WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS FOR 1871-APPENDIX IV. 
M E M O I R 
•OF THE 
FOUNDING AND PROGRESS 
OF THE 
UNITED STATES NAVAL OBSERVATORY. 
“FOUNDED A. D. 1842. 
JOHN TYLER, 
President of the U. S. 
ABEL P. UPSHUR, 
Secretary of the Navy.” 
Inscription on the tablet over the door of the Observatory. 
PREPARED AT THE U. S. NAVAL OBSERVATORY 
Professor J. E. NOURSE, U. S. N., 
BY ORDKR OF 
REAR-ADMIRAL B. F. SANDS, U. S. N., 
SUPERINTENDENT Ur S. .VVVAT. OBSERVATORY. 
WASHINGTON: 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
l 8 7 3- United States Naval Observatory, 
Washington, December 20, 1872. 
Sir: I11 accordance with your instructions that I should collate the facts bearing' 
upon the founding and progress of the Observatory, I respectfully present the accom- 
panying memoir as the result of a careful examination of official records, and of inquiry 
among those who have known the history of the Institution. My experience of the 
loss of time incurred in searching official documents has prompted me to cite volume 
and page of authorities for the benefit of those who may desire to look into the full 
records cited. In this connection it would be wrong for me not to acknowledge 
gratefully the very courteous assistance of Mr. G. S. A Vagner, Librarian of the Senate, 
as well as that of the Librarian of Congress and his assistants. 
Though fully conscious of the extreme disproportion between the work of the 
Observatory and this record of it, I trust that some useful purposes will be served 
by the memoir. The eminent names connected with the founding and location of the 
Institution—among which, besides those of the successive heads of the Navy Department, 
are those also of three Presidents of the United States—will elicit and secure atten- 
tion ; no less will the learned and eloquent advocacy of the Institution by one of these 
in the House of Representatives after his presidency. 
The facts presented may seem to show a singular history as regards the earlier 
dates of the Observatory; but they will show just grounds for appreciating its labors, 
especially those of the years since the resumption of its full astronomical work in 1861. 
It would have been pleasant to give the full lists of all who have been attached 
to the Institution; but as the design of the memoir was to deal with its ivorlc, space 
has not been found for its personnel at different dates; nor for much of tribute to its suc- 
cessful laborers. The official eulogies even of those who have fallen at their posts are 
omitted, their work being their memorial. 
I am, sir, very respeetfullv, your obedient servant, 
J. E. NOURSE, 
Professor U. S. Navy. 
Rear-Admiral 13. F. Sands, U. S. N., 
Superintendent U. S. Naval Observatory, Washington, D. C. ERRATA. 
Page 33, line i; “2222,” “2224,” should read 2422, 2424. 
35, foot-note 3, “other” volumes should read later volumes. 
Page 36, line 3, the name of Professor Lawrence belongs to a later date. 
Page 38, line 2, “ 1852” should read 1853. 
Page 39, the heading on this page was designed to read, for a New Meridian Instrument. 
Page 40, 7th line from foot of the page, “Observations” should read Expedition. The first comma in the next line 
should follow the word “ Superintendent.” 
Page 44, 9th line from the foot of the page, “Alaska” should read Behring Straits. MEMOIR OF THE FOUNDING AND PROGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 
NAVAL OBSERVATORY. 
First Memorial and Proposals in Congress for a National Observatory. 
Congressional action for instituting a National Observatory originated in the earliest 
movement for establishing a first meridian in the United States. Of this movement, 
the following memoranda are compiled from the records of Congress : 
Report by Hon. Mr. Pitkin, House of Representatives, 1810. 
In the House of Representatives, March 28, 1810, Mr. Pitkin, of Connecticut, 
chairman of a select committee on a memorial from Mr. William Lambert, of Virginia, 
reported :* 
“That the memorialist, • for the purpose of laying a foundation for the estab- 
lishment of a first meridian for the United States, by which a further dependence on 
Great Britain or any other foreign nation for such meridian may lie entirely removed, 
has made calculations to determine the longitude of the Capitol at the seat of Govern- 
ment from Greenwich Observatory, England, and that there is urgent necessity for 
establishing such a first meridian at Washington, from the confusion already existing 
in consequence of the assumption of different places within the United States as first 
meridians, on the published maps and charts in our country.” The committee urge the 
establishment of a first meridian still more from a national point of view. They present 
Mr. Lambert’s calculations founded on an occupation by the moon of rj Pleiadunq 
Alcyone, observed near the President’s House on the night of October 20, 1804,2 from 
which he deduces the approximate longitude of the Capitol to be 76° 53' 6".920 west 
from Greenwich. Complimenting Mr. Lambert’s astronomical ability, the committee 
recommend the authorizing of further observations by different methods, to determine 
a question of so much nicety and value. They report the following resolution: 
“‘That it is expedient to make provision by law authorizing the President of the 
United States to cause the longitude of the city of Washington from the Observatory 
at Greenwich to be ascertained with the greatest degree of accuracy, and, for that 
purpose, to procure the necessary astronomical instruments.’” 
This report was laid upon the table, but on the 23d of January, 181 i,3 was referred 
to a second select committee, of which Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, and Hr. S. 
L. Mitchell, of New York, were members. This committee appears, however, to have 
been discharged at their own request, in order that the memorial might be referred to 
the Secretary of State. 
1 Eleventh Congress, second session, House of Representatives, Report No. 277: American Miscellaneous State Papers, 
volume II, page 53; March 28, 1810. 
2 See notes of this observation in Astronomische Nachrichten, volume vi, p. 388, and Arol. xviii, p. 76 et dl. 
3 Journal of House of Representatives, January 23 and February 23, 1811. 6 
July 3, 1812, tlie Hon. Secretary of State, Mr. Monroe, replied through the 
Speaker of the House J 
“The principal object of the submission of the papers to the Department of 
State seems to have been to obtain from it a report on the policy, in a national point 
of view, of establishing a first meridian in the United States at the seat of Govern- 
ment. * * * The Secretary of State has no hesitation to declare his accord with 
the committee in their opinion in favor of the establishment of a first meridian for 
the United States, and that it should be at the city of Washington, the seat of their 
Government. Scientific men agree that it would be of advantage to science if all 
nations would adopt the same first meridian. * * * After the discovery of America, 
which banished the idea of a most western limit, that of a general meridian lost ground, 
and latterly it has been completely abandoned. * * * Sinck the period alluded 
to, the establishment of a first meridian for themselves has become, by the usage of 
nations, an appendage, if not an attribute, of sovereignty. 
“ The establishment of a meridian by the United States is deserving their atten- 
tion, until, at least, by common consent some particular meridian should be made 
a standard. I11 admitting the propriety of establishing a first meridian within the 
United States, it follows that it ought to be done with the greatest mathematical 
precision. It is known that the best mode yet discovered for establishing the meridian 
of a place is by observations of the heavenly bodies; and, that to produce the great- 
est accuracy in the result, such observations should be often repeated, at suitable oppor- 
tunities, through a series of years, by means of the best instruments. ’ For this purpose 
an Observatory would be of essential utility. It is only in such an Institution, to be 
founded by the public, that all the necessary implements are likely to be collected 
together; that systematic observations can be made for any great length of time; and 
that the public can be made secure of the results of the labors of scientific men. In 
favor of such an Institution, it is sufficient to remark that every nation which has estab- 
lished a first meridian has also established an Observatory.” 
Mr. Monroe’s report was referred to a second select committee, including, from the 
new Congress, Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina. On the 20th of January, 1813, Dr. 
S. L. Mitchell, reported:2 
“ That they had diligently weighed Mr. Lambert’s memorial, and the letter 
of the II011. Secretary of State; that, in their opinion, astronomical observatories 
are highly useful to a navigating and commercial people, already eminent for their 
progress in science and the arts, and who are laboring for the completion of 
their national dignity and splendor; and that the most ready way of obtaining 
the information they desired, from noting the phenomena of the heavens, is by the 
establishment of an Observatory. This may be erected at the city of Washington. 
By such an Institution, means may be adopted, not only to fix the first meridian, but 
to ascertain a great number of other astronomical facts and occurrences through the 
vigilance of a complete astronomer.” 
1 Journal of the House of Representatives, Twelfth Congress, volume 8, page 415; and American Miscellaneous 
State Papers, volume II, page 194. 
2 Report of the committee of the House of Representatives, and bill for a National Observatory, January 20, 1813: 
American Miscellaneous State papers, volume II, page 197, and Journal of the House of Representatives, 1813. 7 
The bill accompanying1 this report was probably destroyed in the burning of the 
records of the Capitol in 1814. The report was read a second time and committed 
to a (1ommittee of the Whole House for the 22(1 of the same month. Nothing, however, 
was again heard of it until tin* year 1815. The condition of the country and its mili- 
tarv affairs probably absorbed the chief attention of the House, both in its open and 
its closed sessions. 
In 1815, February 2d, Mr. Lambert’s original memorial was again referred, with 
the several reports made and the letter of the Secretary of State, to a select committee, 
who reported through Mr. Nelson, of Virginia, on the 18th:1 That the reasons detailed 
in the said reports appearing to be well founded, the committee had no hesitation in 
declaring their full assent to them. It was, also, the opinion of the committee that 
the plan proposed by the memorialist ought to be carried into complete effect, whenever 
attention to objects of a pressing nature and more immediate importance to the welfare 
of our country would permit, by the erection of a National Observatory, and by pro- 
viding suitable instruments and apparatus, at the public expense, to enable skillful per- 
sons to determine the places of the moon, planets, and other heavenly bodies, with suf- 
ficient accuracy, by repeated and careful observations of the times of their transit over 
the meridian of the place. The report further recommended that the President of the 
United States be requested to cause such further observations to be made by competent 
persons as may be deemed most proper to determine the longitude of the Capitol with 
the greatest practicable degree of exactness, and that the results and data belaid before 
Congress at its next session. The Executive took no steps under this resolution, on 
the ground that it was not a joint resolution, but agreed to “by the House of Repre- 
sentatives alone'12 
In November, 1818, a third memorial was presented by Mr. Nelson from Mr. Lam- 
bert, claiming “that the abstracts of astronomical calculations, to ascertain the longi- 
tude of the Capitol, for the establishment of a first meridian, according to the original 
plan of the city, are founded on the most accurate data that could be had at the respect- 
ive times when the observations were made, and have been admitted by the American 
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, into the last volume of their Transactions3 that 
the memorialist does notask that “an Observatory be erected and furnished with suita- 
ble instruments at the present time; but solicits the adoption of a concurrent resolu- 
tion authorizing additional observations to test the accuracy of the results already 
obtained bv such methods as may be best adapted to insure a correct determination of 
our longitude from Greenwich.” 
“ * 
The memorial was referred to a select committee,4 Mr. Nelson, chairman, who 
reported the joint resolution asked for, which, however, was not finally passed until 
March 3, 1821. Mr. Lambert was then appointed by the President, “to make astro- 
nomical observations by lunar occultations of fixed stars, solar eclipses, or any approved 
method adapted to ascertain the longitude of the Capitol from Greenwich.”5 
1 Report ami bill for a National Observatory, No. 385, American Htato papers, Thirteenth Congress, third session 
and House Journal for 1815. 
* Miscellaneous American State Papers, volume II, page 759. 
3 Philosophical Transactions, new series, volume I, page 102. 
* Journals of the House of Representatives, 1819, 1820, 1821. 
American Miscellaneous State Papers, volume II, page 7G9. 8 
Iii his report, submitted to Congress by President Monroe, January 8, 1822, Mr. 
Lambert refers to the loan of instruments for his work by one of the Departments, which 
instruments had been brought from Europe for the special purpose of surveying our 
sea-coasts, among which instruments were a transit-instrument, a circle of reflection, an 
astronomical clock, and a chronometer; and to his testing the accuracy of the time- 
pieces by a series of observations before any calculations were made, lie submits 
extended abstracts of a series of observations of the .moon’s transit over the meridian, 
and of the eclipse of the sun, August 26, astronomical (27, civil) reckoning.1 He 
gives, as the mean results by the different methods employed 
Longitude of the Capitol, west from Greenwich, . . . 76° 55' 30".54 
Longitude of the Capitol, west from Paris, 790 15' 41A69 
Longitude of the President’s House, west from Greenwich, 76° 57' 5".33 
His report, which occupies more than twenty pages folio of the printed State 
Papers, closes with this statement : 
“ The legislative and executive authorities of the National Government will decide 
on the utility or inexpediency of erecting an Observatory and furnishing it with suitable 
instruments and apparatus. Without such an Institution, the right ascension, declina- 
tion, longitude, and latitude of the moon, planets, &c., cannot be ascertained with suf- 
ficient accuracy; and any attempt to compute a nautical almanac or astronomical 
ephemeris for ourselves would be futile, if not preposterous. Until an Observatory be 
erected and furnished, we shall be compelled to rely upon the labors of scientific men 
for the elements necessary to be used in our astronomical calculations.”2 * * * * 
A “supplementary Report” from Mr. Lambert, March 7, 1822, gives the longi- 
tude of the Capitol 76° 55' 10".05 west. 
The President communicated, December 23, 1823, a second supplementary report3 
—occupying 140 closely printed pages of the Executive Documents—in which the 
memorialist states that he had transmitted copies of his calculations to various sections 
of the United States and of foreign countries, to induce an impartial investigation by 
competent persons of the accuracy of his work, and closes witli the strongest re-affir- 
mations of all previously submitted, in favor of establishing an Observatory. This 
report gave the longitude of the Capitol, 76° 55' 30".54.“* 
It was committed to the Joint Committee of the Library; and a report upon it 
was made by Hon. Mr. Smyth, February 25, 1824, but laid upon the table. No 
further trace of it can be found, since the files of the Joint Committee previous to 1851 
were all destroyed by the fire in the Congressional Library in December ot that year. 
1 Iu order to be prepared for correet transit observations, a meridional line was drawn by means of concentric cir- 
cles on a large platform, nineteen feet west of theoriginal line, marked by Mr. Andrew Ellicott, astronomer uuder tbe 
commissioners for laying out the seat of Government, and its direction from one of tho windows at the south wing 
was verified with minute exactness. 
2Message of the President of the United States, December 23, 1823, Journal of the House of Representatives* 
Eighteenth Congress, first session. 
3 Journal of the House of Representatives, February 25, 1824. 
4Mr. William Elliot, appointed by Mr. Lambert to make the transit observations, reports the longitude ol the 
Capitol, 77° F 48" west. 9 
A National Observatory recommended by President Adams, December 6, 1825. 
Iii the first message of President Adams, lie urged on Congress the establishment 
of a National University, in language which appears evidently to look for the location 
of the Institution on the grounds now belonging to the Observatory:1 
n n n j 
“Among the first, perhaps the very first, instruments for the improvement of the 
condition of men is knowledge; and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge 
adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life, public institutions 
and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first of my 
predecessors in this oflice, now first in the memory, as living he was first in the hearts, 
of our country, that once and again, in his addresses to the Congresses with whom he 
co-operated in the public service,' he earnestly recommended the establishment of semi- 
naries of learning, to prepare for all the emergencies of peace and war, a National 
University and a Military Academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the 
present day, in turning his eyes to the Institution at West Point, he would have enjoyed 
the gratification of his most earnest wishes. Put in surveying the city which has been 
honored with his name, he would have seen the spot of earth which he had'destined 
and bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as the site for a University, still 
barren and bare.” 
In a later part of the same message,Mr. Adams returns to the theme, then becom- 
ing his favorite, and which, at a later day, he elaborately advocated—in 1838, before 
President Van Buven, and in 1842, in his place in the House of Representatives: 
1 President’s message, first session, Nineteenth Congress. 
- Washington’s speeches to Congress in New York, January 8, 1790, and in Philadelphia in December 8, 1790: 
* * “ Knowledge is in every country tlie surest basis of public happiness. * * To the security of a free Con- 
stitution it contributes by teaching the people themselves to know and value their own rights, * * to discriminate 
the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy but tem- 
perate vigilance against encroachments, with an inviolable respect for the laws. Whether this desirable object will be 
best promoted by the institution of a National University, or by any other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in 
the deliberations of the Legislature.” 
“ I have heretofore proposed to Congress the consideration of the expediency of establishing a National University. 
* * * The assembly to which I address myself is too enlightened not to bo fully sensible how much a flourishing 
state of the arts and sciences contributes to national prosperity. * * Amongst tho motives to such an institution* 
the assimilation of tho principles, opinions, and manners of our oountrymen by tho common education of a portion of our 
youth from every quarter, well deserves attention. Tho more homogeneous our citizens can be made in these particu- 
lars, the greater will be our prospect of permanent union.” 
To tho fm*t of these communications the Senato replied in their answer to the Address : 
* * “Literature and science are essential to the preservation of a free constitution; the measures of government 
should, therefore, bo calculated to strengthen the confidence duo to this important truth.” 
To tho second recommendation by Washington, in 179(1, the Senato replied: 
“A National University may bo converted to tho most useful of purposes; the science of legislation being so essen- 
tially dependent on the endowments of the mind, the public interests must receive effectual aid from the general diffusion 
of knowledge.” 
Tho recommendations were discussed, advocated by Madison and others, and their consideration postponed, April 
27, 179G. 
The Will of (Jeneral Washington bears witness to his retaining, to the close of life, these same ideas of the benefits 
of a national scientific Institution. After expressing his life-long regrets that tho youth of the United States should be 
sent abroad for tho purpose of education, ho says, “It has been my ardent desire to see a plan devised, on a liberal 
scale, which would have a tendency to spread systematic ideas throughout all parts of this rising empire, hereby to do 
away with local attachments and State prejudices. * * * My mind has not been able to contemplate any plan more 
likely to effect the measure than the establishment of a university, where the youth of our country may be able to free 
themselves from local prejudices and jealousies pregnant of mischievous consequences to our country.” 10 
“ Connected with the establishment of a University,1 or separate from it, might be 
undertaken the erection of an astronomical Observatory, with provision for the support 
of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance on the phenomena of the heavens, and 
for the periodical publications of his observations. It is with no feeling of pride as an 
American, that the remark may be made, that, on the comparatively small territorial 
surface of Europe, there are existing more than one hundred and thirty of these light- 
houses of the skies; while throughout the whole American hemisphere there is not 
one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries which in the last four centuries have 
been made in the physical constitution of the universe by means of these buildings 
and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation ? 
