COMMITTEES ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT 213 



Further action in regard to the metric system was taken by the 

 Academy in 1879, besides that mentioned on the preceding pages. 

 This was in the form of resolutions urging that instruction in 

 the principles of the metric system be introduced into the schools 

 and colleges, that laws be enacted by Congress requiring the use 

 of metric weights in the domestic mail service, and that the 

 weights of coins be expressed in grams and milligrams rather 

 than in grains and fractions of grains. 



COMMITTEE ON PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS OF 

 IRON VESSELS. 1863 



The second committee appointed during the Civil War had 

 for its task the consideration of means for protecting the bottoms 

 of iron ships from injury by salt water. It was appointed May 

 9, 1863, at the request of the Navy Department, communicated 

 by Admiral Davis May 8, 1863. This was a short-lived com- 

 mittee. It made a brief report on January 9, 1864, and was dis- 

 charged. 



The substance of the report was that, though many plans for 

 protecting the hulls of iron ships had been devised, no one of 

 them had proved sufficiently effective to justify the committee 

 in recommending it for use in the Navy. 



It was suggested that experiments should be tried by the com- 

 mittee of the Academy in case means were provided. No means 

 being forthcoming, however, the investigations were never 

 undertaken by the Academy, although the laboratory of the 

 Smithsonian Institution was placed at its disposal. 



It may seem strange that the committee, which included 

 among the members the Sillimans and Wolcott Gibbs, should 

 have been unable to make any suggestions in the line of the 

 inquiry with which it was concerned, but it appears that the com- 

 position of paints, and the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of 

 different mixtures against corrosion and the fouling of ships has 

 only recently been the subject of scientific investigations. We 

 learn from the writings of Naval Constructor Henry Williams 

 that it has only been within the last five or ten years that the 



