REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, SIR: I am much gratified at being able to inform you that the cur rent business of this office is in much better and more prosperous condition than when you assumed charge of the Department of the Interior. At that time business was largely in arrears; the average time which an applicant for patent was required to wait after the filing of his application and before the same could be reached for examination was five and one-half months, and in some of the divisions he must wait from twelve to thirteen. At the end of the last fiscal year such divisions were, on an average, three months in arrears, and but two were six months behind. The present Congress dealt liberally with the Patent Office, and provided all the force which is really needed. I expect to be able to bring the work substantially up to date within the next few months, and I hope to so maintain it. There is no subject to which I desire to call your especial attention at the present time, except the following: First. The Patent Office imperatively needs more room. Second. The subscription price of the Official Gazette should be increased to at least $7.50 per year. Third. Some provision of law should be made by which each of the Federal courts should be required to furnish immediately to the Patent Office for publication a certified copy of any judgment, decree, decision, or opinion hereafter made or filed in any patent case. Fourth. Section 4885, Revised Statutes, relating to the date which a patent shall bear; section 4887 of said statutes, in regard to the limitation of a patent; section 4898, providing for the assignment of patents and the record of such assignments; section 4930, relating to the reimbursement of persons who have through mistake paid money into the Treasury for fees accruing at this office, should each and all be carefully amended. The following is an exhibit in detail of the business of the office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866: Number of applications for patents received Total 37,695 731 168 1,292 792 40,678 Number of caveats filed. Number of labels registered Number of patents granted, including reissues and designs.. 2,586 24, 134 1,088 397 Total. 25, 619 Number of patents withheld for non-payment of final fees... 3,758 RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES. Receipts from all sources. Expenditures (including printing and binding and contingent expenses)... $1,200, 167 80 882,249 63 Surplus...... 213,918 17 COMPARATIVE STATEMENT SHOWING THE INCREASE IN THE WORK. Number of applications for patents (including reissues, designs, trade-marks, and labels) received during the fiscal year ending June 30 1882 30,062 NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS AWAITING ACTION ON THE PART OF THE OFFICE. The entire disbursement made specifically for and on behalf of the Patent Office, from January 1, 1885, to December 31, 188, both inclusive, equals... The approximate amount expended by the Department of the Interior The aggregate amount of expenditures, therefore, is We therefore turned into the Treasury during the calendar year 1885.. Very respectfully your obedient servant, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. $930,864 14 1,095, 884 70 1, 145, 433 10 1,074,974 35 1,205, 167 80 728,450 30 295,928 49 1,024,378 85 1, 188, 089 15 163,710 30 3, 000, 000 00 M. V. MONTGOMERY, Commissioner. REPORT OF THE ARCHITECT OF THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL OFFICE OF ARCHITECT UNITED STATES CAPITOL, Washington, D. C., July 1, 1886. SIR: In compliance with yours requesting the report of the operations of this office for the year ending June 30, 1886, I have the honor most respectfully to report as follows: THE CAPITOL. By direction of the Committee on Rules of the Senate, several changes have been made in the occupation of rooms, which has caused considerable expenditure to accomplish, such as the removal of the places of public convenience in the basement story to inner rooms, and fitting up the rooms thus vacated for committee-rooms; also moving the document-room and shelving the new rooms for the same, in order to add the room formerly occupied by the superintendent of the folding room to that of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. Various rooms and some passages have been shelved in the Senate cellar for the storage of documents and the files from the room of the official reporter. By direction of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, several rooms in the old portion of the building heretofore used as store-rooms for the books connected with the Library, and for other storage purposes, have been prepared for and are now occupied as committee-rooms. A skylight has been placed in the ceiling of the room of the House Committee on Commerce, the ceiling decorated and walls painted; and numerous changes and improvements accomplished throughout the building, which is now in an excellent condition of repair. The whole interior of the dome has been painted, and such portions of the exterior as urgently required attention. The cleaning of the exterior marble work has been continued. The condition and working of the heating and ventilating apparatus of the Senate is reported by Mr. Jones, the engineer, to be in a reasonably satisfactory condition. He says: The necessary repairs to the boilers to insure their service during the last long and trying session of Congress, as pointed out by Chief Engineer John Lowe, have been carried out, involving almost the entire renewal of the fire-boxes of the four larger ones, at an expenditure quite disproportionate to the actual value of the boilers. Quoting from Engineer Lowe's report, he says: "After all this shall have been done they will be fit for their usual service for a period of about three years." And I must still repeat that after all this has been done, owing to their peculiar plan of construction and somewhat to location, they can never be made to do the work required with efficiency and economy, but at present they are apparently in better condition and certainly more efficient than ever before, and with the additional room and boilers to be put in will probably do all the work required for some years to come, unless it should be deemed advisable to replace a portion of them with those of a more modern and economical type, leaving room for electric-lighting machinery, engines, dynamos, &c. In the main air uptake leading to the Senate Chamber there has been a material change made by cutting through the walls so as to allow of a much better tempering of the air before it reaches the Chamber. This work has accomplished all that was expected of it, allowing the temperature to be carried with much greater ease and regularity than was formerly the case, thereby enabling the average variation of temperature to be kept within one degree and doing away with the use of burning gas in the air-duct leading to the rooms above. When