And while scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new astro- 
nomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are 
we not cutting ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, while we have 
neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in 
perpetual darkness to our unsearcliing eyes0?” 
This part of the message was referred to a select committee, of which Mr. C. E. 
Mercer, chairman, presented, March 18, 1826, an elaborate report from Major-General 
A. Macomb, Chief of Engineers, as the report of the committee.2 The report was 
accompanied by “ A bill to establish an Observatory in the District of Columbia.” 
The following are a few extracts from General Macomb’s report: 
“Engineer Department, 
11 Wash inyton, Marcli 6, 1826. 
“Hon. James Barbour, Secretary of War: 
“Sir: In obedience to your direction, I have considered the inquiries concerning 
the establishment of an Observatory, presented in the communication addressed to you 
on the 30th of January, by the Hon. C. E. Mercer, as chairman of the committee to 
whom was referred so much of the President’s message, to the present Congress, as 
relates to that subject: 1st, in relation to the position; 2d, the probable cost of a 
suitable edifice; 3d, the expense of providing it with the necessary attendants, furni- 
ture, and instruments. * * * * With reference to these inquiries, I have the honor 
to state as follows: 
1st. With regard to the position. The city of Washington offers many excellent 
positions, especially one on the reservation of the public square which lies between 
Mason’s Island and the mouth of the Tiber, where the land is sufficiently elevated and 
where a sufficient line can be found to establish a meridian, taking one point north 
on the prolongation of a street over Rock Creek, and the other across the Potomac, 
on the lands of Mr. Custis, of Arlington.3 * * * 
1 Mr. Adams, in a report of a later date,* expressed his uncertainty whether Congress possesses, under the Constitu- 
tion, the power to establish a National University. He seems to have had in mind that the proposition of Madison and 
Pinckney, to insert in the list of powers vested in Congress a power to establish a university, had failed in the Con- 
vention of 1787; chiefly, however, because Gouverneur Morris, in the Convention, urged that the provision was “ un- 
necessary; saying “the exclusive power at the seat of Government will reach that object.”t 
-First session Nineteenth Congress, House of Kepresentatives, report No. 124, March 18, 182G. 
3 In the introduction to the annual volumes issued by the Naval Observatory, for the years 1846, 1847, and 1848, the 
Superintendent states the difficulties in effecting this—which has not indeed been found necessary. 
*Jteport Xo. 581, Twenty-seventh Congress second session, page 28. 
t Madison Papers, volume III, page 1577. 11 
“The astronomer ought to be independent in the performance of his duties, but 
accountable for the results, for bis industry, and the correctness of his observations 
and calculations. The results of his scientific labors should be given to the world, in 
order that they might be duly examined by astronomers of different countries, whose 
attention would naturally be attracted to works of this character, emanating from the 
metropolis of the United States. Foreign as well as domestic criticism would thus 
stimulate the astronomer to great vigilance and attention. It would be proper, there- 
fore, that au annual report should be made to Congress, exhibiting the observations 
taken at the Observatory; and, as soon as circumstances would permit, a nautical 
almanac, or astronomical ephemeris, should be prepared and published for the use of 
the Navy and commercial marine. To save the astronomer all trouble in obtaining 
supplies of various kinds which would be required on account of the Observatory, in 
making expenditures, receiving communications, and with reference to other details 
connected with it; and, in order that communications and reports might be made to 
Congress in a regular manner, it would be proper that he should be made responsible 
to, and correspond and communicate with, some established department of the Gov- 
ernment. * * * As an astronomer, with the requisite talents and qualifications, 
would be obliged to devote all his time and attention to the duties of his station, it is 
not to be expected that a fit person could be procured for this situation without the 
compensation of a liberal salary.” * * * 
In a communication submitted also by General Macomb with this letter to the 
Hon. Secretary of War, M. de Wallenstein, then an attache of the Russian legation, 
thus speaks of the proposed location of the Observatory: 
* * * * “Allow me to mention one of the important advantages which may be 
expected from an Observatory in this metropolis. The liberality with which the British 
government has provided for the creation of such an establishment on the Cape of Good 
Hope has been so much the more celebrated by the scientific world as this new observ- 
atory li(*s nearly under the same meridian as that of Abo. Astronomy must neces- 
sarilvbe benefited by it. ' Now, Washington lies more exactly on the same meridian 
with a great Capital for a southern hemisphere ; with Lima, the difference of longitude 
being only thirty-five seconds in time, or 8' 45" in arc; and Peru which occupies a 
distinguished place in the history of astronomy, has, perhaps, already in its principal 
city, a regular Observatory.” 
Major Kearney’s letter (accompanying also General Macomb’s report) is chiefly 
occupied with the details of a plan for a building, referring to the form and the con- 
struction of the observatories at Greenwich, Wilna, Berlin, Petersburg, Dublin, and 
other places. It is followed by extracts from Francis Baily’s Memoir on a new 
method of determining the longitude, in which a general account is given of the 
efforts then .making for the promotion of astronomy.1 In this memoir, Mr. Baily 
expresses an expectation that the American states recently constituted in the South will 
be as favorable to astronomy as the older state which first assumed its liberty in the 
North. 
Mr. Mercer’s report and bill were read the first and the second time, and com- 
1 Memoir of the Ivoyal Astrouomical.Society, volume 2, page 25. 12 
mitted to tlio Committee of the Whole House for the following Monday; but the House 
Journals show no further trace of them whatever. 
The biographer, of Mr. Adams thus speaks of this and of the other special recom- 
mendations of his first message, among which were those for a Naval School, and one 
for another national object, which had been long His profound study when abroad, 
viz, the establishing of a uniform standard of weights and measures1: — 
“Every one of these recommendations, though obviously associated with the pro- 
gress of the nation, and independent of all party or personal influences, was treated 
with neglect, or suffered to lie unnoticed, or to be lost by indefinite postponement.” 
It is as creditable to Mr. Adams as it is interesting to the Observatory that he did 
not relax his labors for its institution, but yet more vigorously renewed them at later 
dates, in 1836, 1838, 1840, and 1842. 
Official action following Mr. Mercer’s report. 
An examination of the messages of the several Presidents immediately succeeding 
Mr. Adams, and of the accompanying documents, reveals no special action, on the part 
of the Executive or of Congress relative to an Observatory, until the year 1830. On 
the 18th of March, 1830, Hon. Mr. Branch, Secretary of the Navy, replied to a letter 
of inquiry from Hon. Mr. Hoffman, chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, House 
of Representatives: 
“As far as I have been able to obtain information on the subject, an astronomical 
Observatory would.be a desirable establishment in the United States for the following 
reasons: 
“1st. I11 a national point of view, as it would furnish the means of making such 
observations as would enable astronomers to ascertain or calculate the positions of the 
heavenly bodies, at any time, without being dependent on other nations for the same; 
and would be, moreover, a fixed point to Avliose meridian (commonly called a first merid- 
ian Avlien used for geographical purposes) terrestrial objects may, with certainty, be 
referred, as far a* respects their longitudes. 
“2d. It would, furthermore, be desirable in a scientific point of view, as it would 
present the means of comparing certain astronomical results, for the purpose of deter- 
mining the figure of the earth, and improving theories relative to the motions of plane- 
tary bodies. * * * * It ought to have a certain and fixed location with respect to some 
other place, whose geographical position has been well established, as the observatories 
of Paris and Greenwich, &c. This, inasmuch as the ocean intervenes, (the measure- 
ment of which cannot be made with the precision necessary for such purposes,) must 
lie effected by celestial observations, which, as is well known, can be made With greater 
accuracy and under greater advantages in an Observatory than elsewhere.” * * * * * 
In a letter of the same date to the Secretary of the Navy, from Commodore 
John Rodgers, president of the Board of Navy Commissioners, the Commissioners say: 
“The principal object in establishing an Institution of this kind in the United States 
would not be to aid, essentially, the surveying of our coast, but to unite our enterprise and 
efforts with those of other enlightened countries; in advancing, generally, the service of 
1 American Miscellaneous State Papers, volume II, page 656. lleport of J. Q. Adams, Secretary of State, on Weights 
and Measures, Sixteenth Congress, second session, No. 503, February 22, 1821. 13 
astronomy, amending theories at present adopted of the heavenly phenomena, (all of 
which are still supposed to he susceptible of greater or less improvement,)and to furnish 
annually our naval and commercial interests with a correct ephemeris, upon the 
accuracy of which depend so much the safety of our commerce and the lives of our 
seamen.” 
In his report of December 5, 1835, Hon. Mr. Dickerson, Secretary of the Navy, 
says: 
“A National Observatory* although not immediately necessary to the defense of our 
country, is remotely so; and, considered with reference to the bearing it would have upon 
our Navy, our commerce, and scientific pursuits, it assumes an importance worthy the 
consideration of Congress. It is hardly to be doubted that we shall,at some future period, 
make such an establishment, and I will venture to express an opinion that no time can 
be more propitious for such an undertaking than the present. It would not be attended 
with any great expense. It is necessary now to employ an officer of science to keep 
our maps and charts, to regulate our chronometers, and to preserve all mathematical and 
philosophical instruments required for the naval service; and buildings are necessary 
for these purposes. These duties would properly devolve upon the superintendent of an 
(fbservatory; and the buildings necessary to such an establishment would be amply sufli- 
eient for the preservation of our maps, charts, and instruments.” 
There is no record of an indorsement by the President of this proposition from the 
Secretary; nor can 1 find any further record of congressional action, leading directly 
to the establishment of an Observatory, until the years 1841-42. The statement of 
the Secretary, in 1835, referring to the employment of an officer of science, to keep 
maps and charts, pointed to the previous action of the Navy Department, in estab- 
lishing, in 1830, a bureau for the care of naval instruments and charts. 
This action, under the Navy Commissioners, (authorized December 6, 1830,) is the 
first point of a distinct era in the history of this Institution. The brief record of it 
which follows Avill show that, after so many years of delay and apathy 011 the part 
of Congress as regards the establishment of an Observatory, it was left for a few officers 
of the Navy to originate and prosecute such measures as resulted in the creation of the 
present Institution. The record of their labors falling in at this place in point of time, 
will be now given, the congressional and executive action being next resumed. F01 
the history of the events leading to the establishment of the depot, I cite largely from 
Lieutenant Gilliss’s report of 184 s. 
Establishment of the Depot of Charts and Instruments. 
“Through the influence of Lieutenant L. M. Goldsborough, (now Rear-Admiral, 
Tinted States Navy,) a bureau was established in this city in 1830, for the care of the 
instruments, charts, &c., of the Navy.”1 I haler the orders of the Navy Commissioners,’ 
by the sanction of the Secretary of the Navy, Lieutenant Goldsborough had collected 
and brought, from New York and other places, the chronometers, sextants, theodolites, 
and other instruments and the charts of the Navy, and had located them in Washing-- 
1 Report of Lieutenant J. M. Gilliss, February 7, 1845, Twenty-eighth Congress, second session, No. 114, Senate. 
Records of iho Navy Commissioners, December 6, 1830. Files of tho Navy Department. 14 
ton, in a building- opposite tlie residence of the United States Attorney-General, Hon. 
William Wirt. A transit-instrument, at the price of forty guineas, was afterward 
added. 
The further interest manifested by the Navy Commissioners, in what was leading 
to an Observatory, appears in their letter to the Secretary,1 on the subject of employ- 
ing Messrs. Jenkins and Taylor to prepare an American nautical almanac. In this 
letter they say: 
“As a matter of national pride and independence, it would be desirable to have 
an American nautical almanac adapted to a first meridian of our own. * * * * An 
almanac of this kind would be one of the first fruits of an Observatory, should Con- 
gress deem it expedient to establish one.” For such an establishment, Commodore 
Charles Morris, one of the Commissioners, was a zealous advocate. 
Lieutenant Gilliss further says: 
“One of the duties of the officers connected with the Depot of Charts and Instru- 
ments was the careful rating of all chronometers belonging to the Navy, which was, for 
some months, effected by sextant and circle observations, but, between the summers of 
1831 and 1833, with a thirty-inch transit-instrument, made in New York by Mr. IT 
Fatten. The transit was mounted within a small circular building, upon a brick pier, 
having a base about twenty feet below the surface. To Lieutenant Goldsborough, 
therefore, is due the erection of the first astronomical instrument for the Navy at Wash- 
ington. 
“lie was succeeded in the charge of the depot in 1833 by Lieutenant 
Wilkes, (now retired Rear-Admiral United States Navy,) who obtained permission from 
the Navy Commissioners, and removed the office from its location in the west end of 
Washington to Capitol Hill, to a site proposed originally by Mr. F. R. Hassler, in 1816, 
about 1,000 feet north, 50 west, from the dome of the Capitol, where it remained till 
July, 1842. Here Lieutenant Wilkes erected, at his own expense, an Observatory six- 
teen feet square, and mounted one of the five-foot transits, made by Trougliton for 
the Coast Survey in 1815, which was loaned by Mr. Hassler for the purpose. It does not 
appear, however, that any regular series of observations was commenced until the 
departure of the Exploring Expedition in 1838;. the principal use made of the transit 
being the determination of time.2 This was a daily requisite, as the comparing-clock 
performed irregularly, and was not to be relied on more than twenty-four hours, nor 
was it possible to procure proper astronomical instruments exclusively for the depot. 
“During the absence of Lieutenant Wilkes, in Europe, to purchase instruments for 
the Exploring Expedition, Lieutenant Hitchcock took charge of the depot, and Lieu- 
tenant Gilliss was ordered as his assistant, in November, 1836, and was left in charge 
in the following spring, on the appointment of Lieutenant Wilkes to the survey of 
George’s Shoal. In the winter of 1837-38, while Lieutenant Wilkes was surveying 
‘Letter of Commodore Jolm Rodgers for Navy Commissioners, to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, December 10, 
1831. Files of the Navy Department. 
’ 3 From this depot of Naval Instruments and Charts, however* all United States vessels, on going to sea, were 
furnished from the first, with chronometers and other instruments and charts, as subsequently they were thus furnished 
from the United States Naval Observatory, until the organization of the Hydrographic Office in 1866. Chronometers 
are still necessarily retained in charge of the Observatory for trial and rating. 15 
the entrance to Savannah River,Lieutenant Gilliss observed, at his request, all the cul- 
minations of the moon and stars tabulated with it which occurred before midnight; but 
the observations were never reduced. When Lieutenant Wilkes accepted the com- 
mand of the Exploring .Expedition in 1838, the importance of corresponding moon cul- 
minations, occultations, and eclipses, in determining differences of longitude between 
this observatory and the stations which the Expedition might occupy abroad, was sug- 
gested to the Department, and Mr. William C. Bond, at Boston, and Lieutenant Gilliss, 
were directed to continue such observations during its absence. Both the astronomical 
and the magnetical and meteorological observations were to be made under the follow- 
ing order from the II011. Secretary of the Navy:1 
“Navy Department, August 13, 1838. 
“Sir: Mr. Bond, of Boston, has been employed to make a series of observations 
during the absence of the Exploring Expedition, and in connection with it. It is deemed 
proper that similar observations be made at the Depot of Charts and Instruments; You 
are, therefore, charged with the performance of this duty; and in conducting the same 
you will be governed by the inclosed, which is a copy of the instructions sent to Mr. 
Bond. 
“I am, respectfully, &c., 
“J. K. PAULDING. 
“Lieutenant J. M. Gilliss. 
“Instructions, rfr., to be observed in making the series of observations during the absenee of 
the Exploring Expedition, and in connection with it. 
* “ You will use every opportunity of taking observations of moon-culminating stars, 
confining yourself principally to those enumerated in the Nautical Almanac to be ob- 
served at Greenwich. As most of the stars are of the fifth and sixth magnitudes, you 
will, when opportunity offers, observe all those of the first and second magnitudes, par- 
ticularly during the day, if any such offer. Although you M ill have a meridian-mark 
to refer to, [a mark placed on the parapet to the Capitol by Lieutenant Wilkes,] I should 
prefer your having resource to observations of high and Ion' stars to prove your obser- 
vations. * * * I would desire that your observations should be registered by a side- 
real clock, in order to# avoid any reduction for time equivalents. * * * If at anytime 
you should not be able to make use of a sidereal clock, your observations ought, in all 
cases, to be corrected before the expiration of twelve hours, and marked in the column 
with its proper sign of application. You will lose no opportunity of making observa- 
tions on any astronomical phenomenon, describing the place of its occurrence in the 
heavens. * * Your attention may be directed to any falling stars, particularly to 
those periodic ones in November. All eclipses you M ill, of course, be particular in 
observing, in order that, if any remarkable phenomenon should happen, Ave may have 
simultaneous observations of it. * * * The poM'er of your telescope need not be 
over 240, and, generally, of. 175 and 75; the lower power Mill be most suitable, as 
affording a clearer and flatter field. In noting any observations, you M ill be particular 
in mentioning the instrument and poM'er used. In your journal, you M ill note the state 
•Ordure of Aocretary Paulding and instructions to Lieutenant Gilliss, and to Mr. WYC. Horn!, of Dorchester, Mass. 16 
of the heavens, whether clear or cloudy, and the state of the atmosphere, as respects 
barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer. * * The eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites 
frequently offer; they will be generally observed by me, and, I think, had better claim 
some attention from you; also, I would direct your attention somewhat to the occulta- 
tions of all large stars, and the difference of observations as respects the disappearance 
and re-appearance of the star with the moon’s limb. All of these observations will be 
most desirable during the year 1840. Observations on the perturbations, dip, and 
intensity of the magnetic needle would be very desirable.” 
