EXCHANGE 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY 
 
 DURING THE PERIOD 1840-1890. 
 
 BY 
 
 DANIEL WJ BAKER. 
 
 Reprinted from the Boston Evening Traveller. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 1890. 
 
w 
 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY 
 
 DURING THE PERIOD 1840-1890. 
 
 BY 
 
 DANIEL W. BAKER. 
 
 Reprinted from the Boston Evening Traveller. 
 
 . 
 
 U'HIVBJ 
 
 f/r? 
 
 CAMBRIDGE. 
 1890. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A CAREFUL study of the early history of the Harvard College 
 Observatory has been made by Mr. DANIEL W. BAKER, Many facts 
 were thus brought to light which had not appeared in print. A series 
 of newspaper articles was accordingly prepared, which were published 
 in the Boston "Evening Traveller" on six successive Saturdays, be- 
 ginning August 2, 1890. Much of this material appearing to be of 
 sufficient value for preservation in a more permanent form, it has 
 been reprinted in the present pamphlet, with slight alterations, and 
 with the addition of the illustrations given on page 25. The parts 
 numbered IV. and V. originally appeared together as a single article. 
 Reproductions have been made of some of the illustrations. The 
 articles were originally addressed, not to professional astronomers, but 
 to the general public, and are to be regarded as a popular description 
 of the work accomplished at the Harvard College Observatory during 
 the first fifty years of its existence. 
 
 EDWARD C. PICKERING. 
 
 HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY, 
 September 13, 1890. 
 
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 1 1 b 1 U Jx I u 
 
 <N < t?J .. 03EP . v , /' 
 
 OF 
 
 THE HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 1840-1890. 
 
 THE present is the semi-centennial year 
 of the Harvard College Observatory. A 
 precise date cannot be named for the be- 
 ginning, but in the early months of the 
 year 1840 the institution was gradually or- 
 ganized, and before midsummer became 
 a tangible fact and a working adjunct of 
 the college. 
 
 While the first astronomical observa- 
 tion is of record Dec. 31, 1839, it is well 
 known that the observatory had not then 
 an official staff, the appointment of the 
 first director being of date Feb. 12, 1840, 
 and the confirmation by the Board of 
 Overseers somewhat later. Moreover, 
 this particular observation and others 
 immediately following were made in con- 
 tinuation of work begun elsewhere and 
 not identified with the college affairs. 
 
 The advance made in astronomical 
 science during the 50 years past is among 
 the wonderful tacts comprised in the rec- 
 ord of the 19th century, and it is true 
 that since it became fairly organized and 
 equipped, Harvard College Observatory 
 has been in the front rank in the march. 
 A review of this progress so far as per- 
 taining to the institution at Cambridge, 
 is, therefore, timely. A history of 50 
 years, embodying so many facts of the 
 first importance and interest as does this, 
 cannot, even with, the most resolute pur- 
 pose as respects brevity, be disposed of 
 in a single chapter. This, accordingly, 
 will be the first of a series. The reader 
 may be assured at the outset that Hie 
 topics to be touched upon are various and 
 in themselves attractive, and that, so far 
 as possible, technicalities will be shunned. 
 
 Regarding the period of beginning just 
 referred to as the blossoming, whence 
 has followed abundant fruitage, it may 
 be remarked that a long time passed be- 
 tween the budding and the blossoming, 
 and that indications of the flow of a vital 
 current are recognizable at as remote a 
 
 date as 17(51. In that year the sloop 
 owned by the province of Massachusetts 
 was fitted out at public cost to convey 
 Prof. John Winthrop and others con- 
 nected with the college, provided with 
 instruments belonging to the college, 
 to Newfoundland, for observation of a 
 transit of Venus. In 1780, notwithstand- 
 ing the financial straits incident to the 
 war, the commonwealth provided a 
 small vessel of war, called a "galley," to 
 take Prof. Samuel Williams, of the col- 
 lege, and party to Penobscot to observe 
 a total eclipse of the sun. The first defi- 
 nite record pointing to a college observa- 
 tory is of date 1805, when John Lowell, 
 the uncle of that John Lowell who 
 founded the Lowell Institute, being in 
 Paris, consulted with Pelambre, an as- 
 tronomer of note, and procured from 
 him written instructions as to suitable 
 buildings and instruments for an obser- 
 vatory. This document was sent to the 
 college authorities at Cambridge. No offi- 
 cial action followed. The next of record is 
 that the college authorities in 1815 ap- 
 pointed a committee to consider and re- 
 port upon an eligible plan for an obser- 
 vatory. This is supposed to have been 
 the first corporate action taken in the 
 United States, having such an object in 
 view. The doings of this committee are 
 notable in two particulars, at least. They 
 brought into official relations with the 
 college for the first time, the man who 
 was destined to be the builder and organ- 
 izer of the observatory, 25 years later, 
 William Cranch Bond. 
 
 He was about to visit Europe and was 
 appointed the agent of the college to 
 obtain information as to the construction 
 and instrumental equipment of the ob- 
 servatory at Greenwich, and to make 
 such plans, drawings, etc., as would 
 enable him or another to construct an 
 astronomical observatory at Cambridge ; 
 
6 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 also to ascertain from the makers the 
 cost of certain principal instruments like 
 those at Greenwich. He performed the 
 service and reported in detail in the fol- 
 lowing year. That nothing practical 
 came of it for a quarter of a century was 
 not owing to the will, but comparatively 
 speaking, to the poverty of the college. 
 
 This result followed, however, and it 
 may be reckoned the second notable cir- 
 cumstance that, upon his return, Mr. 
 Bond constructed the model of an astro- 
 nomical dome, the operative plan of 
 which was the same as that of the great 
 dome, 'built in 1844, and which has been 
 in satisfactory use at Cambridge to the 
 
 The record indicates that an observa- 
 tory did not cease to be a coveted object 
 at any time during the 25 years prior to 
 1840. Two antecedent events, in 
 themselves of importance, combined 
 to bring the long cherished project to a 
 happy issue, the accession of Josiah 
 Quincy to the presidency of the college 
 and the action of Congress in authorizing 
 what came to be popularly known as the 
 "Wilkes Exploring Expedition." The 
 purpose of the expedition in part was to 
 establish the latitudes and longitudes of 
 uncharted places in distant parts of the 
 world where American commerce was 
 extending, and in part to investigate 
 
 THE DANA HOUSE. 
 
 present time. The chief peculiarity of 
 its mechanism is in the method of rota- 
 tion by means of smoothly -turned 
 spheres of iron. The dome rests on 
 these at equi-distant points, and, be- 
 ing set in motion by suitable gearing, 
 the iron balls sustaining its weight roll 
 along a level circular track of iron, the 
 circumference of which is equal to that 
 of the dome. The method was unlike 
 that previously in use. It appears to 
 have been original with Mr. Bond, as is 
 perhaps evinced by a remark in his re- 
 port for 1848 referring to the matter : "If 
 carefully examined, it will be found that 
 this arrangement is as perfect in theory 
 as it is appropriate and convenient in 
 practice." Experience has shown that 
 spheres of hard bronze are more service- 
 able than those of iron, and bronze is now 
 used. 
 
 natural phenomena, including the facts 
 of terrestrial magnetism. Having, after 
 much delay, got an adequate appropria- 
 tion, the naval department employed the 
 best available talent of the country for 
 the conduct of the enterprise. 
 
 Mr. Bond was engaged to make at his 
 private observatory in Dorchester, Mass., 
 investigations to fix a zero of longitude, 
 whence final reference to Greenwich 
 might be had, and to make a continuous 
 record of magnetic observations at Dor- 
 chester for comparison with like records 
 obtained at distant points by the expedi- 
 tion itself. As preliminary to the latter 
 work, Mr. Bond tested in an isolated ob- 
 servatory in Dorchester the magnetic in- 
 struments with which the expedition 
 was to be equipped. 
 
 Mr. Bond's talents were as well known 
 at Cambridge as at Washington. What 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 Mr. Quincy did in the premises can best 
 be stated in his own words: "Early in 
 the year 1839, the exploring expedi- 
 tion then being in the Southern 
 ocean, it occurred to the president 
 of the university that if Mr. Bond could 
 be induced to transfer his residence and 
 apparatus to Cambridge and pursue his 
 observations there, under the auspices of 
 the university,- it would have an impor- 
 tant influence in clearing the way for an 
 establishment of an efficient observatory 
 in connection with that seminary, by 
 the increase of the apparatus at its com- 
 mand, by the interest which the observa- 
 tions making by Mr. Bond were calcu- 
 lated to excite, and, by drawing the at- 
 tention of the citizens of Boston and its 
 vicinity to the great inadequacy of the 
 means possessed by the university for 
 efficient astronomical observations, cre- 
 ate a desire and a disposition to supply 
 them." 
 
 This proposition, Mr. Quincy says in 
 another connection, he made without 
 having consulted with the corporation. 
 That body sanctioned his action by mak- 
 ing a formal contract with Mr. Bond, of 
 date Nov. 30, 1839, the agreement on Mr. 
 Bond's part being to make the transfer 
 as proposed. Steps were at once taken 
 by the college authorities to secure a sub- 
 scription of $100 each from 30 different 
 gentlemen, which sum was applied, un- 
 der Mr. Bond's direction, in alterations 
 and additions to a dwelling house owned 
 by the college and known as the "Dana 
 nouse." It still stands upon its original 
 site at the junction of Quincy and Har- 
 vard streets, the lot being the southeast 
 corner of what are distinctively called 
 "the college grounds." 
 
 The cupola which crowns the roof is a 
 reminder and proof of apart of these 
 alterations ; for within it was set up one 
 of the telescopes of the first college ob- 
 servatory, the cupola when constructed 
 being suitably domed for the purpose. 
 Something practical in astronomy had al- 
 ways been taught in the college course. 
 In this way, or possibly by Mr. Bond 
 himself, the position of Harvard Hall on 
 the college grounds had been determined. 
 Thus, in a paper published by him in 
 1833 in the Memoirs of the American 
 Academy, he gives the position of his ob- 
 servatory in Dorchester as "0-3'-15" east 
 of Harvard Hall in Cambridge." 
 
 That the astronomical equipment pos- 
 sessed by the college before Mr. Bond's 
 coming did not amount to the beginning 
 
 of a proper observatory, sufficiently ap- 
 pears by a contemporary letter of Prof. 
 Joseph Lovering, written in response to 
 an official inquiry. He says that the col- 
 lege had at the time "no instrument of 
 much value for determining either time 
 or position, and no place more conven- 
 ient for using instruments than an open 
 field, or a window which might accident- 
 ally open in the right direction." He 
 gives the inventory, comprising an as- 
 tronomical clock, which, he says, cannot 
 be relied on for accurate time ; a small 
 transit instrument, which at one time 
 was loaned to Dr. Bowditch, but 
 returned, he having found it of 
 little value; two reflecting telescopes 
 of three feet and two feet focal length ; 
 and a refractor of three feet focal, which 
 three, he says, "answered decently well 
 for showing the moon, Jupiter's satel- 
 lites, Saturn's ring, etc., to the students, 
 but were very imperfect for any nice ob- 
 servation." These, with an astronomi- 
 cal quadrant and a common quadrant, 
 complete the list. The list of instru- 
 ments brought by Mr. Bond does not ap- 
 pear in the printed records, but in the 
 paper above referred to he names his in-- 
 struments used at Dorchester as a Gre- 
 gorian reflector of 30 inches focus, equa- 
 torially mounted, an achromatic tele- 
 scope of 40 inches focus, a Borda's circle, 
 a Ramsden's sextant, and two transit 
 clocks. The clocks he describes as "ex- 
 cellent," and says that they had mer- 
 curial pendulums. 
 
 In the early observations of Mr. Bond 
 at Cambridge, priority was given to the 
 work begun at Dorchester for the naval 
 department. In the college record a 
 considerable part of the routine is classed 
 as meteorology, with reference, chiefly, 
 to the earth's magnetism. The scheme 
 of observation in this department was, 
 however, much broadened, and in this 
 the observatory appears to have per- 
 formed its first notable service to pure 
 science and to have assumed a place that 
 gave it international recognition. For 
 these observations the best known appa- 
 ratus was procured and put into service 
 in a building on the college grounds set 
 at a distance from the Dana house, but 
 connected therewith by a covered way. 
 It was known as the "Lloyd apparatus." 
 It consisted chiefly of three magneto- 
 meters, one for indicating declination, 
 one for horizontal force and the third for 
 vertical force. 
 
