262 NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



" 22. State if any commission, and composed of what persons, by name, has 

 examined the value of the water-proofing process, as recommended in the report 

 of the Committee on Banking and Currency, made February 16, 1875 ; and, if so, 

 please annex a copy of their report, if any has been made. If no report has been 

 made to you in writing, has any and what oral report been made to you ? And 

 have you urged the parties having the matter in charge to make report to you." "' 



These detailed inquiries were directed primarily at a com- 

 mittee of the Academy. In replying to them, on March 31, 1876, 

 the Secretary of the Treasury, B. H. Bristow, remarked that 

 no royalty was paid on the water-proofing material, which was 

 purchased by the gallon, and that on July 30, 1875, he had 

 requested the President of the Academy, Professor Henry, 

 to appoint a committee to examine into the merits of the water- 

 proofing process. He remarked that Professors J. E. Hilgard, 

 C. F. Chandler, Henry Morton and William Sellers had been 

 appointed, and continued as follows: 



"On the 30th of August last [1875] I requested those gentlemen to com- 

 mence their investigations, and at the same time I instructed the Chief of the 

 Bureau of Engraving and Printing to afford them every facility therefor in his 

 power. 



" I am advised that they called and examined the machinery for applying the 

 ' water-proofing ' to the paper, and the manner in which it was done, and that 

 they were furnished with a sample of the material and with specimens of blank 

 and printed paper, water-proofed and not water-proofed. Every facility to con- 

 duct their investigation was afforded them, and they were furnished with all 

 the information possible upon the subject. 



" During the autumn Professor Hilgard, chairman of the commission, called on 

 me and submitted for my inspection a memorandum in writing of the principal 

 points of his proposed report, which were deduced from his examination. He 

 stated, as the result of his examination and tests, that he was convinced that the 

 process in question was of great advantage and of great utility both as to dura- 

 bility and security, and that he would recommend that the Government should 

 purchase the invention from the proprietor, with a view to a more economical 

 application of the process. 



" The general tenor of the report having been thus foreshadowed by the 

 chairman of the commission, I saw no reason, at that time, and have had no cause 



''House Misc. Doc. no. 163, 44th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 2, 3; ordered printed, April 3, 

 1876. 



