FIFTIETH CONGRESS, 1887-1889. 1263 
of the fixed instruments at the U. 8. Naval Observatory, and of work performed 
with them. 
(3) Meteorological instruments of all kinds. 
(4) Surveying instruments of all kinds. 
(5) Logs, registering logs, log lines, reels, time glasses. 
(6) Sounding implements, hand and deep sea leads, registering leads, deep-sea 
sounding machines and appurtenances. 
(7) Signaling apparatus of various kinds for day and night signaling. 
(8) Electric-light apparatus. 
(9) Nautical charts and books. 
(10) Ship’s library. 
(11) Flags of all kinds. 
(12) Relics and models. 
The Chief Signal Officer of the Army states that he could readily 
furnish a large number of articles which illustrate the very interesting 
work to which that branch of the service is devoted. 
The Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering of the Navy says: 
If the museum is to be made use of as an aid to technical education, as well as a 
place of public interest, I would suggest that a collection of models, both working and 
sectional, representing the evolution of naval machinery, would be of great value. The 
cost of making a series of such models representative of the various stages in the 
growth of the marine engine would be considerable, but would be of great value, as 
there is nothing of the kind extant in this country. In the future the collection 
could be kept up at a moderate expense, models of engines representing various types 
being made from time to time as improvements may be introduced. 
Commodore Walker, in his letter from which we have already quoted, 
remarks: 
The real interest in a military and naval museum centers in the exhibition of means 
for offensive and defensive warfare. 
To such features of the proposed museum the ordnance departments 
of the Army and Navy would be the principal contributors, and the 
replies which have been sent in by the chiefs of those departments show 
that it would be an easy matter to arrange an exhibition of great value, 
illustrating the progress which has been made in the methods of war- 
fare and the important work which the Government is now carrying on 
for the purpose of providing itself with sufficient means of conducting 
a successful offensive and defensive contest with any foreign nation, 
should such a contest ever be forced upon us. 
When it is considered what a vast quantity of material the Govern- 
ment possesses which could be embodied in an exhibition of artillery, 
ancient and modern, it seems strange that no steps have been taken 
hitherto to bring together an artillery collection in the city of Wash- 
ington. It is safe to say that in none of the collections now accessible 
to the public here is there anything which would equal in interest the 
exhibit of field guns and heavy cannons which might be made by sim- 
ply bringing together specimens of the weapons, old and new, of which 
the Government possesses such an extensive supply. 