 It was the product of the same firm in 
 
8 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 England which had made like instru- 
 ments for the British government for use 
 at meteorological stations at Greenwich, 
 Eng., Toronto, Can., St. Helena, Cape of 
 Good Hope, Bombay, Madras, Singapore 
 and Van Diemen's Land. The magnetic 
 observations at Cambridge were conduct- 
 ed according to the same formula as that 
 in use at these British stations, with a 
 purpose of co-operation. In this cosmi- 
 cal investigation the German Meteorolog- 
 ical Association, having many observa- 
 tories under its direction, and the Rus- 
 sian government, having magnetic sta- 
 tions at various points between the bor- 
 ders of China and the Arctic Circle, 
 joined. This Lloyd apparatus was the 
 
 observatory. Soon afterwards the pres- 
 ent observatory grounds, then known as 
 "Summer House hill," were bought. 
 
 Up to this time astronomical work had 
 been carried on at the Dana house to the 
 extent possible with the few instruments 
 of precision at command, much of it by 
 Mr. W. C. Bond, Jr., whose decease, in 
 1842, was regarded a loss to science. The 
 contract of the senior Mr. Bond with the 
 United States government ended in 1842, 
 and in July of that year a movement was 
 made having in view the purchase of a 
 first-class telescope, but it was a matter 
 of inquiry as to cost, etc., only. Under 
 ordinary circumstances what was thus 
 sought for, a proper observatory build- 
 
 MAIN OBSERVATORY BUILDING, SHOWING THE DIRECTOR'S RESIDENCE 
 AND THE GREAT DOME. 
 
 gift of the American Academy of Arts 
 and Sciences, by vote of April 22, 1840, 
 and was of the value of $1000. 
 
 Many interesting particulars of the 
 early days of Harvard College observa- 
 tory are given in the first volume of 
 printed annals of the institution. In the 
 reading an essential fact is to be kept in 
 mind, the difference of the pecuniary 
 standards of that and the present time. 
 The writer of an official document of 
 1843, was, in view of that difference, 
 neither inexact nor ironical when he 
 characterized a conditional offer of 
 $5000 for the observatory, made that year 
 by Hon. David Sears, as "a munificent 
 proposal." It was soon found that the 
 Dana-house site would serve only tempo- 
 rarily, and on Sept. 4, 1841, action was 
 taken for the building of a permanent 
 
 ing and a telescope equal to the more 
 difficult problems of astronomy, would 
 have been slowly arrived at. 
 
 But early in March, 1843, the great 
 comet of that year suddenly appeared in 
 the evening sky, near to the sun. It was 
 an astonishing phenomenon, and wrought 
 the popular as well as the scientific 
 mind into a state of excitement. 
 
 The comet had passed perihelion on 
 Feb. 27, and was seen at one place in 
 New England on the 28th, close to the 
 sun. During its brightest period it was 
 visible in the daytime at one place in this 
 section of the country from 7.30 A.M. to 
 3P.M., when clouds intervened; and in 
 Mexico from 9 A.M. till sunset. It passed 
 but about 90,000 miles from the sun's sur- 
 face and through more than 300,000 miles 
 of the sun's corona, its velocity then be- 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 ing 350 miles per second. Its head was 
 small, but its tail large and brilliant. 
 The total light emitted by the meteor is 
 stated by Prof. Loomis to have been 
 equal to that of the moon at midnight in 
 a clear sky. By the telescope its tail 
 could be traced over a computed distance 
 of 108,000,000 miles, so that had it been 
 pointed towards the earth it would have 
 passed through the planet's atmosphere 
 and 15,000,000 miles beyond. 
 
 The professor names as its notable 
 characteristics "its small perihelion dis- 
 tance, nearly as small as is physically 
 possible, and its prodigious length of 
 tail." It continued visible into the fol- 
 lowing month. It is known in the books 
 as "tlie great comet of 1843," but for rea- 
 sons which will appear, it might well be 
 called "the Harvard comet." The friends 
 of the young institution at Cambridge 
 perceived that the moment was oppor- 
 tune for an appeal to the moneyed public. 
 The prevalent curiosity as to the visitor 
 could not be gratified by the observers at 
 the Dana house. 
 
 They had no instruments fit for the oc- 
 casion. An altitude-and-azimuth instru- 
 ment, which had been used in the state 
 survey of 1831, was borrowed and mounted 
 in the cupola, and thus, on March 9, an 
 observation was first made ; but nothing 
 came of the endeavor, it being found im- 
 possible to secure permanent adjust- 
 ments. The next thing done was to call 
 a meeting of citizens in Boston. The 
 chairman was Hon. Abbot Lawrence. 
 Addresses were made by Hon. John 
 Pickering, Prof. Benjamin Peirce, Hon. 
 William Appleton and Hon. S. A. Eliot. 
 A financial committee was appointed, 
 and subscriptions to the amount of $25,- 
 000 were obtained in Boston, Salem, New 
 Bedford and Nantucket. 
 
 Thus encouraged, the official board of 
 the college negotiated for the purchase 
 of the best telescope that could be pro- 
 duced in Europe, a refractor of 15 inches 
 aperture, equatorially mounted, the 
 makers being Merz & Mahler of Munich. 
 The spot for building a massive stone 
 supporting pier on Summer-house hill 
 was fixed Aug. 12, 1843, and ground was 
 Droken for the work on Aug. 15. 
 
 These were the experiences which 
 Prof. Benjamin Peirce had in mind 
 when in later years he spoke in eulogy 
 of Prof. Bond, then deceased, in phrase 
 which is both of historical and biographi- 
 cal interest. Having mentioned some 
 of the early difficulties, he said: 
 
 "When, in 1839, Mr. Bond was drawn to 
 Cambridge by the strong hand of Presi- 
 dent Quincy, when the cause of the ob- 
 servatory was undertaken by the un- 
 flinching and irresistible vigor of our 
 friend J. Ingersoll Bowditch, when even 
 the heavens came to our assistance, and 
 that wonderful comet of 1843 excited 
 most opportunely a universal interest in 
 celestial phenomena, it was then appar- 
 ent that the affection for Mr. Bond was 
 the chief strength of the occasion, and to 
 that we were mainly indebted for the 
 successful attempt to obtain the unriv- 
 alled equatorial and to lay the founda- 
 tions of the observatory." No proper bi- 
 ography of Mr. Bond, whose career was 
 an honor to his country, lias ever been 
 published. A sketch, the facts for which 
 have largely been derived from original 
 sources, may fittingly be given as the 
 next number in this series. 
 
 JI. 
 
 A casual glance at the circumstances of 
 the beginning of the famous observatory 
 in the neighboring city of Cambridge 
 will show that a most important con- 
 tribution to the success of that enterprise 
 was made by the first director of the ob- 
 servatory, Prof. W. C. Bond. The more 
 diligently those circumstances are stud- 
 ied, the stronger will be the conviction 
 that his work, while it was that of de- 
 signer and organizer, was also somewhat 
 better in tho sense of being more rare in 
 quality; that his presence and enthu- 
 siasm gave the institution vitality. The 
 record of his life gives him title to rank 
 among eminent Americans. 
 
 William C ranch Bond was born in 
 Portland, Me., Sept. 9, 1789. He was the 
 youngest son of William and Hannah 
 (Cranch) Bond, who were natives of Eng- 
 land. The family was of distinction 
 there, and is genealogically traceable to 
 the time of William the Conqueror, or 
 earlier. The Brandon manor is said to 
 have been granted by that monarch to 
 the ancestor of this line, and to have been 
 held by the family through many gener- 
 ations. William Bond was born in 
 Plymouth, Eng. Richard Cranch, an 
 uncle of Hannah, settled in Brain- 
 tree, Mass., in 1751. The name, in 
 himself and his descendants, be- 
 came distinguished in the annals 
 of the province and common- 
 wealth. From him William Bond re- 
 ceived information which induced him 
 
10 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 to emigrate to this country. He located 
 for business purposes at Portland, then 
 Falmouth, and engaged in cutting ship- 
 timber at Frenchman's bay, sending the 
 commodity to England. He rnnde a voy- 
 age thence to England, returning with 
 his wife and elder children. The timber 
 business proved in ths end un- 
 profitable and he removed to Bos- 
 ton in 1793, where he established 
 himself in his vocation of clockmaker 
 and silversmith, his stand being at 
 the corner of Milk and Marlboro, now 
 Washington street. The youth of Wil- 
 liam C. Bond was, according]} 7 , spent in 
 Boston, where he had such education as 
 the common schools afforded. Indeed, 
 
 PROF. W. C. BOND. 
 
 that he did not have fully that privilege, 
 may be inferred from his remark quoted 
 by Josiah Quincy, that pecuniary re- 
 strictions "obliged me to become an ap- 
 prentice to my father before I had 
 learned the multiplication table." Mainly 
 he was self-taught, though doubtless he 
 derived instruction from his father, who 
 was a well-informed man, and from some 
 of the Cranch relatives, who were of 
 good education. The traditions of the 
 family and the facts of his career, indi- 
 cate his mental quality to have been that 
 of genius, one trait of which is that it 
 absorbs congenial knowledge from un- 
 promising materials and amidst adverse 
 conditions. 
 
 His eldest sister wrote of him as hav- 
 ing been, at tiie age of 14. "a slender boy 
 with soft gray eyes and silky, brown 
 hair, quick to observe, j~et shrinking 
 from notice, and sensitive to excess." 
 She adds, in reference to his early-devel- 
 oped tastes : "The first that I remember, 
 was his intense anxiety about the ex- 
 pected total eclipse of the sun of June K5, 
 1806. He had then no instrument ot his 
 own, but watched the event from a 
 house-top on Summer street through a 
 telescope belonging to Mr. Francis Gray, 
 to which, somehow, he got access. In so 
 doing he injured his eyes and for a long 
 time was troubled in his vision." An 
 elder brother writes of him at this 
 early period: "He was th.3 mildest 
 and best-tempered boy I ever knew, and 
 his remarkable mechanical genius showed 
 itself very early." He adds that in de- 
 vising and making bits of apparatus that 
 boys use in their sports, William Avas 
 chief among his comrades. His early 
 apprenticeship in the clock-making busi- 
 ness undoubtedly gave a fortunate disci- 
 pline to this natural ingenuity, by con- 
 fining his experiments pretty closely to 
 the facilities of his father's workshop as 
 to tools and materials. 
 
 He found or made "idle time" enough 
 before he was 15 years old to construct a 
 reliable shop-chronometer. It had to be 
 a fixture, for lacking a suitable spring he 
 contrived to run it by weights. 
 
 When he Avas about 16 years of age he 
 made a good working quadrant out of 
 ebony and boxwood, the only materials 
 he had. His son, G. P. Bond, wrote of 
 this instrument, years afterwards: "It is 
 no rude affair, bit every part, especially 
 the graduation, the most difficult of all, 
 shows the neatness, patience, and accu- 
 racy of a practised artist. A better wit- 
 ness to the progress he had already made 
 in astronomy could not be desired. It is 
 all that the materials would admit of, 
 and proves that he must have been, even 
 then, irrevocably devoted to astronomy." 
 
 How these "eccentricities of genius" 
 were looked upon by the senior Mr. Bon 1 
 does not appear, but, at any rate, Wil- 
 liam was made a member of the firm 
 about the date of his majority, and forth- 
 with the closkmaking business was ex- 
 panded to include the rating, repairing 
 and making of chronometers. Astrono- 
 my could now go hand in hand with 
 "business." He must have had the 
 means of ascertaining the true local time 
 before he was himself owner of an in 
 
HAKVAKD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 11 
 
 strument suited to that purpose. He made 
 his first seagoing chronometer in 1812, ana 
 it was the first made in America. Its en- 
 graved trade mark was "VVm. C. Bond, 
 1812." It at once went into service, and 
 satisfactorily stood the test of a voyage 
 to and from the East Indies. For mak- 
 ing this he had a working model ; the 
 stationary or shop chronometer of 1804 
 was made according to a description he 
 found in an old French book of a chron- 
 ometer used by La Perouse, the naviga- 
 tor. In 1S10 the business of the Bonds 
 was removed to Congress street. About 
 the same time the family removed to 
 Dorchester where for a while they occu- 
 pied, as tenants, different houses. 
 