Under the'se instructions, Lieutenant Gilliss himself made all the astronomical 
observations reported to the Secretary of the 'Navy, and published at Washington, July, 
1846, except those of one day in 1838 and of two days in 1841. With these excep- 
tions, there was not a visible culmination of the moon occuring, when the sun was less 
than one hour above the horizon, during the entire period from 1838 to 1842, nor an 
occupation after June 15, 1839, except that of 139 Tauri, which he did not personally 
observe. 
His instructions had enabled him to obtain a portable 42-inch achromatic tele- 
scope, mounted parallactically; a variation transit, modified from Gambey’s plan, so as 
to be used as a diurnal instrument in the bi-hourly observations; an 8-inch dip-circle; 
and a sidereal chronometer.1 The observations commenced in September, 1838. 
The Transit was extremely deficient in optical power, and would not define stars smaller 
than the second magnitude when the sun was two hours above the horizon. The num- 
ber of transits recorded exceeded 10,000, embracing the moon, planets, and about 
1,100 stars. The average annual number of culminations of the moon observed was 
110, and of lunar occupations about 20.2 
Magnetical and Meteorological Observations. 
Recognizing the astronomical observations as of paramount importance to the ob- 
jects of the Exploring Expedition, (as the instructions distinctly implied,) Lieutenant 
Gilliss “hoped that a continued series in magnetism and meteorology also, carefully 
made, might prove, in some degree, useful to the solution of the great physical problem 
then under investigation by order of European governments, even if these observations 
could not bring to their recommendation the refinements of observatories specially estab- 
lished to that end. At all events, the subjects were new to the officers who would neces- 
sarily take part in them, and the experience consequent on their labors could not fail 
to benefit the naval profession.” 
Appreciating the arguments presented, the Secretary of the Navy authorized the 
purchase of new magnetic and meteorological instruments, and ordered additional 
assistants for the work at the Depot, 
The Magnetic and Meteorological observations were made during the same years 
with the astronomical observations before referred to, in a frame building; ten feet long* 
by six feet wide erected for them in a position fifty feet south of the little observatory 
and forty feet northwest of the house occupied as a Depot for the charts and instruments. 
] Two clocks, a sidereal and a mean-time, and a balance magnetometer, were subsequently obtained. 
-Astronomical Observations made at Washington under order of the Secretary of the Navy dated August 13,1838, 
printed by order of the Senate, 1840. 17 
The record observations, together with a description of the declinometer, dip- 
circle, and magnetometer, and of the meteorological instruments used, forms the tenth 
volume of the Senate documents of 1844-45.1 
In making- these astronomical and meteorological observations. Lieutenant Gilliss 
had the honor of being “the first in the United States who conducted a working Ob- 
servatory, and the first who gave his whole time to practical astronomical work; it was 
lie who first published a volume of observations, first prepared a catalogue of stars, and 
planned and carried into effect the construction of a working Observatory as contrasted 
with one intended chiefly for purposes of instruction. It was his privilege to he en- 
dowed with a wondrous acuteness of the perceptive powers of eve and ear. No one 
at all conversant with observations can examine the printed record without a vivid 
perception of this marked peculiarity.” 
In the long list of observers living and dead whose results were critically and 
searchingly tested by the so-called personal scale, he held the second place, by the 
testimony of Professor Peirce, who applied this test to the observations of 1838— 42.' 
In 1845, after the establishment of the Observatory in its present location, Lieu- 
tenant Gilliss, in the close of his preface to the volume of these Astronomical Obser- 
vations then issued, modestly says: 
“It remains but for me to express my gratitude that the prosecution of these obser- 
vations should have resulted in the foundation of a permanent Naval Observatory, and 
have obtained for me, though fora brief period, the privilege of association with many 
of tin* most distinguished astronomers of the present century.”3 
A PERMANENT DEPOT RECOMMENDED. 
“As tiu* observations progressed, the unsuitableness of the building, the defects of 
the Transit instrument, the want of space to erect a permanent circle, and the absolute 
necessity of rebuilding the observatory in use, became each day more urgent.” At the 
earnest solicitation of Lieutenant Gilliss, the Commissioners of the Navy recommended 
an appropriation fora permanent establishment in December, 1841. Even this, how- 
ever, was not accomplished without difficulty. But the interest of the honorable Secre- 
tary in advancing science, and more especially those brandies of it in which the Navy 
is interested, induced him readily to appreciate its importance, and to bring the subject 
before Congress in his report to the President of December, 1841. He thus indorsed 
the recommendation of the Commissioners: 
“ Permit me to express my entire approval of the suggestion of the Commissioners, 
in relation to a suitable depot for the charts and instruments belonging to the Navy. 
I hese have been procured at great labor and expense, and are indispensable in tin* 
Naval service. I he small expenditure which will be necessary to preserve them in a 
condition, always ready for use, is not worth a moment’s consideration when compared 
with the great purposes they are designed to answer. They area necessary jiart. of 
a naval establishment worthy of the present and growing greatness of our country.”4 
'Magnetic ami Meteorological Observations made at Washington mirier orders of t be Secretary of the Navy dated • 
August i:», 1KW. 
-Annual of tlie National Academy of Sciences for I860, pp. 58 and 64. 
3 Lieutenant (Jilliss’s Keport, February 7, 1845, p. 65. 
* Keport of Hon. A. P. 1'pshur, Secretary of the Navy, December 4, 1841, 18 
I lie suggestion of the Navy Commissioners here referred to is to be found in their 
report to the Secretary of the Navy of November 30, 1841: 
“The Board beg leave to call your attention to the subject of a ‘permanent depot’ 
for the charts and instruments. * * The utility of this, as a matter of economy only, 
is fully manifested. * * To this may be added the facilities which such an estab- 
lishment presents to officers of the Navy for obtaining useful, valuable, and indeed 
necessary knowledge in some branches of their profession.” This report contained an 
estimate for buildings not to exceed $50,000, which could be commenced the ensuing 
season if half that sum were appropriated. 
Lieutenant Gilliss proceeds in his narrative: 
“Much delay occured with the Naval committees in Congress. The Hon. Francis 
Mallory, to whom it was referred by the House committee, espoused the cause warmly, 
but the majority kept aloof from the Depot (although so near) until the entire winter 
had passed away. Finally, on the 15th March, 1842, I succeeded in persuading the 
only member of the committee who was skeptical to visit the observatory, and on that 
very day a unanimous report and bill were presented to the House of Representa- 
tives. Believing the chances of success would be greater if a bill could be passed by 
the Senate, by the advice of Mr. Mallory I waited on the Naval committee of the 
Senate; but my entreaties for a personal inspection of our wants were put off from 
time to time. The question was probably decided by an astronomical event.” The 
attention of the committee was gained by the following incident: 
At a meeting of the National Institute, at which the Hon. William C. Preston was 
present, Lieutenant Gilliss gave notice of having found Encke’s comet with the 3.^-foot 
achromatic, the comet being then near its perihelion. A few days subsequently he 
made what was intended to be a last visit to the chairman of the Senate ‘committee, 
and found Mr. Preston with him. As soon as he began the conversation about the 
little observatory, Mr. Preston inquired whether he had not given the notice of the 
comet at the Institute, and immediately volunteered, “ I will do all I can to help you.” 
Within a week a bill was passed by the Senate. 
It is hardly necessary to trace its progress in the House. A majority was known 
to be favorable, but its number on the calendar, and the opposition of one or two mem- 
bers, was likely to prevent action upon it; for its receiving the sanction of the House 
of Representatives at the last hour of the session of 1841-42, the Navy is indebted to 
the untiring exertions of Dr. Mallory. 
The bill, which without discussion passed Congress, authorized the Secretary of the 
Navy to contract for the building of a suitable house for a depot of charts and instruments 
of the Navy on a plan not exceeding in cost $25,000, the sum of $10,000 being appro- 
priated for the year; the Institution to be located 011 any portion of unappropriated 
public land in the District of Columbia which the President might deem suitable.1 
Taking the report of the Naval committee which accompanied this bill as the 
exponent of the will of Congress, the Secretary of the Navy directed Lieutenant Gilliss 
to visit the northern citieS for the purpose of obtaining information respecting a plan, 
which, while it combined essentials, should not exceed in cost the appropriated sum. 
1 Statutes at Large, vol. 5, p. G7(5. Jiill approved August 31, 1842. 19 
Professors Bache, Bartlett, Bond, Hassler, Paine, Patterson, and Walker were consulted, 
and the Department assigned G. F. De la Roche, os< j., to draught plans under the direc- 
tion of Lieutenant Gilliss. 
The Observatory officially recognizer 
The ()bservatorv#was now really established. It had become true, as remarked 
by Dr. Gould in his article entitled “1. S. Naval Observatory at Washington,” in the 
National Almanac for 1864, that an Observatory under another name was established 
bv act of that very Oongress and at the very session in which they refused to pass Mr. 
Adams’s bill for the same real object. 
That the Secretary of the Navy was justified in this interpretation of the law 
appears to be clear enough by the following extracts from the accepted- report of the 
committee taken, as Lieutenant Gilliss says, as the exponent of the will of Congress. 
The committee sav,1 in reference to the value of a depot that “since its organiza- 
tion, the Navv has not only been furnished with better instruments and more recent 
charts, at a greatly less original cost than before, but greater care has been observed in 
their use, consequent upon the regulations of the Depot, making the masters of our 
public vessels directly responsible for each article delivered to them. 
“ Prior to that time, chronometers were purchased as the wants of p ship or the 
judgment of a commander dictated, without trial or examination, the only guarantee of 
its value being the word of the seller. Sextants which were rejected by experienced 
judges, and left as shop-keepers, too frequently found their way into the Navy, through 
the inability of navy-agents and store-keepers to discriminate between good and bad. 
A ship rarely went to sea without having the master’s store-room half filled with wood 
compasses, from the prejudice that a light compass could only be obtained by making 
the bowl of that material. As a necessary consequence, the same set of instruments 
rarely went to sea two cruises. When the ship returned, they were tumbled into the 
Navv store, chronometers and all, where they remained till the fitting of a new ship 
would find them unworthy of further use. This no longer exists; Navy store-keepers 
are required to render a monthly report of every instrument in their charge; and, 
as before stated, masters are held directly accountable, so that, with a little additional 
repair at the end of each cruise, the same set lasts many years. The saving, from 
this cause alone, is more than the annual cost of the whole establishment.” 
In reference to astronomy, the committee say: 
“In the summer of 1838, the honorable Secretary of the Navy directed the 
Superintendent to make a constant series of observations in astronomy, magnetism, 
and meteorology, ordering an additional number of assistants, and granting authority 
for the purchase of all necessary instruments. 
“We are indebted to other nations for the data which enable our ships to cross 
the ocean. Not only has the Navy failed to contribute to the common stock from which 
all our navigators borrow, but our country has never vet published an observation of 
a celestial body which bore the impress ‘by authority;’ and it is believed that, until 
the observations before alluded to in this report, none have ever been directed by the 
Government which can be considered continuous. 
1 Mr. Mallory’s Report. Twenty-seventh Congress, secoml session, report No. 44D, House of Representatives; March 
15,1842. 20 
“That great errors exist in the tabulated places of the heavenly bodies, the labors 
of astronomers of the present day sufficiently prove. Indeed, all who were at all curi- 
ous in such matters could not have failed to remark how great a difference there was 
between the observed and computed times of the last annular eclipse visible in the 
United States. 
“Observatories, though not expensive, cannot prosper in*our country until we 
can obtain rest from the pursuit of mercantile affairs, or their charge is undertaken hr 
the Government, The duties are confining; if properly executed, arduous: and but 
few are qualified by experience or habits to undertake them. If officers can be found 
with taste for such duties, an Observatory will give more information to the world, 
under a military organization, in one year, than under any other direction in two. 
“The subject of magnetism is scarcely less important to the Navy than astronomy. 
Without a knowledge of the variation of the compass, none but coasting-craft dare 
venture beyond the precincts of a harbor; yet how few have more than a practical 
knowledge of the mode of determining its amount. The daily changes of the variation, 
its extraordinary fluctuations during auroras, the causes, amounts, and modes of correct- 
ing the local attraction of ships, and, indeed, the laws governing magnetized bodies 
generally, are mysteries with which a large portion of the officers have had neither 
means nor opportunities to become acquainted. Great complaints are made that 
chronometers perform badly; that ships have been influenced by currents, when, if the 
true cause could be ascertained, it would be found to consist in having steered a wrong 
course, no allowance being made for local attraction. There can be no doubt a large 
number of the wrecks of shipping occur solely from this cause. 
“The magnetic observatories which were established by the European govern- 
ments two years since, and which have a location in almost every part of the world, 
were earnestly recommended to us by the learned men of England. Active and 
extensive*co-operation, they say, will be the only mode of setting at rest the conflict- 
ing theories of this most important branch of science.” 
“In regard to meteorology, if Professor Espy’s theory is correct, the day is not 
distant when we shall lie able to calculate the precise point where a storm is raging. 
“Meteorological observations are more important at night than by day, because 
of their scarcity hitherto;, and it is scarcely to be expected that amateurs can be found 
in sufficient numbers .to make all the required observations. Night-watching in stormy 
weather finds few followers, and we can only hope to obtain the desired information, 
when those engaged in its pursuit have duty to compel a flagging inclination. 
“Deeming an establishment of this description essential to the welfare of the Navy, 
the committee report the accompanying bill.” 
It passed, as has been shown, without discussion in either House. To secure its 
passage good influences had been kindly set at work, directly and indirectly, by the 
friends of the Observatory in scientific circles. 
Dr. Gould, in the article quoted on a preceding page says, of the labors of Pro- 
fessors Bartlett, Kendall, and Walker, as especially bearing on the establishment 
of the Institution: 21 
“It is to them we owe the first important series of astronomical observations made 
in the United States, and it is to these and to their publications, particularly the able 
report an European observatories, by Professor W. H. C. Bartlett, United States Army, 
presented to the Engineer 1 )epartment op returning from Europe, 1840, that we are 
indebted for much of that public sentiment which, combined with other influences, at 
last brought about the establishment of the Naval Observatory. Mr. Adams led the 
way; Lieutenant Gillian had, by his diligent, careful, and successful observations, 
secured the all-essential confidence and ct)-operation of the Navy Department and of 
the Naval committees; but in shaping and confirming that public sentiment through 
which favorable action bv Congress became probable, the influence of the other astro- 
nomers bore no inconsiderable part.” 
It has been with much regret that, after diligent inquiry, I have found it impossible 
to obtain a copy of a second report made by Professor Bartlett with a plan for a National 
Observatory. The Secretary of War, Mr. Poinsett, makes special commendatory 
reference to it in his report of 1840. 
Renewed efforts of Hon. J. Q. Adams. 
• 
Tin? action in the House of Representatives taken by the. committee upon the 
Smithsonian fund under the leadership of Mr. Adams, had a powerful influence in the 
House in passing Mr. Mallory’s bill. As far back, indeed, as June, 1838, when news 
was received of Mr. Rush’s success in obtaining the Smithsonian bequest of more than 
half a million of dollars, Mr. Adams had immediately waited upon President Abut 
Buren, and in a conversation of two hours explained the views he entertained in regard 
to the application of that fund, entreating him to have a plan proposed to recommend to 
Congress for the foundation of the Institution. 
“I suggested to him,” said Mr. Adams, “the establishment of mi Astronomical 
Observatory, with a salary for an astronomer, and an assistant for nightly observations, 
and periodical publications; annual courses of lectures upon the natural, moral, and 
political sciences; above all, no jobbing, no sinecure, no monkish stalls for lazy idlers. 
I urged the deep responsibility of a nation to the world and to all posterity worthily ‘to 
fulfill the great object of the testator,’ I only lamented my inability to communicate 
half the solicitude with which my heart is on this subject full, and the sluggishness with 
which I failed properly to pursue it.” 
“Mr. Van Buren,” Mr. Adams added, “received all this with complacency and 
apparent concurrence of opinion, seemed favorably disposed to my views, and will- 
ing to do right, and asked me to name any person who, T thought, might be usefully 
consulted.”1 
To a letter addressed to him by the Secretary of State, by direction ot the Presi- 
dent, requesting him to communicate the result of his reflections on the Smithsonian 
Institution, Mr. Adams made the following reply:2 
“Quincy, October 14, 1838. 
“Sir: I have reserved for a separate letter what 1 proposed to say in recommending 
the establishment of an Astronomical Observatory,-at Washington, as one and the first 
‘Quincy’s Memoirs, p. 191. 
s Quoted by Mr. Adams in his report, No. 587, Twenty-seventh Congress, second session. 22 
application of the annual income from the Smithsonian bequest; because, of all that 
1 have to say, I deem it by far the most important; and because I have for many 
years believed that the national character of our country demanded of us the establish- 
ment of such an Institution as a debt of honor to the cause of science and to the world 
of civilized man. 1 have hailed with cheering hope this opportunity of removing the 
greatest obstacle which has hitherto disappointed the earnest wishes that 1 have enter- 
tained of witnessing before my departure for another world, now near at hand, the dis- 
appearance of a stain upon our good name, in the neglect to provide the means of 
increasing and diffusing knowledge among men, by a systematic and scientific series of 
observations on the phenomena of the numberless worlds suspended over our heads— 
the sublimest of* the physical sciences, and that in which the field of future discovery 
is as unbounded-as the universe itself. I allude to the continued and necessary expense 
of such an establishment.” 
