12 REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1924 



book of authentic information. Various governmental agencies 

 rely upon the Museum's specimens for the identification and com- 

 parison of new material. Manufacturers are beginning to realize 

 that the depositing of their products in the collections of the Na- 

 tional Museum acts as an additional protection against suits for in- 

 fringement and against those who may have been accidentally 

 granted a patent on an art that is not new. Several examples of 

 the value of this protection have recently been brought to the at- 

 tention of the Museum by patent examiners and attorneys for 

 patentees. In one case a suit for infringement involving large 

 damages was settled out of court upon the evidence of a Museum 

 specimen. In two other cases the denial by the United States 

 Patent Office of a patent on a product, constructed upon what was 

 claimed to be entirely new principles, was found warranted after 

 examinations of specimens in the National Museum. The old adage, 

 " There is nothing new under the sun," is often shown to be true 

 when an examination is made of the Museum's collections. That 

 feature of the American patent system which denies a patent to an 

 art or invention that has been shown to the public for two years or 

 more, increases the importance of a great collection in the Museum 

 illustrating industrial processes and products and makes it an im- 

 portant reference book to the United States Patent Office, as well 

 as to manufacturers, inventors, and the investing public. With the 

 continued cooperation of American industries these industrial col- 

 lections will grow in importance and scope which will enable the 

 National Museum to render more efficient service in this direction. 

 In the lecture field mention should be made of the work this year 

 of Samuel S. Wyer, associate in mineral technology, who, through 

 cooperation with the State of Pennsylvania, delivered 89 lectures 

 bearing on natural resource problems, more particularly those of 

 fuel and power. These lectures, without expense to the Museum, 

 were delivered chiefly within the State of Pennsylvania to high- 

 school students, to students of every normal school of the State and 

 of several of the colleges and universities; also to students of Iowa 

 State College, Ames, Iowa; of Western Reserve University, Cleve- 

 land, Ohio; of Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; and at the 

 annual meeting of the American Home Economics Association in 

 Chicago. In addition, Mr. Wyer wrote and arranged for the pub- 

 lication of the following timely articles : Correct use of fuel in the 

 home, of which 60,000 copies were distributed throughout the 

 United States; Power situation in the United States, originally 

 sent to 45,000 Pennsylvania school-teachers, and since then 30,000 

 copies of which have been printed; Analysis of electric service for 

 rural homes, with introduction by Dr. Charles D. Walcott, of which 



