AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 95 



of an Observatory lias been dwelt upon, explained and enforced, 

 until many minds are imbued witli it; and the question is not — 

 should there be an observatory — but rather where^ and on what 

 scale shall the most efficient one be established. From one small 

 beginning at Philadelphia, this fire has spread to Cincinnati, 

 Washington, Cambridge, and Tuscaloosa. Eeams, more or less 

 bright, seem to flow from the capital of your own State, aurora- 

 like, high towards the empyrean. A devoted wife has given the 

 name of her husband to immortality, while the sun and moon 

 shall endure ! The Dudley Observatory wants but moderate aid 

 to place itself in the front rank of such establishments, to enable 

 it to fulfil its duties to science and to society; the first by the 

 study of the stars, tjie second by furnishing time to commerce and 

 navigation — time to travel, time to society. Accurate time to 

 the navigator is an essential, accurate time to the railroad traveler 

 is his life, accurate time to the man of business is money. How 

 pleasant to i3ass down Broadway and find ten minutes diiference 

 of longitude, equivalent to two degrees and a half, or some hun- 

 dred and seventy miles between Union Square and Wall-street, 

 with half of it between the City Hall and Trinity Church ! Time 

 signals, by telegraph and clocks, regulated by electrical currents 

 controlled at the Observatory, will put . a period to all these 

 irregularities. They deserve encouragement as life-saving, time- 

 saving, and money-saving inventions. 



A memorial was adopted in 1851, for co-operating with the 

 citizens of North Carolina, in efforts for opening a good inlet into 

 Albemarle Sound; and the scope and spirit of the Chamber are 

 well illustrated in its stating, as the ground of interposition on 

 that occasion, " that the work proposed is one calculated to bene- 

 fit the commerce and shipping interests of the whole country, and 

 thus is a national object." ' , 



Harhor Encroachments. 



In the very same year, well-conceived measures were taken by 



the body, to stay the encroachments on the channels of the East 



and North rivers, and in the following year the Chamber warmly 



seconded the recommendation for a permanent Light House Board. 