 Mr. Bond himself said in his later years 
 that what first gave him a determination 
 for astronomy was his experience of 
 the total eclipse of 1806. Once aroused, 
 the feeling never ceased to have sway, 
 and it modified all his business ambi- 
 tions as a chronometer maker. But 
 as such an artisan he had ex- 
 cuse in the eyes of the practical 
 minded for his loved explorations 
 into the starry depths. In the lack of 
 proper instruments his earliest observa- 
 tions were made by crude methods, 
 which yet gave proof of his originality 
 and of the fascination which the study 
 had for him. It was soon after 1811 chat 
 he first gained recognition from any one 
 competent to pass judgment upon his 
 essential mental qualities. On Sept. 4, 
 1811, Prof. John Farrar of Harvard Col- 
 lege first caught sight of a comet in the 
 western sky. He appears to have at 
 once notified Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch of 
 Salem, and they two, and a few others 
 in New England who had tele- 
 scopes, traced its subsequent prog- 
 ress. Each of the two published an ac- 
 count of his observations in the Memoirs 
 of the American Academy. Prof. Farrar 
 having given in his introductory para- 
 graph the date of his first observation, 
 adds that the comet had been seen earlier 
 by Mr. Bond of Dorchester, whom he 
 calls "William Bond, Jr ," and says that 
 Mr. Bond had "obligingly favored" him 
 with the following notices: 
 
 I remarked on the 21st of April a faint, 
 whitish light near the constellation 
 Canis Major, projecting a tail about one 
 degree in length, and set down its place 
 as follows : Right ascension, 106 ; decli- 
 nation, 9 S. April 24, right ascension, 
 108 ; declination, 7 or 8 S. Its motion 
 and the situation of its tail convinced me 
 
 that it was a comet. I noticed it several 
 times in May, and supposed that its mo- 
 tion was toward the western part of the 
 constellation Leo. 
 
 By messages coming in sailing ships it 
 was learned subsequently to September 
 that the comet had been seen in Europe 
 on March 25. Its perihelion passage was 
 September 12, 1811. 
 
 The elder brother already quoted says 
 of these early days : "I suppose it would 
 cause the astronomer royal to laugh 
 could he see the first transit instrument 
 used by us at Dorchester, a strip of b.ass 
 nailed to the east end of the house, wiMi 
 a hole in it to see a fixed star and note 
 its transit ; this in 1813. When we moved 
 into the Hawes house, he procured a 
 good granite block ; we dug a deep hole 
 and placed it at the west end of the house 
 and got Mr. Alger to cast a stand for the 
 transit instrument, a small one, which I 
 think belonged to Harvard College. 
 From this time he began to live among 
 the stars." 
 
 The facts thus recorded of the begin- 
 ning of Mr. Bond's career show his zeal 
 and watchfulness as an amateur in as- 
 tronomy, and that UP to the date of the 
 comet's appearance, and later, he had no 
 personal acquaintance with men of sci- 
 ence in the vicinity, since he informed 
 none of them of what he had seen. 
 When, months afterwards, Prof. Farrar 
 inquired about it, the young discoverer 
 was able to report from his memoranda 
 no more than the degrees of position, 
 without the minutes and seconds, and to 
 say that he "supposed" the comet to be 
 moving towards the constellation Leo, 
 circumstances indicating that a strip of 
 brass with a hole in it and a home-made 
 boxwood quadrant were all that was as- 
 tronomically in use at Dorchester as late 
 as 1811. 
 
 That this experience with the comet 
 was a fortunate turning point ' in Mr. 
 Bond's career is evinced by Prof, 
 Farrar's genial recognition in the paper 
 published in the organ of American 
 Science, where he might excusably have 
 ignored so crude a record as that which 
 was the best Mr. Bond could supply, and 
 by the appearance not long afterwards, at 
 the west end of the Hawes house in 
 Dorchester, of a loaned telescope be- 
 longing to Harvard College. 
 
 There is no doubt that whatever 
 previously had been lacking of opportun- 
 ity to gain knowledge of the technics of 
 astronomical science was now fully 
 
12 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 within his reach and that henceforth he 
 he had the best possible of instructors 
 and counsellors so far as he had occa- 
 sion for any. Mr. George P. Bond 
 writes of his father: "He has men- 
 tioned the names of Dr. Nathaniel Bow- 
 ditch, Prof. Farrar and Tutor (Jlapp 
 as those from whom he received most 
 encouragement to continue the cultiva- 
 tion of astronomy. Upon his friend- 
 ly intercourse with the eminent math- 
 ematician and astronomer first named 
 he often dwelt with peculiar pleas- 
 ure and warmth of feeling." The 
 name of one other of the godfathers of 
 the young scientist is entitled to be men- 
 tioned, that of Josiah Quincy. The lady 
 above quoted gives an account of the set- 
 ting up of the first telescope at Dorches- 
 ter by her brother, and says that through 
 it could be seen the satellites of Jupiter 
 and the rings of Saturn. She adds that 
 in the pursuit of astronomy up to this 
 period"he had had no assistance whatever 
 except from the genial kindness of Hon. 
 Josiah Quincy, who had early recognized 
 the future astronomer in the unpretend- 
 ing boy in the watchmaker's shop on Con- 
 gress street, and whose kindness and en- 
 couragement never failed throughout the 
 subsequent years." 
 
 That these men found their patronage 
 to have been well bestowed is manifest 
 from the action taken four years after the 
 date of the comet by the college in mak- 
 ing Mr Bond its delegate and agent. The 
 board of that year consisted of President 
 Kirkland, John Lathrop, D.D., Christo- 
 pher Gore, LL.D., John Davis, LL.D., 
 John Lowell, LL.D., and John Phillips. 
 It is of record that the moving spirits in 
 the matter were Prof. Farrar and Dr. 
 Bowditch, and they were appointed a 
 committee to prepare technical written 
 instructions to the agent as to the gen- 
 eral scope of his inquiry. 
 
 During his visit abroad, Mr. Bond mar- 
 ried his cousin, Selina Cranch, of Kings- 
 bridge, in Devonshire, the date being 
 July 18, 1819. Soon after his return he 
 purchased a house near to his father's 
 residence in Dorchester, and erected on 
 the premises a small wooden building, 
 which he carefully equipped as an astron- 
 omical observatory. Its position is that 
 meant in the official references to the 
 observatory at Dorchester, and is about 
 45 feet southerly of the present south 
 line of Cottage street, and 360 feet south- 
 easterly of the centre of the New York & 
 New England railroad bridge, over that 
 
 street. Here, as one of his brief biogra- 
 phers remarks, "no eclipse or occulta- 
 tion escaped him, though occupied in 
 business during the day in Boston," and 
 here Mr. Quincy found him in 1839, busy 
 in his work for the Navy Department. 
 The period which had elapsed since the 
 setting of the granite block and tha pois- 
 ing upon it of the borrowed telescope 
 had been for Mr. Bond one of constant 
 and rapid advance in the astronomer's 
 art. The Cottage-street observatory was 
 built about the year 1823. 
 
 Referring to the period between 1823, 
 or a little earlier, and 1839, Mr. G. P. 
 Bond writes of his father: "As soon as 
 his circumstances permitted, he imported 
 more perfect apparatus from Europe and 
 continued to add to his collection until it 
 was the best in the country." And he 
 adds this statement, which is highly sug- 
 gestive as respects the enthusiasm with 
 which the accomplished and successful 
 chronometer maker entered upon the 
 broader and loftier mission which des- 
 tiny had in reserve for him: "When 
 appointed by the Navy Department to 
 the charge of astronomical and other ob- 
 servations, he forthwith laid out a sum 
 of money on instruments and buildings 
 more than ten times greater than the an- 
 nual salary (to continue but four years), 
 which he had himself proposed as an 
 adequate compensation for all necessary 
 expenses, and his own time, besides." 
 
 During a few years prior to 1830. he 
 gathered materials for investigating the 
 comparative rates of chronometers at 
 sea and on shore. Subsequently he com- 
 municated to the American Academy 
 the results reached, and in this paper 
 effectually disposed of the scientific ques- 
 tion involved, so far as it related to the 
 interests of navigation. The authority 
 for this statement is Mr. G. P. Bond', 
 who also says that about the same time 
 his father conducted a series of experi- 
 ments to ascertain the influence of 
 changes of temperature in the presence 
 of large surfaces of iron upon the per- 
 formance of chronometers; and adds 
 that "although the conclusions arrived 
 at were at variance with the opinions of 
 men high in authority in such matters, 
 they are now known to be correct." 
 
 President Quincy, in making his over- 
 ture, was dealing with no novice, and, 
 certainly, no stranger. Some intimation 
 of what Mr. Bond had attained to is con- 
 tained in the remarks of Prof. Benjamin 
 Peirce spoken in the obituary proceed- 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 13 
 
 THE BOKD HOUSE, DORCHESTER. 
 
 View looking to the southwest. The Observatory stood contiguous to the west end. 
 
 ings of the American Academy in 1859, 
 consequent upon Mr. Bond's decease, 
 though the reference is to a longer period. 
 The instrument alluded to is the great 
 equatorial at Cambridge. Prof. Peirce 
 said: "In his original investigations he 
 naturally restrained himself to those 
 forms of observation which were fully 
 within the reach of his own resources. 
 He did not, therefore, seek those in- 
 quiries which could only be accomplished 
 by long, intricate, and profound mathe- 
 matical computations, but Dreferred 
 those which were purely dependent upon 
 the thorough discipline of the senses. 
 He consequently availed himself less of 
 the remarkable capacity of his instru- 
 ment for delicate and refined measure- 
 ments than of its exquisite optical quali- 
 ties. But when observations were re- 
 quired which must be passed over to the 
 computer, his skill was not wanting to 
 the occasion. Thus, in conjunction with 
 Major Graham, he made that choice series 
 of observations from which the latitude 
 of the observatory was determined." 
 
 To this testimony as to Prof. Bond's 
 skill as an observer maybe added that 
 of Mr. G. P, Bond as to his diligence and 
 zeal: "There is something to my mind 
 appalling in the contemplation of my 
 father's labors, from the time when he 
 was first enabled to indulge freely his 
 passion for observation. The accumu- 
 lated volumes filled with manuscript 
 records give me a shudder at the thought 
 
 of the weary frame and straining eye, 
 the exposure, and the long, sleepless 
 nights that they suggest." 
 
 Ex-President Quincy, upon the obitu- 
 ary occasion referred to, made this inter- 
 esting statement as to the initiation of his 
 project for Mr. Bond's removal to Cam- 
 bridge: "This proposal, so in unison, 
 with his pursuits and talents, I expected 
 would be received with pleasure. But it 
 was far otherwise. In the spirit of that 
 innate modesty which predominated in 
 his character, and apparently cast a 
 shadow over all his excellent qualities 
 and attainments, Mr. Bond hesitated, 
 doubted his qualifications for the posi- 
 tion. He said his habits were not 
 adapted to public station ; that our com- 
 bined apparatus would be small, and that 
 something great might be expected ; that 
 he preferred independence in obscurity 
 to responsibility in an elevated position. 
 He raised many other objections, which 
 need not here be repeated, as they were 
 overcome." 
 
 At the date of this interview the presi- 
 dent found Mr. Bond well established in 
 a profitable manufacturing business, hap- 
 pily situated in his domestic and neigh- 
 borhood surroundings, with an avocation 
 fascinating enough to occupy all his 
 leisure and a fame extensive enough to 
 satisfy his own modest estimate of his 
 abilities. There was no pecuniary bet- 
 terment for Mr. Bond in the suggested 
 change. Mr. Qumcy could only offer him 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 what he had already, a family domicile ; 
 so that the proposal might warrant an 
 adaptation of Sidney Smith's famous 
 phrase and be described as an invitation 
 to come to Cambridge and "cultivate 
 astronomy upon a little oatmeal." In so 
 phrasing it there is no disparagement of 
 the college ; it was the day of small things, 
 of pennies, not dollars, in the college 
 treasury. But the event speaks the praises 
 of Mr. Quincy, whose sagacity was un- 
 fail.ng and before whose persuasiveness 
 and energy difficulties in administration 
 were wont to give way, and of Mr. Bond, 
 whose unselfishness and loyalty to science 
 were proof against pecuniary considera- 
 tions. In mental traits each was in many 
 respects the complement of the other, and 
 it is not too much to say that these two 
 were pre-eminently the founders and 
 builders of the observatory. 
 
