Jan. 4, 1877] 



NATURE 



201 



CAMBRIDGE (C/.S.) OBSERVATORY 



T N two previous articles (Nature, vol. x, pp. 186, 206) 

 •*■ we gave a sketch of the history of some of the prin- 

 cipal observatories of the United States. Those which 

 we then referred to are all more or less connected with 

 the work of education. We shall now give some details 

 of an observatory which has been enabled to make marked 

 advances in independent research outside of its educational 

 service ; we refer to that of Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



A look into the earlier annals of the observatory of 

 Harvard repays the inquirer at the outset by reveal- 

 ing the interest in astronomical pursuits which was felt 

 in the old Bay State many years before the founding 

 of an observatory was practicable in the United States. 

 In 1 761 the Province sloop was fitted out at the public 

 expense to convey a Harvard professor, Winthrop, to 

 Newfoundland, to observe the transit of Venus of that 

 year ; and in the troublous times of 1780 the old " Board 

 of War" fitted out the Lincoln galley to convey Prof. 

 Williams and a party of students to Penobscot, to 

 observe a solar eclipse. At so early a day was New 

 England disposed to encourage scientific observations. 



In 1805, Mr. John Lowell, of Boston, was consulting 

 with Delambre in Paris on astronomical observatories, 

 and forwarding his information to the HoUis professor, 

 Webber, who even then indulged the hope of seeing an 

 observatory founded. But it was only in 1839 that an 

 observatory was erected on the Dana estate, and the 



Fig. I.— Cambridge Ofc' : 



observations which had been authorised by the United 

 States Government to be made in connection with 

 Lieut. Wilkes's exploring expedition were conducted by 

 Prof. Bond until the year 1842. 



A new issue now arose. The sudden appearance of 

 the splendid comet of 1843 was, happily, the occasion of 

 final success in the founding of the present institution. 

 Cambridge was immediately appealed to for information 

 about this strange comet. But the observers had no 

 parallactic instruments or micrometers of the least value 

 for its observation. While they were endeaivouring to 

 obtain data to compute the comet's orbit, a meeting of 

 citizens was held, under the sanction of the American 

 Academy, to take measures for procuring a first-class 

 equatorial ; the needed amount of $20,000 for the instru- 

 ment was contributed in Boston, Salem, New Bedford, 

 and Nantucket. The equatorial was ordered from Merz 

 and Mahler, of Munich, and Harvard determined to erect 

 a new observatory. The location selected was 80 ft. above 

 tide-water, and 50 ft. above the plain where the soil was 

 found favourable for the stability of piers for the instru- 

 ments. In 1844 the buildings were occupied, and an 

 equatorial of 44 in. focal length and 2 J in. aperture, and 

 a transit instrument loaned by the United States, were 

 temporarily mounted for observations until the arrival of 

 the great refractor. This was placed in position June 24, 

 1847. Among the earlier objects on which systematic 

 observations were made with the new instrument were 

 the nebute of Andromeda and Orion. " These nebulas," 

 said Prof. Bond, " were regarded as strongholds of the 



nebular theory ; that is, the idea first suggested by the 

 elder Herschel of masses of matter in process of con- 

 densation into systems." Orion's nebula had not yielded 

 to either of the Herschels, armed even with their excellent 

 reflectors, nor had it shown the slightest trace of resolva- 

 bility under Lord Rosse's 3 ft. reflector. Bond announced, 

 on Sept. 27, 1847, that the Cambridge refractor, set upon 

 the trapezium under a power of 200, resolved this part of 

 it into bright points of light, with a number of separate 

 stars too great to be counted. With a power of 600, 

 " Struvc's Companion " was distinctly separated from its 

 primary, and other stars were seen as double. 



Within a few years yet more brilliant discoveries fol- 

 lowed. Among them the inner ring of Saturn and its 

 eighth satellite, the coincidence of which latter discovery 

 on the same day (Sept. 19, 1848) at Cambridge and in 

 England in no wise detracted from the honour due to 

 each discoverer. It required, in those times, weeks before 

 the discovery, indeed, could be mutually made known. 



Fig. a.— Cambridge Equatorial. 



In 1850 Prof. W. C. Bond, with his sons, invented the 

 spring governor, which gave an equable rotatory motion 

 to the revolving cylinder of the chronograph. The obser- 

 vatory having been placed in 1849 on a permanent endow- 

 ment by a legacy of $100,000 from Mr. E. B. Phillips, a' 

 young graduate of Harvard, and a fund for printing its re- 

 sults having been also provided by will of the Hon. Josiah 

 Quincy, jun., the reports of the first systematic zone 

 observations appeared in 1855 as Part II. of vol. i. of the 

 " Annals." This zone catalogue comprises 5,500 stars 

 situated between the equator and 0° 20' north declination. 

 The second volume, published in 1857, embraced chiefly 

 observations of the planet Saturn made during a period of 

 ten years. The second part of this vol. ii. is a zone catalogue 

 of 4,484 more stars in the same zones as those observed 

 before 1854. It was not printed until the year 1867. 

 The splendid vol. iii., published in 1862, is a quarto of 372 

 pages, with fifty-one plates almost entirely illustrative of 

 the great comet of the Italian astronomer Donati, which 

 appeared in such different forms in America from those 

 seen in England. 



