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tions, a balance magnetometer, a dip circle, two clocks, and a 
chronometer for sidereal time. The instructions from the See- 
retary of the Navy (Mr. J. K. Paulding) were dated 1838, 
August 13, and Gilliss’s observations began in the very next 
month. Here commences his astronomical career. Young 
as he was, he must be considered the first representative of 
practical astronomy in America. Astronomical observations 
had been made for a century, it is true. Men, his seniors, 
now living, and others still not long deceased, had made 
them before him, and were able to aid him with counsel and 
even experience. Among these I may mention Hassler, the 
founder of the Coast Survey, Bache, our own beloved and 
revered President, whose absence we are mourning, Prof. 
Bartlett, our honored colleague, Messrs. W. C. Bond, R. T. 
Paine, Patterson, Olmsted, and Loomis. But it was Gilliss 
who first in all the land conducted a working observatory, he 
who first gave his whole time to practical astronomical work, 
he who first published a volume of observations, first pre- 
pared a catalogue of stars, and planned and carried into effect 
the construction of a working observatory as contrasted with 
one intended chiefly for purposes of instruction. 
“ From that time,” (September, 1838,) says Gilliss,* “ till 
the return of the expedition in June, 1842, I observed every 
culmination of the moon, and every occultation visible at 
Washington, which occurred between two hours before sunset 
and two hours after sunrise. The transit was extremely defi- 
cient in optical power, and would not define stars smaller than 
the second magnitude when the sun was two hours above the 
horizon. The number of transits recorded exceeds 10,000, 
embracing the moon, planets, and about 1,100 stars- The 
average annual number of culminations of the moon observed 
ie was 110, and of lunar occultations about 20.” 
___ ® Senate Report No. 114, 28th Congress, 2d Session, p- 6- 
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