108 THE BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN ASTRONOxMY. 



tlie registry of observations, the conduct of several chronometric expe- 

 ditions between Liverpool and Boston to determine the trans- Atlantic 

 longitude, and a host of minor discoveries and observations. 



Gilliss visited France for stady in 1835, before he took up his duties 

 at Washington. The text-books of Bond and Grilliss were the Astron- 

 omies of Vince (1797-1808) and of Pearson (1824-1829). The younger 

 Bond (George Phillips Bond, born 1825, Harvard College 1844, direc- 

 tor of the Harvard College Observatory 1859-1865) and his contempo- 

 raries, on the other hand, were firmly grounded in the German methods, 

 then, as now, the most philosophical and thorough. 



It was not until 1850, or later, that it was indispensable for an Ameri- 

 can astronomer to read the German language and to make use of the 

 memoirs of Bessel, Encke, and Struve and the text-books of Sawitsch 

 and Briinnow.^ This general acquaintance with the German language 

 and methods came nearly a generation later in England. The tradi- 

 tions of Piazzi and Oriani came to America with the Jesuit Fathers of 

 Georgetown College (1844), of whom Secchi and Sestini are the best 

 known. 



The dates of the foundation of a few observatories of the United 

 States may be set down here. Those utilized for the observation of 

 the transit of Venus in 17G9 were temporary stations merely. The 

 first college observatory was tbat of Chapel Hill, JST. C. (1831); Wil- 

 liams College followed (1836); Hudson Observatory (Ohio) (1838); the 

 Philadelphia High School (1840) ; the Dana House Observatory of H ar- 

 vard College (1840); West Point (1841); the United States l^aval 

 Observatory (1844); the Georgetown College Observatory (L844); tin*, 

 Cincinnati Observatory (1845) ; the new observatory of Harvard Colleg •. 

 (1846); the private observatory of Dr. Lewis M. Eutherfiird in New 

 York City (1848); the observatory at Ann Arbor (1854); the Dudley 

 Observatory at Albany (1850); and that of Hamilton College (1856). 



These dates and the summary history just given will serve to indicate- 

 the situation of astronomy in the United States during the first half of 

 the present century. A little attention to the dates will enable the, 

 reader to place an individual or an institution on its proper background. 

 It must constantly be kept in mind that the whole country was very 

 young and that jiublic interest in astronoaiical matters was neither edu- 

 cated nor very general. The data here set down will have a distinct 

 value as a contribution to the history of astronomy in America. The 

 developments of later years have been so amazing that we forget that 

 the first working observatories were founded so late as 1845. 



American science is scarcely more than half a century old. The day 

 will soon come — it is now here — when we shall look back with wonder 

 and gratitude to ask who were the men who laid the wide and dee^) 

 foundations which already maintain so noble an edifice. 



Mount Hamilton, Cal., April, 1897. 



1 Dr. Bowditch learned to read German in 1818, at the age of 45. 



