REPORT OF NATIONAL. MUSEUM, 1924 91 



made by this company in 1903, of which all have disappeared except 

 this one and three others, and a complete chassis of the Cadillac auto- 

 mobile made in 1923. The latter is complete except that no body is 

 attached, and all of the working parts and inclosed mechanisms nor- 

 mally hidden from view are exposed. This has been accomplished 

 by cutting away portions of the metal coverings within which the 

 many and diversified parts are hidden. The metal surfaces through- 

 out are beautifully finished either by being nickel plated or etched, 

 while other portions of the frame are painted in white enamel. This 

 latter model, standing as it does parallel to the John Bull locomotive, 

 affords a very impressive illustration of the progress made in the 

 modes of land transportation in the past 80 years in that the wheel 

 base of the John Bull locomotive is less than that of the automobile, 

 while the overall length of the two is very closely identical. From 

 the signal section of the American Railway Association, New York, 

 the division received four pieces of original railway signaling appa- 

 ratus. This phase of the railroad industry was, before the receipt of 

 this accession, unrepresented in the collections, but with the con- 

 tinued cooperation of this association there is a surety that it will not 

 be neglected in the future. From Buster Keaton, Los Angeles, Calif., 

 the division received as a gift a "hobby horse" or curricle. This 

 vehicle is representative of the predecessor of the bicycle and while 

 not an original specimen is a very accurate replica of this type, hav- 

 ing been used by Mr. Keaton in one of his motion pictures produced 

 in 1923. Ransom Matthews, Selma, Calif., added to his loan collec- 

 tion of automobile accessories and essentials an additional series of 

 25 spark plugs. 



The collections devoted to the developments in electrical illumina- 

 tion were enchanced by the gift of a part of the apparatus used by 

 D. McFarlan Moore, in 1897-98, in the operation of his vacuum 

 tube electric light. This apparatus was also used at that time to 

 transmit electric emanations or radio waves, the specific use being to 

 ignite a bomb located a city block distant from the instrument, which 

 bomb in turn blew up a miniature model of the battleship Maine. 

 This very valuable piece of apparatus is a gift of D. McFarlan 

 Moore, Harrison, N. J. 



In the general section of machinery there were received as a gift 

 of the American Society of Civil Engineers a model of one of John 

 Ericsson's hot-air engines, made by Ericsson and presented by him 

 to a friend, and two models of the Eads sand pump, developed by 

 James B. Eads, originally for the specific purpose of excavating for 

 the piers of the famous Eads bridge across the Mississippi River 



