PRESIDENT'S REPORT AND REPORTS OF THE COMMITTEES OF THE INSTITUTE AND THE COMMITTEES OF ITS BOARD OF MANAGERS.

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1916.

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR Ending SEPTEMBER 30, 1916.

To the Members of The Franklin Institute:

Your Board of Managers instruct me to report to you upon the work of the Institute for the year ending September 30, 1916, as follows:

Your Board, in their report for the year ending September 30, 1915, made an appeal to the membership of the Institute for the completion of the so-called Wahl Fund; a fund necessary to be raised to meet the conditions laid down in the will of our late Secretary, the distinguished Dr. William H. Wahl, as precedent to the receipt by the Institute of his estate of approximately $90,000. It is gratifying to be able to report that this fund has been completed and that the estate of Dr. Wahl has been transferred to the Institute as, and under the conditions, desired by him. It is particularly gratifying to be able to report that all the money received for the Wahl Fund came from members of The Franklin Institute.

The Wahl estate and subscriptions, with the Shippen bequest (referred to in the Annual Report of last year, but received during the year covered by this report) increase the productive fund of the Institute approximately $300,000 and practically double the Institute's endowment fund as it stood a year ago.

The regular income of the Institute, for the first time in its history, so far as known to us, is sufficient for carrying on the work immediately in hand. It offers no margin applicable to desirable extensions in the scope of our work. Such extensions will not be undertaken until the assured income of the Institute is sufficiently increased to justify them.

The Institute's new Building Fund has been increased during the year through the sale of the Sixteenth and Arch Streets properties by $55,000. The Institute owned these properties through the generosity of one of its members. They stood on the books of the Institute as valued at $82,000. The Board of Viewers, apportioning the Parkway damages, awarded to the Institute for the properties (and for interest from the date of condemnation) $137,329.50, or approximately $55,000 more than the properties cost the Institute. The Institute's Building Fund now amounts to about $225,000. There is now in the hands of the Board of City Trusts the socalled John Scott Fund, which must ultimately come to the Institute, and which is applicable to the Building Fund, and amounts to approximately $40,000. This makes the total amount now in sight, or ultimately available to the Institute, of about $265,000. This is in addition to the very valuable

building site located at Nineteenth and Race Streets, on Logan Square. Your Board of Managers believe it will not be wise to proceed with the erection of a building until the present Building Fund of $265,000 has been about doubled, and the normal income of the Institute has been sufficiently increased to justify the undertaking of the coincidentally added obligations.

Your Board of Managers believe that the work the Institute is doing, and which is widely known as good and useful to the citizen, and to the City, State and Nation, will ultimately attract the funds necessary to the erection and endowment of a building better located and more nearly adequate to the accomplishment of the Institute's purposes.

The figures that I have given above are set out in detail and with more exactness in the reports of the Finance Committee, Mr. Forstall, Chairman, and of the Endowment Committee, Mr. Howson, Chairman.

At this writing the Institute owes no money other than current accounts. The "Bills Payable," now (January, 1917) among our liabili ties, are debts of one department of the Institute to another.

Your Board hopes that each member of the Institute will read the attached Committee Reports in full. Your Board, in this general report, cannot do more than briefly comment upon them.

The report of the Library Committee, Mr. Morgan, Chairman, clearly indicates the importance of a new building for the Institute. It emphasizes what must be known to every member of the Institute who visits our library, the utter inadequacy of our stack and cases. We are compelled to put books wherever there is room for them in the building without reference to their protection or to the convenience of the user. There is no doubt that the library would be greatly more valuable to the citizens of Philadelphia if housed in rooms of adequate size and permitting a more intelligent arrangement.

The report of the Committee on Museums, Mr. Outerbridge, Chairman, is a record of valuable additions of interesting models, etc., contributed to the Museum during the past year.

The report of the Committee on Meetings, Mr. Rogers, Chairman, contains a list of the papers presented at the stated meetings of the Institute, with interesting comments on the May meeting, at which the Franklin Medal was presented to Professor Theodore William Richards and to Dr. John J. Carty, and the Elliott Cresson Medal to Mr. Theodore N. Vail, President, for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Addresses were made by Dr. Carty and Mr. Vail. An address by Professor Richards, who was too ill at the time to attend the meeting, was read by Dr. Hoadley. Following the addresses the American Telephone and Telegraph Company gave an interesting demonstration of transcontinental and wireless telephony for the benefit of the Institute's members and guests. This was the first exhibition of the wireless telephony given in our City.

The report of the Committee on Instruction, Mr. Paul, Chairman, gives convincing evidence of the continued good work of the School.

The Committee on Instruction was compelled to accept the resignation of Professor William H. Thorne, for thirty years Director of the School. Mr. Simeon van T. Jester, Assistant Director of our School, and otherwise experienced in educational work, was elected Director as successor to Professor Thorne. The membership of the School during the year was about fifteen per cent. greater than during the previous year.