 The official report for 1846 states that 
 up to that time the labors of Mr. Bond 
 had been "entirely unrequited, except by 
 the gratification of his love of science 
 and of home,'* and suggests that this de- 
 votion to the institution at Cambridge 
 was the more marked in that during the 
 preceding spring he had declined "the 
 almost unlimited offers made to him by 
 the administration at Washington to in- 
 duce him to take charge of the observa- 
 tory there." It is known, also, that fre- 
 quent expenditures of his own money 
 were made during this period for current 
 expenses and for things convenient in 
 conducting the observatory, sums small 
 severally, no doubt, but considerable 
 in the total. In 1846 a sum equal to 
 the proposed salaries for the next two 
 years was subscribed by citizens of 
 Boston, and in 1840 the official board 
 was able to report that "through a be- 
 quest of $100,000 made by Edward Brom- 
 field Phillips they should thereafter be 
 relieved from anxiety as to the payment 
 of salaries and current expenses." 
 Various official documents evince that 
 during the first eight years Mr. Bond is 
 to be regarded not in the character of an 
 employee, but a benefactor of the college ; 
 that his labors were deemed by those 
 most familiar with them to be indispen- 
 sable and invaluable, and that his friend- 
 ship for the college, manifested in all 
 ways, and especially in his declination of 
 the liberal offers coming from Washing- 
 ton, was appreciated and honored. The 
 date of Mr. Bond's appointment as direc- 
 tor of the observatory was Feb. 12, 1840, 
 
 though the confirmation by the corpora- 
 tion was later. He was given the honor- 
 ary degree of A.M., by Harvard in 1842. 
 
 III. 
 
 In resuming consecutively the story of 
 the half-century's progress of Harvard 
 College Observatory, which was inter- 
 rupted in the preceding number to give 
 place to a biographical notice of Prof. 
 W. C. Bond, it may be remarked that the 
 period of his official term, which covered 
 19 years, was fruitful in great discoveries 
 and events in the astronomical depart- 
 ment of science. Harvard Observatory 
 contributed its full share, though the 
 greatest of all was that which gave fame 
 to Le Yerrier, the French astronomer, 
 the discovery of the planet Neptune. 
 In September, 1844, the observatory 
 building on Summer House hill had been 
 completed to the extent proposed at that 
 time, and the instruments were trans- 
 ferred from the Dana house. 
 
 A new transit instrument, imported by 
 the United States government for the 
 use of the Northeastern Boundary Com- 
 mission, was set up in December, and 
 used during the winter in observations 
 for ascertaining the latitude, as previous- 
 ly described in the quotation from Prof. 
 Peirce. The results were collated and 
 discussed by Prof. Peirce in the memoirs 
 of the American Academy. These 
 were the first notable observations 
 of precision at the new observatory. 
 The longitude was also determined by 
 the most accurate method then known, 
 observation of occultations and mocn 
 culminations and comparison of a 
 considerable number of chronome- 
 ters transported to and from 
 Greenwich by ocean steamers. In the 
 ultimate determination the record 
 made by several hundred chronometers 
 thus sent to and fro, and observations of 
 occultations, etc., in Dorchester, Cam- 
 bridge, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and 
 Washington, ranging through many 
 years, were brought into the account. 
 The earliest were observations made in 
 Philadelphia in 1769. After the laying 
 of the Atlantic cable still closer compari- 
 sons with the zero of Greenwich were 
 possible. The position of the observa- 
 tory as finally determined and now offi- 
 
HAKVAKD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 15 
 
 cially of record is: Longitude, 71 7' 
 44.85," west; latitude, 42 22' 47.6", 
 north. As showing the error of the best 
 attainable results by use of chronome- 
 ters it may be remarked that by that 
 method the central tower of the observa- 
 tory was located at a point on the lawn 
 half way between the front door of the 
 director's dwelling-house and Garden 
 street. The discrepancy is about 320 
 feet. 
 
 About the time of the first determina 
 tion Commodore Owen of the British 
 Navy was making an official survey of 
 the coast of New Brunswick and Nova 
 Scotia. Having confidence in what had 
 been done at Cambridge he took that sta- 
 tion for his zero in preparing his official 
 report, ultimate reference being made to 
 Greenwich. The first importation of 
 chronometers appears to have been made 
 jointly by Prof. Bond and Commodore 
 Owen. When the report was submitted 
 it was challenged by some of the British 
 Board of Admiralty, who believed that 
 the longitude of Halifax was better 
 known. In due course Prof. Bond was 
 inquired of, and his letter addressed to 
 the board of admiralty, in explanation 
 of the technicalities, proved convincing 
 and its conclusions were cordially ac- 
 cepted, with thanks by Admiral Beau- 
 fort on behalf of the board. The officers- 
 in-chief of the United States Coast Sur- 
 vey, and of the exploring expedition sev- 
 erally adopted the Cambridge meridian 
 as the zero in preparing their official re- 
 ports. 
 
 A new instrument purchased by the 
 observatory, a 2j-inch equatorial, per- 
 mitted accurate observations to be made 
 of the solar eclipses of 1845 and 1846, the 
 comets of the same years, the transit of 
 Mercury in 1845 and of the newly discov- 
 ered planet Neptune, 
 
 The 15- inch equatorial was set up on 
 June 23 and 24, 1847. Certain nebulae 
 and the planet Saturn were the first sub- 
 jects of study. Discoveries of import- 
 ance were made in each field of investi- 
 gation. The report of the visiting com- 
 mittee for 1848 notes the discovery by 
 Prof. Bond on Sept. 10 of that year of 
 the eighth satellite of Saturn, and speaks 
 of it as "the only addition to the solar 
 system ever made on the continent of 
 America.'* 
 
 The few years immediately following 
 the date of the great telescope may be 
 called the romantic period in the history 
 of the observatory. There was no instru- 
 
 ment on this continent to be compared to 
 it, and it had but one equal in Europe. 
 
 While the director of the observatory 
 kept cool enough to utilize it to the ut- 
 most, he manifestly shared in the enthu- 
 siasm. One of the earliest to inquire 
 what could be seen by it was Edward 
 Everett, president of the college from 
 1846. Prof. Bond responded by letter on 
 July 26, 1847, named several matters and 
 ended by saying : "But I must recollect 
 that you require of me only a brief ac- 
 count of our telescope. The objects re- 
 vealed to us by this excellent instrument 
 are so numerous and interesting that it is 
 difficult to know where to stop." On 
 Sept. 22 following Prof. Bond wrote to 
 the president: ''You will rejoice with 
 me that the great nebula in Orion has 
 yielded to the powers of our incom- 
 parable telescope." 
 
 He explains the reason for his rejoicing 
 by saying that this nebula and that of 
 Andromeda had hitherto been the strong- 
 holds of the "nebular theory," or the 
 theory that the nebulpe are masses of 
 matter in process of condensation into 
 systems. 
 
 Now, the mass in Orion which, he said, 
 had defied the telescopes of both the 
 Herschels, and, at first, that of Lord 
 Rosse, had been resolved into innumer- 
 able distinct points ot light, or separate 
 stars, by the Cambridge refractor, whose 
 only competitor in the search was Lord 
 Rosse's instrument, "the largest reflector 
 in the world." 
 
 The phrase "incomparable telescope" 
 was warranted. Nor does the didactic 
 suggestion of the proverb about the new 
 broom apply; for more than 30 years 
 afterwards the present director of the 
 observatory had occasion to say: "In 
 1877 besides the photometric measures 
 of the satellites of Mars, a series of 
 measures for their positions was also 
 made. The num ber of these observations 
 was second only to that obtained with 
 the great telescope at Washington." Of 
 the work done two years later, he says : 
 "Of the satellites of Mars 1348 measure- 
 ments were made, Deimos being last seen 
 at this observatory as it gradually re- 
 ceded from the earth. This is remark- 
 able, as our telescope has entered into 
 competition with the largest telescopes 
 of the world, some of which admitted 
 two or three times as much light." 
 
 On Nov. 7, 1848, a transit circle was set 
 up and it completed the set of new in- 
 struments at first proposed for the ob- 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 servatory. Previous to this date two 
 new "comet seekers" had been received, 
 the gifts respectively of President Quincy 
 and Mr. J. I. Bowditch. With these in 
 the six years beginning with 1845 the 
 original discovery of ten comets was 
 made by Mr. G. P. Bond. In his report 
 for 1846 Prof. Bond says that during that 
 
 tory in this early period. The great 
 telescope was poised at a height of 13 
 feet from the floor of the dome, and its 
 sweep was from three degrees beyond 
 the zenith to as many below the horizon. 
 The visual end of the instrument there- 
 fore might need to be set at any point 
 along an arc of 90 degrees, and an ob- 
 
 W. C. BOND'S OBSERVATORY CHAIR. 
 
 year stellar and lunar observations had 
 been made in co-operation with like work 
 done by observers of the United States 
 Coast Survey at West Point, Philadelphia 
 and Nantucket, to determine longitudes 
 for the purposes of the coast survey. 
 
 But visions of the sky were not the 
 only matters of interest at the observa- 
 
 server would have to be something of an 
 acrobat in successfully using it unless a 
 suitable chair could be obtained. There 
 was none in the world that filled all the 
 requirements, and Prof. Bond invented 
 and made one. It is in use, unchanged, to 
 this day, and by means of its ingeniously 
 combined wheels, cogs and pulleys the 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 17 
 
 observer can quickly and easily place 
 himself anywhere along the vertical 
 quarter circle and horizontal full circle 
 traversed by the eye-piece of the tele- 
 scope. 
 
 Prior to 1845 a transfer of 12 chronome- 
 ters to and from Greenwich, Eng., had 
 been made by Prof. Bond and Commo- 
 dore Owen, for the determination of the 
 longitude of the observatory. Other 
 chronometer expeditions were conducted 
 subsequently in co-operation with the 
 United States Coast Survey, the final one 
 being in 1855. In the summing up of re- 
 sults, 723 independent chronometer re- 
 cords were used. The magnitude of this 
 undertaking, as a whole, surpassed any- 
 thing ever attempted in any other 
 country. 
 
 In his report, reviewing the year 1848, 
 the director says ; "Some experiments 
 made with the daguerreotype and talbo- 
 type processes for obtaining impressions 
 of the sun's image formed by the tele- 
 scope have not been attended with com- 
 plete success ; however, we do not despair 
 of ultimate success." 
 
 In the report for 1850 he is able to say : 
 "With the assistance of Mr. J. A. Whip- 
 pie, daguerreotymst, we have obtained 
 several impressions of the star Vega. We 
 have reason to believe this to be the first 
 successful experiment ever made either 
 in this country or abroad. From the fa- 
 cility with which these were executed 
 with the aid of the great equatorial, we 
 were encouraged to hope for further 
 progress." In the report of the following 
 year he speaks of pictures of the moon 
 and stars obtained by this process, and 
 adds with reference to his son's official 
 visit to Europe that year: "Some of 
 these daguerreotypes taken by the aid of 
 our great object glass excited the admir- 
 ation of eminent men in Europe, to 
 whom Mr. G. P. Bond gave speci- 
 mens. " In an official letter he 
 says of his son's visit to Paris : "He at- 
 tended in May a meeting of the French 
 Academy, and there presented a daguer- 
 reotype of the moon taken with our large 
 telescope." Other specimens were placed 
 in the great exhibition of London, or 
 World's fair, of that year, and a council 
 medal was awarded for them. 
 
 This tour iu Europe by the younger 
 Mr. Bond makes an interesting episode 
 in the general record. He was every- 
 where cordially received by men of 
 science, a fact attributable in part, no 
 doubt, to his own reputation, but more 
 
 especially to his being the representative 
 of the new observatory, already of fame, 
 established in the distant West. 
 
 On arriving at Cronstadt he was sur- 
 prised at meeting an officer of the Rus- 
 sian government who had instructions to 
 conduct him to the imperial observatory 
 at Pulkova, where, during his stay in 
 Kussia, he was made the guest of the 
 director of the observatory and given all 
 possible attentions and facilities, includ- 
 the "great privilege" of practically 
 manipulating the instruments. Among 
 these was the great telescope, the rival 
 of the Harvard equatorial. During the 
 tour he visited Sweden and saw a total 
 eclipse of the sun. Among those from 
 whom he had friendly receptions were 
 Baron Humboldt, Sir John Herschel, 
 Sir David Brewster, Sir G. B. Airy, Le 
 Verrier, Biot Argelander, Gauss and 
 Hansen; also Lord Kosse, whose great 
 telescope he had opportunity to use. 
 
