Bureau Of Steam Engineering

The duties of the Bureau of Steam Engineering comprise all that relates to the designing, building, fitting out, repairing, and engineering of the steam machinery used for the propulsion of naval vessels, and will also include steam pumps, steam heaters and connections, and the steam machinery necessary for actuating the apparatus by which turrets are turned.

Marine Corps

The Commandant of the Marine Corps is responsible to the Secretary of the Navy for the general efficiency and discipline of the corps; makes such distribution of officers and men for duty at the several shore stations as shall appear to him to be most advantageous for the interests of the service; furnishes guards for vessels of the Navy, according to the authorized scale of allowance; under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, issues orders for the movement of officers and troops, and such other orders and instructions for their guidance as may be necessary; and has charge and exercises general supervision and control of the recruiting service of the corps, and of the necessary expenses thereof, including the establishment of recruiting offices.

The Department Of The Interior

The Secretary of the Interior is charged with the supervision of public business relating to Patents for Inventions; Pensions and Bounty Lands: the Public Lands and Surveys; the Indians; Education; railroads; the Geological Survey; the Hot. Springs Reservation, Arkansas; Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, and the Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant parks, California; forest reservations; distribution of appropriations for agricultural and mechanical colleges in the States and Territories; the custody and distribution of certain public documents; and supervision of certain hospitals and eleemosynary institutions in the District of Columbia. He also exercises certain powers and duties in relation to the Territories of the United States.

Commissioner Of Patents

The Commissioner of Patents is charged with the administration of the patent laws, and supervises all matters relating to the issue of letters patent for new and useful inventions, discoveries, and improvements thereon, and also the registration of trademarks, prints, and labels. He is by statute made the tribunal of last resort in the Patent Office, and has appellate jurisdiction in the trial of interference cases, of the patentability of inventions, and of registration of trade-marks. He is aided by an assistant Commissioner, chief clerk, three examiners in chief, an examiner of interferences, and thirty-nine principal examiners.

Commissioner Of Pensions

The Commissioner of Pensions supervises the examination and adjudication of all claims arising under laws passed by Congress granting bounty land or pension on account of service in the Army or Navy during the Revolutionary War and all subsequent wars in which the United States has been engaged. He is aided by two Deputy Commissioners and the chief clerk of the Bureau, each of whom has supervision over business arising in divisions of the Bureau assigned, under order of the Commissioner, to his immediate charge.

Commissioner Of The General Land Office

The Commissioner of the General Land Office is charged with the survey, management, and sale of the public domain, and the issuing of titles therefor, whether derived from confirmations of grants made by former governments, by sales, donations, or grants for schools, railroads, military bounties, or public improvements. He is aided by an Assistant Commissioner and chief clerk.

Commissioner Of Education

The duties of the Commissioner of Education are to collect such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and to diffuse such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems and methods of teaching as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country.

Director Of The Geological Survey

The Director of the Geological Survey has charge of the classification of public lands and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain, and the survey of forest reserves, including the preparation of topographic and geologic maps; also the measurement of streams and determination of the water supply of the United States, including the investigation of underground waters and artesian wells; and also the reclamation of arid lands, including the engineering operations to be carried on by the use of the reclamation fund created by act of June 17, 1902. from proceeds of sales of public lands.

The Board On Geographic Names

That uniform usage in regard to geographic nomenclature and orthography shall obtain throughout the Executive Departments of the Government, and particularly upon maps and charts issued by the various Departments and Bureaus, this Board is constituted.

To It Shall Be Referred All Unsettled Questions Concerning Geographic Names Which Arise In The Departments, And The Decisions Of The Board Are To Be Accepted By The Departments As The Standard Authority In Such Matters

Organized September 4, 1890.

The National Academy Of Sciences. (Incorporated By Act Of Congress March 3, 1863.)

Section 3 of the act of incorporation provides: "That the National Academy of Sciences shall hold an annual meeting at such place in the United States as may be designated, and the academy shall, whenever called upon by any department of the Government, investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art, the actual expense of such investigations, examinations, experiments, and reports to be paid from appropriations which may be made for the purpose; but the academy shall receive no compensation whatever for any services to the Government of the United States."

In accordance with this provision, the academy - which includes about one hundred members - has made many investigations and reports, at the request of the legislative and executive branches of the Government. The annual reports are published by Congress as House and Senate documents. Two meetings are held each year. The annual meeting is held in April, at Washington; the other in November, at such place as may be determined by the council.