nomical observation is shown by a paper published in the Transactions' of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. VII., pp. 165-213, detailing observations of nebulæ made by H. L. Smith and E. P. Mason at New Haven, Connecticut, with a 12-inch reflector. This memoir contains carefully executed plates of several nebulæ, on which the stars are accurately plotted.

Among those in our country who repeatedly urged the foundation of an astronomical observatory in the United States was John Quincy Adams. While Secretary of State, as early as 1823, he offered personally to contribute $1,000 towards the establishment of an astronomical observatory in connection with Harvard College, provided the requisite amount for completing the work should be raised within two years, but this effort failed. In 1825, in his first message to Congress after becoming President of the United States, he made recommendations for the establishment of a national observatory, a uniform standard of weights and measures, a naval academy, a nautical almanac and a national university. Party rancor prevented the carryingout of any of these far-reaching plans at that time, but all of them, except that of a national university, were executed by our government at a later date. It was some years after this notable message of President Adams before Emperor Nicholas, of Russia, entered upon the preliminary steps which culminated in the creation of the celebrated Pulkowa Observatory.

Even after leaving the Presidential chair, President Adams never once relaxed his efforts towards the founding of a national observatory. In 1838 our Minister to England announced that he had received the money bequeathed to the American people by James Smithson for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. Mr. Adams immediately urged that this fund should be devoted to the founding of an

astronomical observatory and a nautical almanac, and, as chairman of the select committee on the Smithson fund, he advocated that plan on three different occasions between 1838 and 1842. It is interesting to note that Senator Preston, of South Carolina, violently opposed these recommendations of Mr. Adams, but that in 1842 Mr. Preston gave the weight of his influence in favor of the bill which finally created a national observatory under the name of 'A Depot of Charts and Instruments of the Navy of the United States.' Let us trace the circumstances leading up to this event.

In 1830, under orders from the Navy Department, Lieutenant Goldsborough established a depot of charts and instruments in the western part of the City of Washington, in the square bounded by 24th and 25th Streets, Pennsylvania Avenue and K Street Northwest. Here, in a small circular building, on a brick pier with a foundation 20 feet below the surface, he mounted a 30inch transit instrument made by R. Patten, of New York City. Goldsborough was succeeded in 1833 by Lieutenant Wilkes, who removed the depot to a site on Capitol Hill, on the west side of North Capitol Street, between B and C Streets north, about 1,200 feet, north, 5° west, from the center of the Capitol. The dimensions of the small observatory erected by Lieutenant Wilkes were 14 feet by 13 feet, and 10 feet from the floor to the eaves, and its outfit was as follows: A transit instrument of 3 inches' aperture and 63 inches' focal length, made by Troughton under Hassler's direction for the U. S. Coast Survey in 1815, which was loaned to the Navy Department and mounted on massive piers. A Borda's circle presented by Troughton to Mr. Hassler in 1815; a 3-foot achromatic portable telescope by Jones; a portable transit instrument made by Richard Patten, and a sidereal clock. The Patten transit instrument had previously been

mounted by Lieutenant Goldsborough in the depot of charts and instruments established by him, and was now mounted near the south door of the observatory for the use of the assistants. The sidereal clock was bolted to the western pier of the Troughton transit instrument, but it never performed satisfactorily.

On assuming command of the United States Exploring Fxpedition, in 1838, Lieutenant Wilkes turned over the direction of this observatory to Lieutenant J. M. Gilliss. To perfect and complete the instrumental outfit Gilliss was permitted by the Navy Department to order the following instruments: From Parkinson and Frodsham, of London, a sidereal clock and a meantime clock; from Ertel and Son, of Munich, a meridian circle of 4.5 inches' aperture, furnished with circles 30 inches' in diameter, one of which was graduated to three minutes; from William Simms a portable achromatic telescope of 3 inches' aperture and 42 inches' focal length. On the parapet of the Capitol building a south meridian mark was made, which was viewed by reducing the aperture of the transit instrument to 0.9 inch, and at a distance of 2,302 yards a north mark was erected, which could be viewed with the full aperture of the transit instrument. The north mark consisted of an obelisk of sandstone 18 feet high and 14 inches square at the top, having painted on its south face five black lines, three inches apart.

