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PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



Mr. Bond's first recorded observation in Cambridge was of 

 date December 31, 1839, and his appointment as director of 

 the observatory dates from February 12, 1840. During the 

 first eight years of his connection with Harvard College he is 

 to be regarded as a benefactor rather than an employee of the 

 institution. The official report for 1846 states that up to that 

 time the labours of Mr. Bond had been " entirely unrequited, 

 except by the gratification of his love of science and of home," 

 and suggests that this devotion to the institution at Cambridge 

 was the more marked in that during the preceding spring he 

 had declined " the almost unlimited offers made to him by the 

 administration at Washington to induce him to take charge of 

 the observatory there." It is known also that frequent ex- 

 penditures of his own money were made during this period for 

 current expenses and for things convenient in conducting the 

 observatory sums small severally, no doubt, but consider- 

 able in the total. In 1846 a sum equal to the proposed salaries 

 for the next two years was subscribed by citizens of Boston, 

 and in 1849 the official board was able to report that " through 

 a bequest of one hundred thousand dollars made by Edward 

 Bromfield Phillips they should thereafter be relieved from 

 anxiety as to the payment of salaries and current expenses." 



The fifteen-inch equatorial was set up in June, 1847, and has 

 done splendid service for now nearly half a century. At last 

 the skill of Prof. Bond was furnished with a fitting implement. 

 In reply to an inquiry from Edward Everett, who had become 

 president of the college the year before, Prof. Bond wrote speci- 

 fying several interesting things that could be seen with it, and 

 ended by saying : " But I must recollect that you require of me 

 only a brief account of our telescope. The objects revealed 

 to us by this excellent instrument are so numerous and inter- 

 esting that it is difficult to know where to stop." In a subse- 

 quent letter he wrote to the president, " You will rejoice with 

 me that the great nebula in Orion has yielded to the powers 

 of our incomparable telescope." Besides this and other nebulae 

 the planet Saturn was an early subject of investigation. On 

 September 19, 1848, Prof. Bond discovered the eighth satellite 

 of this planet, which long remained the only addition to the 

 solar system made on the continent of America. 



When Bond was determining the position of the Harvard 

 Observatory, Commodore Owen, of the British navy, was mak- 



