8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



remarks on tbe operations of the Astropliysical 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 i]i a successful trial on May 6, 1896, of a mechanism, built 

 chieiiy 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 aud driven like that by propellers actuated by a steam engine 

 of between 1 aud 2 horsepower, 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 uni- 

 versal interest, I am now engaged in the preparation of a full descrip- 

 tion of these experiments since 1891, when my first memoir on aerody- 

 namics was x>ublished. This memoir, with those on ''Experiments in 

 Aerodynamics " and " Internal Work of the Wind," will form volume 27 

 of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, which will thus con- 

 tain a complete record of all experiments carried on thus far under my 

 direction upon this subject. 



HODGKINS FUND. 



The Hodgkins medals of award were received at the Institution on 

 the 13th of July, 1896, and were transmitted on the same day to those 

 competitors for the Hodgkins fund i^rizes who were recommended by 

 the committee to receive medals. A replica of the medal was sent to 

 each of the members of the Hodgkins advisory committee and to cer- 

 tain specialists who, without compensation, had rendered valuable aid 

 in connection with the competition. A replica was also sent to the 

 firm of Evarts, Ohoate & Beaman, the legal counsel of Mr. Hodgkins, 

 and to Dr. Chambers, his medical adviser and long-time friend, as a 

 memento of valued services rendered in connection with the Hodgkins 

 bequest to the Institution. 



In July, 1896, Mr. E. C. C. Baly, of University College, London, a 

 Hodgkins competitor, whose memoir received honorable mention, was 

 awarded a grant of $750 to enable him to prosecute further his inves- 

 tigations on the decomposition of the atmosphere by means of the 

 passage of the electric spark. A report of the research, so far as it 

 has progressed, has been received from Mr. Baly. 



Under an additional grant to Dr. S. Weir Mitchell and Dr. John S. 

 Billings investigations have been conducted in the Laboratory of 

 Hygiene of the University of Pennsylvania, upon the effect which a 



