Work on Victorian Garden o THE SMITHSONIAI'J To Start Behind 'Castle' Preliminary work on the Victorian Garden to be laid out behind the Smithsopian Institution Building for the Bicentennial year will begin August 18 with the closing of a portion of the South Yard parking lot behind the "castle." First the area at the west end of the present TORCH parking lot will be cleared and the two-story "South Shed" or "Annex" building will be Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. August 1975 A & I Building razed. Then in November a new parking area at the west end of the Yard will be opened. Closed Until '76 The rest of the present lot will be closed and the one-story buildings razed, except for the old metal Air, and Space Building. That The Arts & Industries Building was closed structure will be taken down in the third to the public August I for renovation and phase of the project, early next year, and the installation of the "1876" Bicentennial ex­ Victorian Garden completed. hibit there. Although the buildings to be razed present It was announced that the rotunda area an undistinguished appearance, they are of and portions of the halls where construction considerable historic significance, as related is underway will be closed to all personnel elsewhere in this issue of the Torch. except those with special authority. Entry Approximately 140 parking spaces will into the building will be restricted to the remain behind the castle at the west end of northwest and east doors. the present lot, compared to the 250 spaces in the Yard now. Those drivers displaced will be permitted to park in areas of the garage designated for empJ'oyees under the new Garber's Memories National Air 'and Space Museum between Fourth and Seventh streets. Information about the parking change "Memories of the Old South Shed" was given in a memorandum dated July 23 by Paul E. Garber, historian emeritus from Kenneth E. Shaw, Director of the of the National Air Space Museum, Office of Plant Services. Individual notifica­ will appear in the next issue of the tion was sent each person holding a parking TORCH. Mr. Garber will discuss the space in the affected area. They were told to significance to aviation history of the contact the Parking Coordinator, Mary two-story building in the South Yard. Rakow, in Room 2486 of the Arts and In this article early experiments in Industries Building (Extension 5484), from astrophysics carried out in the small 10 to 12 and from 3 to 5, work days July 28 buildings behind the Smithsonian cas­ through August 15. Those on vacation then The buildings south of the castle as they appeared in the early years. tle are reviewed. should call the Coordinator to make special arrangements. Beginning August 18, the Coordinator's hours for dealing with permits Those Simple Structures Hou~sed History will be II to 12 and 3 to 4 each day. Of SI Astronomical Research Progress The Beetles' New Home By Von Del Chamberlain Those old frame buildings behind the Smithsonian's castle are s ectrum of the sun. For the following half century emphasis ~----.,.,...,r-:.--""'obSCUIe as they now ppear. - returned to Langley's earlier interests - the determination of They have played a very significant and interesting role in the the intensity of the sun in various parts of the spectrum and the history of the Institution. interactions of solar radiation with the atmosphere producing They will be removed soon (see the related story on this page). the weather and providing the conditions which nurture us. Before they are scraped away, take another look at them and let The work was carried out by Charles Greeley Abbot, hired by your mind run back over a bit of early Smithsonian history ... La ngley in 1895. In addition to watching overthis work Langley On June 24, 1838, John Quincy Adams entered the office of administered the affairs of the Institution and built another President Van Buren to discuss the use of the recently acquired frame building in the South Xard where he carried out his Smithson funds. He suggested that the money be used to aeronautical work. construct, equip, and staff an astronomical observatory in order The interest in meticulous documentation in the sun's output to produce a "systematic and continued scientific series of of energy led to the establishment of observing stations far away observations on the phenomena of the numberless worlds from Washington at remote places such as Mount Whitney and Mr. Greenwell suspended over our heads - the sublimest of all physical Table Mountain in California, Bassour in Algeria, Calama and sciences, and that in which the field of future discovery is as Mount Mont(:zuma in Chile, Burro Mountain in New Mexico, For the last 25 years the soon-to-be-torn unbounded as the universe itself." At that time no observatory and Mount Saint Katherine on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. High down South Shed has gained an odorous facility was to be found anywhere in the country. A few years altitude observations were compared with each other to notoriety around the Institution as the "Bug previously George Airy, who later became the British determine the actual energy emission of the sun and its possible House." Astronomer Royal, had noted in a survey that he was unable to variation. These measurements were then compared with low Few persons entered the door to this report on American astronomy because essentially there was altitude observations to produce data basic to meteorological skeleton preparation area without taking a none. study. deep breath. Langley Arrives In 1955 the facility in Washington was discontinued for "People come in here little by little," said astrophysical use with the transfer of the SAO to Cambridge, Joseph Biggs, who 0 perated the facility until For many years Adams continued his attempt to establish an Mass., where it became associated with Harvard University. The his retirement several years ago. Mr. Biggs observatory with the original Smithson funds. His effort failed move fulfilled a recommendation made 85 years earlier by was making reference to the powerful stench but the idea did not die. It declined while the Institution was Secretary Hemry: "As to the location ... I think it important to of dried flesh which permeated the room established and then slowly, but steadily, strengthened again connect it with some well-endowed and well-established college and, when the wind was right, often wafted through the sound scientific interests of Joseph Henry and the or university." into the windows of the "castle" and the Arts careful planning of Secretary Spencer F. Baird who hired an Astronomical interests of SAO have broadened to include and Industries buildings. astronomer as an Assistant Secretary - Samuel Pierpont virtually every aspect of astrophysical investigation. Equipment In his laboratory Mr. Biggs saw to the Langley. has changed from the bolometer once housed in the frame cleaning, drying and bleaching of bones Less than one year after arriving in Washington, with the buildings of the South Yard to the multi-mirrored telescope at ranging in size from whale skulls to tiny bat death of Spencer Baird in 1887, Langley became the third Mt. Hopkins Observatory and instruments aboard orbiting jaws. Then he would take them back across Secretary of the Smithsonian. He was a man of many interests solar observatories and other space probes. the Mall to the Department of Vertebrate and accomplishments. Significant Trend Zoology at the National Museum of Natural His astronomical studies had included the planets, the moon, In 1838 John Quincy Adams started a trend which continued History for storage and study. The biggest comets and the development of obs<:<rvational instruments. through the struggles of Abbot to eliminate the effects of the help to Mr. Biggs in this operation was a Perhaps most important was his intense interest in the physical atmosphere in calculating the power of the sun; through trials of resident colony of derrnested beetles whose nature of the sun. He reminded people of its significance: Langley directed toward the gift of atmospheric flight; through larvae efficiently ate every scrap of flesh off "We . .. are warming ourselves at this great fire which called our the support of the Institution to assist Robert H. Goddard in the small skeletons. From the beetles, of course, bodies into being, and when it goes out we shall go too. What is development of a device intended eventually to carry in­ carne the name "Bug House." it? How long has it been there? How long will it last? How shall struments and humans beyond the atmosphere; to our own day Last month the beetles were packed in we use it? This interest led directly to the erection of a "wooden when we can observe the universe from space without the plastic bags and moved into two modern structure of the simplest and most temporary character" on the hinderance of a variable atmosphere, study lunar samples in our temperature and humidity-controlled Smithsonian grounds in late 1889 and early 1890. laboratories on the Mall and send instruments toward distant chambers in the east courtyard of the "The prime object until lately," the Secretary observed, "has planets. Natural History Building. Above, Frank been to say where any heavenly body is, rather than what it is." The day star was the object of research at the original Greenwell, supervisory specialist of the With this guiding philosophy a new type of astronomy facility Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. This interest has never NMNH Division of Mammals, checks to see was established. ,been discontinued. It is fittingly represented in the current great how the beetles are faring in their new Those "temporary" structures were the house of the Smithso­ seal of the Smithsonian.