ARTICLE VI. 
Account of the Observatory and Instruments of the United States Military Academy at 
West Point; mith Observations on the Comet of 1843. By Prof. William H. C. Bartlett. 
Read May 30, 1843. 
I nave been honoured by the receipt of an invitation to attend the celebration of the 
one hundredth anniversary of the organization of the American Philosophical Society, at 
Philadelphia, accompanied by a request from the Committee, to prepare a paper giving an 
account of the “Observatory and Instruments of the Military Academy,” and “ Obser- 
vations on the Comet of 1843.” 
It will be out of my power to attend, personally, the meeting; and I prepare the paper 
referred to, more to indicate a desire to contribute to the interest of the occasion, than 
with any hope that what I have to offer will have this effect. 
I ought, in the beginning, to remove a misapprehension under which the Committee 
seem to be, in regard to the objects of the new building at this place, which is, not unfre- 
quently, called an “Observatory.” We have aimed at nothing more in its erection than 
to provide suitable accommodation for the library of the academy, philosophical appa- 
ratus, and such astronomical instruments as were deemed indispensable to illustrate 
practically our course of astronomy. It supplies the place of one which was, a few years 
since, destroyed by fire. 
It is built principally of granite, taken from the side of the neighbouring mountain, 
and stands at the south-east angle of the plane of our table land, about one hundred and 
sixty feet above the level of the river, having an uninterrupted view to the south of about 
eight miles, and to the north of about four. Fig. M represents a perspective view taken 
from a point about one hundred and fifty yards to the south-west, and Fig. N a similar 
view from a point equally distant to the north-east.* Fig. P, Pl. 28, is a horizontal sec- 
tion, midway between the water table and eaves. Fig. Q, Pl. 29, is a vertical section 
parallel to the north front, taken on the broken line AB, CD, EF; and Fig. R, Pl. 30, 
a vertical section perpendicular to this latter front through the centre tower (3.)_ 
The main cell covers a space of one hundred and twenty by sixty feet, and is divided 
into two equal parts by a partition wall in the plane of the last named section. The 
* Tt has not been thought necessary that plates of these perspective views should accompany the printed paper, 
