THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. 



[NEW SERIES.] 



DECEMBER 1829. 



LXII. On the Plans, Arraiigemejits and Methods, proposed 

 and used by Mr. F. R. Hassler, isoith a view to an accurate 

 Survey of the Coast of the U?iited States. By the Chevalier 

 F. W. Bessel, Professor in the University qfKd?iigsberg*. 



TN 1807, Mr. Hassler, then in Philadelphia, was requested, 

 -*• on the part of the Government of the United States, to fur- 

 nish a plan for the survey of the whole coast of that country. 

 This was done in a letter to Mr. Gallatin, which proves great 

 insight into the nature of such operations. It is evident from 

 it, that the survey was to have been a work of great extent, 

 and such as should satisfy the requisites both of geography 

 and of navigation. 



In consequence of this plan, Mr. Hassler went to England 

 to procure the necessary instruments, &c. A most complete 

 apparatus was brought together, consisting principally, of in- 

 struments constructed upon Mr. Hassler's own ideas ; and in 

 the year 1816 the operation itself began. It appears to have 

 been interrupted soon after, and therefore not to have given 

 the expected results f. 



* This paper is a translation from Professor Schumacher's Astronomiscke 

 Nachrichten, No. 137, by Professor Renwick of Columbia College, New 

 York, ami is extracted from Silliman's Journal. The Notes are those of 

 the translator. 



f The suspension of the operations for the survey of the coast of the 

 United States, begun in so admirable a manner by Mr. Hassler, may be 

 considered as a national misfortune. It i« such in truth, not so much from 

 the loss of the previous expenditures, in consequence of the delay, or from 

 the deferring of its advantages to a future period, as from the fact, that the 

 principles and methods pro[)osed, and sonic of them actually used by Mr. 

 J lussler, were in advance of the science of Eiu-ope at tlie period. As these 

 principles and methods recpiire tlie highest jiroliciency in mathematical and 

 physical science, their application to practice originally in the United States 

 would have rcdf>unded to the national honour. 



N. S. Vol. 6. No. 36. Dec. 1 829. 3 F But 