Mr. Adams then refers to the report made by C. F. Mercer (quoted in part on p. 
io of this Memoir) for much valuable information, and proceeds: 
“But, as it is desirable that the principal building, the Observatory itself, should 
be, fortlie purposes of observation, unsurpassed by any other edifice constructed for the 
same purposes, 1 would devote one year’s interest from the fund to the construction of 
the buildings; a second and a third, to constitute a fund, from the income of which the 
salaries*of the astronomer, his assistants and attendants, should be paid; a fourth and 
fifth, for tiie necessary instruments and books; a sixth and seventh, for a fund, from 
the income of which the expense should be defrayed of publishing the epliemeris of 
observation, and a yearly nautical almanac.” ********** 
“%i irinciples for this disposal of funds are these: 
“ist. That the most complete establishment of an Astronomical Observatory in 
the world should be founded by the United States of America; the whole expense of 
which, both its first cost and its perpetual maintenance, should lie amply provided for, 
without costing one dollar either to the people or to the principal sum of the Smith- 
sonian bequest.1 
“2d. That, by providing from the income alone of the fund a supplementary fund 
from the interest of which all the salaries shall be paid, and all the annual expenses 
of publication shall be defrayed, the fund itself would, instead of being impaired, 
accumulate with the lapse of years. I do most fervently wish that this principle might 
be made the fundamental law, now and hereafter, so far as may be practicable, of all 
the appropriations of the Smithsonian bequest. 
“3d. That by the establishment of an Observatory upon the largest and most 
liberal scale, and providing for the publication of a yearly nautical almanac, knowledge 
will 1 )e dispersed among men, the reputation of our country will rise to honor and 
reverence among the civilized nations of the earth, and our navigators and mariners on 
every ocean be no longer dependent on English or French observers or calculators for 
tables indispensable to conduct their path upon the deep.” 
In accordance with these views, Mr. Adams, in 1842, made a report to the House 
'At a later date, Mr. Adams cordially assented to the different plan and basis on which the Smithsonian Institution 
has been established, the establishment of the Observatory having been secured. 23 
of Representatives, accompanying it with a Rill,1 providing for the appropriation of the 
Smithsonian final of 8508,318.46 received by the United States, by the following 
enactments: The whole sum to be preserved uiidiminished and unimpaired, the faith 
of the United States being pledged thereto by its permanent investment as “the Smith- 
sonian fund;” the sum of *30,000, part of the accruing interest,to be appropriated toward 
the erection of an Observatory; the sum of *60,000 of accrued interest to constitute a 
fund for payment by its interest of the salary of an astronomer; the sum of *120,000 
of accrued interest to be appropriated for payment by its interest for the salaries of 
assistant observers; *30,000 for the best and most perfect instruments; *10,000 for the 
purchase of a library of science and literature; and *1,800 a year for the publication 
of astronomical observations and a nautical almanac. 
In advocating the bill, the committee say: 
“It is believed that no one science deserves or requires the immediate application 
of the accrued and accruing income of the fund so urgently as practical astronomy. 
“The express object of an Observatory is the increase of knowledge by new di.s- 
rorrn/. The physical relations between the firmament of heaven and the globe allotted 
bv the Creator of all to be the abode of man are discoverable only by the organ of the 
eve. Many of these relations are indispensable to the existence of human life, and, 
perhaps, of the earth itself. Who can conceive the idea of a world without a sun, but 
must connect with it the extinction of light and heat, of all animal life, of all vegetation 
and production; leaving the lifeless clod of matter to return to the primitive state of 
chaos, or to be consumed by elemental tire? The influence of the moon, of the planets— 
our next-door neighbors of the solar system—of the fixed stars, scattered over the blue 
expanse in multitudes exceeding the power of human computation and at distances of 
which Imagination herself can form no distinct conception; the influence of all these 
upon the globe which we inhabit, and upon the condition of man, its dying and death- 
less inhabitant, is great and mysterious, and, in the search for final causes, to a great 
degree inscrutable to his finite and limited faculties. The extent to which they are 
discoverable is, and must remain, unknown; but, to the vigilance of a sleepless eye, to 
the toil of a tireless hand, and to the meditations of a thinking, combining, and analyz- 
ing mind, secrets are successively revealed, not only of the deepest import to the wel- 
fare of man in his earthly career, but which seem to lift him from the earth to tin* 
threshold of his eternal abode; to lead him blindfold up to the council-chamber of 
Omnipotence, and there, stripping the bandage from his eyes, bid him look undazzled 
at the throne of God.” ****** 
“It is to the successive discoveries of persevering astronomical observation through 
a period of fifty centuries that we are indebted for a fixed and permanent standard for 
the measurement of time. And by the same science has man acquired, so far as he 
possesses it, a standard for the measurement of space. A standard for the measurement 
of the dimensions and distances of the fixed stars from ourselves is yet to be found, 
and, if ever found, will be through the means of astronomical observation. 1 lie influ- 
ence of all these discoveries upon the condition of man is, no doubt, infinitely diversi- 
'Reports of Committees, vol. U, Twenty-seventh Congress, second session, House of Representatives, report No. fir1,, 
bill 386; 1841-’42. 24 
fled in relative importance; but all, even the minutest, contribute to the increase and 
diffusion of knowledge. There is no richer field of science opened to the exploration 
of man in search of knowledge than astronomical observation; nor is there, in the 
opinion of this committee, any duty more impressively incumbent upon all human 
governments than that of furnishing means and facilities and rewards to those who 
devote the labors of their lives to the indefatigable industry, the unceasing vigilance, 
and the bright intelligence indispensable to success in these pursuits. 
* * * * “It was an observation of Voltaire that if the whole human race could 
lie assembled in one mass, from the creation of man to his time, in the graduation of 
genius among them all, Isaac Newton would stand at their head. But the discoveries 
of Newton were the results of calculations founded upon the observations of others—of 
Copernicus, of Tycho Brahe, of Kepler, of Flamsteed; and among their producing 
causes not the least was the erection and establishment of the Royal Observatory of 
Greenwich. 
“The original purpose of this Institution, iirst commenced in 1676 under the patron- 
age of Charles the Second, and the most glorious incident of his life, was for the find- 
ing out the so much desired longitudes of places for the perfecting the art of navigation; 
and the inscription still existing above the original door of the Observatory declares that 
it was built for the benefit of astronomy and navigation: so intimately connected together 
are the abstracted science and the practical art, that, without the help of the astronomer, 
the seaman could not urge his bark in safety one inch beyond the sight of the shore. 
* * * “The discovery of the longitudes of places, the benefit of astronomy and 
navigation were thus the declared objects of the erecting of the Greenwich Observa- 
tory, and of the appointment of Flamsteed Astronomical Observator. And what were the 
first fruits of that Institution ? 
“ 1. An increased accuracy of observation by the attachment of telescopes to gradu- 
ated instruments, and by the use of a clock to note the time at which stars and planets 
passed by their apparent diurnal motion across the middle of the field of view of the 
telescope. 
“ 2. A catalogue of the places of 3,310 stars with a name affixed to each, the selec- 
tion and nomenclature of which have served as a basis to every catalogue since that 
time. Nor is it an uninteresting incident in the progressive history of astronomical 
knowledge that when, one hundred years later, Herschel discovered that the star 
which bears his name was a planet, he found it a fixed star upon the catalogue of 
Flamsteed. 
“3. Many of Flamsteed’s observations of the moon, reduced as well as was prac- 
ticable, were, at Newton’s request, communicated to him, to aid in perfecting the theory 
deduced from the principle of universal gravitation. ‘The time,’ as has beOn well 
observed by the present Astronomer Royal, the Reverend George Biddell Airy, ‘the 
time at which these observations were made was a most critical one—when the most 
accurate observations that had been made were needed for the support of the most ex- 
tensive philosophical theory that man had invented.’ * * * * 
* * * * “From such small beginnings originated, and thus illustrious has been 
the career of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich. Originally attached to the Ord- 25 
nance Department, it was, in 181*6 or 1817, transferred to the Department of the Admi- 
ralty. The estimates for the annual expense of the Observatory are inserted under 
the ‘scientific branch’ of the Admiralty account in the parliamentary estimates, and 
are voted annually by Parliament.” 
Before closing the report, the committee further reminded Congress of the large in 
crease in the number of observatories in Europe, and of the inauguration of the 
Pulkova Observatory on the 7th August of the preceding year, at a cost of 1,000,000 
silver rubles, on a spot chosen by the Emperor Nicholas, for the best appointed institu- 
tion in the world. They appended to their report a very full letter from Reverend 
(x. B. Airy, Astronomer Royal, which epitomizes the history of the Greenwich Observa- 
tory up to the date of April 10, 1839, and which also presents much miscellaneous 
information relating to other Observatories. 
Of this report by the Committee the remark has been made by a competent judge 
that it is “well worth the perusal of every lover of the glorious science of astronomy, 
both for the richness of its information and the beauty of its eloquence.” The persever- 
ing labors and deep personal interest of Mr. Adams in the object of establishing an Ob- 
servatory are readily understood when his love for the study of astronomy is remem- 
bered in connection with his masterly scholarship in many other branches of learning 
and with his wide national views. 11 is own journal in the year when he was laboring 
for the erection of a National Observatory records: “To make observations of the 
movements ot the heavenly bodies has been for a great portion of my life a pleasure 
ot gratified curiosity, of ever returning wonder, and of reverence for the Great Creator 
and Mover of these innumerable worlds.” His oration in 1843, at the laying of the 
corner-stone of the Cincinnati ()bservatory, is “an outline of the history of astronomy.” 
His studies had been the works of Newton, Schubert, Lalande, Biot, and Lacroix. 
I find in the records of the House of Representatives of the same year that addi- 
tional influences were brought to bear upon the bill for a Depot of Charts and Instru- 
ments. Among them was the following: 
May 12, 1842, Hon. Mr. Boardman, from a select committee, reported on the 
memorials of P. S. Duponceau and other citizens of Philadelphia, New York, and 
Baltimore, praying Congress to take measures for the reduction of Astronomical Obser- 
vations and for the precise determination of the longitude of the Capitol, in substance 
as follows:1 
“The substantial interests and honor of the country require this; it is due to the 
cause of science and to that sublime branch of it which contemplates the relation of the 
earth to the heavens. It is incumbent on Congress to provide for the safety of our 
mariners and ot the immense treasures which the enterprise of our merchants throws 
daily upon the waters. It is by celestial observations only that charts can be accu- 
rately projected. * * * 
“In Europe the whole expense of observatories and instruments is borne by the 
government. The purposes and objects are there regarded as purely national and of 
sufficient importance to command constant and liberal appropriations. AVe are the 
11 wenty-seventh Congress, eecoml session, llouso of Representatives, Report No. 683, bill 410. 26 
second commercial nation in the world, and yet we have thus far done but little for the 
advancement of a science so deeply important to the interest of navigation. * * 
“After the example of the European nations, Congress has fixed upon the meridian 
of this Capitol as our prime meridian, and has, in some degree, determined its longi- 
tude from the European capitals by their action on the report of Mr. Lambert in 1822.1 
“The memorialists state that through the accumulated astronomical observations since 
the adoption of that report, there is reason to suspect an error in his-position of the 
Capitol; that this error is incorporated in all our maps; and that Mr. Lambert in his 
report had omitted to correct his results for the errors of Burg’s lunar tables then in 
use, although l)r. Bowditcli’s Memoir would have enabled him to correct them; that 
the number of astronomical observations in possession of the Navy Department and 
of learned societies unreduced, together with those from other sources available for 
national purposes, is probably more than a thousand.” 
The memorialists refer to the communications of Hon. John Branch Secretary 
of the Navy in 1830, upon the objects of erecting an Observatory, and ask the appoint- 
ment of a computer and assistants, who shall reduce the entire mass of observations on 
a uniform system. 
A bill to meet the object asked for by the memorialists was reported and committed 
to the committee of the Whole House. Although no final action was taken, the discus- 
sion of this subject (as well as that of a memorial presented not long before from the 
American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, asking aid in prosecuting magnetic 
and meteorological observations) was not without its influence in securing the new 
movement which Lieutenant Gilliss so ardently desired and in the same year obtained. 
Erection of the Observatory. 
On the 23d of November, 1843, Lieutenant Gilliss reported to the Navy Department 
the adoption of a plan for an Observatory, modified as advised by distinguished gentle- 
men in Europe and in the United States; he also reported the progress of the erection 
of the building in accordance with the plan. 
In noticing this communication, the Secretary of the Navy said in his next annual 
report:2 uIt is proper to remark that this building is adapted in form and structure 
not only for a Depot of Charts and Instruments, but for an Astronomical Observatory. 
It cannot but be gratifying to you to learn how great an interest has been evinced by 
the learned societies and scientific men of Europe as well as at home, upon the estab- 
lishment of the Institution by the Government.” 
The law of Congress directing its erection authorized the President of the United 
States to locate it on any public ground within the District of Columbia not otherwise 
appropriated; and the site assigned by President Tyler was the Reservation marked, 
on the original plan of the city, No. 4, as will presently be more fully shown. It lies 
!As regards the official sanction finally given by Congress for a first meridian, the statute of September 28, 1850, is 
known as the only law authorizing our reckoning. It provides that hereafter the meridian of the Observatory at 
Washington shall be adopted and used as the American meridian for all astronomical purposes, and that the meridian 
of Greenwich shall he adopted for all nautical purposes. 
-Report of Hon. D. Henshaw, Secretary of the Navy, November 25, 1843. 27 
on tlie.north bank of the Potomac, in the southwestern part of the city; the north front 
being- 810, the east 1,103, and the west 620 feet in length. 
“The site has a north horizontal range, one and a quarter mile, and a south 
range of eight miles. It is 267 feet from the north; 320, from the east; 490, from the 
west; and 900, from the south inclosure; the last bordering on the canal, beyond which 
fs-the river. The hill is of gravel foundation, with a surface stratum of dry, brittle 
clay, through which water filters almost as freely as through gravel.” 
In addition to these statements by Lieutenant Gilliss, I have found the following 
interesting information as regards— 
The Site of the Present Observatory 
The earliest trace on the records identifying the lands now occupied is in connec- 
tion with the march of General Braddock against Fort Duquesne in the Colonial Wars. 
It seems clear that his troops landed and encamped on this hill. 
The record is this:1 
“April 11, 1755. Four companies of the Forty-fourth Regiment under Lieutenant 
(afterward Governor) Gage, and a detachment of seamen from Alexandria, landed from 
the boats of the Sea Horse and the Nightingale, and pitched their tents 1 at Rock 
( reek. April 14, General Braddock arrived at Rock Creek, and gave orders for trans- 
porting the stores; the troops marched from‘Rock Creek’to Owen’s house, fifteen 
miles onward to b rederick. (Rockville.) Traditions are strong as to the campim** on 
this Hill. 
Washington’s letters show that he afterward crossed here also from Alexandria to 
join Braddock at Frederick. 
The late Colonel Peter Force, of Washington, so well known for his historical 
collections, repeatedly pointed out the large rock, which yet stands, in the southern part 
of the original Reservation which the Observatory occupies, as the rock on which these 
landings were made. The northern channel of the Potomac, it is well known, was good 
here until our day—until the causeway for the Long Bridge was made. 
Idle second identification of the locality is of more direct interest and value. 
In the office of the Commissioner of Public Buildings may lie found the original 
“Plan of the Federal City"—not then named Washington—as presented by the first 
Commissioners, David Stuart, Daniel Carroll, and Thomas Johnson, appointed under 
the act of Congress, July 16, 1790, to layout the city and take measures for the erec- 
tion of the Federal buildings. 
On this manuscript plan, communicated to Congress, December 13, 1791, the 
grounds on which the Observatory now stands are marked as a blank space with the 
number “4 upon it. < )n the engraved plan, published by order of General Washing- 
ton by Thackara and Vallance, Philadelphia, 1792, the northern and central part of 
the square is covered by the lines of a proposed fort and barracks. 
\\ ith the original manuscript plan are connected two letters, the one bearing the 
autograph of Geo. Washington, and dated March 2, 1797; the other, that of John 
Adams, July 23, 1798; each letter requesting Thomas Beall of Geo. and J110. M. 
1 Braddock’w Expedition by Wintbrop Sargent, p. 3(57. 28 
Gantt to convey to the Commissioners of that date, Gustavus Scott, W. Thornton, and 
A. White, and to their successors, “all the streets, squares, and parcels of ground desig- 
nated as appropriations, for the use of the United States forever. These appropria- 
tions or reservations were sold to the United States by the original proprietors for 
£25 per acre z= $66y3 United States currency, the spaces for the streets being not 
counted. The proprietor of space No. 4, Mr. Robert Peter, gave one-half of the area, 
and received from the Commissioners in exchange for the other half another parcel of 
ground. 
In General Washington’s letter,1 Reservation No. 4 is thus described: 
“Fourth. The appropriation bounded on the north by the south side of north E 
street; on the east by the west side of Twenty-third street west; on the west by the 
east side of Twenty-fifth street west; and on the south by the Potomac River.” 
The historical value of the record just cited is increased by the fact that, at a date 
earlier by many years than the official occupancy of this square, it was proposed 
to make it the site of an Institution of science,2 the proposal being by the first Presi- 
dent and the Commissioners to locate here a National University. At a much later date 
it was proposed by President Adams as the site of an Observatory. Of the first of 
these points the following is on record: 
In President Washington’s letter to the Commissioners, January 28, 1795,3 he 
names to them his well-known offer to donate certain shares in the Potomac Company 
for the purposes of a National University, adding, “If the commissioners have any 
agency in bringing the matter forward, the information I now give them is in the 
proper course.” In his letter to John Adams, November 27, 1794, and in his speech 
to Congress, January 8, 1790, he had previously expressed a like desire on this subject. 
