Prof. Lovering on the American Prime Meridian. 187 
had a political existence, we shall now abandon that prime me- 
ridian and substitute an American one in its place. 'The Com- 
mittee of Congress to whom was referred, on the 25th January, 
1810, the memorial of William Lambert, recommended that “in 
order,” as they say, “to lay a foundation for the establishment 
of a first meridian in this western hemisphere,” it is expedient to 
make provision by law for determining the longitude of Wash- 
ington and procuring the necessary instruments for this purpose. 
No action appears to have been taken by Congress on this report 
of the committee. Although the subject for many sessions was 
pressed upon the two houses and various reports were made upon 
it, it was not until the 3d March, 1821, that a joint resolution 
g _ 
time which committed it on the latter question. After the reso- 
we generally find on the opposite side of the map the corres- 
ponding longitudes as measured from Greenwich. In more im- 
portant matters, as the regulation of chronometers, the construc- 
tion of sea-charts and whatever relates to geography and astron- 
omy as well as to navigation, the custom is universal of counting 
our longitudes from Greenwich. Lieut. Maury has followed this 
custom in his charts of winds and currents, and Professor A. D. 
che has done the same in his maps of the coast, although he 
also gives the longitudes as measured from some one of the 
American meridians. 
In 1810, the late Dr. Bowditch declared the meditated change 
ject to a Nautical Almanac or a National Observatory, but he con- 
Sidered a good survey of the coast more necessary than either. 
bility for want of a National Observatory and an American Nau- 
tical 
