SKETCH OF WILLIAM C RANCH BOND. 



405 



Its cupola was placed upon it to accommodate one of Mr. Bond's 

 telescopes, and at that time was suitably domed. 



Mr. Bond's chief work at Cambridge for the first two or three 

 years was a continuation and extension of his observations for 

 the Navy Department in regard to the earth's magnetism. He 

 was assisted by his son, W. C. Bond, Jr., whose death in 1842 was 

 regarded as a loss to science. Renewed exertions were now made 

 to secure an adequate observatory and set of instruments. The 

 site was purchased in 1841. A brilliant comet that appeared in 

 1843 furnished a favorable occasion for raising a subscription. 

 The best telescope that could be produced in Europe, a refractor 

 of fifteen inches aperture, equatorially mounted, was ordered 

 from Merz & Mahler, of Munich, and ground was broken for a 

 pier for it in the summer of the same year. In September, 1844, 



The Dana Housb. First observatory of Harvard College. 



the instruments were removed from the Dana House to the new 

 observatory, and Mr. Bond entered upon a series of observations 

 for determining the latitude and longitude of the new station. 



Mr. Bond's first recorded observation in Cambridge was of 

 date December 31, 1839, and his appointment as director of the 

 observatory dates from February 12, 1840. During the first eight 

 years of his connection with Harvard College he is to be regarded 

 as a benefactor rather than an employee of the institution. 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 suggest that this devotion 

 to the institution at Cambridge was the more marked in that dur- 