 In July, 1848, the wires of the magnetic 
 telegraph were connected with the ob- 
 servatory at the expense of the coast 
 survey, for determining by instant com- 
 munication the longitude of certain prin- 
 cipal cities in the United States. There 
 are suggestions of both the modern and 
 the antique world in the statement that 
 in this first experience the electrical ap- 
 paratus of a department of the institu- 
 tion founded by John Harvard, was con- 
 nected with like apparatus in an observ- 
 atory in the garden of Peter Stuyvesant 
 in New York city. These electrical ex- 
 periments of the coast survey were be- 
 gun as early as 1844, between Washing- 
 ton and Baltimore. 
 
 Various improvements of method had 
 been made, and that most approved was 
 followed on this first occasion at Cam- 
 bridge. The coast survey officer in 
 charge had for his assistants Prof. Bond 
 at Cambridge and Prof. Loomis in New 
 York. An official letter of the electrician 
 of the Coast Survey Department says: 
 "During these experiments Prof. Bond 
 conceived the idea of using an automatic 
 circuit-interrupter." 
 
 Some question of priority as to this 
 suggestion arose in later years. It was 
 doubtless a spontaneous and original 
 thought with Prof. Bond, though the 
 suggestion appears to have been made 
 earlier elsewhere, but it had not 
 been acted upon "from apprehension 
 of injury to the performance of 
 an astronomical clock which must be 
 used for the purpose." Experience 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 proved eventually the apprehension to 
 have been groundless ; but Prof. Bond's 
 suggestion avoided any liability of the 
 kind by proposing that an astronomical 
 clock be made for the purpose. 
 
 In August, 1848, he received authority 
 to have such a clock made at the expense 
 of the coast survey. Ke verting to the 
 matter in a subsequent annual report, 
 Prcf . Bond says : "I caused such a clock 
 to be made, and it is found to answer 
 perfectly the intended purpose. But 
 another and far more serious difficulty 
 presented itself in the accurate registry 
 of the beats of the clock after being 
 transmitted by the galvanic circuit ; and 
 it was at this point that further progress 
 
 DAVID SEARS. 
 
 The First Donor to the Observatory. 
 
 in the application of this method to 
 astronomical observing was arrested." 
 
 Experimenters were busy at Philadel- 
 phia, Cincinnati, and elsewhere, during 
 the two years' interval in attempts to 
 solve this concomitant problem, and with 
 very considerable success. That none of 
 these devices quite filled the requirements 
 is manifest by the fact that they did not 
 go into general use. But the perfected 
 apparatus submitted to the officer of the 
 coast survey by Prof. Bond, April 12, 
 1850, did go into such use. This instru- 
 ment Prof. Bond stated to be the joint 
 invention of himself and his two sons, 
 George P. and Richard F. Bond. It was 
 named at first from one of its peculiar 
 parts, the "spring-governor," but the 
 
 more comprehensive title of "chrono- 
 graph" was later applied to it. 
 
 While as a piece of mechanism, it was 
 distinct from the "circuit interrupter," 
 the two were used conjointly, and thus 
 acting in combination their operation in 
 recording became known soon after- 
 wards in England as "the American 
 method." By this method the errors 
 suggested by the term "personal equa- 
 tion" are greatly diminished, and a defi- 
 niteness of record is attained, which per- 
 mits the recording sheet to be read by 
 the eye to tenths and by scale and lens to 
 hundredths of a second. The successive 
 sheets are the primary official record, and 
 being bound into volumes, become a part 
 of the permanent archives. 
 
 The apparatus was at once put to use 
 in the several telegraphic stations of the 
 coast survey; and one of the circum- 
 stances which made Mr. G. P. Bond's 
 tour in Europe a notable one was its ex- 
 hibition for the first time there. It was 
 shown in operation and explained in a 
 lecture by him before the Royal Astro- 
 nomical Society, and also at the annual 
 meeting of the British Association for the 
 Advancement of Science. Through the 
 urgency of Sir David Brewster and others 
 it was set up in the great exhibition at 
 London in 18">1, where a medal was 
 awarded for it. It had the highest award 
 of the Massachusetts Mechanic Associ- 
 ation, a gold medal. It was adopted at 
 the Greenwich observatory soon after 
 Mr. Bond's exhibition of his model, and 
 speedily throughout Europe. 
 
 Soon after the electrical experiments 
 ol 1848 at the observatory the wire was 
 put into use to transmit to Boston and 
 different railway points, signals giving 
 the true local time, these signals being 
 electrically responsive to the movement 
 of an astronomical clock in the observa- 
 tory, the method of transmission being 
 that of the "circuit interrupter." This 
 system was at once adopted in England, 
 wire connections being made with a clock 
 in Greenwich Observatory. This time 
 service of the Harvard Observatory, 
 though continued during the interme- 
 diate period, was not organized as at 
 present until 1872. 
 
 In 1852 the officers of Harvard Obser- 
 vatory co-operated with Captain Charles 
 Wilkes in experiments for ascertaining 
 the velocity of sound under different 
 atmospheric conditions. In these tests 
 cannon were fired near the observatory, 
 at the arsenal in Watertown, at the navy 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 19 
 
 yard in Charlestown and at Fort Inde- 
 pendence in the harbor, the central ob- 
 serving point being the cupola of the 
 State House in Boston, where Captain 
 Wilkes took his station. These experi- 
 ments had immediate reference to a re- 
 duction into proper form of data obtained 
 by the exploring expedition, wherein 
 Captain Wilkes had caused surveys of 
 islands and groups in remote seas to be 
 made by sound. In these surveys, dis- 
 tancas between points whence angles 
 were projected were determined by the 
 firing of cannon at those points. 
 
 In 1855 an endowment of $10,000 was 
 made by ex-President Quincy as a me- 
 morial of his father, Josiah Quincy, a 
 patriot of the revolution. This fund was 
 specifically applied to the publication of 
 annals of the observatory. The first 
 voiume was issued in 1856 and comprised 
 a review of the work of the preceding 
 years, so that the series of which it is 
 the initial number makes a continuous 
 record from the beginning. The series 
 now numbers nearly 25 volumes. The 
 decease of Prof. W. C. Bond occurred 
 Jan. 29, 1G59. 
 
 IV. 
 
 George Phillips Bond was the second 
 director of Harvard College observatory, 
 being the successor of his father, Prof. 
 W. C. Bond. The date of his appoint- 
 ment was 1859. He was born in Dor- 
 chester, Mass., May 20, 1825, and gradu- 
 ated at Harvard in 1845. Thenceforth 
 until his decease Feb. 17, 1865, he was in 
 the constant service of the observatory. 
 Prior to his taking the chief office his 
 labors as assistant had gained for him a 
 professional reputation ; he had shared 
 with his father the heavy task of organ- 
 izing the observatory and carrying it on 
 with slender means; he was familiar 
 with its routine, and both by academical 
 and practical training was peculiarly 
 qualified for the position. 
 
 His professional record therefore is not 
 to be limited to his own term as director. 
 The computations required in the prepar- 
 ation of the three early volumes of the 
 annals were to a great extent his work, 
 and those pertaining to the chronometric 
 expeditions between Boston and Liver- 
 pool, were wholly Dy him. He was the 
 
 discoverer of the da.k interior ring of 
 Saturn, one of tlie first revelations of the 
 great telescope, and discoverer also, as 
 already stated, of ten comets within a 
 brief period of years. In this cometary 
 work it was his practice to sweep the 
 whole visible heavens once every month. 
 
 His observations of Saturn led to the 
 adoption of a new theory as to the con- 
 stitution of the rings. During his term 
 systematic observations were made of 
 certain nebula?, particularly that in 
 Orion. He conducted a series of zone 
 observations of faint stars near the equa- 
 tor, prepared a plan of observation and 
 reduction, and with his own hand gradu- 
 ated the mica scales used in the work. 
 
 In 1860 he made an investigation of the 
 brightness of certain celestial objects, 
 including the moon and the planets, the 
 results of which have a special value but 
 are not identified with the Harvard pho- 
 tometrioal series of later years, which 
 relates to fixed stars only. During his 
 term the formation of a star catalogue 
 was begun, the observations being made 
 with the meridian circle and in right as- 
 cension only, and much progress was 
 made in picturing celestial objects by the 
 camera, the process having, with the dis- 
 use of Daguerre's particular mtthod, 
 gained the generic name of photography. 
 
 The prestige of the beginning and 
 early successes of astronomical photogra- 
 phy attaches to the administration of the 
 senior Bond ; but his son shared fully in 
 the labors of thought, contrivance and 
 manipulation by which the original ex- 
 periments were conducted, and in appre- 
 ciation of the future possibilities to sci- 
 ence in this new method of observation. 
 
 One evidence of this appears in a paper 
 read by the younger Mr. Bond before the 
 American Academy on May 12, 1857, the 
 immediate occasion for its presentation 
 being a most significant discovery made 
 at the observatory a few days earlier. 
 
 The paper says: "Daguerreotype 
 images of the star Vega were obtained at 
 the observatory of Harvard College on 
 July 17, 1850, and subsequently impres- 
 sions were taken from the double star 
 Castor, exhibiting an elongated disc, but 
 no separation of its two components." 
 
 "These were the first, and until very 
 recently, the only known instances of 
 the application of photography to the 
 delineation of fixed stars. A serious diffi- 
 culty was interposed to further progress 
 by the want of suitable apparatus for 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 communicating uniform sidereal motion 
 to the telescope. 
 
 "This has been supplied by replacing 
 the original clock of tiie great equatorial 
 of the observatory by a new one, oper- 
 ating on the principle of the soring gov- 
 ernor. Immediately upon its comple- 
 tion, a new series of experiments was 
 commenced. These have been success- 
 ful in transferring to the plate by the 
 collodian process, images of fixed stars 
 
 and eleventh magnitudes as has already 
 been done for those between the first and 
 fifth, the extension given to our present 
 means of observation would be an ad- 
 vanco in the science of stellar astron- 
 omy of which it would scarcely be possi- 
 ble to exaggerate the importance/' 
 
 Mr. Bond made important contribu- 
 tions to the literature of the science both 
 in its mathematical and practical depart- 
 ments. Among the more notable 
 
 THE GOLD MEDAL; REVERSE SHOWING SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL'S 40-FOOT 
 
 TELESCOPE. 
 
 to the fifth magnitude, inclusive, with 
 singular and unexpected precision. The 
 most remarkable instances of success are 
 the simultaneous impressions of the 
 group of stars composed of Mizar of the 
 second magnitude, its companion of the 
 fourth and Alcor of the fifth magnitude. 
 The following measurements of the an- 
 gular distance of the companion from 
 Mizar were taken from the plates." 
 
 A tabulated statement follows in the 
 paper, giving dates from April 27 to 
 May 8, with measurements from 13 
 photographic negatives produced on the 
 respective dates. The mean for dis- 
 tance is 14.49 seconds, and for angle of 
 position, 147. 80. For the same stars ob- 
 served in the usual way, Struve's mean 
 of six observations is, for distance, 14.40 
 seconds; for positions, 147. 40. 
 
 Mr. Bond's comments are : "The pho- 
 tographic method has thus in its first 
 efforts attained the limit of accuracy, be- 
 yond which it is not expected the other 
 can ever be sensibly advanced. 
 
 "Should photographic impressions be 
 obtained from stars between the sixth 
 
 of the former was a paper on 
 cometary calculations and the method of 
 mechanical quadratures, valuable in vari- 
 ous respects, and notable in having an- 
 ticipated an important improvement 
 afterward given independently by Encke ; 
 also a paper on the use of equivalent 
 factors in the method of least squares. 
 He wrote a monograph covering observa- 
 tions of Donati's comet of 1858, for which 
 he was awarded the gold medal of the 
 Eoyal Astronomical Society and was the 
 first of his countrymen to obtain that dis- 
 tinction. He began a paper on the 
 nebula in Orion, which he did not live to 
 complete, though during his prolonged 
 last illness he continued his labors upon 
 it, and dictated to an amanuensis long 
 after strength to write had gone from 
 him. 
 
 This paper was afterwards finished by 
 Prof. T. H. Safford, then of Harvard, 
 now of Williams College observatory. A 
 biographer says of Mr. Bond: '"Science 
 to him was not a pastime but a serious 
 calling, to be pursued with the utmost 
 conscientiousness and singleness of pur- 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 21 
 
 pose. That he did so much and aid it so 
 well, during the few years allotted to 
 him, must have been partly owing to an 
 
 PRESIDENT JOSIAH QUINCY. 
 
 extreme reluctance to dissipate his pow- 
 ers by beginning new works while the 
 old were still unfinished." He received 
 the honorary degree of A. M. from Har- 
 vard in 1853. 
 
