Febeuaey 25, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



257 



building have been removed, with a great 

 improvement in the appearance of the south 

 front, while at the same time a source of 

 danger from iire is averted. It is still nec- 

 essary to retain some workshops south of 

 the western portion of the building, no 

 rooms being elsewhere available, but it is 

 hoped that these also will soon be re- 

 moved. 



I may call attention to the need of addi- 

 tional room for the proper storage of such 

 publications of the Institution and its 

 bureaus as must be retained in reserve. 

 These are comparatively few in number for 

 each particular work, but the accumula- 

 tions of fifty years occupy in the aggregate 

 so much space as to demand more storage 

 room than is now available and create a 

 positive danger in the excessive weight that 

 is now placed upon the floors of upper 

 stories, while the work of distribution of 

 publications is now carried on in very in- 

 convenient and inaccessible quarters. I 

 have under consideration the feasibility of 

 some changes in the interior arrangement 

 of the main north and south towers of the 

 building which would render suitable for 

 storage purposes much space which can not 

 now be utilized. 



I may also mention the very decided im- 

 provement that would result from the re- 

 modeling of the steep and long iron stair- 

 ways leading to the great hall of the build- 

 ing, which is now used for archaeological 

 collections. 



The improvements in progress in the 

 Museum by the erection of galleries in sev- 

 eral of the halls are alluded to elsewhere. 



EESEAECH. 



Although the time of the Secretary must 

 be almost wholly given to administrative 

 aifairs, yet, as in years past, in carrying 

 out the wish of the Regents and in continu- 

 ation of investigations begun prior to my 

 connection with the Institution, I have de- 



voted such time as I could spare to re- 

 searches upon the solar spectrum and to 

 experiments in connection with certain 

 physical data of aerodynamics. 



Both of these investigations have reached 

 a stage at which it is possible to give to the 

 world somewhat full statements of results. 

 In my remarks on the operations of the As- 

 trophysical Observatory I discuss more fully 

 the researches upon the solar spectrum. 



In my report for the previous year I 

 brought to the attention of the Board the 

 fact that my experiments in aerodynamics 

 had finally resulted in a successful trial on 

 May 6, 1896, of a mechanism, built chiefly 

 of steel and driven by a steam engine, which 

 made two flights, each of over half a mile, 

 and I appended a brief statement of my 

 own and of Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, 

 originally communicated in French to the 

 Academy of Sciences of the Institute of 

 France, describing the actual flight. Since 

 that time a third and a much longer flight 

 was made on November 28, 1896, with 

 another machine, built of steel like the first 

 and driven like that by propellers actuated 

 by a steam engine of between 1 and 2 horse- 

 power, making a horizontal flight of over 

 three-quarters of a mile and descending in 

 safety. 



I have thus brought to the test of actual 

 successful experiment the demonstration of 

 the practicability of mechanical flight, which 

 has been so long debated and till lately so 

 discredited. To satisfy a nearly universal 

 interest, I am now engaged in the prepara- 

 tion of a full description of these experi- 

 ments since 1891, when my flrst memoir on 

 aerodynamics was published. This memoir, 

 with those on 'Experiments in Aerody- 

 namics ' and ' Internal Work of the Wind,' 

 will form volume 27 of the Smithsonian 

 contributions to knowledge, which will thus 

 contain a complete record of all experi- 

 ments carried on thus far under my direc- 

 tion upon this subject. 



