WILLIAM CRANCH BOND. 231 



ing an official survey in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

 The latter, desiring to use the observatory as his zero point, 

 co-operated with Bond in making a transfer of twelve chro- 

 nometers to and from Greenwich, England. Afterward other 

 chronometer expeditions were conducted by Bond in co-opera- 

 tion with the United States Coast Survey, the final one being 

 in 1855. In the summing up of results, seven hundred and 

 twenty-three independent chronometer records were used. 

 The magnitude of this undertaking, as a whole, surpassed any- 

 thing ever attempted in any other country. 



As early as 1848 Prof. Bond mentions, in his report as 

 director of the observatory, some experiments with the daguer- 

 reotype and talbotype processes for obtaining pictures of the 

 sun, which, though encouraging, could hardly be called suc- 

 cessful. But in his report for 1850 he is able to say: "With 

 the assistance of Mr. J. A. Whipple, daguerreotypist, we have 

 obtained several impressions of the star Vega. We have rea- 

 son to believe this to* be the first successful experiment ever 

 made either in this country or abroad." Some daguerreo- 

 types of the moon and certain stars were exhibited in the 

 World's Fair of the following year at London, and received a 

 council medal. 



The inventive skill which won success for Bond as an artisan 

 appears in certain astronomical appliances and methods devised 

 by him. The great telescope is poised thirteen feet above the 

 floor of the observatory's dome. It has a vertical sweep of 

 more than ninety degrees, and can, of course, make a complete 

 revolution about its axis of support. An observer would evi- 

 dently have to be something of an acrobat to use it success- 

 fully, unless a suitable chair could be obtained. There was 

 none in the world that filled all the requirements, so Prof. 

 Bond invented and made one. It is in use unchanged to this 

 day, and by means of its ingeniously combined wheels, cogs, 

 and pulleys the observer can quickly and easily place himself 

 anywhere along the vertical quarter-circle and horizontal full- 

 circle traversed by the eyepiece of the telescope. 



Certain experiments for determining differences of longi- 

 tude by the aid of the telegraph were undertaken by the Coast 

 Survey in 1848, Prof. Bond being one of the special assistants 

 whose services were secured for this work. While engaged 

 in these experiments the idea occurred to him, as it had to 