The Commissioners, February 18, 1795, reply:4 “Your letter relates to a subject 
on which we have often conversed together, and we cannot express the satisfaction it 
gives us to find your opinions on tlie subject so consonant with our own. * * * We 
have chosen a piece of ground which, if approved by you, is intended for the site.” I11 
their second answer, October 1, 1796, they say, “With respect to a National University 
vfe are of the opinion that the space heretofore proposed to’be appropriated for a fort and 
barracks on Peter’s hill is the most proper site for that object,” In Washington’s letter 
to the Commissioners, October 21, 1796, he notifies them, * * “For a site of the 
National University, I decide in favor of the squares surrounded by numbers 21, 22, 34, 
45, 61-63.” 
A reference to the map of the city of Washington of a later date than 1796 will 
not show the squares 34 and 45; they appear, however, on the map placed* before 
General Washington, facing north on E street north; the appropriation faces also south 
on the Potomac, 
I11 1796, December 21, Mr. Madison, reporting favorably to the House of Repre- 
sentatives on a memorial of the Commissioners, and upon President Washington’s second 
1 Washington’s letter to the Commissioners, 1797. First official sanction of the reservation now occupied by the 
Observatory. 
2 Designation of the reservation for a scientific institution. Washington’s letter, October 21,1790. President Adams’s 
message, December C, 1825. 
3 Sparks’s Writings of Washington, vols. xi and xii. 
4 Letters of the Commissioners in the office of the Commissioner of Public Buildings. 29 
recommendation for a university, says:1 “The proprietors of the lands by their deeds 
of cession authorized the President of the United States for the time being to appro- 
priate sucli portion*' thereof as he should judge necessary to public use. In virtue of 
this power, the President has appropriated nineteen acres one rood and twenty-one 
perches for the site of a National University.” 
As regards the accuracy of the original survey of this and of the other portions of 
the city, it is stated on the original engraved plan that Major Andrew Ellicott, (the 
geogra pher-general as named by the Commissioners, appointed in 1792 surveyor- 
general of the United States,) drew a true meridional line by celestial observations, 
which passed through the area intended for the Capitol, crossing it by another line due 
east and west passing through the same area; running all the lines of the city by a 
Transit instrument and determining the acute angles by actual measurement, leaving 
nothing to the uncertainty of the compass.* On the plan of the city the Capitol is 
marked, latitude 38° 53'. 
The elevation now occupied by the Observatory was again known as Cam]) 
Hill, from its having been'occupied by a part of the American army encamped on it 
in the years 1813 and 1814. A brigade of militia, including Stull’s and Peter’s riflemen 
and the troops from Alexandria, advanced from this hill to the vicinity of Bladensburg, 
for the defense of the city against General Ross and AdmiraT Cockburn, August 28, 
1814.2 
As a final point of interest in connection with the Observatory reservation, it may 
be mentioned that in the report of Lieutenant-Colonel G. W. Hughes to the Secretary 
of War, J anuary 15, 1851, on the subject of supplying water to the city, reference is 
made to the “numerous surveys made contemporary with the first plans of the city” 
for the same purpose of the water-supply. Major Ellicott had reported on these plans, 
in 1791-92, that the positions of the several squares were first determined on the most 
advantageous ground, commanding the most extensive prospects, and susceptible of im- 
provement. The level of the base of the Observatory is one of tliose positions. They were 
chosen in 1851 by Colonel Hughes, and afterward by Lieutenant (now Major-General) 
M. C. Meigs, U. S. A., as the more elevated points of comparison within the city above 
ordinary low tide. The levels given by the report of Colonel Hughes are as follows:11 
Foundation of St. John’s Church 1 65.50 feet. 
Corner of I and Nineteenth streets, west 82.10 feet. 
Base of Observatory 96.20 feet. 
East base of Capitol 89.50 feet. 
Corner of X and Eleventh streets (“highest point in the city”). i03.7ofeet. 
By levels taken also by Lieutenant (now Rear-Admiral) B. F. Sands, at the time of 
the first occupancy by the Observatory of its present site, the base of the Observatory 
was found to be on a level with the floor of the Congressional Library. 
It thus appears that the level of the base of the Observatory is the second highest 
eminence within the city limits; a fact which, in connection with others, doubtless had 
1 American Miscellaneous State Papers, vol. 1, p. 153. 
•National Intelligencer, August *34, 1814. 
’Reports of March 3, 1851, and February 12, 1853, House of Representatives, Thirty-first Congress, second session, 
Ex. Hoc. No. 33, and Ex. Doc. No. 48, Senate, Thirty second Congress, second Bession. 30 
weight in its choice by the first President and the Commissioners, and subsequently by 
President Adams for the seat of a Scientific Institution. The founders of the Govern- 
ment, selecting this eminence at first for military occupancy and'defense, (for which 
purposes it has been more than once used,) yielded promptly their first choice for the 
permanent occupancy of the site by an institution of peace. Have not they, and all 
others in official and private life up to this day, expected the faithful preservation of 
the high purposes of the reservation and of its beautiful eminence? • 
Erection of the Buildings. 
In February, 1845, Hon. J. Y. Mason, communicated to the Senate a report,1 and 
the drawings accompanying the same, by Lieutenant J. M. Gilliss, on the erection of a 
building in Washington as a ‘Depot for Charts and Instruments.’ 
This report, from which extracts have been already made, was a complete descrip- 
tion of the building then erected, and of the astronomical and magnetical instruments 
to be used. It occupies nearly eighty pages of text, with ten plates descriptive of the 
instruments. The changes which have been made since tlie date of that report, in the 
plan of the building and in some of the instruments, and the yet more important im- 
provements now in progress, are substantial reasons for not accompanying this Memoir 
with any reproduction of the plates or with descriptions of the instruments.2 But as it 
will be found almost impossible to secure now a copy of Lieutenant Gilliss’s report, 
citations of some length are here made, as called for in making up even an outline of 
the Institution as it was when established in 1842. 
Construction of the Main Buildings 
“The ground was excavated to a depth of 8 feet for the foundations of the walls 
and bases of all the piers, except that for the great telescope, which is 9 feet below the 
surface of the' ground.3 The end wall of the west wing and foundation for meridian- 
transit piers are several feet deeper than the others, owing to a natural fall in the ground 
rendering it necessary to excavate to a greater depth. Directions had been given to 
go down to the gravel, subsequently found at 27 feet from the surface. 
* ,* * “The position of the house being changed 25 feet to the west, the east 
wall and pier for the portable transit instrument fell within the cavity; they were 
therefore built up of solid masonry from the depth of 1 7 feet below the surface, instead 
of filling the hole with earth. 
“The central building is 50 feet 8 inches square on the outside, from the foundation 
to a height of 2 feet 6 inches above the ground; and thence to the top of the walls, 50 
feet square. All the foundations to the ground-line are of blue rock, 2 feet thick; the 
remainder of the outside walls are of brick, 18 inches thick, finished in the best manner; 
and the partition-walls are of brick, 14 inches thick. It is two stories and a basement 
high, with a parapet and balustrade of wood around the top, and is surmounted by a 
revolving dome, 23 feet in diameter, resting on a circular wall, built up to a height of 
Report of the Secretary of the Navy, February 17, 1845, Twenty-eighth Congress, second session} Senate Ex. Doc. 
No. 114. 
2 For these see Washington Astronomical for the Years 1845,18G5 and 1870. 
3Gilliss’s Report, 1845, p. 3. 31 
7 feet above the roof. Its roof is nearly Hat, having a rise of only-one foot in ten; it 
is coppered and covered with a grating resting on supports secured to the parapet on 
one side and the roof on the other, so as to form a level promenade for gazing obser- 
vations. There are four rooms on each floor, separated by passages io feet wide 
crossing each other at right angles. Where the dome-wall crosses the passages, it is 
supported on lintels formed by bolting together five thicknesses of timber, 12 inches 
wide by 4 inches thick, over which a brick arch is turned. Tliere is, at the intersec- 
tion of the passages, a foundation of masonry, laid in hydraulic cement, for the great 
pier. Its diameter at the base is 15 feet, and it is solid to the height of io>4 feet, 
where the diameter is 12 feet. 
“Upon this is erected a conical pier of hard burned brick, laid in the same manner; 
the diameter at the base being 12 feet, the height 28 feet, diameter at the top 7 feet, and 
walls 3 feet thick, to within 10 feet of the top, where they gradually increase in thick- 
ness; and the last 3 feet are solid. The pier is capped by New York flagging-stone, on 
which rests the pedestal of the equatorial. 
“Stairways from the basement to the second story are of the ordinary kind; but 
from the second story to the rotunda or dome they are spiral; commencing beside the 
vertical casing, (which prevents contact with the great pier,) they proceed to a landing at 
the circumference of the dome, the aperture in the floor being closed by closelv-fitting 
doors, which are kept up by counter weights when the observer is not employed. * * 
“To the east and west sides of this edifice are wings, entered from the passages, 
each 26 feet 6 inches long, 21 feet wide, and 18 feet high. There is also a wing to the 
south, separated from the house by an entry or passage 10 feet square;—it is 21 feet long, 
with the same breadth and height as the others. To guard against unequal temperatures 
likely to be produced by the heated walls of the house, (on the suggestion of Professor 
Eneke,) an extra 9-inch wall is interposed, leaving a space of 6 inches for free passage 
to the air between them. * The side-walls of the wings are 18 inches, and the end-walls 
14 inches thick, the former being strengthened by pilasters on each side of the doors.” 
Astronomical, Magnetic,and Meteorological Instruments. 
Iii regard to the equipment of the Observatory with instruments, Lieutenant Gil- 
liss reported as follows: 
“It being evident, from the report of the committee of Congress before named, 
that it was intended to establish a Naval Observatory in connection with the Depot of 
Charts and Instruments, it became an object of great importance to obtain instruments 
of such character in the various departments of astronomy, terrestrial magnetism, and 
meteorology (designated by them to be pursued) as would render the most efficient 
service during the largest portion of time. To this end, eminent advice was sought, 
and a list prepared for the approval of the Hon. Secretary, which, regarding their 
ultimate usefulness as paramount, still kept economy in view. 
“The list embraced 
“i. Achromatic refractor. 
“2. Meridian transit. 
“3. Prime vertical transit. 32 
“4- Mural circle. 
“5. Comet-searcher. 
“6. Magnetic instruments. 
“7. Meteorological instruments. 
“8. Books.” 
“In addition to these, to be purchased, there belonged to the Navy a portable 42- 
inch Transit instrument and 2 clocks purchased by Lieutenant Wilkes for the Explor- 
ing Expedition, and a 30-inch Transit circle and 2 clocks ordered for the Depot; all 
of which, with a number of mathematical, astronomical, and other scientific books, coidd 
be rendered useful in the new establishment.” 
Two other astronomical clocks wore ordered; one for the south wing, and the other 
for the east wing; the former being the workmanship of Mr. Charles Erodsham, Lon- 
don, and the latter of Mr. W. C. Bond, Boston.. 
The magnetical instruments purchased under the advice of Professor Lloyd and 
Colonel Sabine were ordered from Barrow, London. They were a declinometer, 
bifilar magnetometer, balance magnetometer, and Eox’s deflector. The meteorologi- 
cal instruments were a standard barometer of the value of £20, dry and wet bulb and 
self-registering thermometers, Daniell’s hygrometer, and Osier’s anemometer, and rain- 
gauge. 
“In token of the interest and gratification at the establishment of the Institution 
felt by distinguished men abroad, the 
Library of the Obseryatoky 
received, among its first stores, contributions of 175 Arohunes from the Royal Society, 
Royal Astronomical Society, the English Admiralty, and the East India Company, 
and from the Astronomers Royal at Greemvich, Berlin, Brussels, and Munich, and the 
directors of other distinguished observatories. The United States Observatory Avas 
immediately placed upon their exchange-lists. Seven hundred volumes of standard 
Avorks Avere purchased. 
Superintendency of Lieutenant M. F. Maury, 1844 to 1861. 
At the close of September, 1844, Lieutenant Gilliss reported to the Hon. Sec- 
retary of the Navy that the new building was ready for occupancy and the instruments 
adjusted. October 1, Lieutenant M. F. Maury, then Superintendent of the Depot of 
Charts, was ordered to take charge of the new Depot and Observatory, and to remove 
to it all the nautical books, charts, and instruments, with the officers who were at that 
time attached to the Depot. These officers were Lieutenant (now Rear-Admiral) 13. F. 
Sands, who was placed in charge of all the instruments and charts; Lieutenants W. L. 
Herndon and G. H. Scott, with Passed Midshipmen J. L. Worden, (now Rear-Admiral;) 
R. H. Getty, J. M. 13. Glitz, J. F. Stenson, W. B. Fitzgerald, and M. K. Warrington.1 
With the aid and supervision of these officers, the instruments and charts were 
immediately removed from the building, then rented by the Government, now known 
Report of Lieutenant Maury to the Secretary of the Navy, in Appendix to the Washington Observations for 1845. 33 
as Nos. 2222 and 2224 Pcnnsvlvania a venue, wliicli building had been occupied as the 
I)epot from July 1, 1842. 
Between the dates of October 1, 1844, and duly 1, [S46, the following officers 
were ordered to the Observatory: Lieutenants T. J. Page, L. Maynard, I). 1). Porter, 
B. Whiting, and J. J. Aliny; Professors J. H. C. Ooffin, J. S. Hubbard, and 1\. Keith. 
Mr. S. ('. Walker, of Philadelphia, was also appointed an assistant astronomer. From 
time to time a number of passed midshipmen were ordered; the changes in the orders 
of these junior officers, however, being too frequent to permit much valuable results 
from their labors. 
Among the names which have been given may be recognized some which have 
become national, and associated with memories of a nation’s gratitude earned by gal- 
lant naval service in the late struggle for the preservation of our country and her 
liberties.' 
KxTKNSIVK As'I liONO.MK AL WoltK 1 *lf(U’USKl). 
(>n tlx* 6tli March, 1846, the Superintendent, Lieutenant Maury, obtained the 
following1 order from lion. Geo. Bancroft, Secretary of the Navv : 
“Sik: Desirous that the numerous and aide corps employed at the National Obser- 
vatory at "Washington mav produce results important to maritime science and to the 
Navv, 1 approve your course in making the series of astronomical observations 
necessary for the preparation of a nautical almanac. 
“The country expects also that the Observatory will make adequate contributions 
to astronomical science. The most celebrated European catalogues ot the stars, 
‘Bessel’s Zone Observations’ and ‘Struve’s Dorpat Catalogue’ ot double stars, having 
extended to only 150 south of the equator, and the Washington ()bservatory by its geo- 
graphical position commanding a zone of 15° farther south, and being provided with all 
instruments requisite for extending these catalogues, you are hereby authorized and 
directed to enter upon the observation of the heavens, commencing at the lowest par- 
allel of south declination you may find practicable. You will embrace in your cata- 
logue all stars, even of the smallest magnitude, which your instruments can accurately 
observe. You will, when convenient, make duplicate observations of stars for each 
catalogue, and, when time permits, you will determine with precision, by the meridian 
instruments, the position of the principal stars in each pair or multiple ot stars. Simul- 
taneously with these observations you will, as far as practicable, determine the posi- 
tions of such stars as have different declinations or right ascensions assigned to them 
in the most accredited ephemerides. ” 
How far the astronomical force of the Institution was able successfully to meet the 
requirements of this order will appear in the volumes subsequently issued from the 
()hservatory. 
It has been said' that the work was to be nothing less than assigning color, posi- 
tion, and magnitude to every star in the heavens which could be seen with the instru- 
ments—a noble work. Unfortunately, under the circumstances ot the Observatory, it 
would have required a century to complete it. 
'National Almanac, 1864. 
- North American Review, October, 34 
T113 work of m iking this catalogue of stars down to the 9.10 magnitude was begun 
in 1846 with three meridian instruments, the mural, and meridian circles, and the tran- 
sit instrument, by Professors Coffin, Hubbard, and Keith, and Lieutenant T. J. Page.1 
Publication of the First Volume of Observations. 
In September, 1846, the volume of observations made during the year j 845 was 
issued from the press. At the (dose of the Superintendent’s letter to the Hon. Secretarv 
of the Navy forwarding these observations, after repeated statements of the insuffi- 
ciency in the strength of his astronomical force, he says: “After this year, 1 purpose 
to continue the great American work of penetrating regularly and systematically every 
point of space above the almucantar of 50. * * * * I have now the honor of pre- 
senting the first volume of astronomical observations ever issued from an institution 
properly entitled to the name of an observatory on this side of the Atlantic.” 
An impartial and able judge thus estimates the volume: “Besides a fair amount 
of observations with the two transit instruments, in the meridian and the prime verti- 
cal, and those with the mural circle, it contained various important investigations of the 
errors and corrections peculiar to the instruments; Professor Coffin’s masterly discus- 
sion of the adjustments of the mural circle, and his expansion of Bessel’s Refraction 
Tables, Walker’s investigation of the latitude of the Observatory, and his comparison 
of the standard thermometers; all of great value.” The observers during the year were, 
with the equatorial, Lieutenant Maury and Mr. 8. C. Walker; with the mural circle, 
Professor Coffin and Lieutenant T. J. Page; with the meridian circle, Lieutenant (now 
Admiral) I). 1). Porter and Professor Hubbard; with the west transit, Lieutenants 
Maynard and Aliny and Professor Keith. 
In a table of comparison of the cost of the Chronometers and other Naval Instru- 
ments, presented also in this volume, (Appendix, p. 6,) the Superintendent showed the 
large reduction in the cost of these from the prices paid by the Government before the 
establishment of the Depot of Charts in 1830. 
The Secretary of the Navy, in his annual report for the succeeding year, renewed 
the statement that, with the facilities of the Observatory, we might produce our own 
Nautical Ephemeris, a small appropriation being sufficient to accomplish the object, 
the expenditure of which would be returned by supplying our merchant-vessels with 
nautical almanacs at cost.' 
