ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES. 253 



cylinder, among the second marks of the clock, in such a 

 manner that the tenths of a second may be read off with- 

 out difficulty. 



The clock signals are also readily connected with the 

 lines of the telegraph offices, so that in effect the beats of 

 the Cambridge clock are as distinctly heard at the offices 

 in Boston, Lowell, and elsewhere, as they are within a few 

 feet of the clock. The time is thus given all along the 

 telegraph lines, and this is found highly useful in regula- 

 ting the starting of the railroad trains. 



Mr. "William C. Bond, and his son, George P. Bond, 

 give their undivided attention to the objects of the ob- 

 servatory. For the first four or five years after receiving 

 their grand refractor they gave their whole strength to 

 that class of observations for which this instrument af- 

 fords peculiar advantages, such as the following: ob- 

 servations of new planets ; the satellites of Saturn, Ura- 

 nus, and Neptune ; double stars, especially such as have 

 considerable proper motion ; together with a general re- 

 view of the most remarkable nebulae. They have pub- 

 lished in the Memoirs of the American Academy, a de- 

 scription of the great nebula in Orion, and that of Andro- 

 meda, accompanied with drawings of the most careful and 

 elaborate execution. 



The younger Bond for several years maintained a con- 

 stant and systematic search for comets. With the comet- 

 seeker he swept over the entire heavens at least once a 

 month, and whenever he found any nebulous body with 

 which he was not familiar, it was subjected to a special 



