REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 3 



as the Aircraft Board, to consider all questions of aircraft produc- 

 tion and to make recommendations to the military departments for 

 the production and purchase of aircraft and aircraft appliances. The 

 experimental laboratory of the advisory committee has been erected 

 at Langley Field, near Hampton, Va. 



The original Langley man-carrying flying machine has been brought 

 back from Hammondsport, after several successful flights, and is ex- 

 hibited in the National Museum. This is the first heavier-than-air 

 man-carrying machine built, although it did not have a successful 

 flight until more than 10 years after its construction. It is also an im- 

 portant historical relic, as it confirms the claim that Secretary Langley 

 was the first to design and construct a heavier-than-air machine capa- 

 ble of carrying a man in flight. There has never been any question 

 that he was the first to successfully fly a heavier-than-air machine 

 propelled by its own power. 



In February the War Department allotted to the Smithsonian 

 Institution the sum of $10,000 for experimental work in aviation in 

 connection with the Signal Corps, which work is being successfully 

 carried on. Upon the invitation of the War Industries Board, 

 Mr. C. G. Gilbert, of the National Museum, was appointed a member 

 of the Joint Information Board of Minerals and Derivatives, in 

 which capacity he has done work of unusual value. In April the 

 Secretary offered to the Government the services of Dr. Ales 

 Hrdlicka, who has since prepared important reports upon eth- 

 nography for the National Research Council and for a congressional 

 committee of investigation into the effect of language on nationality. 



The Smithsonian chapter of the Red Cross has done commendable 

 war work. Early in the year an ambulance was given for service in 

 Russia and later the funds were raised to defray for one year the 

 expenses incidental to the maintenance of a bed in the American 

 Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly. 



Bequests. — Among the bequests to the Museum during the past 

 year is that of Miss S. J. Farmer, who willed to the Museum all the 

 remaining models of her father, Moses G. Farmer, inventor of elec- 

 trical apparatus. 



The Institution has been made the residuary legatee of the estate 

 of Rev. Bruce Hughes, of Philipsburg, Pa. (died March 20, 1916), 

 under the following terms of his will probated March 27, 1916 : 



All the balance and residue of my estate of which I may die seized shall be 

 paid to the Smithsonian Institute of the city of Washington, District of Colum- 

 bia, the sum to be invested and the income alone used to found the Hughes 

 Alcove of the said Smithsonian Institute. 



The final share of the Institution in the estate has been estimated 

 at about $11,500. It is proposed that the "alcove" referred to in 

 the will shall be established in and as a part of the National Gallery 