4 This work, as projected in 1846, was continued during the years following up to and inclusive of the year 1849- 
“the corps of computers proving, however, altogether insufficient to keep pace with the observers.” The observa- 
tions of the zones made during the year 1846 with the meridian circle by Professor J. S. Hubbard and Lieutenant L. 
Maynard were reduced under the direction of M. James Ferguson, assistant astronomer, and published in 1860 as volume 
I, of Zones of Stars. 
The zones observed in 1846,-’49, with the mural circle, by Professor J. H. C. Coffin1, Lieutenants T. J. Page and 
Charles Steedman, were published is 1872 as Appendix No. II to Washington Observations for 1869. The transit-instru- 
ment observations for the same years by Professors Keith3, Beecher3, anti Hubbard4, and Lieutenant (now Commodore) 
J. J. Almy, and Lieutenant W. A. Parker, have just issued from the press. The meridian-circle observations for the years 
1847-’49 are ready for the printer. By authority of the Navy Department, given in 1862, all these zone observations for 
the years 1846-49, were reduced by Dr. B. A. Gould, then of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now director at Cordoba, of the 
National Observatory of the Argentine Republic. 
3 Report of Secretary Upshur, December 5, 1846. 
1 J. H. C. Coffiu, appointed Professor of mathematics January 23, 1836; commissioned August 14, 1848. 
- R. Keith, appointed Professor of mathematics August 17, 1845; commissioned August 14, 1848. 
3 M. Beecher, appointed Professor of mathematics June 14, 1811 ; commissioned August 14, 1848. 
4 J. >S. Hubbard, appointed Professor of mathematics May 5, 1845; commissioned August 14, 1848. 35 
Identification of Neptune with a Star of Lalande’k Catalogue of 1795. 
In the second volume of the Washington Astronomical Observations, Lieutenant 
Maury says of this discovery; 
tkIn the autumn of 1846, after the planet Neptune had been discovered by 
Leverrier, and seen by Dr. Galle, it was made the duty of Mr. Walker, one of the as- 
sistants, to endeavor to trace the path of the planet backward, in order to ascertain if 
it had not been discovered by some astronomer before, and entered among his obser- 
vations as a fixed star. February 1, 1847, be reported a list of 14 stars from La- 
lande’s Catalogue which answered the description of the. planet, and near the places 
of which he made Neptune to be in May, 1795, when the French astronomer observed 
these stars for his great work, the ‘Histoire celeste.' 'The list was given to Professor 
Hubbard, in charge of the equatorial, who reported, February 4, that the one which 
Mr. Walker had singled out as the star most likely not to be found in that part of the 
heavens where Lalande saw it was missing. It turned out to be Neptune, and that 
Lalande, not suspecting it to be a planet, had observed and recorded it as a fixed star 
May 8 and 10, 1795.” 
Astronomers were thus furnished with an observation of Neptune made fifty-two 
years before, which afforded the means of a most accurate determination of the orbit, 
and enabled the Superintendent of the American Nautical Almanac to publish an 
ephemeris of the new planet two years in advance of all other parts of the almanac. 
The Observatory was first brought into prominence by these researches.1 
The Superintendent of the American Nautical Almanac, Lieutenant (now Rear- 
Admiral) C. II. Davis, at the later date of October, 1849, wrote to the Hon. Secretary of 
the Navy: “The theory of Neptune belongs, by right of precedence, to American 
science. In connection with its neighbor, Uranus, it constitutes an open field of as- 
tronomical research, into which the astronomers and mathematicians of the United 
States have been the first to enter, and to occupy distinguished places. The identity 
of Neptune with the Lalande star of 1795 (an important fact in history) was discovered 
at the Naval Observatory, and the discovery was due to the investigations of Mr, 
Walker.”9 
Work ok the Observatory from 1847 to 1850. 
The Observations made during the year 1847 were published in 1853; those 
made in 1848, in 1856; those made in the years 1849 nnd 1850, in 1859. 
The observations during the years i84/-’5o were with the Equatorial, by Pro- 
fessor Hubbard, and afterward by Mr. James Ferguson, (appointed Assistant Astron- 
omer March 11, 1848); with the Mural Circle, by Professor. Collin, United States 
1 Proceedings of the American Association, 1804. 
For Walker’s full report of this discovery, see Smithsonian Contributions, vol. II, as referred to by Lieutenant 
Maury; for Walker’s Ephemeris of Neptune for 1802, with the letter of the Superintendent of the. Xautieal Alumnae, see 
Smithsonian Contributions, vol. III. 
i'Those made in the years 1801-52 were not reduced, nor were any other volumes than those of the three periods 
named above, issued during Lieutenant Maury’s superintendeney. The observations for 1851-’52, transcribed from the 
note-books in 18lil under Mr. Ferguson’s supervision, were reduced and prepared for publication in 1882 by Dr. B. A, 
Gould, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 36 
Navy, and Lieutenant (now Rear-Admiral) Steedman, with the Meridian Circle, by 
Professors Hubbard and Major;1 with the Prime Vertical, by Lieutenant Herndon and 
Professors Hubbard and Lawrence. In the reduction of some of these observations 
several other naval officers were employed at various dates, among1 whom were the then 
Lieutenants Kennard, Jackson, Almy, and Worden, and Lieutenant (now Commo- 
dore) I). Ammen, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation. 
The volume for the year 1847 contains three Appendixes: “A,” Observations of 
Solar Spots by Rev. B. Sestini, S. J., of Georgetown College, I). C., made at the college; 
“B,” Observations on the Mississippi River at Memphis, by R. A. Marr, Passed Mid- 
shipman United States Navy; “C,” 'fables for the Reductions of the Places of the Fixed 
Stars by Professors Coffin and Hubbard, United States Navy. 
In the volume of astronomical observations for 1848, the Institution first bears the 
name of United States Naval Observatory in place of National. The Secretary of 
the Navy had thus ordered, because the Institution had always been under the con- 
trol of the Navy Department, and was conducted by Navy officers; “its reputation is 
the property of the Navy.” 
During the year 1848, the east wing of the Observatory was extended 24 feet 
beyond its original dimensions planned by Lieutenant Gilliss, connecting the wing 
with the Superintendent’s quarters erected in 1847. This furnished a suitable room for 
the storing and daily care of the chronometers, a duty closely maintained to the pres- 
ent time. 
Wind and (Vrkent ('karts. 
A considerable portion of the volume issued by the Observatory for the first year, 
1845, had heen occupied by a report on the subject of the AVind and Current Charts, 
for tin* preparation of which authority had heen given by the Navy Department, and 
which had thus early begun to occupy the attention of the Superintendent. 
For each of the years 1846, 1847, and he reports that in connection with the 
preparation of these charts, “a large number of ships were engaged in connection with 
the Observatory, in making observations on all parts of the ocean upon winds, currents, 
the barometer, and air and water thermometer, and upon other phenomena calculated 
to improve navigation.” 
Upon the examination of the logs and other returns from these vessels, a large 
corps of lieutenants and passed midshipmen were employed; but often “almost the 
entire corps were ordered to sea at a moment’s warning.” 
It would appear from the notices of the Institution, by the Secretaries of the Navy 
and the annual reports of the Superintendent of the Observatory during the years 1849 
to 1861, that his chief interest in the Institution was centered in its fulfilling the char- 
acter of a hydrographic office—in the preparation and publication of the Wind and 
Current Charts. TIis letters to the Navy Department to which Congress is referred in 
the annual reports of the Secretaries and the references to the Institution by the Secre- 
taries themselves, are occupied almost exclusively with the progress and the value of 
the charts, “as part and parcel,” as was said, “of the universal policy of civilized 
nations to accelerate transit from place to place to the utmost possible extent.” 
1 James Major, commissioned professor of mathematics Auoust 14, 1848. 37 
In 1849, Hon. Mr. Preston reported that “the observations, calculations, and ex- 
periments at the < tbservatory, the preparation of maps and cliArts, and the regulating of 
chronometers have been zealously continued, * * * the demands constantly made 
upon the Institution for scientific information, charts, and sailing instructions evincing 
the increasing confidence in the Observatory. '1 
In the report of Secretary Graham of November 29, 1851, he says: “The Wind 
and Current (’harts planned by Lieutenant Maury, are being extended to the Pacific 
and Indian Oceans. * * * “This work has materially shortened the passage along 
the highways bv which our commerce passes into and through the southern hemis- 
phere.” 
The volumes issued from the Observatory and Hydrographic ()ffiee on this subject, 
beginning with the Abstract Log of 1849, and followed by eight volumes or “editions'1 
of Sailing Directions—the eighth edition being a large quarto of two volumes—bear 
witness to the ability, earnestness, and labor with which these publications were pre- 
pared. The force employed upon them was often changed and reduced by the de- 
mands for officers during tin* Mexican war, and, afterward, for other sea duty. 
In regard to the astronomical work of the period referred to, and in reply to 
inquiries for annual volumes or publications to represent it, it is proper to say, 
further, that some of the professors, as well as the junior line-officers, were placed on 
dutv upon the charts; that astronomical observations were fully kept up until the close 
of 1850, although those for that year were not finally reduced and published until 1859; 
and that the work of the equatorial was fully kept up during the whole period by Mr. 
Ferguson, ” and that of the mural circle from the year 1853 by Professor Yarnall. ‘ 
In the year 1858, Professor Yarnall, finding his results for the previous six years 
nearly ready for the press, decided, by leave of the Superintendent, to complete them 
by right-ascension observations with the transit instrument, and thus to put them in 
form for cataloguing. 11 is catalogue will contain about 10,000 stars. Their posi- 
tions have been derived from the observations made at this ()bservatory from the 
time of its establishment to 1871. The number of observations is from 80,000 to 
90,000. 
His work, begun August 26, 1858, and continued to the present date, results in 
the completion of two publications to form appendixes to the annual volume for 1871, 
now in press. 
'Till* results of Mr. Ferguson’s observations with the equatorial for the period 
referred to are also nearly ready for the press. The published results of other officers 
—the observations with the meridian circle by Professor Hubbard and Lieutenant May- 
nard; those with the mural circle by Professor Coffin and Lieutenants Page and Steed- 
man; and those with the transit instrument by Professors Keith, Beecher, and Hubbard, 
and Lieutenants Almv and Parker—have already been noted in the foot-note of page 
34 of this memoir. ()ther observations for this period have not, however, been reduced 
or published. 
Mr. Walker, whose achievements in the outset promised much for the Institution, 
within fourteen months from the date of his appointment, resigned to accept the direc- 
1 Report of Secretary Preston, December 1, 1849. 
Mr. Ferguson was successful in discovering for tlie Observatory the three asteroids Enplirosyne, Virginia, and Echo, 
JM. Yarnall, appointed Professor of mathematics February 1, 1K19: commissioned August 14. 1848; joined the Ob- 
ervatory in October, 1859. 38 
tion of the longitude department of the Coast Survey; Professor Coffin was detached 
in 1852 to join the Naval Academy at Annapolis. With the exceptions of the equato- 
rial, and mural circle observations, the zone observations named above, and the unpub- 
lished work of other observers during the latter part of the ten years, (1851—61,) 
astronomical work unhappily ceased to be the definite object placed before the Institu- 
tion. The Wind and Current Charts absorbed the attention of the Superintendent. 
O11 the 26th of April, 1861, Commander Maury suddenly left the Observatory and 
the city to join the cause of the so-called Confederate States of the South. 
RESUMPTION OF ASTRONOMICAL WORK. 
Superintendence of Captain J. M. Gilliss, i 86 i to 1865. 
On the 2 2(1 of April, 1861—nearly twenty years after the founding of the Obser 
vatory—it was placed in charge of tlie officer by whose efforts chiefly that founding 
had been secured. His ideas of the true aims and work of the Institution remained 
unchanged from those expressed at the date of his report in 1845. He had then said 
that “lie would have regarded his time as misspent to labor so earnestly only to estab- 
lish a depot of charts and instruments; that his aim was to place an institution under 
the management of naval officers, where, in the practical pursuit of the highest known 
branch of science, they would compel an acknowledgment of abilities hitherto with- 
held from the service.” Desires and purposes like this marked his brief superinten- 
dency, commencing April 22, 1861. 
In the introduction to the first volume of observations issued under his charge— 
those for 1861, published promptly in 1862—he gave a detailed statement of the astro- 
nomical, magnetical, and meteorological observations which he found unprepared for 
the press from the circumstances which have been named in connection with the pre- 
paration of the Wind and Current Charts during the previous superintendency. 
He also took immediate measures toward the reduction and publication of these 
observations, and for the regular and prompt issue from that date of annual volumes 
from the Observatory. Meteorological observations were to constitute a part of each 
future volume. 
The Institution still retained as its full official name “The Naval Observatory and 
Hyc Irographical Office,” and was under the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, 
Captain A. A. Harwood, chief. It was still charged with the receipt, examination, and 
distribution of the books and charts to cruising-vessels; more than 20,000 sheets being 
sent out from the office during the year under the supervision of Lieutenant (now retired 
Commodore) W. B. Whiting and Professor A. G. Pendleton.1 
Under the re-organization of the several Bureaus of the Navy Department, in ac- 
cordance with the law approved August 31, 1862, the Observatory was transferred to 
the Bureau of Navigation, of which Commodore (now Rear-Admiral) C. 11. Davis was 
in the same year made Chief. 
The astronomical and meteorological observations made during the year 1862 
were issued in 1863, as promptly as the Government press during those war-times 
could deliver them. In addition to a largely-increased number ol observations, the 
1 Appointed Professor of mathematics February 19, 1838; commissioued August 14, 1848. 39 
volume contained a discussion by Professor Newcomb1 of the longitude of Washing- 
ton as derived from moon culminations observed at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 
and the United States Naval Observatory, Washington, during the years 1846-60, 
inclusive. The difference of longitude between the Observatories of Greenwich and 
Washington, as derived from a comparison of 279 corresponding culminations, was 
5U 8,n 1 i\6.u 
This volume also contained a paper on the aspects of comet II, 1862, with draw- 
ings by Professor I larkness 'of the comet during the period of its greatest brilliancy, 
the observations of the comet with the equatorial having been made by Professor 
Asaph Hall1 United States Navy. The volume has a plate illustrating the appear- 
ances of the planet Mars, near the opposition, in that year, as the planet was seen in 
the equatorial, September 6,- 12 p. m., and September 30, 1 1 p. m. 
The astronomical work presented for the year 1863, in addition to the usual rou- 
tine observations with the several instruments, was an investigation of the solar parallax 
from observations on the planet Mars, made near the opposition, 1862, by Professor 
Hall and Mr. dames Ferguson; and new elements of Nemausa by Professor Hall. 
The aggregate result ot astronomical observations made during the year with four 
instruments consisted of nearly eleven thousand observations, embracing those upon 
the sun, moon, the larger planets, eleven asteroids, two comets, and sixtv-two double 
stars, sixteen occupations, and differential measurements of thirty-nine stars in the 
Pleiades group. 
IxKyi lMTlON FOR A NkW TkI?KSCOH 
The great defect of the Observatory, arising from the low optical capacity of the 
telescopes of its meridian instruments, was represented by the Superintendent as becom- 
ing each day more grievous. At the time of the founding of the ()bservatory only four 
asteroids were known, and } at opposition? all of them were observable with the instru- 
ments tliiMi selected. Of the seventy-five minor planets added to the list between the 
•years 1845 and 1863, three-fourths of them would be forever invisible with the tele- 
scopes of the ()bservatorv, even under the most favorable circumstances; and as the 
number was constantly increasing, each one observed with the equatorial necessarily 
involved repeated observations with two other instruments to determine the places of 
comparison-stars. With its original equipment, three instruments, and three observers 
at two epochs, were indispensable for determining data which a single proper instru- 
ment would enable one assistant to determine more satisfactorily bv a simile observe- 
tion. Of necessity, the burden of making the most reliable observations of all these 
bodies devolved upon the very limited number of establishments having meridian instru- 
ments of suitable'capacities, and probably they had other marked lines of work which, 
in consequence thereof, were greatly interfered with. In fact, of the two known 
observatories having both means and men for the work, Greenwich was the only one 
that attempted to follow them regularly, and the task had become excessively onerous. 
■Simon Newcomb, commissioned Professor of mathematics in the United States Navy, and ordered to the Observa 
tory in September, 1801. 
-The adopted longitude of the Observatory from Greenwich used iu interpolating tabular positions of the mooi 
and planets is 5h 8ni 12\0. See Washington Observations for 1869, p. X. 
3Asaph Hall, commissioned Professor of mathematics May 2, 1869. 
4 William llarkuess commissioned Professor of mathematics Mav 24. 1863. 40 
To the mind of Captain Gilliss it was the imperative duty of the Washington Observa- 
tory to assume its portion of the observations and responsibility at the earliest practica- 
ble period. 
()n the representation of these facts to Admiral I)avis, Chief of the Bureau of Navi- 
gation, authority was promptly and most cordially granted to obtain an instrument 
commensurate with the demands of astronomy and the character of the Observatory. 
The Transit Circle was therefore contracted for early in the year 1863. Ex- 
treme care is shown through the details of this contract, and in the subsequent corres- 
pondence with the contractors, Pistor & Martens, of Berlin, that it should meet the 
highest expectations of the Observatory. The Superintendent repeatedlv expresses 
his solicitude in respect to it, and more than once, in his Correspondence with other 
astronomers, the hope that it would be adjusted and at work by the commencement 
of the year 1865. 
The results of the astronomical work during the years 1863 and 1864 were col- 
lated and prepared for the press under Captain Gilliss’s supervision, but through the 
pressure on the Government office for military printing during those years, they were 
not published before his death. 
Among the latest of his official letters are those referring to three important objects 
which at that time claimed the attention of the Observatory. These were the secur- 
ing of the transit instrument already referred to, the bringing forward the unpublished 
observations made during the years preceding his own superintendency, and the suc- 
cess of the simultaneous observations instituted by him for determining the solar 
parallax. 
