of mechanics in the highest of terms.  Women are employed in various capacities in nearly every line of work that was exhibited in this department, and Miss Gleason probably stands as an example of the real but unostentatious work of many women who understand the intricacies of machinery fully as well as men with the same degree of training.

That women are making a place for themselves in this department of industry is shown by the Patent Office statistics.  The first patents for inventions were granted to men in 1790, but no patent was issued to a woman until May 5, 1809, and the number of inventions granted to them in any one year did not exceed 6 until the year 1862, when 14 were issued.  This number was lowered but once, and that was in 1865, when naturally women had responsibilities of a nature that precluded outside interests, but the direction of which is shown in the fact that two of the 13 applications in that year were—­one for “Improved table for hospitals,” the other for “Improvement in drinking cups for the sick.”  In 1863 an application was made for “Improvement in ambulances.”

It is a significant fact that from the time General Spinner appointed the first woman to be employed under the Government in 1864, her advancement was shown in invention, as well as in all other phases of her existence.  At the beginning of the year 1864, fifty-five years after the first patent had been granted to her, she had received but 103 patents.  During the next fifteen years, 1,046 patents were granted; during the next ten, 1,428, and during the next five years (from 1889 to 1894), 1,309 patents were issued to women, the number in five years exceeding that granted during the first seventy years.  It is to be regretted that the Patent Office records do not show a classification of her work during the past ten years, their list practically ceasing March 1, 1895.

The inventions cover a wide and ambitious range, and include, even among their earliest attempts, “Improved war vessel, the parts applying to other structures for defense;” “Improvement in locomotive wheels;” in “Engraving copper;” “Steam whistles;” “Mechanism for driving sewing machines;” “Improved material for packing journals and bearings;” “Improvement in the mode of preventing the heating of axles and journals;” in “Pyrotechnic night signals;” in “Paper-bag machines;” in “Railway car safety apparatus;” “Conveyors of smoke and cinders for locomotives;” “Sewing machines;” in “Alloys for hardening iron;” in “Alloys to resemble silver;” in “Devices for removing snow from railways;” “Car coupling;” “Attachment for unloading box cars;” “Railroad car,” etc.

Department F, Electricity, Prof.  W.E.  Goldsboro, Chief, Miss Hope Fairfax Loughborough, Department Juror.

This department comprised 5 groups and 24 classes, the group headings being:  Machines for generating and using electricity; Electrochemistry; Electric lighting; Telegraphy and telephony; Various applications of electricity.

Miss Loughborough’s report is as follows: