BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMY 65 



scopes in the world were those of the Imperial observatory of 

 Russia (Poulkova) and its companion at Cambridge. Each 

 of these instruments has a long and honorable history. Their 

 work has been very different. Who shall say that one has 

 surpassed the other? We owe to Bond and his son the dis- 

 covery of an eighth satellite to Saturn, of the dusky ring to 

 that planet, the introduction of stellar photography, the inven- 

 tion of the chronograph by which the electric current is 

 employed in the registry of observations, the conduct of 

 several chronometric expeditions between Liverpool and 

 Boston to determine the transatlantic longitude, and a host 

 of minor discoveries and observations. 



Gilliss visited France for study in 1853, before he took 

 up his duties at Washington. The text books of Bond and 

 Gilliss were the Astronomies of Vince (1797-1808) and of 

 Pearson (1824-1829). The younger Bond (George Phillips 

 Bond, born 1825, Harvard college, 1844, director of the Har- 

 vard college observatory 1859-1865) and his contemporaries, 

 on the other hand, were firmly grounded in the German 

 methods, then, as now, the most philosophical and thorough. 



It was not until 1850, or later, that it was indispensable 

 for an American astronomer to read the German language 

 and to make use of the memoirs of Bessel, Encke, and Struve 

 and the text books of Sawitsch and Briinnow. This general 

 acquaintance with the German language and methods came 

 nearly a generation later in England. The traditions of 

 Piazzi and Oriani came to America with the Jesuit fathers of 

 Georgetown college (1844), of whom Secchi and Sestini are 

 the best known. 



The dates of the foundation of a few observatories of the 

 United States may be set down here. Those utilized for the 

 observation of the transit of Venus in 1769 were temporary 

 stations merely. The first college observatory was that of 

 Chapel Hill, N. C. (1831); Williams college followed (1836); 

 Hudson observatory (Ohio) (1838); the Philadelphia High 

 school (1840) ; the Dana House observatory of Harvard college 

 (1840); West Point (1841); the United States naval observa- 

 tory (1844); the Georgetown College observatory (1844); the 

 Cincinnati observatory (1845); the new observatory of Har- 



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