 V. 
 
 Joseph Winlock was the third director 
 of Harvard College observatory, being 
 appointed in 1866. He was born in 
 Shelby county, Ky., Feb. 6, 1826; he 
 graduated at Shelby College in 1845, and 
 was professor of mathematics and as- 
 tronomy there until 1852. He was subse- 
 quently in the service of the Naval 
 Observatory at Washington, and, still 
 later, instructor in mathematics at the 
 Naval A cademy at Annapolis. At differ- 
 ent dates, he was superintendent of the 
 work of preparation of the Nautical Al- 
 manac. He continued in office as director 
 of the observatory until his decease, 
 June 11, 1875. 
 
 His administration appears by the 
 record to have been one of various ac- 
 tivity. A large amount of improved ap- 
 
 paratus was added to the resources of 
 the observatory, partly by purchase and 
 partly by invention and making on the 
 spot. He kept up the reputation of the 
 observatory, which has never failed from 
 the start, for originality and ingenuity in 
 mechanical devices. It was during his 
 term that the transmission by electricity 
 of the true solar time to railroad centres 
 and business points in all parts of New 
 England became a regular part of the 
 observatory work, and, by the system 
 which he organized, compensation was 
 made by corporations and individuals 
 whose clocks were put into electrical 
 connection with 'that at the observatory. 
 
 A considerable revenue has thus an- 
 nually been derived. Other electrical ap- 
 paratus of the observatory was modified 
 and improved. A "switch-board," tne 
 device of his predecessor was much 
 elaborated in its mechanism, whereby 
 the electrical current was made more 
 available and all the principal instru- 
 ments were connected at will with the 
 chronographs. 
 
 In 1868 when he visited Europe he pro- 
 cured the apparatus of a meridian circle 
 of the latest device, the lenses being 
 made in Cambridge. In setting up the 
 instrument he saw opportunity to in- 
 troduce various improvements in me- 
 chanism. 
 
 These were approved by experience 
 and went into general use elsewhere. 
 Another of his devices was "for the de- 
 termination of absolute personal equa- 
 tion by mechanical means." Other con- 
 trivances, either wholly original or inge- 
 nious modifications of known apparatus, 
 were an attachment to the spectroscope 
 for automatic recording, being a modi- 
 fication of the chronograph : a combina- 
 tion of a stationary plane mirror 
 with a fixed lens of great focal 
 length from 30 to 40 feet for 
 photographing the sun; a later im- 
 provement of this, by which the tele- 
 scope was reduced to a single fixed lens 
 of long focus and small aperture, chro- 
 matic aberration was avoided and the 
 image on the plate could be made as large 
 as was convenient for measuring ; and 
 a change of method by which the sun's 
 image could be taken at the principal 
 focus of the object glass and not beyond 
 an eye-piece used to enlarge the image. 
 
 In February, 1866, when he took charge 
 of the observatory, the great equatorial 
 was applied to a series of observations of 
 
22 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 double, arid especially binary stars. This 
 investigation was continued as steadily 
 as circumstances would permit till 1872, 
 and the results appear in the annals. In 
 1867 the first spectroscope owned by the 
 observatory was imported, and in 1869 
 another. Two small direct-vision spectro- 
 scopes were also procured during Prof. 
 Winlock's term. 
 
 In 1870 the new meridian circle, a su- 
 perior instrument, was set up, and on 
 Xov. 10 of that year was begun the series 
 of observations for position of stars in 
 the "Cambridge zone," so called, or that 
 between 50 north and 55 north and over- 
 lapping 10' upon each contiguous zone. 
 
 The standard in using this instrument 
 was an artificial star produced by lamp- 
 light. 
 
 During this terra two expeditions were 
 made with apparatus for observing total 
 eclipses of the sun, and in both satisfac- 
 tory results were obtained. On the first 
 occasion, of date Aug. 7, 1869, the station 
 was at Shelbyville, Ky., and on the sec- 
 ond, of date Dec. 22, 1870, at Jerez de la 
 Frontera, in Spain. In 1867 daily obser- 
 vations in terrestrial magnetism were 
 made at the observatory for the purposes 
 of the coast survey. In March, 1869, 
 experiments for determination of longi- 
 tudes were conducted on a continental 
 
 HARVARD OBSERVATORY STATION IN SPAIN. 
 
 This survey was a joint enterprise con- 
 ducted by certain of the great observa- 
 tories of the world, that of Harvard being 
 one of the two in this country having a 
 share in the work. On July 4, 1870, was 
 begun a series of photographs of the sun, 
 and the work was continued nearly or 
 quite to the end of Prof. Winlock's term, 
 many hundred photographs being com- 
 prised in the list. 
 
 In September, 1871, was begun an elab- 
 orate investigation of lunar phenomena, 
 which continued a year. ID 1871 an ar- 
 rangement was made with the coast sur- 
 vey by which a series of photometric ob- 
 servations was carried through, and for 
 this a Zbllner astro-photometer was im- 
 ported. The work wa^ continued three 
 years, though not all o f it at Cambridge. 
 The results are in the annals in 1878. 
 
 scale, wire connection by relays being 
 made with San Francisco. In these ex- 
 periments apparatus which had been 
 modified by Prof. Winlock was used and 
 by this method, and also by another 
 which was applied, it proved that the 
 time of passage of a signal from Cam- 
 bridge to San Francisco through the wire 
 and six relays was very nearly three- 
 quarters of a second. Between Dec. 13, 
 1869, and the summer of 1872, electric sig- 
 nals were sent by the Atlantic cable to 
 and from Brest in France, via Duxbury, 
 Mass. 
 
 The purpose of these tests was to es- 
 tablish with precision the difference of 
 longitude between America and Europe. 
 Prof. Winlock supervised the work of 
 preparing and engraving a series of 
 plates illustrating remarkable celestial 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 23 
 
 objects. These gave special value to the 
 volume of annals in which they ap- 
 peared, causing an unprecedented de- 
 mand for copies, so that it is now a rare 
 book. His publications were not numer- 
 ous, but there is no doubt that his scholar- 
 ship, versatility and wide experience 
 would have yielded valuable additions to 
 the literature of science had his life been 
 prolonged. 
 
 The means at command during his 
 term did not warrant the publication of 
 many volumes of annals. Though for 
 nearly 10 years in office he did not live to 
 
 PROF. JOSEPH WINLOCK. 
 
 see any of his own observations pub- 
 lished or even to complete the work of 
 his predecessors. 
 
 During the term the permanent funds 
 of the observatory were increased by the 
 bequest of James Hay ward $20,000, and 
 that of James Savage $20,000. In 1870 a 
 subscription of $12,450 was completed 
 for purchase of a new meridian circle. 
 In the preceding term a gift of $10,000 
 was made by William Sturgis for the 
 publication fund. Prof. Winlock had 
 the honorary degree of A.M. from Har- 
 vard in 1868. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Edward Charles Pickering, the pres- 
 ent director of the observatory, was ap- 
 pointed in 1876. He was born in Boston 
 and is of the Essex family of the name, 
 Colonel Timothy Pickering being his 
 
 great-grandfather. He is a graduate of 
 the Lawrence Scientific School of the 
 class of 18ii5. During the next two years 
 he was a teacher of mathematics in that 
 department of Harvard University. 
 Later and up to the time of his appoint- 
 ment as director, he was professor of 
 physics at the Massachusetts Institute of 
 Technology. 
 
 A system of teaching physics called 
 the "laboratory method" was introduced 
 by him there, and his text-book illustra- 
 tive of the method has to a great extent 
 been adopted by like institutes. Astron- 
 omy, as a department of physics, came 
 into the general course, and the atten- 
 tion necessarily given, for the purposes 
 of instruction in the institute, to the 
 technics of that subject, and to demon- 
 stration, served as preparation and dis- 
 cipline for the official responsibilities 
 which he afterwards assumed. 
 
 He was a member of the Nautical Al- 
 manac party for observing in Iowa the 
 total solar eclipse of 1869, and was in like 
 service in the following year as a mem- 
 ber of the United States Coast Survey 
 party which observed in Spain a recur- 
 rence of that event. 
 
 When he came to the directorship he 
 found the observatory to be well equipped 
 as to instruments and its small working 
 force efficiently employed. Their num- 
 ber was but five or six, which was all the 
 means of the institution permitted of. 
 
 Like pecuniary restrictions continued 
 until 1879, when a subscription was com- 
 pleted providing for the institution, 
 $5000 annually for five years. Since then 
 much larger gifts have been bestowed 
 and the instrumental equipment, in 
 recent years especially, has been what- 
 ever the latest demands or suggestions of 
 science called for ; the observatory staff 
 has been augmented from time to time, till 
 it now numbers about 40 persons, and the 
 field of observation has been extended to 
 include the southern hemisphere of stars. 
 
 Upon the premises at Cambridge where 
 in 1876 stood only the main observatory 
 and a lesser adjunct structure are now 
 eight or ten others, a cluster of small 
 wooden buildings, domed or otherwise 
 adapted for astronomical uses, eacfi con- 
 taining a costly instrument of the most 
 approved device; and besides these a 
 dwelling house has been transformed 
 into a hall, or rather a workshop of 
 photography, and makes the northern- 
 most structure of the little city of science 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 which has been set upon Summer House 
 hill. 
 
 Upon Mt. Wilson, in California, in 
 north latitude, and Mt. Harvard, in 
 Peru, in south latitude, stand other un- 
 pretentious buildings, from within which 
 observers of the Harvard corps nightly 
 search through the translucent upper 
 atmosphere of those regions to the re- 
 spective poles. This aggregation of 
 means has yielded ample returns ; to say 
 which is to signify that during the period 
 under consideration the institution has 
 made a noteworthy record, and that its 
 affairs have been guided with befitting 
 skill and judgment. 
 
 The total permanent funds at the be- 
 ginning of the present term amounted to 
 about $170,000. The subscription for 
 five years was intended for immediate 
 expenditure. At the end of that period 
 a permanent fund of $50,000 was ob- 
 tained in like manner. In 1885 was added 
 to the permanent funds the bequest of 
 Robert Treat Paine of his whole estate, 
 of which $164,198 became at once availa- 
 ble. In 1886 was made the first of a 
 series of annual gifts of large sums of 
 money by Mrs. Anna P. Draper of 
 New York as a memorial of her hus- 
 band, the late Prof. Henry Draper. 
 These gifts have constantly been ap- 
 plied in furtherance of photographical 
 observation, especially in that line of in- 
 vestigation which Dr. Draper himself 
 began in his lifetime. In 3887 the bequest 
 of Uriah A. Boyden, amounting to $238,- 
 000, became available. This bequest has 
 conditions providing for astronomical 
 work at considerable elevations as free 
 as possible from disturbing or obstruct- 
 ing conditions of atmosphere. The in- 
 come of the Paine fund may be applied 
 generally. 
 
 In pursuing the inquiries thus sug- 
 gested, and others, the observatory has 
 adhered to its traditions, wherein origi- 
 nal investigation has been directed to the 
 physical rather than the mathematical 
 side of astronomical science. 
 
 In his first annual report the present 
 director outlined the immediate policy, 
 in the then restricted state of the 
 finances, to be to keep employed chiefly 
 the two most costly and effective instru- 
 ments, the great equatorial and the 
 meridian circle. The latter was already 
 in constant use in the work of the Cam- 
 bridge zone. 
 
 With reference to the former, the re- 
 
 port having named the several special- 
 ties which the great observatories of this 
 country had taken, each to itself, said : 
 "Photometry offers a field almost wholly 
 unexplored with large telescopes either 
 in this country or abroad. It has there- 
 fore been selected as that to which the 
 greater portion of the time of our tele- 
 scope will be devoted." 
 
 The investigation thus entered upon, 
 together with the zone observations just 
 mentioned, and the continuation by 
 ampler and in some particulars radically 
 different methods of investigations in 
 spectroscopy and photography, have 
 given the institution a wide renown. 
 But hardly less conspicuous are certain 
 other achievements in the Ions list 
 which makes the complete record. With- 
 out attempting to give any of these rank, 
 still less to repeat the list, a few may 
 here be mentioned upon the ground of 
 their presumed popular interest. 
 
 In 1878 the utility of the time signal 
 service was increased by causing a time 
 ball to be dropped every day at exact 
 noon from a conspicuous point in Boston 
 within view of the shipping of the 
 harbor. The time was that of the meri- 
 dian of the State House in Boston. When 
 the standard or 75th meridian time went 
 into general use the practice was con- 
 formed thereto. Indeed, the terms of the 
 proposition might be reversed so as to 
 indicate that, in the final determination, 
 the responsibility was put upon the ob- 
 servatory to lead off in the matter. 
 
