38 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 



end of the year this was being made ready for the public in connec- 

 tion with the Avar collections on the ground floor of the natural his- 

 tory building. 



Among the gifts were medicinal plants, pharmaceutical products, 

 pile fabrics, novelty dress fabrics, leather cloth, and other waterproof 

 textiles extensively used during the war, knitting and crocheting 

 3'arns with examples of pattern stitches, an extensive collection illus- 

 trating the production, classification, and conservation of foods, with 

 many such from the Department of Agriculture and the United States 

 P ood Administration, and an exhibit illustrative of neglected sources 

 of supply of fats and oils for food purposes. 



In making the food exhibits as useful as possible a cooperative ar- 

 rangement was entered into with the States Relations Service of the 

 Department of Agriculture whereby regular demonstrations on the 

 value, use, preparation, and conservation of foods were given at the 

 Museum by experts of the department. A large room in the arts 

 and industries building was fitted up as a demonstration kitchen and 

 space provided for displaying foods, models, and household equip- 

 ment. This work soon broadened into a household consultation cen- 

 ter, with lectures and demonstrations covering a wide range of sub- 

 jects. There were lectures on the Business of the household; Food 

 for the family on $2 per day; Direct marketing; What becomes of 

 the consumer's dollar; What to give your children to eat; Milk, its 

 nutrition and use; Meat substitutes; Housekeeper's use of market 

 schedules; and Influence of weave structure upon the durability of 

 fabrics. The demonstrations included labor-saving appliances for 

 tlie kitchen ; the fireless cooker ; the pressure cooker, the electric wash- 

 ing machine; preserving eggs; cooking dinner in 30 minutes; the one- 

 dish meal; invalid cookery; dried milk powder; Christmas sweets; 

 sugarless candies; and fruit juices in summer drinks. By classes and 

 demonstrations for housekeepers in the mornings and afternoons and 

 special classes for Avar workers at 5 p. m., over 2,100 persons were 

 reached during the year. 



Mineral technology. — In mineral technology the customary work 

 of the division was shelved in favor of special activities with a more 

 direct bearing on the national emergency. As the war progressed 

 the call for specialization on the part of its technical stalf increased. 

 While the countrj^ Avas still actively involved on a basis of war, 

 scarcely a day passed without bringing calls from some governmental 

 agency for assistance with reference to one or another industrial 

 issue up for consideration on an emergency rating, the questions 

 ranging from determining a fair price for mica to determining the 

 likelihood of a paralyzing petroleum shortage. As the year ad- 

 vanced, however, two absorbing lines of special investigation de- 

 veloped to such a degree that during the latter half of the year they 