the enlargement of the air-duct leading to the outside of the building, now in progress, shall be finished, with the proper tower opening out into the grounds at a distance from the building, there will be one great source of discomfort effectually removed. Since the last report we have taken out of the large Senate steam coil one hundred and ten leaky pipes and replaced the same with new ones, using many special fittings made for that purpose, besides making material changes in the drainage of the same. The other coils are in fair condition. The engines and pumps are in good condition, having done their work well, requiring no more than such casual repairs as might naturally be expected. The elevators have caused no material expense, but now call for a certain amount of work to be done upon them to insure their satisfactory working in the future. Of the condition and working of the heating and ventilating apparatus of the House of Representatives Mr. Lannan, the engineer, says in his report that No important changes have been made in the apparatus during the past year, except replacing the steel shaft of engine No. 2, broken last session after a service of about seven months. This was replaced by one of hammered iron. All the engines, fans, and coils are in good condition. The steam-pump used in supplying the House wing with water, after a continuous service of eight years, will require new pistons and rods. The fire-boxes of the four old boilers now in use have given considerable trouble during the past winter, and will require a number of patches upon their side sheets to make them serviceable for the coming session of Congress. It will be but a short time before the entire fire-boxes must be renewed. These boilers have been in use for the past twenty-nine years; they are of a pattern now obsolete, and the advisability of supplying their places with others of modern construction at an early day is an apparent necessity. It is estimated that the cost of thoroughly repairing the old would be at least 50 per cent. of the expense of new boilers. I submit the following important averages taken from daily observavations: Revolutions of fan.... Volume of air carried to Hall each revolution. Volume of air carried to Hall per minute.. Volume of air carried to Hall per minute for each person.. Volume of air removed from Hall per minute for each person, in roof... Average relative humidity.. Average daily attendance (about)....... Of the electric lighting apparatus, Mr. Talcott, the electrician of the House, reports that the gas-governors which were placed in the loft to regulate the supply of gas to the burners over the ceilings of the Hall have proven satisfactory. Some attempts have been made, at the expense of the respective companies, to exhibit the working of their electric lighting plants, and that method has been found desirable, particularly in the cloak-rooms and the inner rooms, where formerly gas was used during the day. THE TERRACES AND GROUNDS. The north terrace, section A, has been completed, with the exception of the bronze lamps and vases which are to be placed upon the pedes. tals of the balustrade. The vaults connected with this portion are occupied for storage for books, fuel, and for work-shops. Satisfactory progress has been made in the construction of the south terrace and the other portions which have been authorized by law. It is very desirable that the central portion, including the grand stairways, should be built cotemporaneously, in order to insure the use of similar material as to shade and quality, as the stairways and central sections are substantially one work, concerning which there should be greater uniformity in the material than perhaps necessary in some other portions of the work. To this end an estimate will be submitted for the next fiscal year for a sum sufficient for the building of these stairways and the connecting sections of terrace, with the hope that in case Congress should not appropriate the entire amount it will at least give authority to procure the labor and material necessary to the completion of these stairways and connections, the construction of which may be proceeded with as Congress makes appropriation therefor. Of the improvements above mentioned, and that of the Capitol Grounds, Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, Landscape Architect, in his report, says: During the last year the terrace has been completed all along the north end of the Capitol, and well advanced along the south end, and most of the Senate's wing. The ground between the Senate wing and the walk to the north of it has been remodeled in adptation to the terrace. Bronze lamps have been placed on the piers of the Maryland avenue entrance; thinning of the new plantations has been begun; the last of the decaying trees of the old avenue from Pennsylvania avenue entrance have been removed, and a skirting of low shrubbery has been planted at the base of the north terrace. The growth of the plantations has been satisfactory. At the next session of Congress it is desirable that provision should be made for a proper inlet to the air-duct for the Senate wing. For this purpose a tower is advised to be built corresponding in situation, construction, and style with that of the ventilating apparatus of the south end of the Capitol. It is recommended that both towers be capped with iron grilles as originally designed. A large part of the wheelways of the Capitol grounds were provided with a concrete surface before the present excellent method of concreting the streets of Washington had been introduced. This surface is now giving out, and no patching will long prevent it from becoming a nuisance. As the Congress of 1886-'87 is not to sit after the 4th of March, provision should be made for the laying of a new concrete surface during the long recess of the following summer. As the situation is a particularly trying one, because of the breadth of unbroken surface in parts, the steepness of grade and severity of exposure in other parts, and the unusual variations of temperature to which it is subject, the work should be the best obtainable. In anticipation of the building of the National Library tentative plans have been prepared to aid a determination of its position within the site fixed by Congress, with care to keep important lines of view open, present both the Library and the Capitol to advantage, secure convenient approaches and connections by walks and wheelways between the two, and while enlarging the Capitol grounds to include the Library, to preserve as far as practicable the advantages thus far acquired by the expenditure made upon it. COURT-HOUSE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. All the woodwork of the new portion of the building has been painted, a new well sunk in the western fuel cellar for more effectual drainage, and the heating apparatus put in good condition for the coming winter, and the whole interior of the building put in good repair. |