Maech 6, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



349 



the son of Seth Carlo and Mary (Cheever) 

 Chandler, he spent his early childhood in and 

 around Boston. He attended the English 

 high school at Boston, graduating in 1861, but 

 did not pursue a collegiate course as he had 

 already become interested in mathematical 

 computations while still at the high school, 

 being employed upon the computations of Pro- 

 fessor Benjamin Peirce. After graduation he 

 joined Dr. B. A. Gould as private assistant 

 and thus obtained his first taste for astronom- 

 ical subjects. Dr. Gould was at that time 

 busily engaged in developing the longitude- 

 determinations of the Coast Survey, and 

 through him Dr. Chandler joined the U. S. 

 Coast Survey as aid in 1864. Later when Dr. 

 Gould made his historic expeditionary trip to 

 the Argentine Eepublic, which eventually re- 

 sulted in the establishment of a national ob- 

 servatory by the Argentine government. Dr. 

 Chandler refused an offer to accompany the 

 espedition in favor of a position as actuary 

 with the Continental Life Insurance Co. of 

 New York, removing to New York City. It 

 was shortly after this that he married Miss 

 Caroline M. Herman, of Boston, on October 

 20, 1870. 



Seven years later he returned to Boston to 

 accept a position as consulting actuary for the 

 Union Mutual Life Insurance Co. of Boston. 



But though his life had been thrown into 

 other channels, Dr. Chandler still felt an in- 

 terest in astronomical subjects, so it was not 

 surprising that with Harvard College Observ- 

 atory so near at hand, he should have joined 

 the work of the observatory. Astronomers had 

 long felt the need of some system of com- 

 municating such discoveries as comets in 

 order that such objects might not be lost 

 through the inability to observe them at any 

 one station. Realizing this need. Dr. Chand- 

 ler and Mr. John Eitchie formulated a code 

 for the speedy transmission of discoveries by 

 telegraph to observatories all over the United 

 States. Though the system has been revised, 

 it is stiU being operated by the Harvard Col- 

 lege Observatory. 



It was during his connection with Harvard 



CoUege Observatory that Dr. Chandler in- 

 vented and constructed the almucanter, an in- 

 strument for measuring stellar positions. 



After the year 1886 he became a private in- 

 vestigator. There are many instances of men 

 who, while deriving their source of income 

 from other professions, have become interested 

 in astronomy, and who have accomplished re- 

 markable results; but among these there is 

 none to compare with Dr. Chandler, whose 

 whole soul seemed wrapped up in his astro- 

 nomical investigations. 



When one considers that he was the author 

 of over two hundred articles, it can readily 

 be imagined what a serious interest he took 

 in his chosen field, and what a hard worker he 

 was. It has been remarked of many authors 

 that they have only written when the spark 

 of genius inspired them. So it was with Dr. 

 Chandler, who at times would take an almost 

 complete rest from his astronomical labors, 

 only to enter one orgie after another of con- 

 centrated effort. While under the spell of one 

 of these sieges, nothing could divert him, but 

 once over it he was ready for any form of di- 

 version or entertainment, taking a great in- 

 terest in many outside affairs. 



As an astronomer Dr. Chandler will possibly 

 be chiefly remembered for his work upon 

 variable stars, and for his historic discovery 

 of the variation of latitude. As a result of his 

 discovery of the variation of latitude, interna- 

 tional latitude stations have been established 

 at different points of the earth in order to 

 study the periodic shifting of the earth's pole; 

 Dr. Chandler treated a great variety of other 

 subjects with thoroughness. 



Por his brilliant work he received the Wat- 

 son medal of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences in 1895, and in 1896 he received the 

 gold medal of the Eoyal Astronomical Society. 

 De Pauw granted him the degree of LL.D. in 

 1891. 



Upon the death of Dr. Gould, founder and 

 first editor of the Astronomical Journal, Dr. 

 Chandler assumed the editorship, which he 

 held during the period 1896-1909, resigning 

 at the latter date because ill health prevented 



