312 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1882. 



work of importance has been done, but is not mentioned here. This 

 brief summary will be sufficient to show the extraordinary amount of 

 the work which has been accomplished during the 5 years by the aid of 

 the additional endowment. The reasons for this Professor Pickering 

 summarizes as follows, and they deserve careful attention : 



"It will be noticed that the increased work is quite out of proportion 

 to the increase of income. This is to be expected, since a large j)art of 

 the expense is the same in either case, and the increase is directly 

 available for the attainment of scientific results. The formation of a 

 corps of skilled assistants also requires time, and a delay in securing a 

 continuation of our present income would seriously reduce our capacity 

 for attaining results with the greatest economy both of time and money. 



"As an increased expenditure was undertaken before the completion 

 of the subscription, it is deemed best not to limit the present report to 

 a period of exactly five years, but to include all the work undertaken 

 since my first connection with the observatory in February, 1877. 



"The effect of the subscription may be summarized in a few words. 

 Without it only one instrument, the meridian circle, was kept actively 

 at work, the large telescope being comj)aratively idle. The reductions 

 even of this one instrument could not be kept up, but every year fell 

 more and more behindhand. With the subscription, the large telescope, 

 the meridian circle, and the meridian photometer are in constant use. 

 A large number of the old observations have been published, while the 

 remainder have been reduced, and before long will be ready for publica- 

 tion. One volume of the recent observations with the large telescope 

 has already been published j another volume of meridian pliotometer 

 observations is now passing through the press. The unfinished volumes 

 of AnHals were completed, so that, as is shown below, our work is now 

 known through twelve quarto volumes, while in 1876 but four had been 

 given to the public. Eight more volumes of Annals will be needed 

 to complete the publication of the observations already made. The in- 

 creased rate of work ensues simply because the corps of assistants has 

 been more than doubled." 



Willets Point. — A very interesting report is published by General H. 

 M. Abbot, of the Corps of Engineers, TJ. S. Army, on the astronomical 

 work which has been done during 1881 at the engineer post of Willets 

 Point, New York Harbor. It is to this school of application that young 

 officers of engineers are sent to learn the practical apj)licatioii of tlieir 

 studies at West Point. They are taught the practice of military sur- 

 veying, mining, torpedo service, etc., and also the application of astron- 

 omy to military and boundary surveys. Each year a general order is 

 issued, giving the results of the past year's work. The order lor 1882 

 may be summarized as below: 



For local time, each officer makes a long series of determinations with 

 various instruments, and in various ways. Using the portable transit, 

 the time of transit is at first recorded by an assistant, at the word given 