He was not, however, to see the final success of any one of these aims. His 
lamented death on the 9th February, 1865, was without any previous illness or indis- 
position. It has been noted as a strange coincidence of circumstances that the last 
morning of his life witnessed an announcement of results deduced at this Observatory 
which had fulfilled his long-deferred hope of determining the solar parallax bv simul- 
taneous observations in Chile and in the United States. This announcement would 
have been peculiarly gratifying to him, because these results were from the joint activity 
of the two Observatories, founded through his own exertions, five thousand miles apart.1 
A reference to these new observations, and the results to be deduced, is to be found 
in the introductions to the volumes of observations for 1862 and 1863; and the full 
original plan of observations for this object, in Vol. Ill of United States Naval Astro- 
nomical Observations to the southern hemisphere. 
Just one week after the death of the Superintendent died, also, and as suddenly, 
Professor A. G. Pendleton, who had been many years on duty in the United States 
Coast Survey before his useful connection with the Observatory. 
SlJPERINTENDENCY OF ReAR-AdMIRAL C. H. I)AVIS, 1865 TO 1867. 
On the 28th of April, 1865, the Observatory was placed in charge of Hear-Admi- 
ral C. H. Davis, formerly Superintendent of the American Ephemeris and Nautical 
1 Annals of American Association for 1866, p. 6. 41 
Almanac, and, at the date named, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in the Navy De- 
partment. 
Admiral Davis reported in October of this year the arrival, mounting, and prepa- 
ration of the great Transit circle contracted for by Captain Gilliss. 
“The employment,” said the Superintendent, “of this instrument, in the Naval Ob- 
servatory, constitutes a new era in its progress, and restores it to the rank of a first- 
class institution. The old instruments of this establishment were fully, both in the 
size and the stvle of their construction, up to the standard of the day in which they 
were ordered. But new and important advances have since been achieved in the art of 
making astronomical instruments, in size as well as in precision; and we find ourselves 
now in possession of a circle with which we can measure right ascensions and polar 
distances at the same moment and with equal exactness.” 
A precise description of this instrument, accompanied by an elaborate inquiry into 
the errors of division of its circles, was prepared by Professor Simon Newcomb, United 
States Navy. The circle was placed in position October 28, 1865, in the then west 
wing of the Observatory. The cylindrical registering-apparatus in this room was put 
in connection with flu* Kessels clock and a regular course of observations with the 
instrument begun January 1, 1866. 
During the years 1865 and 1866, the Superintendent published the volumes con- 
taining the astronomical and meteorological observations made during the last two 
years of Captain Gilliss’s superintendency, 1863 and 1864; accrediting their collation 
and supervision in each case in a note on the reverse of the title-page. 
In addition to the observations with the several instruments, reported in the volume 
for 1864, an appendix by Professor Newcomb, discussed the latitude and longitude 
of the Observatory, and the declinations of certain circumpolar stars. 
Discussion of the Meteorological Ohservations, 1842 to 1867. 
With the astronomical work of the year 1866, Professor J. R. Eastman1 presented 
a full discussion of the meteorological observations made at the Observatory from June 
30, 1842, to January 1, 1867. The investigation of these observations to determine 
their true character was one of the objects proposed by Commander Gilliss when 
he took charge of the Institution, in 1861. The investigation proposed to ascer- 
tain, if possible, the adopted methods of observation from 1842 to 1867; to learn how 
far they were made in accordance with the adopted plan; and to determine their value. 
The discussion, published by Admiral Davis in the volume for 1866, answers these 
points as favorably as fidelity to the investigation would permit. It forms the Appen- 
dix of that volume. 
The Institution still retaining the character of a hydrographic office, there was 
required of the Superintendent, this year, a report on interoceanic canals and railroads 
under the resolution of the United States Senate of March 19, 1866, which follows: 
“ Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy furnish, through a report of the Super- 
intendent of the Naval Observatory, the summit-levels and distances by survey of the 
1 J. R. Eastman, commissioned Professor of Mathematics February 17,1865. 42 
various proposed lines for interoceanic canals and railroads between the waters of the 
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as also their relative merits as practicable lines for the con- 
struction of a ship-canal, and especially as relates to Honduras, Tehuantepec, Nica- 
ragua, Panama, and Atrato lines.” * * * 
Tn obedience to this call, the Superintendent presented to the Secretary of the 
Navy, July 11, 1866, a report on the various proposed lines on the Isthmus and their 
special relations to the practicability of a ship-canal. The report was accompanied by 
fourteen illustrative maps, profiles, and surveys ; of the first and of the second edition, 
ordered in 1867, eight thousand copies were printed by the Senate, nearly one thou- 
sand being distributed by the Observatory. Prof. J. E. Nourse assisted in preparing 
this Report. 
In consequence of the organization of the United States Hydrographic Office 
under the act of Congress of June 21, 1866, the charts and nautical instruments which 
had been in the charge of the Observatory until this year, were removed to the Hydro- 
graphic Office, New York avenue and Eighteenth street, Washington; chronometers 
only being retained. 
On the 8th of May, 1867, Rear-Admiral Davis was detached from the Observa- 
tory to take command of the South Atlantic Squadron. 
SUPERINTENDENCY OF REAR-ADMIRAL IS. F. SANDS, COMMENCING 
MAY 8, 1867. 
The Observatory was placed under the charge of the present Superintendent, 
Rear-Admiral Benjamin F. Sands, United States Navy, by order of the Navy De- 
partment, May 8, 1867. During this year the work of the Institution was chiefly ns 
follows: 
The Equatorial, under Mr. James Ferguson, assisted by Professor ,1. R. Eastman, 
was chiefly employed in the observations of the more recently discovered 
upon the companion of Sirius, and on stars about the variable star in Corona Borealis. 
The Transit Circle, under Professors Newcomb and Hall, assisted by Mr. C. A. Thi- 
rion, Mr. Joseph A. Rogers, and Mr. C. Abbe, Aids, continued the work of a more accu- 
rate determination of the positions of the stars in the American Ephemeris, and of deter- 
mining the positions of 350 stars required by the Coast Survey in determining the lati- 
tudes of its stations. The number of celestial observations for the year reached 5,000, 
the determinations of the Coast Survey stars requiring more than 1,000 observations. 
The Mural Circle and the Transit Instrument were employed under Professor M. Yar- 
nall, assisted by Mr. M. H. Doolittle, Aid, in observations necessary for the General 
Catalogue of Stars, now in press as an appendix to the volume for 1871. 
The volume of observations for 1865, made under the superintendency of Admiral 
Davis, was published during this year. It contained two appendixes, the Description of 
the Transit Circle, with an Investigation of its Constants; and an Investigation of the 
Distance of the Sun. 
The meteorological observations, under Professor J. E. Eastman, were fully kept 
up; the desirableness of securing yet more valuable results than were found possible 43 
with the present instruments prompted special recommendations by the Superintendent, 
and estimates for the purchase of the latest and most improved meteorological appa- 
ratus and the construction of a tower for the observations. 
The ('InonoHirtrr-Rooin, in charge of Commander A. W. Johnson, contained, at the 
date of the Superintendents report, October io, 1867, one hundred and one chro- 
nometers running on trial. Bv collating the history of each chronometer from the date 
P J o J 
of its manufacture and purchase in connection with its time of trial at the Observatory 
—a practice introduced during this year—chronometers to the number of eighty-eight 
were condemned as unreliable, and, by authority of the Bureau, withdrawn from service. 
The Library received a handsome donation of scientific works from the widow of 
the former Superintendent, Captain James Gilliss, being a portion of the collection left 
by him. 
1 >uring the year 1868, in reporting the progress of the largely increased astronomical 
work of the < fbservatory, the Superintendent took occasion to represent the deficiency 
of the Institution in the want of a telescope at all comparable with many owned by 
colleges, observatories, and even by scientific individuals throughout the country, lie 
recommended the employment of Mr. Alvan Clark, of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, 
to construct for the Observatory the largest refractor in the world. 
The full routine work with the Equatorial, Transit Circle, and Mural Circle was 
maintained during the vear. 
Besides the volume of Astronomical and Meteorological Observations for 1866, 
issued in April, 1868, there were distributed the following publications, viz: Report on 
the Meteoric Shower of November 14, 1867, by Professors Newcomb, Harkness, and 
Eastman, and a Discussion of the Cyclone in the West Indies of October 29 and 30, 
1867 by Prof. Eastman. 
In the report of the Superintendent for the year 1869, the wants of the Observa- 
tory and the opportunity of securing the refractor from Mr. Clark were again laid 
before the Navy Department and an appropriation of $50,000 for this instrument was 
submitted in the estimates. 
'The erection of a new observing-room for the Transit Circle was completed during 
the summer of this year. The construction of the room is peculiar, the sides being 
formed of tinned iron 0.015 of an inch thick, shaded from the rays of the sun by light 
wooden louver-work, a construction adopted in order to secure equality of temperature.1 
This observing-room forms an extension of the west wing, with the dimensions of 40 
feet from north to south and 28 feet 3 inches from east to west. The mounting of 
the circle in this observing-room was completed February 2, 1870, and observations 
commenced with it by Professor Harkness in charge, assisted by Professor J. R. East- 
man and Assistant Observers Edgar Frisbv and Ormond Stone. 
O J 
1 The observing-roora aud the transit circle are described by the Professor in charge in the volume of Observations 
for 18/0. 44 
The erection of this new room gave opportunity for a removal of the Library from 
the south wing to the room previously occupied by the Transit circle—a removal made 
necessary by the increase of the library, which, at the date of this memoir, embraces 
more than 5,000 bound volumes. 
By the facilities offered by the Western Union Telegraph Company, the longi- 
tudes of three points were determined during the years 1868 and 1869, through the 
use of the telegraphic apparatus and connections of the Observatory.1 These were: 
1. Of a station in the arsenal grounds at Havana, Cuba, for determining the longi- 
tude of which, at the request of the Spanish government, time-signals were exchanged 
on four nights of September, 1868, between the Observatory, and Lieutenant C. Puja- 
zon of the Spanish navy. These signals placed the station 
qIi 2 j m j 2 s. 5 8 i 0S.035 
west of the center of the Observatory dome.2 
2. Of a station taken at Des Moines, Iowa, by the Observatory party sent to ob- 
serve the solar eclipse of August 7, 1869. These signals placed the station at Des 
Moines 
pi 5m j 6s#c>5 -p o8.c>5 
west of the center of the dome. 
3. Of a station taken by a party from the United States Coast Survey at Bristol, 
Tennessee, whose station was determined 
o11 201U 3 2s. 74 
west of the center of the dome. 
Time-signals were also exchanged April 7, 1869, with an observing-party of the 
United States Coast Survey stationed at Staunton, Virginia. 
The astronomical event during the year 1869, exciting general and lively interest, 
and productive of important results to astronomical science, was 
The Totai, Solar Eclipse of August 7th. 
This was closely observed by the parties from the Observatory: by Professor 
Asaph Hall, U. S. N., with Mr. J. A. Rogers, of the IT. S. Hydrographic Office, at a 
station in Plover Bay, Alaska; by Professors Newcomb, Harkness, and Eastman, at 
the court-house of lies Moines, Iowa; and by Mr. F. AY. Bard well, Aid, at Bristol, 
Tennessee. Assistant Surgeon, Brevet Major Edward Curtis, V. S. A. accompanied 
the I)es Moines party. 
The reports and discussions of this eclipse by the Naval observing-parties—together 
with those by Dr. Curtis, Mr. J. Homer Lane of Washington City, and Mr. AY. S. 
Gilman, jr. of New York, and Brevet Brigadier-General A. J. Myer, IT. S. A., made 
at other stations—form a quarto volume of 217 pages, with twelve illustrations. 
Of this volume, besides the usual number furnished within the annual volume of the 
1 The telegraphic apparatus and connections of the Observatory are in charge of Professor Harkness, assisted by 
Mr. \V. F. Gardner. 
2 The report on this difference of longitude between Washington and Havana forms Appendix I of the volume of 
Washington observations for the year 1867, published in 1870. 45 
Observatory, three thousand five hundred copies were printed by joint resolution of 
(’ongress.1 
rrhe special astronomical work of the Observatory for the year 1870, in addition 
to the full progress of the routine observations, was the conclusion of the observations 
by Professor Hall of the stars in Pnesepe, with the publication of a catalogue of 151 
stars in that group; the commencement of the revision of the tables of the moon by 
Professor Newcomb; and the observations in Europe of 
The Total Solar Eclipse of December 22, 1870. 
The Superintendent of the < )bservatory, believing that the experience of its officers 
in their observations of the eclipse of August 7, 1869, should be availed of for the 
further elucidation of the subjects involved in such phenomena, addressed the Navy 
Department upon the subject of their employment in Europe in observing the eclipse of 
1870, by a special letter, March 4th of that year. The Department promptly detailed 
the Professors who had been the observers of the previous year. 
Professor Newcomb, through the courtesy of Sir George Biddell Airy, the As- 
tronomer-Koyal, and of Sir James Anderson, President of the Anglo-Mediterranean 
Telegraph Company, made full arrangements to correct the stations of the American 
observers by cable for difference of time with the Greenwich Observatory. This was 
accomplished between Sicily, Malta, and Gibraltar, failing with Greenwich in con- 
sequence of a break in the cable between that place and Lisbon. Professor Newcomb’s 
observations of the eclipse were made at a point known as Buena Vista, between the 
town of Gibraltar and Europa Point. The observations of Professors Hall, Harkness, 
• and Eastman were made at Syracuse, Sicily. (’aptain Tupman, lb M. A., volunteered 
to assist Professor Harkness in his observations, and a report of his own results, with 
his drawing of the eclipse as seen at Syracuse with a H-inch telescope, is included in 
the Observatory report. 
Unfavorable weather prevented the most successful observations of this eclipse. 
Those which were secured tend mainly to corroborate the observations of the eclipse 
of the previous year. The existence in the corona of a bright line, whose wave-length 
is 531.6 millionths of a millimeter, was verified, and the line found in all parts of the 
corona, Two other bright lines of less refrangibility were also found in one part of 
the corona. The radial polarization of the light of the corona was definitely ob- 
served. 
The following differences of longitude were determined by cable by Professors 
Newcomb, Hall, and Harkness, of the Eclipse party: 
Spencer’s monument, Malta, east of flag-staff, at landing-place, Gibraltar, ih 19"' 
2 7*.52 ±0". 15. Eight-house on Maniace Castle, Syracuse, east of Spencer’s monu- 
ment, Malta, ou 3"1 1 2*. 19 rb os. 16. 
•The reports embraced, besides the observations named above made with astronomical instruments, returns from 
more than thirty parties of amateur observers without telescopes, who noted the beginning and the ending of the totality 
of the eclipse, in accordance with a circular of instructions previously furnished from the United States Naval Observa- 
tory. These returns were made by parties who accepted the invitation of the Observatory to eo-operatc in this way in 
the observations. The observers resided mostly near the northern or the southern limits of totality in the States of 
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri. 46 
A very large edition of the report of this eclipse lias been called for and mostly 
distributed. It forms Appendix I, Washington Observations for 1869. 
During the year 1871, the work of the Transit Circle was for a time necessarily 
suspended by the absence of Professors Harkness and Eastman, on duty in Europe, 
and the nearly fatal illness of the former which delayed his return; and bv the re-grind- 
ing of the object-glass. 
The observations with the Equatorial were uninterrupted. They were made 
specially on 27 of the minor planets; upon two new comets, discovered during this 
year by Winnecke and Tempel in Europe; on the two comets, Encke’s and Tuttle’s, 
whose periodical returns occurred during the year; and upon moon occupations. The 
observations on Encke’s comet by Professors Hall and Harkness, form Appendix II, of 
the annual volume for 1870, just issuing from the press. The elements of the orbit of 
Comet I, 1871, were also computed. 
The Transit instrument and Mural circle were employed by Professor Yarnall 
chiefly on observations necessary for filling in star-places in the General Star Cata- 
logue which is to be found in the volume for 1870. 
At the request of the Chief of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, the Observatory aided 
in determining the differences of longitude between the Observatory and Detroit, and 
the Observatory and Carlin and Austin, Nevada. In this work the Observatory co- 
operated with General C. B. Comstock, Superintendent U. S. Lake Survey, and Lieu- 
tenant G. M. Wheeler, commanding the Exploring Expedition to Nevada and Arizona. 
The revision of the tables of the moon, for which an appropriation of $2,000' was 
made by Congress in the previous year, was materially advanced by the facilities cour- 
teously afforded Professor Newcomb, the officer charged with the work, during his visit 
to the principal observatories and libraries of Europe. The records of observations of 
eclipses and occupations of the moon which were discovered on this visit, extended as 
far back as the year 1680—seventy years before the epoch at which it had been gen- 
erally supposed that our accurate knowledge of the moon’s motion begins. 
In the work of the Observatory reported October 1, 1872, the Equatorial was em- 
ployed, by the observers Professor Hall and Assistant Professor A. N. Skinner, chiefly 
in observations on the numerous newly-discovered asteroids. A series of measure- 
ments of the double star Sirius was made and furnished, through the Superintendent, to 
the Astronomische Nachrichten in Altona, Germany. 
The Transit Circle was employed on the sun, moon, and planets; and on a list of 
miscellaneous stars whose places were required for the better determination of the 
latitude of the eclipse-stations of August, 1869, at Des Moines, Iowa, for the reduction 
of observations to be used in the revision of the theory of the moon, and for reduction 
of observations made by the equatorial. A new chronograph was received, made by 
Messrs. Clark, of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, from designs by Professor Harkness. 
