508 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1195 



Four years later, however, an organization was 

 adopted whicli gave to tlie Institute the lati- 

 tude of a comprehensive learned society. 

 Among all the activities planned only a few 

 were in any way conspicuously carried out, in 

 default of the necessary support, the most im- 

 portant and material of these being the estab- 

 lishment of a botanic garden and a museum. 

 The former occupied the extreme eastern end 

 of the Mall which then approached much 

 nearer the capitol than at present, and in- 

 cluded the site of the present United States 

 Botanic Garden. 



Starting with a cabinet of minerals which 

 remained predominant in this eoimection, this 

 feature soon developed into a general though 

 small musemn, containing specimens of zool- 

 ogy, botany, ethnology, archeology, fossils, etc. 

 Transferred to the ^National Institution in 

 1841, some of the objects are now readily dis- 

 tinguishable in the United States National 

 Museum, forming, it may be claimed, the 

 nucleus of its collections. 



The institute obtained its meeting places 

 and accommodations for its museum mainly 

 through the favor successively of the execu- 

 tive departments, the municipal government, 

 and Congress. It was first located in 

 Blodget's Hotel, containing the general post 

 office and the patent office, followed by the 

 treasury department and city hall, being 

 fixially assigned a permanent home, in 1824, in 

 the western addition to the capitol building, 

 which had just been completed. The use of 

 the site for its botanic garden was also a 

 grant from Congress. 



However unfortunate in the realization of 

 its ambitions, the Columbian Institute never- 

 theless occupied an enviable position among 

 the earlier associations of this country for the 

 breadth and importance of its object, even 

 if they be regarded only in the nature of sug- 

 gestions, which have since been so fully recog- 

 nized in the organization of the government 

 and elsewhere, and for its hearty and unselfish 

 efforts to carry them out. The Columbian 

 Institute owed its establishment and early 

 successes to a masterful mind, that of Dr. Ed- 

 ward Cutbush, then a surgeon in the ISTavy, 



and the first president of the society, though 

 acknowledgments are also due to Thomas Law 

 for the suggestion of such a society at the §eat 

 of government. 



The membership of this institute included 

 a great many of the prominent men of every 

 walk of life in Washington, among them John 

 Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, John C. Cal- 

 houn, Henry Clay, and well-known representa- 

 tives of the Army, the government service, the 

 medical and other professions. 



AWARD OF THE JOHN SCOTT LEGACY MEDALS 



AND PREMIUMS AND OF THE EDWARD 



LONGSTRETH MEDAL OF MERIT 



The city of Philadelphia, acting on the 

 recommendation of The Franklin Institute, 

 has awarded the John Scott Legacy Medal 

 and Premium to Alfred Eishworth Tattersall, 

 of London, England, for the " Midget " Mar- 

 vel Flour Mill. 



This device is a small and simple form of 

 flour mill, designed to enable local millers to 

 make a good grade of flour at a comparatively 

 low cost. It is of especial value in farming 

 communities in which the flour mills run by 

 water power have been abandoned. 



And has also awarded the John Scott Legacy 

 Medal and Premium to Max Ulrieh Schoop, 

 of Zurich, Switzerland, for the Schoop Metal 

 Spraying Process. 



In this process, wire of some easily fusible 

 metal, like zinc, is fed into a device called a 

 spraying pistol. The wire passes through a 

 tube and at its end comes into contact with 

 burning gas, by which it is melted, and the 

 molten metal is sprayed by an air blast upon 

 the surface to be covered. The use of this 

 process has been found to greatly increase the 

 life of patterns for castings. 



The John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium 

 has also been awarded to Thomas A. McCall, 

 of South Akron, Ohio, for his inventions em- 

 bodied in the early development of the Hooven 

 Automatic Typewriter, and to John H. Fil- 

 lings, of Hamilton, Ohio, for his inventions 

 and improvements embodied in its later de- 

 velopment. 



The Franklin Institute has awarded its Ed- 

 ward Longstreth Medal of Merit to The 



