THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 



By Samuel Pierpont Langley 



N the view of one of those who did much to 

 shape the early history of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, — President John Quincy Adams, — no 

 more prominent object could be designed for 

 the expenditure of the Smithson bequest than 

 the erection and maintenance of an observatory — an institu- 

 tion which would be local in its site only, and devoted to 

 objects in which all men were interested. 



In the bilP introduced at his instance to provide for the 

 disposal and management of the Smithson fund, it is enacted 

 that part of the accruing interest be appropriated toward 

 the erection and establishment in the city of Washington of 

 an astronomical observatory adapted to the most effective and 

 continual observations of the phenomena of the heavens, to 

 be provided with the necessary, best, and most perfect instru- 

 ments and books, for the periodical publication of the said 

 observations, and for the annual composition and publication 

 of a nautical almanac. 



A like clause appears in a subsequent bill,- and though 



1 House of Representatives, No. 386, Twenty-seventh Congress. 



2 House of Representatives, No. 418, Twenty-eighth Congress. 



419 