 There had been some discussion in the 
 public prints and elsewhere of the advisa- 
 bility of adopting a common meridian 
 time for large areas. In the report of 
 the observatory for 1878 the theoretical 
 presentation of the case which had been 
 made by those advocating the change 
 was sanctioned, and the new time was 
 recommended as sure to be of public con- 
 venience if generally accepted. General 
 consent was somewhat slow in its mani- 
 festation, but eventually the managers of 
 all the principal railroads of New Eng- 
 land agreed to adopt the plan if the time- 
 signalling system of the observatory 
 should be made to correspond in respect 
 to clock connections, time ball, etc. 
 
 This was instantly agreed to, and with 
 due prior public notice the new time went 
 into use Nov. 18, 1883, and the Boston 
 noon ball was first dropped on that day 
 at exactly five hours later than the noon 
 of Greenwich. 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 25 
 
 HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 HARVARD STATION IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 In 1880 the full routine of meteorologi- 
 cal observation was abandoned, as sev- 
 eral institutions were doing like work. 
 The record of the observatory in meteor- 
 ology, which had continuously been kept 
 up for 40 years, was reduced to proper 
 form for printing, and was published in 
 1889. Certain observations of this kind 
 have, however, been continued in the rec- 
 ord to the present date. 
 
 In 1888 a plan of co-operation was 
 agreed upon with the X. E. Meteorologi- 
 cal Society and Mr. A. L. Rotch of the 
 Blue Hill, Mass., Observatory, by which 
 their results, which are of a comprehen- 
 sive character, have since been published 
 in the annals of the Harvard Observa- 
 tory. 
 
 In 1877, in co-operation with Miss 
 Mitchell of Yassar College Observatory 
 and her assistants, observations were 
 made at Cambridge for determining the 
 longitude of the Yassar Observatory. 
 Between Feb. 15, 1879, and Jan. 3, 1880, 
 like observations were made in co-opera- 
 tion with officers of the Winchester Ob- 
 servatory of Yale College to ascertain 
 the longitude of that institution. Be- 
 tween June 2 and June 23, 1883, similar 
 work was done to fix the longitude of 
 McGill Observatory in Montreal. 
 
 In the summer of 1888 ten evenings were 
 given for observations for the longitude 
 of Smith College in Northampton. The 
 observers were Miss Byrd, teacher of 
 astronomy at that college, and Miss 
 Whitney, professor of astronomy at Yas- 
 sar College. Harvard's contribution in 
 the affair consisted in providing facilities 
 on the spot, including the use of a tran- 
 sit instrument. These are instances, 
 which among others go to show that be 
 cause of infinite painstaking at Harvard 
 in the earlier years it has become the 
 Mecca to which all on this continent who 
 wish to be perfectly assured in the mat- 
 ter of longitude may prudently make a 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 In 1881 an arrangement was entered into 
 for prompt communication as to unusual 
 celestial phenomena, discoveries, etc., 
 among astronomers in this country and 
 in Europe. A cipher code, the invention 
 of Messrs. S. C. Chandler and John 
 Ritchie, Jr., of the observatory staff, was 
 put into use. It is known as the "Science 
 Observer Code," and as it is superior in 
 accuracy to former codes has been 
 widely recognized. In 1883 Harvard 
 observatory was made the official dis- 
 
 tributing centre for this class of news, 
 by consent of the Smithsonian Institute, 
 which had previously performed the ser- 
 vice. 
 
 Upon the occasion of the transit of 
 Mercury across the sun's disk in May, 
 
 1878, all the available telescopes of the 
 observatory were put to use. The re- 
 sults, which included many photographs, 
 were satisfactory, considering the un- 
 favorable weather. During the like tran- 
 sit of Yenus, on Dec. 6, 1882, six tele- 
 scopes being in use, large additions were, 
 made to the important data which plane- 
 tory events of this kind may supply. 
 
 In August, 1886, a small party pro- 
 vided with instruments belonging to the 
 observatory made an expedition to Gren- 
 nada, near the northern coast of South 
 America, for observation of the total 
 solar eclipse of that year. The expedi- 
 tion was in charge of Mr. W. H. Picker- 
 ing, who afterwards became a member of 
 the observatory corps. 
 
 On Jan. 1. 1889, a large party, under 
 the same direction, observed a recurrence 
 of the event in California. The observa- 
 tions were mainly photographical. Ex- 
 cellent results were obtained in both 
 cases, though less in amount in the 
 former, because of unfavorable weather. 
 
 Much has been done during the term 
 in comecary investigation, but latterly 
 comets have been observed, as a rule, 
 only immediately upon discovery and 
 towards the end of their visible period, 
 or after they had got beyond the reach 
 of any but the most powerful teles- 
 copes. 
 
 In the summer of 1883 the director 
 journeyed in Europe and visited the 
 principal observatories there. In the 
 following annual report he names as an 
 important result of his journey the ob- 
 taining of copies of unpublished manu- 
 scripts of Argelander and Sir William 
 Herschel. The former are memoranda 
 of observations of variable stars and the 
 latter of observations made more than 
 100 years ago of the light of all stars of 
 Flamsteed's catalogue. 
 
 The work on the Cambridge zone of 
 stars was completed, as respects the pri- 
 mary plan of observation, on Jan. 26, 
 
 1879, and at that stage was regarded as 
 one of the largest astronomical under- 
 takings ever carried through in this 
 country. 
 
 The reduction of the data was accom- 
 plished in 1883, but as was expected, a 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 27 
 
 necessity for reobservation appeared in 
 certain cases. This work was done be- 
 tween Oct. 9, 1883 and Aug. 9, 1884. The 
 observer from the beginning had been 
 Prof. William A. Rogers. He resigned 
 his position as assistant professor in the 
 observatory in 1886, but continued to 
 serve as editor of the published results. 
 The whole series makes half a dozen or 
 more volumes ot the annals. The Eu- 
 ropean supervisors of the general under- 
 taking, well pleased, apparently, with 
 the early instalments of manuscript re- 
 turns, assigned to Harvard the work of 
 reobservation of another zone, that be- 
 tween 9 50' south and 14 10' south. 
 This work is still in progress. Each 
 zone comprises about 8000 stars or nearly 
 17,000 in all. 
 
 The publications of the observatory 
 during the present term in the form of 
 annals, and as contributions by members 
 of the corps to various journals of sci- 
 ence, have been numerous and extensive. 
 At the beginning of the term but four 
 volumes of annals had been issued, 
 though about an equal number were in 
 some stage of progress in the printers' 
 hands, publication having gone on slow- 
 ly from lack of means. At the pres- 
 ent time the continuous series of 22 vol- 
 umes has been issued, excepting the sec- 
 ond or supplementary parts in two or 
 three instances. These parts are nearly 
 ready, and the manuscript for about half 
 a dozen more volumes in regular succes- 
 sion has, in part or whole, been given to 
 the printer. 
 
 A review of what has been done during 
 the present term in the departments of 
 photometry, spectroscopy and photogra- 
 phy will be comprised in the next and 
 closing number of this series. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Agreeably to the announcement of the 
 annual report of Harvard College Ob- 
 servatory for 1877, as to photometry, a 
 beginning was made by constructing a 
 photometer suitable to be attached to 
 the great telescope. Other photometers 
 have been devised at different times for 
 use independently. One of the earliest 
 was applied during the year beginning 
 Oct. 12, 1877, in measuring the light of 
 all known satellites excepting the two 
 inner ones of Uranus, which are too 
 
 faint to be discerned, even by the great 
 telecope. The first prolonged observa- 
 tion entered upon was of the eclipses of 
 of Jupiter's satellites. 
 
 As there are four satellites and as the 
 plane of their orbits is nearly the same 
 as that of the planet itself, eclipses are 
 frequent. The plan proposed the obser- 
 vation of all these eclipses visible during 
 a revolution of Jupiter around the sun, 
 a period of about 12 years. The work 
 was begun June 23, 1878, and has been 
 regularly pursued. The final result will 
 be of the highest value in that, among its 
 utilities it will permit a new and inde- 
 pendent computation to be made of the 
 earth's distance from the sun, which dis- 
 tance is a prime factor in theoretical as- 
 tronomy. 
 
 Computations hitherto made, based 
 upon data derived from these eclipses, are 
 not authoritative, because of disagree- 
 ments among different observers using 
 different telescopes, and because of de- 
 fects in the method of observation. 
 
 The director's report for 1878 says: 
 "Errors of this kind are much lessened 
 by photometric observations of the satel- 
 lites as they gradually enter or emerge 
 from the shadow of Jupiter, using the 
 planet itself or another satellite as a stan- 
 dard. Each comparison thus obtained 
 gives an independent determination of the 
 time of the eclipse, free from the errors 
 due to the condition of the air or the 
 power of the telescope employed and less 
 likely to be affected by personal equation 
 than the observation of a disappearance 
 or a reappearance. By the ordinary 
 method an observation during twilight 
 can have little value, while good pho- 
 tometric observations may be made as 
 well then as at any other time. It is 
 even possible to make them before sun- 
 set." 
 
 In 1879 a work of magnitude was be- 
 gunthe photometric observation of all 
 stars down to those of the sixth masrni- 
 tude visible in this latitude. For greater 
 facility, and particularly to avoid loss of 
 time in identifying stars of small magni- 
 tude, it was decided to make a new de- 
 parture in method and in construction 
 of an instrument. The new instrument 
 was called the meridian photometer, and 
 stars were observed by it only when near 
 the meridian. The position of any star 
 being well known, the time of its ap- 
 pearance in the field of the telescope 
 could be foreseen. 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 Each that was desired for a particular 
 night had, therefore, only to be waited 
 for, not sought for. The original instru- 
 ment consisted of a fixed horizontal tele- 
 scope pointed west and having two ob- 
 jectives. 
 
 The light of the pole star, which was 
 taken for the standard or unit of meas- 
 urement, was reflected by a prism into 
 one object glass, and that of the star to 
 be measured into the other. The light 
 of the brighter star was then reduced to 
 exactly that of the fainter by the turning 
 
 sive, between 30 south and the southern 
 pole, was begun. Thus the facts relating 
 to all the stars in the sky of these classi- 
 fications will be embodied in the final re- 
 sult. 
 
 The record, whicli will comprise sev- 
 eral volumes, one or more of which have 
 already been published, will have an 
 identity throughout as respects the 
 method, the instrument, and the unit of 
 measurement. It will be authoritative 
 as a text book or series of text books, 
 and will enhance the value for reference, 
 
 HAKVARD OBSERVING STATION AT WILLOWS, CAL., JANUARY 1, 1889. 
 
 of a screw having a register attached. 
 The indication of the register gave the 
 measure, which was confirmed by repeat- 
 ed observations. Telescopes mounted in 
 the ordinary way continued to be used in 
 other branches of photometric work. 
 
 The photometric survey of the sixth 
 magnitude and brighter stars was com- 
 pleted Aug. 25, 1881. In 1882 a new and 
 more powerful meridian instrument was 
 constructed and a photometric survey of 
 a list of about 21,000 stars, from the 
 sixth to the ninth magnitude, was 
 entered upon. This work was finished 
 Sept. 29, 1888, and soon afterwards the 
 instrument, with others, was sent to 
 Peru in charge of Mr. S. 1. Bailey of the 
 observatory corps, where, May 11, 1889, a 
 corresponding survey of the stars, from 
 the first to the ninth magnitude, inclu- 
 
 and comparison of various records of the 
 light of stars, both those of modern and 
 ancient date. 
 
 The successful working of the two 
 meridian photometers led to the con- 
 struction of one still more powerful, hav- 
 ing an aperture of 12 inches. The first 
 was of 1| inch aperture, and the second 
 of four inches. 
 
 The three differ somewhat in mechan- 
 ism, but are the same in principle. The 
 12-inch is called by distinction the "hor- 
 izontal telescope." It will be available 
 in case a photometric survey of stars of 
 fainter magnitudes shall be undertaken, 
 but its use is not limited to photometry. 
 
 In 1879, a photometer was devised for 
 measuring the light of nebulae, thus ap- 
 plying to these objects and to stars the 
 same unit and scale. In 1881, photo- 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 29 
 
 metric observations of certain bright 
 parts of the moon, were mafle for the 
 Selenographical Society of England, the 
 particular parts being selected by that 
 society. It thus was shown that the 
 lunar scale of light in common use may 
 be closely expressed in terms of stellar 
 magnitude, each degree of the lunar 
 scale answering to six-tenths of a mag- 
 nitude. Photometry has been very ex- 
 tensively applied at Harvard in study of 
 variable stars. 
 
