12 



ceeding in cost $25,000, to be located on any portion of un- 

 appropriated public land in the District of Columbia which 

 the President might deem suitable." 



ii»«denjdto Tlie Aat ^ of P re P arin & a P lan for tne new depot was in- 

 prepare plans of trusted to Lieutenant Gilliss. He was directed to visit the 



the new Depot. 



principal Northern cities of the United States for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining information on the subject, and to submit 

 to the Navy Department a design, " which, while it com- 

 bined essentials, should not exceed in cost the sum appro- 

 priated." 



The controlling idea of Lieutenant Gilliss was to erect an 

 observatory rather than a simple depot for charts and in- 

 struments. " In the mere store-rooms for charts and instru- 

 ments," he says, " I feel no anxiety. The house on Capitol 

 Hill would have answered just as well as any other, and a 

 3£-foot transit, in a box 10 feet square, would have served 

 to obtain the time for the comparing clock. These, there- 

 fore, possessed no attractions for me, and I should have re- 

 garded it as time misspent to have labored so earnestly only 

 to establish a depot. My aim was higher. It was to found 

 an institution for the practical pursuit of the highest known 

 branch of science." (Senate Doc. No. 114, 28th Cong., 2d 

 sess., p. 6(j.) 



But the wording of the act authorized the building of a 

 Depot only, and, lest the meaning of the law should be per- 

 verted, Lieutenant Gilliss prepared drawings and specifi- 

 cations of a building wherein the apartments allotted to the 

 charts and instruments were of ample dimensions, while 

 those intended for astronomical observations were unsuit- 

 pians for a De- ably small. These plans were submitted to the Navy De- 



the secretary of partment in November, 1842, but the Secretary of the Navy,, 

 before deciding upon their final acceptance, instructed Lieu- 

 tenant Gilliss to visit Europe and submit the drawings to 

 some of the most distinguished European astronomers for 

 such suggestions as their experience dictated. 



Lieutenant Gilliss returned to the United States in March 

 1843 ; and, on the 23d of the following November, he sub- 

 mitted new drawings and designs for a building embracing 

 many improvements over the original plans, and " adapted 

 Newpianssub- in forin and structure not only for a depot of charts and iu- 



Depot, e struments, but also for an astronomical observatory." (An- 



nual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1843.) 



