6o2 The Smithsonian Institution 



trustees for the request are interesting as showing the uni- 

 versal confidence which the Institution had already con- 

 quered. The following quotations will make this point 

 clear. 



''Again, the funds for the construction of this instrument, 

 and the Observatory to which it is attached, were contributed 

 by many persons interested in the advancement of science, 

 and scattered throughout the State of New York. To these 

 persons our Institution pledged itself to secure a first-class in- 

 strument. The college corporation desires to satisfy them by 

 an announcement from an authoritative quarter that it has 

 faithfully fulfilled the trust, etc. 



•' Furthermore, . . . the undersigned, in behalf of the 

 College, would be glad to establish a precedent, which might 

 lead the purchasers of other astronomical instruments to sub- 

 mit the question of their proper construction to your body, as 

 being an institution central in its position and national in its 

 character." 



The appointment of the Committee called for was one of 

 the early precedents for the service of officers of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution on boards and councils, in which their 

 work has been of very wide usefulness. 



CORRECTION OF SEXTANTS FOR ERRORS 



A PAPER ^ on the above subject was published in 1890. It 

 represents the results of thirty years' experience on the part 

 of its author, Mr. Joseph A. Rogers. The paper has two 

 main objects, the first being to set forth simple and practical 

 methods by which an observer may determine the errors of 

 any particular sextant ; the second, and perhaps more im- 

 portant, object being to point out to observers generally how 



1 "Tlie Correction of Sextants for Krrors of I'kcentricity and Gradation." It was published 

 in 1890, in Volume xxxiv of the " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge." 



