8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of other departments so far that during the war with Spain a commis- 

 sion was directed by the Secretaries of War and the Navy to inquire 

 into them with a view of their possible utility in war. This is not the 

 place to state the results of these inquiries. 



The Secretary desires to repeat, however, that his time is almost solely 

 given to administrative work, and that what he has been able to do in 

 these directions has been done largely in hours which he might consider 

 his own. 



In addition, some very important investigations have been made and 

 others are in progress, by specialists, in the fundamental laws of sound, 

 of gases, the upper atmosphere, and on impure air and other important 

 questions, which are mentioned somewhat more in detail under the 

 heading of the Hodgkins fund. 



HODGKINS FUND. 



Although the Hodgkins fund competition announced by the Institu- 

 tion in the widely distributed circular of March 31, 1893, was definitely 

 closed so long ago as December 31, 1894, a very general interest is still 

 expressed in the subject, and specialists in our own and other countries 

 not infrequently forward copies of their original published memoirs as 

 contributions to the Hodgkins fund library of the Institution. 



Frequent applications for grants are received, and, notwithstanding 

 the fact that the limitations on the use of the fund do not permit it to 

 be employed for the support of an investigation, unless under the 

 exceptional conditions of the first published announcement, it has still 

 been found practicable to approve several awards during the past year. 



As noted in my last report, in July, 1897, an additional grant of $400 

 was made to Mr. A. Lawrence Rotch, of the Blue Hill Meteorological 

 Observatory, Eeadville, Mass., and in the following October a further 

 grant of $250 was approved to Mr. Rotch. These sums are to be devoted 

 to experiments with automatic kites, for determining, by means of self- 

 recording instruments, meteorological data in atmospheric strata 

 inaccessible except by some mechanical method of exploring the atmos- 

 phere, and it will be of possible interest to the Board to learn that 

 during the past year, and (to slightly anticipate), shortly after its close, 

 experiments of remarkable success and interest have been made by 

 Mr. Botch, and, among others, that kites have been flown to the 

 unprecedented height of 11,086 feet above the station, carrying up 

 with them meteorological instruments which recorded the height, the 

 pressure of the wind, the dew point, and other facts of interest at 

 these great altitudes. 



Those who remember the situation of Blue Hill, one of the highest 

 landmarks on the Atlantic coast north of the southern shores of the 

 Gulf, and the aspect of the hills, blue with the distance from which 

 they take their name, may be struck by the certainly notable fact that 

 in these experiments the kites sent up from Blue Hill, and held there 

 at the station, were occasionally directly over the distant ocean. 