Up to 1838 the work at the 'Depot of Charts and Instruments' consisted of such astronomical observations as were needed for the rating of chronometers. In the beginning of that year instructions, prepared by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, were transmitted through the Navy Department to Lieutenant Gilliss, directing him to cooperate with the United States Exploring Expedition during the years 1838 to 1842 by systematically observing the following

named objects: (1) The Moon and moonculminating stars. (2) Falling stars, particularly the periodic ones in November. (3) All eclipses of the Sun and Moon. (4) Eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. (5) Occultations of the larger stars. In addition to the work required by these instructions Lieutenant Gilliss determined the right ascensions of 1,248 stars, which were reduced to the epoch January 1, 1840, compared with the right ascensions of the British As. sociation Catalogue and published in 1846 in an 8vo. volume of astronomical observations containing xxv+671 pages. During the years 1840 to 1842 Gilliss also made at the Depot of Charts and Instruments,' a fine series of magnetic observations, which were published in 1845 in an 8vo. volume of xxviii+648 pages.

The facilities for scientific work at the little observatory on Capitol Hill were very limited, but Gilliss used them most assiduously. He endeavored by actual achievement to demonstrate to the Navy Department and to Congress the desirability of providing an observatory especially equipped for executing the most refined astronomical work, and in this he was successful. On the 15th of March, 1842, the House Committee on Naval Affairs reported to the House of Representatives a bill 'to authorize the construction of a Depot for Charts and Instruments of the Navy of the United States,' together with a written report which stated at some length that the present Depot' and its observatory are inadequate for the purposes intended, and are unsafe for the protection of the valuable instruments; that we are indebted to other nations for the data which enable our vessels to cross the ocean; that an observatory is absolutely essential to the performance of the duties which devolve upon the Depot;' that the existing observatory was erected at private expense, and that facilities should be provided for the execution of magnetic

observations.

The wording of the bill which accompanied the report and became a law August 31, 1842, was as follows:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled That the Secretary of the Navy be and he is hereby authorized to contract for the building of a suitable house for a depot of charts and instruments of the Navy of the United States on a plan not exceeding in cost the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars.

"And be it further enacted: That the sum of ten thousand dollars be and is hereby appropriated of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated towards carrying this law into effect.

"And be it further enacted: That the said estab

3d,

inches' aperture by Ertel, of Munich. a prime vertical transit instrument of 4.9 inches' aperture by Pistor and Martins, Berlin. 4th, a mural circle by Troughton and Simms, London, with a telescope of 4.1 inches' aperture, and a circle 5 feet in diameter divided to 5' and read by six micrometer microscopes. 5th, a comet

seeker of 4 inches' aperture by Utzschneider and Fraunhofer, Munich. 6th, magnetic instruments. 7th, meteorological instruments. 8th, books. In addition to those items purchased, there belonged to the

land in the District of Columbia which the President of the United States may deem suited to the purpose." The Secretary of the Navy immediately placed the preparation of the plans for the new observatory in the hands of Lieutenant Gilliss, who, after consulting with astronomers in America, visited Europe to obtain the views of those competent to advise in these matters. In March, 1843, he returned home, having ordered the instruments under authority from the Secretary of the Navy. Only eighteen months were consumed in the erection of the buildings, the mounting of the instruments and the procuring of a library, and on the 7th of February, 1845, Gilliss presented a detailed report of his labors (Senate Document, No. 114, 28th Congress, 2d session, Vol. VII.) which contains a careful description of the buildings and instruments, illustrated by accurate drawings.

The site

able transit and two clocks, purchased by Lieutenant Wilkes for the Exploring Expedition, and a 30-inch transit circle and two clocks ordered by Gilliss for the Depot.'

