GUDDE: A CENTURY OF ASTRONOMY AND GEODESY IN CALIFORNIA 71 



Davidson often observed until the small hours in the morning, and that after 

 his strenuous duties with the Coast Survey. 



As a labor of love [says Campbell J, Professor Davidson undertook the observations 

 of latitude pairs of stars at his observatory. Between May, 1891, and August, 1892, he 

 secured for this purpose, 5.308 observations on 283 stars. . . . His results were in good 

 agreement with those obtained at European, Atlantic coast, and Hawaiian stations. 



The results of his observations he published in luunerous articles in the publica- 

 tions of the California Academy of Sciences, the Royal Astronomical Society, 

 and tlie United States Coast Survey. The observatory remained on Lafayette 

 Square until ]902. Its principal instrument is now at Chabot Observatory. 



The sudden interest in astronomy naturally also had great influence upon 

 astronomy as a subject of instruction in our schools. Davidson himself again 

 took the lead by inviting high school students and their teachers to his observa- 

 tory, and thus he aroused in the young intellects an interest in the wonders of 

 the universe. In 1883 Anthony Chabot presented to the Oakland School Depart- 

 ment his well-known observatory with an 8-inch refractor, to which the Board 

 of Education added in 1913 a 20-inch refractor. In 1885 the College of the Pacific 

 received an observatory with a 6-inch Clark equatorial. The Students' Observa- 

 tory of the University of California was erected in 1886, and in 1892 was placed 

 in charge of Armin 0. Leuschner. It has since been the elementary training 

 ground for many astronomers who have achieved fame in their profession. Only 

 a year later Mills College received its observatory with a 5-inch refractor and an 

 8-inch reflector, and in 1890 Napa College started its astronomy department with 

 an 8-inch Clark-Saegmuller refractor, which was later acquired by the University 

 of Santa Clara. 



However, the hopes of the University of Southern California to outdo the 

 Lick Observatory by having an observatory with a 40-inch refractor telescope 

 were shattered. The donor died shortly after the discs were given and insufficient 

 funds prevented the University from erecting the observatory. The discs were 

 purchased in 1893 by C. T. Yerkes and became the nucleus of the famous observa- 

 tory of the University of Chicago ! The chief factor in this move was no other 

 than George Ellery Hale, destined to play a most important role in the develop- 

 ment of astronomy in California. Since then astronomy has become a subject 

 generally taught, and most colleges and many high schools have their own observ- 

 atories. 



George Davidson continued to play an important role in the geodetic work 

 of the State, as in the field of astronomy. Between 1875 and 1879 Captain George 

 M. AVheeler, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, had carried on the "Geo- 

 graphical Surveys AYest of the One Hundredth ]\Ieridian." On March 3, 1879, 

 the United States Geological Survey was established under the Department of the 

 Interior and began its great work of creating the topographical atlas of the 

 United States. Important as were the Wheeler Survey and the Geological Survey 

 — and later the United States Forestry Survey and the United States Corps of 

 Engineers — for the scientific delineation of California, the extension of the scope 

 of the Coast Survey was of much greater value in the line of applied astronomy. 

 The Coast Survey, heretofore responsible for the survey of our coasts, was 

 assigned in 1879 the tremendous task of the trigonometrical survey of the United 

 States. 



