1875 



In 1875 the Government was making use of a secret, 

 patented process for water-proofing the paper on which the 

 fractional currency and funded-loan bonds were printed. The 

 principal feature of the process was that the paper was sized 

 after having been printed upon. During the first session of 

 the 44th Congress, the committee of the House of Representa- 

 tives on Expenditures in the Treasury Department requested the 

 Secretary of the Treasury to submit answers to a series of ques- 

 tions relating to the printing of the securities of the United 

 States. The last two questions in the series, which numbered 

 twenty-two in all, were as follows : 



"21. Does the amount given in answer to the fifteenth question, include the 

 expense of labor in the use of the water-proofing process, and also the amount of 

 royalty paid for its use? 



'^ Rep. Secr. Navy for 1882, vol. i, p. 117. 

 " Loc. cit., p. no. 



