308 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



intended. I sailed from New York on the 1st of June, returning 

 after an absence of four and a half months, much improved in 

 health, and with impressions as to science and education in the Old 

 AVorld, which may be of value in directing the affairs of the Insti- 

 tution. Although limited as to time, and my plans interfered w^ith 

 somewhat by the war, I visited England, Ireland, Scotland, Bel- 

 gium, parts of Germany and France. But deferring for the present 

 an account of my travels, and the observations connected with 

 them, I will merely state that as your representative, I was every- 

 Avhere kindly received, and was highly gratified with the commen- 

 dations bestowed on the character and operations of the Institution 

 intrusted to your care." * 



Service on the Light-House Board. — While the whole high bent 

 of Henry's mind was rather toward abstract than utilitarian 

 research, there was no well devised system of practical benefit for 

 man, that did not command his earnest sympathy or enlist his 

 active co-operation , — no labor in such co-operation from which he 

 shrank, if he felt that w^ithout the sacrifice of other duties, he 

 could make such labor useful. On the establishment of the Light- 

 House Board, in 1852, Henry was appointed one of its members; 

 and although his valuable time was already fully occupied, he con- 

 sented to serve on the Board, in the hope of aiding to benefit the 

 interests of navigation. To the requirements of his new position, 

 he brought his accustomed energy, skill, and eminently practical 

 judgment; and soon made his influence felt throughout the light- 

 house service, t 



* Smithsonian Report for 1870, p. 45. 



t In less than ten years from the organization of the Light-House Board, the 

 lenticular system of Auqustin Jean Fresnel had been introduced into aU the 

 lightrhouses of the United States. Leonor Fresnel. Secretary of the Light-House 

 Board of France, (the brother of that distinguished piiysicist,) in <a letter addressed 

 to the Secretary of the United States IJght-House Board, dated INIay 7th, 1861, says: 

 "The prodigious development of this service within so short a time under the 

 LightrHouse Board, has truly astonished me My old experience in fact enables 

 me the better to appreciate how much energy and activity were necessary to 

 bring to this degree of perfection, the light-house service of such a vast expanse 

 of coast, as well on the Pacific as on the Atlantic, without mentioning the task 

 of succeeding in establishing against hostile prejudices the adoption of a new 

 system." (Report to Secretary of the Treasury, Feb. 4, 1862. Mis. Doc. No. 61, 37th 

 Cong. 2nd Sess. Senate, p. 16.) 