With the Mural Circle, Professor Yarnall observed a series of stars taken alternately 
above and below the pole and a number of stars whose declinations were wanted to 
complete the places of some already observed in right ascension. In the computations 
on the star catalogue aid was rendered by Professor II. II. Lockwood, U. S. N. 
1 Under this appropriation, three computers, Messrs. Parker, Hedrick, and Brown, have been employed, rendering 
valuable assistance, 47 
The- first part of tin* theory and tables of the moon, under revision by Professor New- 
comb, comprising the calculation by a new method of the action of the planets on the 
moon’s motion, was nearly completed. In the preparation of the second part, compris- 
ing the comparison of Hansen’s tables with observations before the year 1750, very 
important help in the re-determination of the proper motions of the principal stars was 
rendered by the eminent astronomer Dr. Auwers, of Berlin, who communicated his 
re-reductions of Bradley’s observations from 1750 to i860. 
In July and August, 1872, the Observatory co-operated with the U. S. Coast 
Survey by exchanging longitude signals with the (’oast Survey parties at Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts, and St. Pierre, near Newfoundland; Professor Ilarkness exchang- 
ing the signals from tin* Observatory. At the same time, signals were exchanged by 
the U. S. Coast Survey between Saint Pierre, and Brest, France, and between the latter 
station and Paris and Greenwich, the object being to obtain another determination of 
the difference of longitude between the fundamental points in Europe and America. 
Successful observations of the meteoric showers both of August and of November 
of this year were prevented by unfortunate weather. 
The usual daily Meteorological Observations were made at the regular intervals of 
°'\ 31', 61', 71', and 9'* a. in., and oh, 3U, 6U, and 911 p. m. 
d’ho Chronometer-room during this year received eighty chronometers. At the 
date of October 1st, ninety-seven were on hand ready for issue to sea-going vessels.1 
From this room mean time is now sent daily, at 7 a. m., 12 111., and 6 p. 111., to the 
police-stations of this city, and at 12 m. to the Western Union telegrapli-office, for com- 
munication to the offices of the company’s lines throughout the United States.2 
The Great Equatorial now Constructing. 
In the act making appropriations for the naval service for the year ending June 
, 30, 1871, Congress authorized the Superintendent of the Observatory to contract for 
tin* construction of a refracting telescope of the largest size, of American manufac- 
ture, at a cost not exceeding $50,000, recommendations for which had been made by 
him in the years 1870 and 1871. They further authorized, by the naval appropriation 
bill for 1872, the erection of a tower and dome for this instrument. 
By direction of the Superintendent, the contract for the telescope was negotiated 
in August, 1870, by Professor Newcomb, between Messrs. Alvan Clark & Sons, of Cam- 
bridgeport, Massachusetts, and the Observatory. By this contract, Messrs, ( ’lark are 
to construct a refracting telescope, of good definition and of 26 inches clear aperture, 
mounted eipiatorially on the German plan, with all the means necessary to secure easy 
motion, proper balance in all positions, and the safety of its object-glass; with divided 
circles, to be each read by two microscopes—right-ascension circle to seconds, declina- 
tion-circle to tenths of a minute of an arc;—with a driving-clock, and with the usual 
'Under 1 lie sanction of t be Navy Department, Chronometers are also issued from the Observatory to the various 
surveying and scientific Expeditions of the Government. 
4 A time-ball is dropped on the roof of the Observatory daily at noon. The clocks at the Navy Department and the 
U. S. Signal-Office of the War Department are controlled electrically by the Observatory clock, the expecta- 
tion being to include in the circuit the several Department buildings. 48 
number of eye-pieces arid ring-micrometers, a filar micrometer, an Airy double-image 
micrometer, a mica-scale micrometer, and a spectroscope. Messrs. Clark engage to 
complete and mount this telescope within four years from the date of the contract. 
The object-glass, made in the rough by Chance & Co., of Birmingham, England, 
was received by Messrs. Clark in December, 1871. It was ground, polished, and com- 
pleted by them in November, 1872. The glass entirely satisfies the expectations of the 
Observatory. The work on the tower and the dome has been commenced. 
Co-operation of the Observatory in the Observations of the Transit of Venus, 
December 8, 1874. 
Preparatory measures for this object were early taken by the Observatory. At 
the request of the Superintendent, Congress appropriated, in 1871, the sum of $2,000 
for experiments to be made on the best forms of instruments to be used in these ob- 
servations. 
By section 2 of the naval bill making this appropriation, a Commission in reference 
to this Transit was made to consist of the Superintendent of the Observatory, the Presi- 
dent of the National Academy of Sciences, the Superintendent of the United States Coast 
Survey, and two Professors of Mathematics of the Observatory. Prof. Simon New 
comb, U. S. N., and Prof. William Harkness, U. S. N., were detailed as members of the 
Commission. 
In March, 1872, the Navy Department was addressed by the Superintendent, on 
the advisability of making national provision for the observation of the Transit, the 
expedition for which would also render important service in determining the position of 
points in the Pacific Ocean. 
The estimate of the Commission of $150,000 (to be expended in three annual in- 
stallments) was submitted in this letter of the Superintendent, endorsed by the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, Hon. G. M. Robeson, and responded to by Congress ip the grant of 
the first installment of $50,000 for the purchase of instruments, June 10, 1872.1 
This cordial response in Congress was secured by the support of the Senate Com- 
mittee on Education, an able report from which was presented by the Hon. Mr. Saw- 
yer; and by the influence in the House of Representatives of the chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Appropriations, Hon. Mr. Garfield, with that of other Representatives. 
Among those who memorialized Congress for this object were the Connecticut 
Academy of Sciences, the California Academy, the American Philosophical Society of 
Philadelphia, the Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco, and the University of Cali- 
fornia. 
Under the appropriation already made, the Commission have contracted for most 
of the necessary instruments, and are carrying forward the previously-required experi- 
mental work for observing this rare and most important event. 
They have issued the first two papers of a series upon this subject: 
No. I, comprising a Correspondence with Mr. L. M. Rutlierfurd, ot New York, 
and a paper on the Application of Photography, by Professor Newcomb;— 
1 While these pages have been in press, Congress lias appropriated the remaining $100,000; March 2, 1873 49 
No. II, Charts and Tables for facilitating Predictions of the several Phases 
of the Transit; prepared by Mr. G. W. Hill, Assistant in the Nautical Almanac Office, 
under the direction of Professor J. II. C. Coffin, Superintendent of the Almanac. 
In reply to inquiries in regard to the plans of the Commission, Professor Xew- 
combl as their secretary, has replied in substance: That the principal reliance during the 
Observations of the transit will boon photography; and that arrangements are being made 
for equipping eight photographic stations—four in the Northern Hemisphere in China, 
Japan, and probably in the adjacent islands; and four in the Southern Hemisphere 
in New Zealand, Chatham Island, Tasmania, and probably Kerguelen Island. Each 
station will be provided with an astronomer, an assistant astronomer, and photographic 
assistants. 
Fhe record of the work of the ()bservatory offered in the preceding Memoir closes 
with this reference to the transit of Venus and to the natural relation to it held bv the 
Institution. It purposes to fulfill that share in the observations and in the results to 
be deduced from them, which the astronomical world justly expects of it. The daily 
increasing interest in this phenomenon and its astronomical importance may be yet 
more appreciated by the general reader by attention to the following recent statement 
of a distinguished writer on astronomy, Professor 11. Grant, Director of the Royal Ob- 
servatory, Edinburgh: 
“•The approaching transits of Venus in 1874 and 1882 are looked forward to by 
astronomers with intense interest. Steps have already been taken by the principal 
nations of Europe.to observe the transit of 1874 with the aid of all the appliances of 
modern science. The transit of 1882 will be eminently favorable for observation in 
America. Between those two important phenomena there will occur one of those op- 
positions of the planet Mars which are peculiarly favorable for the same purpose. We 
have thus three phenomena—the transit of Venus in 1874, the opposition of Mars in 
1877, and the transit of Venus in 1882—all favorable for obtaining a fresh determi- 
nation of the value of the solar parallax; and it cannot be doubted that the various 
efforts which they will call forth on the part of astronomers will lead to a value of that 
important element still more trustworthy than any yet arrived at.” 
• 
lii concluding tliis Memoir, it is proper to say as regards the future of the l". S. 
Naval Observatory, that the position now accorded to it by the free tributes of scien- 
tific men in the Old World, as well as at home, is not without honor to our country; 
and this notwithstanding the comparatively recent founding of the Institution and the 
as yet limited appropriations sustaining it. It may, therefore, justly claim a yet more 
generous support; and the pledge may be safely made that if thus supported and effi- 
cientlv directed, it will make returns vet more gratifying to national pride, and advanc- 
ing the highest aims of scientific research. The increasing work of the Institution, 
especially during the last four years, is fairly presented in the extent and character of 
its publications.1 To these only a general reference has been found practicable through- 
1 The demand for these has nearly exhausted the supply of all publications which precede tho volume for 1H70, 50 
out the preceding’ sketch. The Table closing it will show the issue of the now com- 
pleted work of some previous years—until lately unreduced—as well as the full labors 
of current years of observation. 
Independently, however, of all claims derived from its own records, the unprece- 
dented advance of science in our day demands the best national provision for the per- 
sonnel and equipment of the Observatory, and for its efficient direction to the highest 
astronomical aims. 
The extent of the field of investigation which is opening, its practical usefulness, 
and the claim that National Institutions shall enter upon what cannot otherwise be 
secured, have been lately urged on more than one occasion before the first of astrono- 
mical societies, the Koyal Astronomical Society of London. 
The following is from a paper read by Lieutenant-Colonel Strange, F. R. S., at the 
session of the Society of April 12, 1872 : 
“I content myself with stating my opinion that permanent national provision for 
the cultivation of the Physics of astronomy is urgently needed. If the study of the 
sun only were in question, that alone would, I think, justify such a measure; for there 
can hardly be a doubt that almost every natural phenomenon connected with climate 
can be distinctly traced to the Sun as the great dominating force, and the inference is 
unavoidable that the changes, and, what we now call, the uncertainties, of climate, are 
connected with the constant fluctuations which we know to be perpetually occurring in 
the Sun itself. The bearing of climatic changes on a vast array of problems connected 
with navigation, agriculture, and health need but be mentioned to show the importance 
of seeking in the Sun, where they doubtless reside, for the causes that govern these 
changes. It is, indeed, my conviction, that of all the fields now opened for scientific 
cultivation, there is not one which, quite apart from its transcendent philosophical in- 
terest, promises results of such high utilitarian value as the exhaustive, systematic study 
of the Sun.” 
What further share the Naval Observatory shall secure in such investigations, or in 
others of like character within special fields of research, or in the general advance- 
ment of science, and what shall be its’future records of success—must remain with the 
support extended by the Government and the fidelity of those who are entrusted with 
its administration. It is certainly a source of congratulation to the Government and 
especially to the Navy, that this Institution, nurtured and fostered by the Navy Depart- 
ment through successive changes of administration in the Heads of that Department 
and under the zeal and labor of Naval Officers, has advanced from so humble an origin 
to the position which it has secured. 51 
SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE OBSERVATORY. 
Commander M. F. Mairy, from October i, 1844, to April 20, 186 
Captain J. M. Gilliss, from April 22, 1861, to February 9, 1865. 
Rear-Admiral C. If. Davis, from April 28, 1865, to May 8, 1867. 
Rear-Admiral B. F. Sands, fropi May 8, 1867. 
Officers in Charge of Instruments Since i 861 
'The Equatorial.—Assistant Astronomer ,1. Ferguson, Professors Newcomb, Hall. 
The Prime Vertical.—Professors Hubbard, Newcomb. 
The Transit Instrument.—Professor Yamal 1. 
The Mural Circle.—Professors Hubbard, Newcomb, Yamall. 
The Transit Circle.—Professors Newcomb, Hall, Harkness. 
The Mctcorolof/ical Instruments.—Professor J. R. Eastman. 
The Chronometers and Nautical Instruments.—Very frequent changes have occurred 
in tl 10 orders of the officers of the line, on duty at the Observatory in charge of the 
naval instruments and the charts. 
After the transfer of the charts and other naval instruments at the date of the 
organization of the Hydrographic Office, 1866, Commander A. AY. Johnson was in 
charge of the chronometers. He was succeeded by Commander AY. N. Jeffers, and 
Commander Jonathan Young. At the present date, Commander James II. Gillis is in 
charsre. 
PUBLICATIONS OF TIIK OBSERVATORT 
I.—Volumes of Observations. 
Vstronomical Observations for the year 
1845 
published in 
1846 
I)o. 
do. 
1846 
do. 
1851 
Do. 
do. 
1847 
do. 
1853 
Do. 
do. 
1848 
do. 
1856 
Do. 
do. 
1849- 
-1850 do. 
1859 
Do. 
do. 
1851- 
-1852 do. 
1867 
Vstronomical and Meteorological Observations for 
1861 
published in 
1862 
Do. 
do. 
1862 
do.' 
1863 
l)o. 
do. 
1863 
do. 
1865 
Do. 
do. 
1864 
do. 
1866 
Do. 
do. 
1865 
do. 
1867 
Do. 
do. 
1866 
do. 
1868 
Do. 
do. 
1867 
do. 
1870 
Do. 
do. 
1868 
do. 
1871 
Do. 
do. 
1869 
do. • 
1872 
Do. 
do. 
1870 
do. 
1873 
Do. 
do. 
1871 
in press. 52 
II.—SPECIAL OBSERVATIONS AND REPORTS. 
Observation or Report. 
Author. 
Appendix to 
volume for 
the year— 
Superintendence of Commander Maury. 
• 
A. —Observations on snn spots 
B. —Observations on the Mississippi River, at Memphis. 
C. —Tables for facilitating reduction of apparent places of fixed 
stars to their mean places. 
[Zones of stars observed at the National Observatory in 1846, 
reduced by Assistant Astronomer James Ferguson, published 
iu I860.] 
Superintendency of Captain Gilliss. 
Rev. 13. Sestini, S. J 
Passed Midshipman R. A. Marr 
Professors J. 11. C. Coflin, and J. S. 
Hubbard. 
Lieutenant L. Maynard, Professor J. 
S. Hubbard. 
1 1847 
J 
Longitude of U. S. Naval Observatory from moon culminations.. 
A.—Solar parallax from observations on the planet Mars, made 
Hear the opposition, 1862, with the equatorial. 
A. —Solar parallax from observations on the planet Mars, made 
near the opposition, 1862, with the meridian instrument. 
B. —Orbit of Nemausa 
Investigation of the latitude and longitude of the Observatory 
and ot the declination of certain circumpolar stars. 
Professor S. Newcomb 
Professor A. Hall 
Assistant Astronomer J. Ferguson 
Professor A. Hall 
Professor S. Newcomb 
1862 
j 
} 1863 
J 
1884 
Snpc'rinttndcncy of Rear-Admiral Davis. 
Description of the Transit Circle ) 
Investigation of the distance of the sun $ 
Discussion of the meteorological observations from 1842 to 1867. 
Report on interoceanic canals and railroads 
Report on November meteors of 1866 
Professor S. Newcomb 
1865 
Professor J. R. Eastman 
Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis 
1866 
Snperin tendency of Rear-Admiral Sands. 
I. —Report on the difference of longitude between Washington 
and Havana. 
II. —Reports on the total solar eclipse in the United States, Au- 
gust 7, 1869. 
III. —Positions of fundamental stars deduced’from Washington 
observations 1862-’67. 
Professor W. Ilarkncss 
Professors S. Newcomb, A. Hall, W. 
Darkness, J. R. Eastman and others. 
Professor S. Newcomb 
> 1887 
Catalogue of stars observed by the United States Astronomical 
Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere, 18E0-’52. 
I. —Reports on total solar eclipse in Europe of December 22,1870. 
II. —Zones of stars observed with the Mural Circle in the vears 
1846, 1847, 1848, and 1840. 
I. —Report on the difference of longitude between Washington 
and St. Louis. 
II. —Reports on observations of Encke’s Comet, during its return 
iu 1871. 
III. —Right ascensions of the equatorial fundamental stars and 
corrections necessary for reduction of right ascensions of differ- 
ent catalogues to a mean homogeneous system. 
IV. —Zones of stars observed at the U. S. Naval Observatory, 
with the Meridian Transit Instrument, in years 1846, 1847, 
1818, and 1849. 
Lieutenant James M. Gilliss, Super- 
intendent; Lieutenant A. McRae, 
Master S. Ledyard Phelps, and 
Mr. E. R. Smith, Assistants. 
Professors Newcomb, Hall, Darkness, 
Eastman. 
Professor J. H. C. Collin, Lieutenant 
T. J. Page, Lieutenant C. Steedman. 
Professor W. Darkness 
1868 
1 18611 
J 
Professors Hall and Darkness.. .. 
Professor S. Newcomb 
o 
4^ 
X) 
Lieutenant J. J. Almy, Lieutenant 
W. A. Parker, Professors R. Keith, 
Mark II. Beecher, J. S. Hubbard. 
Professors Newcomb, Darkness, East- 
man. 
Professor .J. R. Eastman 
Discussion of West India Cyclone of October 29 and 30, 1867 . } 
Report on November meteors of 1868 
lx Unless. 
I. —A list of mean places of stars observed at the U. S. Naval Ob- 
servatory in the years 1858, 1859, 1860, for right ascensions, 
and 1853, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857 and 1858, for declinations. 
II. Catalogue of stars observed at the U. S. Naval Observatory 
in the years 1845 to 1871, inclusive, reduced to the mean 
epoch 1860.0. 
III. —Zones of stars observed with the Meridian Circle in the 
years 1847, 1848, 1849. 
IV. —Memoir of the founding and progress of the U. S. Naval 
Observatory. 
Professor M. Yarnall 
Professor M. Yarnall 
Professors Hubbard and Major; Lieu- 
tenant Muse. 
Professor J. E. Nourse 
1 
J- 1871