Excerpt from Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution: For the Year Ending June 30, 1918 The routine operations of the Institution and its branches were carried on as usual during the year, but a number of activities were held in abeyance until after the war. The time and energy of mem bers of the scientific staff were devoted, as far as practicable, to re searches bearing on the effectiveness of certain devices and materials for the Army and Navy, and 24 employees were granted furloughs to enter active military service. Through my connection with the National Research Gounod and other commissions and boards I have been able personally to render some war service to the Government. The work of the National Advisory, Committee for Aeronautics. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.