The report of the Committee on Elections and Resignations of Members, Mr. Gibbs, Chairman, indicates that the Institute has not grown materially in numbers during the past year-the membership list having increased but thirty-one in the twelve months. The Institute, during the year, has not made any special effort to increase its membership.

The report of the Committee on Publications, Mr. Levy, Chairman, is of the usual encouraging character. One matter in connection with the Committee's work during the year, to which your Board of Managers wish to call attention, is the mechanical make-up and appearance of the JOURNAL. The character of the paper has been improved, the margins have been increased, the JOURNAL is now sewed instead of stapled as heretofore. These improvements add greatly to the comfort and pleasure of the user of the JOURNAL, as well as to the JOURNAL'S general appearance and permanent character.

The report of the Committee on Sectional Arrangements, Mr. Day, Chairman, is practically a report of the meetings held during the last year. The attendance many times taxed the capacity of the hall. The meetings held under the auspices of this Committee last year were particularly successful and valuable.

The report of the Committee on Science and the Arts, Mr. Bonine, Chairman, evidences the continuation of the good work of the Committee, and further, that the value and importance of the Committee's work is becoming more widely recognized year by year. One evidence of this is the number of applications for investigation received: in 1914, nine; 1915, sixteen; and 1916, twenty-five.

As time passes the Institute occupies a larger space in the horizon of Philadelphia's affairs and of its general activities. This is manifested in the greater extent to which the public journals take notice of its proceedings, and in the size and character of its audiences. It is a condition largely created by the eminence of the men who come to the Institute to tell their message in the domain of science and the arts. To these eminent men the Institute offers an immediate audience often as large as its audience room will accommodate, and through its JOURNAL, a multitude of readers whose habitat is coterminous with the world of scientific thought.

Members of The Franklin Institute, we, your Board of Managers, believe ourselves justified in reporting to you that the work of your Institute continues to be good. But we can only satisfy our sense of duty, and justify our succession, to those far-sighted and devoted menthe founders of the Institute-by relating this actual "good" to an ideal "better" and devoting ourselves to its accomplishment. To this ambition

we each year dedicate ourselves anew; and at this, our ninety-fourth Annual Meeting, and on this, the two-hundred and eleventh birthday of our great exemplar, Benjamin Franklin, we again bespeak your encouragement and coöperation.

Respectfully submitted,

The Board of Managers.

WALTON CLARK,

President.

PHILADELPHIA, January 17, 1917.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30, 1916.

To the President and Members of The Franklin Institute:

The Committee on Library respectfully submits the following report on the activities of the library during the year ending September 30, 1916. The additions to the library were as follows:

There were available for the use of the Committee $3150 appropriated by the Board of Managers for subscriptions, binding, and miscellaneous expenses, and $1653.31, the income of the various trust funds.

The expenditures for the year were $1586.89 for subscriptions to magazines and other periodical publications, $1177.50 for binding, $221.15 for general expenses, and $925.35 for books.

Donors:

Gifts of books, pamphlets, and periodicals in large quantities or of special value were received from:

Messrs. N. W. Akimoff, Hugo Bilgram, Carl P. Birkinbine, Spencer Fullerton, F. L. Garrison, Henry E. Gilpin, Robert D. Jenks, C. W. Pike, Pedro G. Salom, G. L. Thompson, John C. Trautwine, Jr., William R. Webster, Drs. Walton Clark, Carl Hering, Charles F. Himes, George E.

Thomas, The Commissioner to the Government of New Zealand at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Mrs. M. C. Gilpin, The Crocker-Wheeler Company, Helme & McIlhenny, The Hess-Bright Manufacturing Company, and the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers.

The contents of the library on October 1, 1916, were as follows:

It has been possible with the increased appropriation to bind a number of the older volumes of periodicals. These are now in better condition for preservation and can be consulted more readily. The most important set which is in urgent need of binding is the Specifications of British Patents, about 3300 volumes, of which about 2800 are sufficiently complete to bind.

The list of periodicals, which has been in the course of preparation for several years, is now finished and forms a complete guide to the sets of serial publications in the library. It will be especially useful as a record of the completeness of the various sets and will be of great assistance in the binding of the magazines.

Additions:

Fewer pamphlets were added to the library during the past year, and it is because of this that the total additions are nearly 1200 titles below those of last year. The additions by binding and purchase were greater than in previous years.

The practice of scanning the technical periodicals for announcements of new publications is continued, and a large number of valuable trade catalogues and books are added to the library by this means.

Pamphlets:

The binding of pamphlets progressed satisfactorily during the year. Selections were made from those relating to geology, mining, mechanics, railroads, and chemistry. Fifteen hundred and sixty were withdrawn,