380 ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES. 



of wliich is preserved in the library of tlie observatorj-. The list of 

 his stars was taken from Baily's Catalogue, and is the same which 

 lie had observed at Home. The result was that in general there is no 

 difference in color observed in Italy and in our sky. lu 1850 he made 

 drawings of sun-spots from September 20 till November C, missing only 

 six days out of forty-eight. The drawings were lithographed and, to- 

 geiher with a journal and preface, published in the "appendix of the 

 Washington Astronomical Observations for 1847. A duplicate set of 

 copies is still in thelibrary of tlie observatory. 



In 1852 a quarto volume of 215 pages, containing a description of the 

 observatory, with eight plates and reduction tables for time observa- 

 tions, was published and distributed by the director. That nothing 

 more has appeared from his loen finds sufficient explanation in the 

 facts that he considered the observatory mainly as a means. of educa- 

 tion, and that he is now in the venerable age of ninety-three years. 



As the centennial celebration of the foundation of the college drew 

 near, the regents of the university placed the observatory in charge of 

 a younger director and put a liberal allowance at his disposal. Almost 

 a thousand dollars were expended for repairs of the building, drying 

 and warming the cellar, rooting, iiainting, and so on, The problem of 

 revolving the heavy dome was successfully solved by Mr. Gardner, of 

 the Naval Observatory. A spring which allows tlie vertical shaft of 

 the gearing a horizontal play of 1 inch, so as to keep the pinion ah 

 ways in contact with the rack, and a large (vertical) steering wheel, with 

 handles, enable a strong man to turn the dome half round in two minutes.. 



Nearly another thousand dollars were spent on old and new instru- 

 ments. The equatorial received a helioscope, one of the 3-inch glasses 

 was changed into a portable equatorial, with circles, the other into a 

 comet-seeker; the clocks were cleaned and mounted in double glass 

 cases on the large equatorial pier, one running on sidereal the other on 

 mean time, both provided with the Gardner spring contact, and a new 

 chronograph by Fauth & Co., of Washington, placed between them. 

 A triple electric-wire system is now being run to the switch-board in the 

 clock-room, one making connection with the U. S. Naval Observatory, 

 another connecting clocks and observing keys with the chronograph, 

 and a third giving incandescent illumination to the field and reading 

 microscopes of the equatorial and transit instruments. The arrange- 

 ment of the switch-board has been made by Mr. Willia^i C. Winlock, 

 assistant observer at the U. S. Naval Observatory, and is the same as 

 ill the observatories of Harvard College and Mount Ilamilton, Cal. 



The transit instrument and meridian circle are still awaiting a thor- 

 ough examination, and piers will have to be built for the smaller instru- 

 ments and for collimators. 



The equatorial is the only instrument now ready for use, and will be 

 mainly employed for variable star work. All the known variables, from 

 the equator down to the horizon, have been put on the observing list, 



