684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



stations of the United States Coast Survey. Dr. Gould has proved in 

 his scientific career that he possesses in a rare degree that bold, initia- 

 tive spirit which is so marked a characteristic of our countrymen. As 

 soon as any progress has been made in any department of science, Dr. 

 Gould has at once turned it to account in his particular domain. Thus, 

 he was among the very first to use electricity for the purpose of de- 

 termining the differences of longitude, and recording by telegraph the 

 exchange of signals and stellar observations. He had already employed 

 this method, no less exact than rapid, in fifteen series of determinations 

 before its introduction into Europe. Hardly was the transatlantic 

 cable laid, before Dr. Gould started for Valentia, Ireland, and there 

 established the station from which the difference of longitude between 

 Europe and America was determined, and connected the two conti- 

 nents by the most precise observations. The net-work of these deter- 

 minations thus extended from Greenwich to New Orleans, and covered 

 almost a quarter of the globe. Besides all this geodetic work, Dr. 

 Gould has very largely contributed to the development of pure astro- 

 nomical science. By his learning, by his publications, by the example 

 he has set in his researches, he has done much to inspire his country- 

 men with that love of astronomy which is now so widely spread in the 

 United States. Since the commencement of Dr. Gould's career, up- 

 ward of twenty new observatories have sprung up, which, in the pre- 

 cision of their methods and the closeness of their observations, take 

 full rank with those of Europe. Dr. Gould is not only one of the 

 founders, he is one of the most distinguished masters of the school of 

 American astronomy. He established and supported at his own ex- 

 pense from 1847 to 1861 the first astronomical journal ever published 

 in the United States. Between 1855 and 1858 he organized the Dud- 

 ley Observatory at Albany, and it was there that the normal clock, 

 protected from atmospheric variations and furnished with barometric 

 compensation, was first used. In his new meridian circle, also, Dr. 

 Gould introduced many improvements of construction, which are to- 

 day in use in all observatories, and it was his clock which gave the 

 time-signals to New York. 



From a student and assistant at the Dudley Observatory, a word 

 must be said here of the extraordinary executive power and the per- 

 sonal magnetism which Dr. Gould exercised in his little scientific fam- 

 ily. Such a life is always a happy one where a high purpose and 

 unflagging zeal give the key-note, but the kind forethought in every 

 detail of domestic arrangement, the careful insistence on methodical 

 ways in food and sleep at whatever hours they might be sought, in 

 the exigencies of astronomical labor, were invaluable to young men, 

 some of whom Avere fresh from the safeguards of home. The mid- 

 night toils were ever lightened by kind words and encouraging exam- 

 ple, the hours at table brightened and instructed, whatever stress was 

 laid on the master by cares within or without ; and when the Scientific 