 A history of any department of practi- 
 cal astronomy, written from the point of 
 
 one of the satellites as thus seen. Five 
 or six different mechanics were employed 
 to drill in a piece of metal a hole, making 
 a true circle, and small enough to pro- 
 duce the equality sought for by suffi- 
 ciently diminishing the light of the 
 planet. It may be remarked that one of 
 those who succeeded best had already, 
 for his own purposes, managed to drill a 
 hole, lengthwise, through a fine cambric 
 needle, making a steel tube of it. 
 
 What he made for Prof. Pickering was 
 a hole in a steel plate, the diameter of 
 which was one eighteen hundredth 
 
 HARVARD OBSERVING STATION IN PERU. 
 
 view of a mechanician, could hardly fail 
 to be of interest. Among the curious ex- 
 periences at Harvard in the line of pho- 
 tometry is one which illustrates this 
 point, and, at the same time, indicates 
 the refinements in observation which are 
 resorted to, and demonstrates one of the 
 utilities of the photometric method. 
 
 In 1877 announcement was made 
 of the discovery at Washington of 
 two satellites of the planet Mars. 
 The Harvard telescope being applied 
 they were after a little effort descried as 
 two faint points of light, showing no 
 visible disks. To ascertain the diameter 
 of each satellite might therefore seem 
 impossible: but it was done, approxi- 
 mately, by the photometric method. 
 
 The mechanical problem was to reduce 
 the light of the planet as seen in the 
 telescope to an equality with the light of 
 
 (1-1800) of an inch. It was so nearly cir- 
 cular that the various diameters, in- 
 cluding errors of measurement, onlv dif- 
 fered one one hundred thousandth 
 (1-100,000) of an inch. 
 
 Other mechanical devices were resort 
 ed to for corroboration, and the results 
 reached were that the diameter of one 
 of the satellites is about six miles, and 
 that of the other about seven miles. 
 They are the smallest known in the solar 
 system. 
 
 The availability of the spectroscope in 
 astronomy had early been appreciated by 
 the profession. In experiments in this 
 line it had bsen found that a classifica- 
 tion of the nebulae might be made upon 
 the basis of their spectra. In 1880 the 
 study was carried a stage further at 
 Harvard in ascertaining by the spectro- 
 scope that certain faint objects, which. 
 
 V^:H~. 
 
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30 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 by direct vision, had been judged to be 
 stars, are in fact nebulae. In 1881, it 
 was found that the spectroscope is ser- 
 viceable in the discovery of variable 
 stars. Thus incited, a new instrument 
 was imported from London, but it did 
 not prove satisfactory. 
 
 Nothing of importance appears to have 
 been done in this department thereafter 
 until 1886, when the proposition of Mrs. 
 Draper opened the way to investigation 
 of spectra by aid of photography. For 
 this the 11-inch photographic telescope, 
 which had been used by Dr. Draper, 
 was loaned by Mrs. Draper, who also 
 met the expense of a new mounting and 
 a special observatory, building. 'A begin- 
 ning was made with an eight-inch in- 
 strument, known as the Bache telescope. 
 It is of the pattern described as the 
 "doublet," and offers the advantage of a 
 large field of view. With it the spectra 
 of about 10,500 stars of the sixth magni- 
 tude and brighter, between the pole and 
 25 south, were photographed before the 
 close of the year 1888. 
 
 The instrument was then sent to Peru, 
 where a like survey of the Southern sky 
 is in progress. Spectroscopic observa- 
 tions of the brighter stars have been 
 continued at Cambridge with the 11-inch 
 Draper telescope and of fainter stars 
 with an 8-inch doublet similar to the 
 Bache instrument. In this work it was 
 found that by giving a certain chemical 
 stain to the photographic plate the yellow 
 and green portions of the spectrum of 
 even the fainter stars can profitably be 
 studied. 
 
 Furthermore, what seems incredible at 
 first thought, it appears to be demon- 
 strated that the components of binary 
 stars whose juxtaposition does not per- 
 mit them to be separated in any tele- 
 scope, may, by spectroscopic photo- 
 graphy, be shown to be in revolution 
 about each other. Two or more such 
 objects have been found in which the 
 changes regularly succeeding in the lines 
 of the spectrum not only prove that the 
 components are in motion, but permit the 
 period of revolution to be determined. 
 
 Prior to 1883 photography is mentioned 
 in the annual reports of the present di- 
 rector only as incidental to other work. 
 In that year a systematic investigation 
 was undertaken, having among other 
 objects in view, the construction of a 
 photographic map of tbe whole heavens. 
 An early application of photography in 
 
 this investigation was in the direction of 
 determining the color of stars, measuring 
 their brightness by an independent 
 method, picturing their spectra, exhibit- 
 ing the effect of atmospheric absorption 
 of light in a series of plates covering the 
 period of a year, and ascertaining by im- 
 ages of stars trailed upon the plate, the 
 clearness and steadiness of the atmos- 
 phere. 
 
 In 1887 the Boyden fund being avail- 
 able, the first step was taken in the im- 
 portant enterprise of giving a conti- 
 nental expansion to the work of the ob- 
 servatory. The aim of the testator in 
 making his bequest could well be fur- 
 thered in conducting observations simul- 
 taneously in photometry, spectroscopy 
 and photography. In following up the 
 project, the Draper memorial funds ap- 
 pear also to have been available to a 
 considerable extent in the two latter 
 methods of observation. Experimental 
 stations were established in Colorado in 
 the summer of 1887 on mountain peaks 
 of 14,000, 11,000 and 6000 feet in height, 
 respectively, and the meteorological con- 
 ditions, including the transparency and 
 steadiness of the upper atmosphere, 
 were duly tested. 
 
 This investigation was continued at 
 the expense of the Boyden fund during 
 the following winter by local observers 
 whose stations were at considerable 
 height. 
 
 In 1889 the movement was further ex- 
 tended by establishing an observatory on 
 a peak about 6500 feet high in Peru, 25 
 or 30 miles distant from the sea coast 
 and the city of Lima. Local official 
 sanction was given to naming the peak, 
 "Monte Harvard." About the same 
 time other observers of the Harvard 
 corps set up an experimental observa- 
 tory on Mt. Wilson, 6000 feet high, in 
 Southern California. The station is 
 about 30 miles from the sea coast and 
 somewhat less from the city of Los An- 
 geles. 
 
 The experimental purpose is the same 
 as in Colorado, and looks to the ultimate 
 establishment of a permanent observa- 
 tory as a branch of the Harvard institu- 
 tion at some favorable point where the 
 superior atmospheric conditions of the 
 Pacific mountain regions can be had. In 
 the special direction of picturing celes- 
 tial objects at Mt. Wilson remarkable 
 photographic results are already pos- 
 sessed at Cambridge in plates showing 
 
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 31 
 
 lunar surfaces, Saturn's rings, Jupiter's 
 belts and the most brilliant of the nebu- 
 lae. That among them which is of the 
 greatest scientific interest, as being a 
 novelty, is the picture on a negative 
 plate of the great spiral nebula of Orion. 
 It is a Harvard discovery by the photo- 
 graphic method, and is quite other than 
 that heretofore known as the great nebula 
 in Orion. That is an object having a span 
 of about, half a degree. The new great 
 nebula has a span of nearly 17 degrees ; 
 its outline includes all the stars of the 
 constellation, and it is too faint an object 
 to be discerned by the naked eye. 
 
 It is one of the principal advantages of 
 the photographic method in astronomical 
 work that the sensitive plate will denote 
 objects which the eye reinforced by a 
 telescope of any power cannot detect. 
 The great nebula thus discovered is 
 within reach of the telescope, but its 
 dimensions are so much larger than the 
 field of the telescope, and its outline so 
 faint, that its true character would not 
 thus originally be apprehended. 
 
 Photography at Cambridge has already 
 produced several series of plates, each 
 plate covering a section of the northern 
 sky, the whole of which when perfected 
 and collated will be a self- recorded, and 
 so, indisputable atlas, showing the posi- 
 tion of all stars down to those of the 
 llth magnitude. It will be an , atlas in 
 sheets of glass, and frailer in some re- 
 spects than if composed of sheets of pa- 
 per. But for study of the science the 
 glass is better than any product of the 
 engraver's art, and better than any sun 
 picture printed by the plate itself. In- 
 deed, it is one of the triumphs of the pho- 
 tographic method that a perfect photo- 
 graphic negative discloses more to the 
 student than does a telescopic view of 
 that area of the sky of which the photo- 
 graph is a copy. Astronomical research 
 is now constantly made at the observa- 
 tory in this manner, and with results 
 equal to or better than those reached by 
 former methods. 
 
 Celestial objects are thus originally 
 discovered and the positions of familiar 
 objects remeasured or otherwise com- 
 pared, and this work might be continued 
 throughout the whole 24 hours were it 
 so desired, regardless of the glare of the 
 sun by day or of impenetrable clouds by 
 night. 
 
 The work in progress in Peru will give 
 other series of plates offering equal facil- 
 
 ities for the study at Cambridge of that 
 part of the sky which is beyond our 
 southern horizon. Some of the results 
 which these extensive investigations of 
 the light, the spectra and the positions 
 of the stars will yield will anticipate the 
 doings of other great observatories of 
 the world. But there is no necessary 
 limit at stars of the magnitudes named ; 
 there will remain other worlds to con- 
 quer 
 
 A special encouragement to new enter- 
 prises at Harvard is in the munificent 
 gift of $50,000, made within the year 
 past by Miss Catherine W. Bruce of New 
 York for the construction of a telescooe 
 of 2i inches aperture, to be used in pho- 
 tography. A contract for this instrument 
 has been made. It is intended that its 
 first use shall be to photograph maps of 
 the fainter stars, and it is hoped that 
 those as faint as the 16th magnitude can 
 thus be represented. The basis of this 
 sanguine forecast is the fact that with an 
 eight-inch telescope of the pattern of the 
 proposed 24-inch, and an exposure of the 
 plate for one hour, twice as many stars 
 are photographed as are visible with a 
 telescope of 15 inches aperture. Prof. 
 Pickering received the honorary degree 
 of A.M. from Harvard in 1880, and that 
 of LL.D. from the University of Califor- 
 nia in 1886, and from the University of 
 Michigan in 1887. Like his predecessor, 
 Prof. G. P. Bond, he has been honored 
 by the Koyal Astronomical Society in the 
 bestowal of its gold medal. 
 
 The several investigations of chief 
 importance which are now in progress at 
 Harvard College Observatory have 
 already been mentioned as part of the 
 record of the half-century past. They 
 also go into the record with which the 
 second half-century now begins. As 
 such they may be briefly recapitulated, 
 viz. : The survey, for the purposes of the 
 great European standard catalogue 
 known as the ''Astronomische Gessell- 
 schaft," of the zone between 9 50' south 
 and 14 10' south ; the photometric, spec- 
 troscopic, and photographic special sur- 
 veys making in south latitude to com- 
 plete like surveys hitherto made at Cam- 
 bridge, extending to about 30 south ; the 
 systematic work in photography, which 
 includes much classifiable as spectro- 
 scopy, carried on both at Cambridge and 
 in Peru as the Draper Memorial work ; 
 other systematic work of like importance 
 done under the special restrictions of 
 
32 
 
 HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 the Boyden fund; and what perhaps 
 may be called the orbital observations of 
 eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. 
 
 That planet has now nearly completed 
 its circuit around the sun, and the last of 
 its satellite eclipses te be observed will 
 occur on Dec. 17 ensuing. During the 
 period of 12 years about 450 of these 
 eclipses nave been observed and recorded. 
 Perhaps as many others for which 
 preparations were made at the observa- 
 tory, passed unseen, because of interpos- 
 ing clouds. Except to an expert these 
 figures give no hint of the magnitude of 
 
 the work. All that need here be said is 
 that in its completed form it will be one 
 of the great achievements of the observa- 
 tory. 
 
 The enumeration of these unfinished 
 works and those completed, which has 
 now been made, will have fulfilled its 
 purpose if it shall have impressed upon 
 the mind of the general reader the fact , 
 with which it is presumable everybody 
 is somewhat familiar, that a great oak 
 has grown from the little acorn planted 
 on Harvard College campus 50 years 
 ago. 
 
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