At the close of September, 1844, Gilliss reported the observatory completed, with the instruments mounted and ready for use. On the 1st of October, 1844, Lieutenant M. F. Maury was ordered to take charge of the institution, and directed to remove to it all the nautical books, charts and instruments of the then-existing depot.

In reviewing the history of the Naval Observatory during Maury's administration, we shall first notice the instrumental equipment, in the selection of which it is probable that Gilliss was principally influenced by English advisers. Instrumental construction was just then passing through a critical period. The Observatory of Pulkowa, which was completed in 1838, following the German school of construction, rejected the mural circle, and supplied its place with the celebrated Ertel vertical circle. An Ertel transit instrument and a Repsold meridian circle completed the outfit of Pulkowa for meridian work, and these instruments were amply provided with horizontal collimators and azimuth marks distant 550 feet, which were rendered visible by the interposition of lenses of corresponding foca length. In contrast with this, the Naval

Observatory followed English precedent, and was supplied with a mural circle which remained its principal declination instrument until 1865. The remaining equipment was the Ertel transit instrument, of firstclass construction, but without horizontal collimators and azimuth marks; the small Ertel meridian circle, which had been ordered by Gilliss for the Observatory on Capitol Hill; the Pistor and Martins primevertical transit instrument, identical in design with the similar instrument at Pulkowa; and the Merz and Mahler equatorial refracting telescope. The Ertel meridian circle showed such serious defects of construction that it was subsequently sold, and the Merz and Mahler equatorial was much smaller than the refractors at Pulkowa and Harvard College Observatories, one of which was erected a little before and the other a little after that at the Naval Observatory. It may also be mentioned that instead of making the walls of its observing rooms of brick, the Naval Observatory might advantageously have followed the example of Pulkowa by making them of wood, the use of sheet metal for such purposes being then unknown.

Now, for a passing glance at the personnel of the astronomical corps, which was composed of three more or less distinct classes, namely, line officers and staff officers of the United States Navy and civilians. After years of persistent labor, Gilliss had created an astronomical observatory only to have it snatched from his grasp when it was ready for work. Lieutenant Matthew F. Maury, who was ordered to take charge of the new 'Depot of Charts and Instru ments' as its Superintendent on October 1, 1844, was then thirty.eight years old. He was possessed of great energy, together with a high degree of native ability, and was well versed in naval affairs, but was very scantily informed in regard to the great advances in astronomical science

which had recently been made in Europe. From the line of the navy three lieutenants and six midshipmen were detailed as his assistants. These gentlemen entered upon their work with energy, but their tour of duty was so limited by the rules of the Navy Department that they were obliged to return to their nautical work when they had barely familiarized themselves with their astronomical duties. Among their names will be recognized many who at a later date attained distinction during the Civil War. To these line officers were added Professors of Mathematics Coffin, Keith and Hubbard, who were staff officers in the Navy. The corps of Professors of Mathematics in the United States Navy was originally created to supply instructors for midshipmen afloat and ashore, and all of them served in that capacity, until the founding of the Naval Academy in 1845 closed their seafaring career and gave the Navy Department an opportunity to utilize a part of the corps in other duties. fessor Coffin had instructed midshipmen on shipboard for some half dozen years before he was ordered to assist Lieutenant Gilliss in 1843 in fitting up the new Observatory. Hubbard, a recent graduate of Yale College, was appointed Professor of Mathematics, U. S. N., in 1845, and was immediately ordered to the Observatory. Keith, who had just graduated from Middlebury College, Vt., received his appointment as Professor of Mathematics, U. S. N., in 1847. These gentlemen were each possessed of a high degree of mathematical ability and were destined to leave a lasting impress on the work of the Observatory. At that time the only civil appointee attached to the Observatory was Mr. Sears Cook Walker, who was employed as a computer and observer. He was one of the ablest, and certainly the most experienced, of the corps of astronomers, but unfortunate differences with

Pro