the building. The reason for this was that the office had decided to do away with the regulation requiring models to be filed with applications for patents, except in special cases when necessary to have a model, and the substitution, in lieu thereof, of complete detailed drawings of the proposed invention, together with specifications in full concerning the same. The model halls were then rearranged for the use of a part of the office force, and for the location of the Patent Office Scientific Library.

It may not be known to the general public that the Patent Office is a self-sustaining bureau. Its annual receipts more than equal the cost of maintenance by an average approximating a surplus of $100,000.

In its records, among the many noted inventors, may be recalled the names of:

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, etc., Samuel F. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, etc., Samuel P. Langley, inventor of the flying machine, Thomas A. Edison, inventor of many electrical devices, Cyrus H. McCormick, inventor of the reaping machine, which has done so much for the cause of agriculture, Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, afterwards perfected by the Singer patents,

The Hoe Company, inventor of the Rotary Printing Press,

Robert Fulton, inventor and introducer of steam navigation, and the first steam warship and submarine torpedo,

John Ericsson, inventor of caloric engines, the screw propeller and turret war ships, one of which, the "Monitor," distinguished itself in the American. Civil War and inaugurated a new era in naval warfare,

J. P. Holland, inventor of the electric submarine boat, the first of its kind being the "Nautilus."

Marconi was not the first discoverer or inventor of wireless telegraph. It is a matter of record that Prof. Silas L. Loomis, of Washington, D. C., was granted the first patent in 1878, but never was able, on account of lack of funds, to perfect his invention, and because, at that time, the public was skeptical regarding its success. There have been many American inventors of heavy battery and field guns, and rapid firing, repeating machine guns, rifles, carbines, revolvers, and other kinds of ordnance, among whom might, in part, be mentioned Dahlgren, Gathman, Hotchkiss, Maxim, Colt, Remington and Rodman.

GENERAL JOHN PETER VAN NESS, A MAYOR
OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, HIS WIFE,
MARCIA, AND HER FATHER,
DAVID BURNES.

BY ALLEN C. CLARK.

(Read before the Society, November 26, 1918.)

Not the forest primeval was at the time of selection the site for the Federal City. It was not wooded wilds whose solitudes were penetrated by paths unfrequently trodden. Aged fellows of the forest, "high in heaven" there were; and

"The century-living crow, Whose birth was in their tops;

The

but these were survivors of the wilderness. streams that alone had been ruffled by the aborigines' canoes had long since been invaded by the vanquishing race and ruffled by other craft. Original nature had been broken for cultivation. A fact well known to the tribes of crow blackbirds who gave discordant praise for the planters' succulent provision provided their sagacious cousins, just crow, had not been there first. The tobacco worm gorged on the narcotic leaves and swelled with gratitude to his providence-the planter. It was, to use a simile for fertility in the time of Judge Joshua, "a land flowing with milk and honey."

Maj. Andrew Ellicott, who was the engineer first sent to run the lines, to his "Dear Sally" writes:

"This country intended for the Permanent Residence of Congress, bears no more proportion to the Country about Philadelphia and German-Town, for either wealth or fertility, than a Crane does to a stall-fed Ox!"

To make the unfavorable comparison the Major had to resort to the then metropolis of the nation and its rich environment.

To find less division of the land than there was at the time of the selection must be found a time previous to the fifth intercolonial or the French and Indian War, 1753 to 1760; a time prior to the fourth intercolonial or King George's War, 1744 1748; and even beyond the time of the third intercolonial or the Spanish War, 1739.

In the French and Indian War this particular part of His Majesty's colonies had its participation. A great rock is named in honor of General Braddock, but whether it is because he saw it or did not see it is the mooted question. The autocratic Braddock was petted by the aristocratic George Town; and the grand General recognized in it real quality and to his protegée, the celebrated actress, George Anne Bellamy, 1755, he writes:

"We folks at home have been laboring under the very erroneous idea that our friends in America were little better than the aborigines, whom they supplanted, but, my dear madam, we have all been in error, for never have I attended a more complete banquet, or met better dressed or better mannered people than I met on my arrival in George Town, which is named after our gracious majesty. The men are very large and gallant, while the ladies are the most beautiful that my eyes have ever looked upon. Indeed, madam, I know of no English town that could produce so much beauty and gallantry as I have found in George Town. The habitations of these genial folk, dear madam, are stately buildings that have no superiors in England, and the interior decorations are things. of beauty, while the grounds are laid out after our English gardens, and the shrubbery and flowers are well attended to. In fact, dear madam, I might sum up everything by declaring George Town is indescribably lovely and I am loath to leave it and its hospitable people."