CHAPTER V.

THE NEW CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING-THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING-THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AND NATIONAL MUSEUMTHE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART-THE ORDNANCE MUSEUM-THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY-THE SIGNAL OFFICE-THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING-OFFICE.

ESIDES the great department buildings, there are numerous other institutions in Washington that present many objects of great interest to the visitor. Some of these are either entirely or partially under Government control, while others represent the enterprise or benevolence of private citizens.

THE NEW CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING.

The growth of the Library of Congress has been so great that the halls in the Capitol used for its accommodation are entirely inadequate. To meet present and future needs for more space and better quarters, Congress has already appropriated $2,400,000 towards the erection of a new building, now rapidly approaching completion, which will be the finest structure of its kind in the world.

The new Congressional Library building stands in the centre of a plot of ten acres, lying on the south side of East Capitol Street, between First and Second. It is four hundred and seventy by three hundred and fifty feet, and covers an area of three and three-quarters

acres.

The style of architecture is the Italian Renaissance, the original designs being made by Smithmeyer & Pelz. There is a basement, in rustic style, a principal story, and a second story surmounted by a balustrade. Pavilions at the corners and on the eastern and western fronts, surmounted by attics, are adorned with beautiful Corinthian columns, and on the keystones of the arched windows of the first story are elegantly carved heads, thirty-three in number,

representing the various types of the different races of mankind. The main entrance is through a magnificent central pavilion on the western front, leading to the grand staircase giving access to the second story.

The central portion is formed by a great octagonal building, one hundred and forty feet in diameter, with an extreme height of one hundred and seventy-five feet. Within this is the Reading Room, one hundred feet in diameter and one hundred and twenty feet high, well lighted by large windows in the clere-story. A gallery runs around this, and two tiers of alcoves give opportunity for retired study and research. Great book-stacks, or repositories, each containing nine tiers of cases, connect the central rotunda with the north, east, and south sides of the building, and form four courtyards seventy-five to one hundred by one hundred and fifty feet. The walls of these court-yards are lined with ivory-white enamelled brick, which reflect light through the windows of the book-stacks.

The material of the exterior walls is granite, and the building is constructed entirely of this stone and brick and iron, rendering it completely fire-proof. The boilers and pumps for the heating, ventilating, and power apparatus are in a prettily designed building east of the Library, under ground.

The connecting repositories, with their many tiers of cases, will give shelf-room for two million volumes, while the outer rooms can accommodate some five or six million more. Should future needs require, additional repositories could be erected in the courtyards.

The Library is being erected under the direction of General Casey, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, by Mr. Bernard R. Green, Superintendent and Engineer. It is expected to be completed in 1896, and the estimated total cost is $6,000,000.

THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.

The national currency, bonds, checks, and internal revenue stamps are made in the building of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, at the corner of Fourteenth and B Streets, S. W. The building is a handsome brick structure in the Romanesque style, two hundred and twenty by one hundred and thirty-five feet. There are three stories

THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.

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and a basement, and a high tower at the north-eastern corner. It was erected in 1878, at a cost of over $300,000.

The printing division occupies the third floor and employs about five hundred persons. Six hundred printed sheets is the daily task allotted to each pressman, and as all imperfect sheets are rejected by the examiners and a record made of the number and pressman, much defective work will result in a speedy dismissal from the service. Steam-power is not used for the presses, as it is found that the delicate nature of the work and the care required to obtain perfect impressions requires hand labor. Each pressman has a woman to assist him, her work being to place the sheet on the press and

THE BUILDING OF THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.

remove it when printed. After each impression the plate must be carefully cleaned and polished with whiting, then inked, and wiped to remove the superfluous ink. As it has been found that the hand is the best medium that can be used for wiping the plate, the necessity of an assistant to handle the paper is obvious. When they have received the first impression the sheets are carefully dried, and after some days are given to another set of pressmen, who print the other side. No one person is allowed to attend to more than one operation. When the sheets have been printed they are subjected to a rigid scrutiny by the examiners, and such as are satisfactory are sent to be numbered and lettered. The final operation is the stamp

ing with the red seal of the Treasury, done in the basement of the Treasury building.

There is an elaborate system in use to prevent error or fraud on the part of the employés. The sheets of special paper are delivered by the officials of the Treasury to those of the Bureau, and must be receipted for, not only as to their number and proposed use, but also the value they will have when printed. They are carefully counted before being given to the pressmen, each of whom places a private mark on every sheet he prints. They are counted again at every subsequent stage of their manufacture, counted again before being sent to the Treasury, and counted again when received there. From the time a piece of paper comes from the manufacturer until it is placed, a finished note, in the Treasury vaults, it has passed through the hands of over fifty persons, and each person handling it is known and is held accountable. The workmen are separated from the public by a high wire screen and are under the constant surveillance of watchmen stationed in all the rooms. Finally, before anyone leaves the building at the close of work, every printed sheet and piece of paper and every plate and die must be accounted for and locked away in the safes.

The time required for completing a sheet is about thirty days, each sheet consisting of four notes.

Specimens of the work of the Bureau are shown to visitors. A large case in the hall contains fac-similes of the various notes and bonds. In the waiting room are collections of the engravings used, and testimonials from the Vienna and Berlin Exhibitions of the excellence of the work of the Bureau.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

The Smithsonian Building stands on a part of the public reservation denominated The Mall, situated between Seventh and Twelfth Streets and North B and South B Streets, the site being about twenty feet above the average level of Pennsylvania Avenue. The style of architecture is that of the last half of the twelfth century, and is generally known as the Norman. The semicircular arch, stilted, is employed throughout in doors, windows, and other openings. It is the first edifice in the style of the twelfth century ever erected in

this country, and is universally conceded to be one of our finest specimens of architecture. The entire length of the building, from east to west, is four hundred and forty-seven feet, its greatest breadth one hundred and sixty feet. The east wing is eighty-two by fifty-two feet, the west wing eighty-four by forty, the main building two hundred and five by fifty-seven, and fifty-eight feet high. There are nine towers, the highest of which reaches an elevation of one hundred and fifty feet. The material employed is a red sandstone, found near the mouth of Seneca Creek, about twenty-three miles

north of Washington. The corner-stone was laid May 1, 1847, and the building completed in 1855. In January, 1865, a fire destroyed the interior of the upper story of the main building and the interior of the large north and south towers. These were, soon after, reconstructed in a fire-proof manner; and, in 1883, the entire interior of the east wing and range was removed and replaced with fire-proof materials.

The Smithsonian Institution, the chief American scientific establishment, known throughout the world by its researches, its publications, its collection and distribution of specimens of natural history, and its interchange of the works of scientific men, owes its name and origin to an Englishman, James Smithson, who died in Genoa,